The Centerville Rotary Club met at The Golf Club at Yankee Trace at noon. President Peachy (Mark) Metzner led the Pledge of Allegiance; Harvey Smith gave the prayer; and Brad Thorp led another great rendition of God Bless America, sung by club members.

 

Noe Camp; Isa Quinones; Kristen Marks; Amy Hary: and Semantha Moses, SICSA Pet 
Adoption Center Special Events Coordinator. The first four are seen above, while Semantha Moses is pictured below:

 

 

 

And here we see PDG Harvey Smith and Joyce Young honoring two members with their Paul Harris Fellow pins. For Raj Grandhi, it was his first Paul Harris and for Vas Appalaleni, it was his Paul Harris-plus five. We congratulate both men for their generosity. Raj also received a certificate, acknowledging his new membership in the Paul Harris world-wide membership.

 

And here Gerry Eastabrooks is presented with the club's Service Above Self award for her service as club treasurer, paying bills, and taking care of finances, and attending board meetings, etc. Good job all around, especially during the Happy Bucks times at each meeting.

Gerry is seen more clearly in this picture taken right before Happy Bucks were collected for Brigid's Path this quarter.

 

President Peachy reminded everyone that the MLK Breakfast will be held at Yankee Trace on Jan. 15 at 7:30 a.m. The club always reserves a table for 10 and when a show of hands was called for, ten people showed an interest in attending, so the table is full, though others are still able to show up and attend.

 Peachy said the Rotary District Grant requests require attendance at the Feb. 6 Normandy Church training event. Chuck King and Joyce Young showed an interest in attending. There is a free dinner at 5:30 p.m., Peachy said. The meeting runs from 6:15-8:15 p.m., he said.

Peachy said the District 4-Way Test Speech Contest will be held April 8 and that Brian Hayes is working on that for the club. He did a great job last year, so no less is expected this year. Thanks, Brian.

The District Conference will be held April 27-28 at the Hollenbeck Baylay Center in Springfield. Instead of last year's basket presentations from each club, they want to do a district project and put together hygiene kits. Each club, if they choose to participate has to choose a certain item to provide. He said Joslyn Smith of the Fairborn Club is the chairperson for assembling the kits. Each club can then choose a charity to distribute the kits to. Peachy said he thought Hannah's Treasure Chest might be an apt choice for our club.

 

Peachy mentioned that the next Board meeting for the club is Jan. 16 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at WesBanco at 1691 Wilmington Pike, across from Arby's. That's a Tuesday. Any new member who has not attended a board meeting should consider attending, as it's one of the requirements for having the new member yellow ribbon removed from one's member badge.

 

 

Our president Peachy started the Happy Bucks with a $10 donation, noting that Brigid's Path is in dire need of funds as they have a renovation underway and need new pipes and things. 

Katie Neubert gave $10 for a Happy New Year and her guest Semantha Moses, etc. 

Ron Hollenbeck gave $20 for having the grandkids home at Christmas and something about sickness and the Browns.

Chuck King gave for a Happy New Year and something about a first ever.

Lee Hieronymus gave for mowing hay fields even in the cold.

Dale Berry gave for being back home after being where it was warm and Butch Spencer gave for not being out making hay bales in the cold.

Carol Kennard gave a $5 confessional donation, noting that she accidently erased ALL the Christmas party pictures she had taken, including those of the Paul Harris Fellows. She offered to quit making pictures for the group, but there was a LARGE negative reaction to that, as Carol always comes through with great pictures for the Bulletin. She asked if anyone took any pictures, to send them to her.

Brad Thorp gave his Happy Bucks for forgiveness and Judy Budi gave for a Happy New Year or just being Happy, as all I heard was Happy.

Brad Huffman gave for a ski trip to Colorado with the family. He said he learned to snowboard and the kids learned to ski, including one son who is autistic. 

Jim Harris gave $5 for Brigid's Path and for going to Central America for several weeks, visiting Hondurus, Columbia, Costa Rica, etc.

