President Elect Adam Manning, welcomed everyone to the Centerville Rotary Club and led the club in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. PDG Harvey Smith provided the prayer.
The thought of the day: "Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions." - THE DALAI LAMA
President-Elect Manning announced President Arnie Biondo is out sick so we all wish him a speedy recovery.
The Rotary theme this month is: The Rotary Foundation
Announcements this week included:
- Thanks to today’s greeters Brian Hayes and Matt Kuhn
- Next Board Meeting is Nov 30, 5:30 pm at Bock Brewery
- Annual Holiday celebration is December 15, 6 pm at Yankee Trace. More details to follow
Harvey Smith announced some members still need to pay for their pancake tickets If you haven’t paid for your tickets yet, please pay so we can know how much we made this year. An email will be sent to those who still owe
Crissy Allums announced we have 20 children to shop for under the Adopt a Family program. Let her know if you would like to participate. Dollar limit is $75 and gifts must be wrapped and delivered on December 1 or 5. (See her email for more details.)
Rotary Foundation Update
Frank Perez announced this is our last week of presentations on how the Rotary Foundation donations benefit others. This week Carol Kennard shared how the Foundation is at work here at home. Frank reminded everyone that when making donations, check should be payable to the Rotary Foundation.
Carol Kennard shared information about our 50th Anniversary project and how the Rotary Foundation provided funds for this special project.
Fundraising Budget
- Goal $50,000 for 50th year
- Received $6,000 District grant which was possible from Rotary Foundation donations three years ago
50th BUDGET
$28,099 Club Budget
$11,900 Golf Outing
$ 6,850 Club Member Donations
$ 6,000 District Grant
$ 1,475 Shirt sales
$ 1,440 Meal tickets
$55,764 TOTAL Revenue
-$4,404 Expenses - other
$51,360 TOTAL AVAILABLE FOR PROJECT
50th Project included
- Rotary Memorial relocation
- Tree replacement
- Plantings - meadow & landscaping
- Meadow interpretive signage
Project Update
- Original plan for parking lot included taking out about 25+ trees planted by Rotarians in 2000. We asked engineers to try to preserve as many of the mature trees as possible. ONLY 17 had to be removed.
- Parking lot was to be paved today but pushed back to next week because of current cold weather.
- Rotary wheel done and imbedded in concrete walkway
- New bricks (35) with names of deceased past members were done a month+ back and are stored in the barn (TX's to Chuck)
- Plain bricks are on order (300+) and will be delivered next week
- All bricks are scheduled to be laid next week or week after
- Landscaping work for our memorial area started last week.
- Our Rotary benches (3) were delivered to Grant Park already. CWPD Operations staff will assemble and install in concrete next week
- Total project scheduled to be done this month. Current weather not helping but early, good weather gave us a cushion
- Trees (17) that our club purchased were installed yesterday
- 14-15 located along new ADA pathway around meadow to provide shade and enhance natural feel of area
- 2-3 will be planted by the nature play area (i.e. the reforestation target area)
Carol gave hanks to the 50th anniversary committee and especially Boyd Preston and Chuck King for their leadership of this project. And THANKS to club members for donations to the Rotary Foundation which made funding available.
This quarter our Happy Bucks will go for Puerto Rico hurricane relief. Pat Beckel was our Sergeant-at-Arms.
Pat Beckel announced several upcoming community events:
- Woodland Lights - 13 tickets left for our sponsorship. Friday is opening night.
- Freedom Whisky - Saturday night $50 honoring local veteran at the Moose lodge
- Holiday Walk - Sunday carriage rides, music, businesses open and decorated. Noon - 5 pm then all moves to Benham’s Grove at 5:30 pm for the tree lighting. Alexa Gomez, former American Idol contestant will perform. Shuttles will be available from the Activity Center Park parking lot to uptown.
Our guest today was Ron Bowerstock, a former Rotarian with the Centerville Club.
Happy Bucks were given generously for:
- Pat Beckel for not paying for his Pancake tickets yet.
- Brad Huffman is leaving for FL on Saturday, as the CHS marching band will perform at Disney on Wednesday.
- Ger Eastabrooks was happy.
- Matt Kuhn was glad to be here.
- Lee Hieronymus gave the weekly farm report: bins are full and corn is still in the field. It is difficult to take to silos because they are already filled up and not able to ship due to barges not running on the Mississippi. He announce if you have no cab on the tractor, it is COLD. Corn does ok in cold weather, but not soybeans.
- Carol Kennard for visiting grandkids in Philly last weekend, celebrating grandson’s 7th birthday, and will be with grandkids in Pittsburgh next week to celebrate youngest granddaughter’s 3rd birthday.
- Amy Hary was excited about the upcoming Holiday Walk.
- Mark Febus for family time at Thanksgiving.
