President Adam Manning welcomed everyone to the Centerville Rotary Club and led reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. Brian Hayes provided the prayer.
Thanks to today’s greeters: Pat Turnbull, Tyler Roark, and Dale Berry.
President Manning recognized Rotarian Carol Kennard who recently received the Harvey Woods Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ohio Parks and Recreation Association. Carol has spent 42 years in the parks & recreation profession, serving at the Centerville-Washington Park District, followed by the Clark County Park District. She was recognized at the state conference this week. (As editor of this newsletter, I find it hard to write about myself, but give a BIG thanks to Centerville Rotary!)
Announcements this week:
- Thanks to Chuck King for attending the District grants zoom to learn how to manage the grants. Chuck spearheads our grant submissions and has been very successful at obtaining funding for many of our projects. Thanks Chuck!
- Thanks to the group of Rotarians who helped with the battery sorting project.
- Crissy Allums is looking for volunteers to help the Dayton Diaper Depot wrap diapers on Saturday, March 23, 9:30-noon.
- Another service project will be doing a garden clean up at the Salvation Army on Friday, February 23, 9:30-10:30 am, only 5 spots available.
- Feb 26 next Board meeting, starting at 5:30 pm at Woodbourne Library
- Feb 29 Rotary Social at Senney’s house, beginning at 6:30 pm. Bring a dish to share and let Jeff know if you can attend.
- Sofie will be attending the All Ohio President-Elect Training (PETS) in March. The District project this year is raising funds for “On our Sleeves”. A $25 donation funds a kit to schools for child mental health awareness.
- Apr 27 Rotary Social at Dayton Philharmonic with an ABBA tribute band. Tickets are at a greatly reduced price of $30.50. Let Jeff know if you can attend.
- Sofie Ameloot announced tonight is the first monthly Rotary Ladies Circle at Old Scratch, 5:30 pm. Men are also invited AND welcome
- Brian Hayes’ message: Pay your bill!
Welcome back, Dick Hoback!
Happy Bucks this quarter are going toward the International Conflict Relief through the Red Cross/Red Crescent.
Jim Stuart was the Sergeant at Arms.
Happy Bucks were generously given for:
- Amy Hary to see the sun.
- Sofie Ameloot was happy.
- Jeff Senney gave congratulations to Carol.
- Rand Oliver for not being here to greet last week, and he is leaving Monday to play golf in Florida.
- Jesse Campbell was happy.
- Jim Harris was happy and congratulated Carol.
- Dick Hoback was happy to be back.
- Boyd Preston for Carol & Dick.
- Dale Berry for Carol and the warm weather.
- Chuck King for Carol & Dick.
- Mike Wier never comes to Rotary for the meals and today reinforced that.
- Lee Hieronymus said so many are looking for interesting info on farming. This is Maple tree tapping time and OH places 5th in the nation for maple sugar production.
- Brad Thorp for Dick & Carol.
- Carol Kennard gave thanks for all of the love and support from Rotarians and noted while hiking near Lake Erie, she saw SIX bald eagles!
- Uriah Anderson for Carol, and noted we had good Rotary representation at the Ohio Parks & Recreation Association Conference - Carol, Jeff, Ginger, and himself.
- Crissy Allums to Carol for being an incredible leader.
- Elda Gotos Gay for Carol & Dick.
- Harvey Smith said he was on the Board of Park Commissions when Carol was first hired - said it was the best hire they ever made.
- Matt Kuhn for Carol & Dick.
- Brian Hayes for his birthday tomorrow.
- Jim Stuart for Brian’s shoes, Crissy’s shirt & Brad Huffman wearing shorts today.
- Adam Manning congratulated Carol.
Our speaker today was Wes McDonald from the Dayton Dream Center.
Wes is the Executive Director of the Dayton Dream Center which was launched 1.5 years ago. Wes was officially from Nashville and spent many years as a mechanical engineer in the military, mainly in aerospace systems.
The mission of the Dayton Dream Center, located on 3rd Street in Dayton, is to provide support and resources to the people of Dayton affected by poverty, addiction, abuse, joblessness and educational opportunity gaps.
They seek to create a pathway for people to see transformation in their lives and restore hope. Their facility was custom built to meet the needs.
They started first with a food truck in 2019 in the east Dayton community where there is an opioid crisis and is considered ground zero in the nation for fentanyl.
They partnered with Kroger to get groceries and feed around 3,000 homemade, hot meals/month. They serve and engage with people to reinvigorate hope.
In 2023, there were over 20,000 visits to the Dream Center.The staff and volunteers facilitate helping people get into treatment and recovery, or help get housing.
It can be one life event that changes things drastically. Some families come to them, too. Schools are reporting the most number of kids living out of their cars now than ever before. Since COVID so much has changed.
The Dream Center has a nurse practitioner on site, who can help. Is in 3x/week and can be called in for individual help. Many organizations aren’t set up for rapid resources, but they are.
Homeless people never sleep because they are always afraid of theft.
The Dream Center has a Suds & Duds area where they provide showers, meals, and talk with them to learn what they are going through. They currently have 5 staff plus 250-300 volunteers.
The Dream Center also assists in getting GED classes or starting college courses. They work with kids to help prevent them from following in their parents footsteps. They serve 40 kids in the after school program, where mentors connect with the students 3/week.
They provide addiction & recovery support and the salon is open for free haircuts on Mondays. They work to uplift people and offer a way forward.
One new initiative is working with kids who are aging out of foster care. So many end up on the streets as there are no good programs in Ohio now. They are typically given $1,000 and are dropped off at the bus stop. If they don’t have a job, they end up on the streets - 50% of kids aging out of the foster system end up on the street.
The Dream Center’s big needs right now are more volunteers and financial donations.
They handed out 20,000 articles of clothing last year. Seasonal donations are appreciated.
Dayton got a lot of COVID money that’s going toward demolishing 1200 abandoned homes, but people are living in those homes so that is becoming a problem. 90% of homeless refuse to go to a shelter. People are getting stabbed in the food line at St Vincent de Paul so they would rather stay on the streets.
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