Doc Hoback gave for hosting 21 for Christmas and Harvey Smith gave for Christmas with the family in Florida where it was 72 degrees and 19 ate on the patio....(God does bless SOME of his flock).

Brian Hayes gave for a Happy New Year and Frank Perez gave for a week in Hawaii, where he saw the sun...., and Mark Febus gave for a Happy New Year and Rebecca Quinones gave a Happy $5 for doing Happy nothing...and Her daughter Isa made the dean's list and also joined the Air Force ROTC, and also had her first meeting as president of the Rotaract Club at Ohio University.

Sofie Ameloot said she was happy to have her daughter and neighbors at the club and that Isa started the Rotaract at OU.

Jeff Senney gave $20 and then told a funny story about how after his recovery from foot surgery a couple of years ago, he was doing a recent marathon and at the 12 and a half mile area he encountered some signs that led him off in the wrong direction and he had to get a car car ride back from the 14 mile mark to go the right direction and so ended up with 16 miles and a car ride and a time of 3-20 instead of 2-30....

The Club Committee Chairs were then asked to briefly report on the plans for future areas they might need assistance on.

Judy Budi said she had a box full of historical information about the club and would need help identifying pictures of past members. The club is 40-plus years old. Carol Kennard said she has some of the pictures scanned and would help see what else needs to be scanned and/or identified. 

Peachy said we have 73 members and need to up the membership, but have six months to go and get additional members, so ask friends and family and others who might be interested in joining and participating in our club.

Ron Hollenbeck, with the Nominating Committee, said he received a thank you from Greg Bixler, co-founder and CEO of Design Outreach, noting that we now have helped fund our third water pump in Africa. The last one goes down 255 feet, and is in Chubwalu, Zambia. This new water pump is providing 762 people with an accessible source of clean water, Bixler wrote.

The two others are in Mali. We have partnered with World Vision in these endeavors.

Peachy said we need to have a commitee for International Service Projects, with a chairperson to show up at board meetings. We could partner with other clubs, he said. He said Vas, Ron, Harvey, and Sofie have shown an interest. And Brian Bergman said he would also be interested, as he has a background in international work. Peachy said we have $7,000 this year in the budget for international services, but will need to see what we want to do within the budget. The Pancake Breakfast money goes for scholarships, but we could have another fund-raiser for an international project, he said.

Gerry Eastabrooks spoke on finances.

We have $38,000 in savings and $52,000 in our checking account.

Kim gave a note to Boyd, on activities on the Education Foundation, etc., noting that activities are getting ready, with applications ready for scholarships, etc...

Brad talked about our invested finances, noting that our $85,700 has grown to $107,000 in the account, which can help supplement our scholarships. He said we can do five on top of what we do with the Pancake Breakfast funds.

Mark Febus talked about New Generations, noting they had student volunteers working with Hannah's Treasure Chest and United Way...and 13 student volunteers...And they plan to do another book drive this year and have something set up for Feb. 4th and the 4-Way Speech Contest, and RYLA, sponsoring three students. 

Frank Perez spoke about Community Service, holding up a large sheet of paper upon which he said were the notes of his speech, only to turn it around and show that it was a big Thank You note from John Hole students for the dictionaries our club provided them with.

Brad Huffman told about the Pancake Breakfast Committee's work, noting it "was a banner year," and that they need to meet more often during the year for planning and to get some new faces, and to set a goal for sponsorships, etc. He mentioned maybe having food trucks for an international project. He suggested bringing back some Centerville Elk Alumni for some of our events to get more attendance and work on ways to get people to join the club.

 

And here Frank Perez gets his turn at the Club Assembly committee report time.

And here is the thank you note from John Hole...

 

And here is the Christmas tree at Yankee Trace that greeted us at the Christmas dinner where we all dressed in our best and had a good time, pictures or no pictures otherwise...God Bless all.