- Sofie Ameloot announced her daughter, Noë and will be married in September 2024.
- Elda Gotos-Gay is going to St Louis for 10 days to be with family and to COOK Thanksgiving dinner.
- Jim Harris for our guest, noting he tried to fill out the application online but it wouldn’t let him finish. (Brad Huffman may have to check it out…)
- Crissy Allums wished all a happy Thanksgiving.
- Ginger Clark for attending a 2-day leadership summit with the Ohio Parks & Recreation Association, talked to others about funding opportunities, and heard Dr Amy Acton speak, which was very inspirational.
- Adam Manning for our guest speaker.
- Ian Emmons (speaker) was happy to be here.
- Ron Bowerstsock for our speaker, and his great grandkid turned 16 last week.
- Wayne Davis for our speaker, who is a great first responder, keeping our community safe.
- Don Stewart for the three women he noticed teeing off today (brrr), and shared when distributing thesauri to 5th graders, one student said, “Hey, nice hair!” (And the student’s hair was just as nice!)
- Wyatt Thorp was happy.
- Ray Merz noted Thanksgiving day is his birthday, he’ll turn 58??? (Is it the truth? LOL)
- Dan Johnson was happy to see Ian, noting their daughters are part of the street gang that terrorize the neighborhood.
- Dale Berry for Woodland Lights and Deputy Chief Emmons speaking today.
- Dan Wilson was happy and hopeful for a good Thanksgiving.
- Chuck King suggested we vote to move Arnie’s presidency to next year and let Adam finish out this year!
- Don Overly gave thanks to Matt Kuhn for the warm greeting but noted he didn’t get greeted by Brian, who proceeded to give him a hug.
- Tom Broadwell was happy.
- Dick Hoback gave $5 to celebrate the five years that Thanksgiving dinner hasn’t been at his house.
- Harvey Smith is going to be a great grandfather as his granddaughter is expecting a boy!
- Brian Hayes is happy to be collecting money.
Our speaker today was Ian Emmons, Deputy Chief of Operations for the Washington Township Fire Department.
President-elect Manning introduced Ian Emmons who is a Hamilton native. He and his wife have two kids with one on the way! He has been with WTFD for 7 years and was previously at Liberty Township Fire Department for 10 years.
Ian said he would share about the WTFD’s Professional Development & Standards, which are higher than many other departments across the nation.
He is currently Deputy Chief of Operations, has 100 members who provide EMS and fire service 365 day/year, 24 hrs/day, with 25-26 professionals on duty each day. He is also Vice Chair of the International Fire Chief’s Association.
To achieve accreditation, they go through peer review from others around the country and world. They research best practices in fire service and accreditation ensures they are doing the best they can. They use a Continuous Improvement model, so they are always working to be better.
They focus on hands-on training & formal education that is individualized for each specific member’s goals. The individuals go through a peer review process, too. WTFD personnel are involved professionally on the local, nation, and international levels.
They show the benefits of higher education to those who didn’t initially pursue advanced degrees. They encourage staff to spread their wings, which is not the norm in U.S. fire service.
New Strategic Plan focuses on training. Develop plans on an individual basis and include specialty situations and technical trainings. The increased level of knowledge allows for individual growth and promotional opportunities.
Professional designations - show if you’ve been able to uphold the standards. Ian said they are really proud of their department having the most accredited fire officers in the U.S.
The Department has grown through these standards and in 2021 they were the Fire Department of the Year for the State of Ohio! People are the best they can be and are highly trained to do their job well.
Ian said he was a hire from the outside, but they have grown members in last 7 years so any position could be filled from within. The reputation of department attracts from other departments.
Ian says it takes 5 years to do initial accreditation and it is repeated every 5 years. They review operational, programmatic, response time and other things. They look at what they are doing to improve this. Do you have mental health program, cancer prevention program? if you don’t have them, why not?
Lee shared the old station was built when it was an all volunteer department, and there were problems with rock making it difficult to build. The new station is more centrally located to the service area.
Accreditation - you set the goals and how you want to achieve them. You look at statistics - runs that you have and situations you may run into. Strive to meet or increase the standard.
Wayne explained that levies provide funding and being located next to CHS provides quick access to a major street instead of having to go through a neighborhood.
Ian addressed question about possible traffic jams at CHS. He explained they looked at when they typically answer calls in relation to CHS traffic. It was one item evaluated when deciding on the location.
Use of the old station is not decided yet. The new station is able to house people 24 hrs/day.
President-elect Manning lead the group in reciting the 4 Way Test and wished everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.
Member Notes:
Even the snow couldn't keep Kelly McDonald from delivering leftover food from Pancake Day to the House of Bread! Thanks, Kelly!
Next week we will be meeting with Tom Turkey so don’t show up at Yankee Trace.
.png)
