Our Rotary friend Bob Kilpatrick from Miamisburg Rotary is seen seated at table with Doc Dick Hoback standing beside him in the picture above.

 

Noe Camp (L) and Abby Magoffin (R) of the Centerville Interact Club are seen in the picture above.

You'll catch our other guest Saloni in the picture below in Happy Bucks announcements. 

 

The Centerville Rotary Club met at noon at the Clubhouse at Yankee Trace Golf Course. President Ron Hollenbeck led the Pledge of Allegiance, PDG Harvey Smith gave the prayer, and our past president Brad Thorp led the singing of God Bless America.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS: 

 

President Ron Hollenbeck said checks for the Paul Harris Fellow need to be in by Dec. 1 so all the paperwork can be completed and sent in. 

He reminded people of the Dec. 15 holiday dinner. There will be no regular meeting on that day.

 

Boyd noted that Project READ, the Dayton charity we have been working with, has announced that Chip and Sheree Houghton of Springboro are retiring and their bookstore has been donated along with 100 percent of the profits to support Project READ.

The store sells new and gently used books in 30 different categories. Chip serves on Project READ's board and has donated more than 130,000 books to Project READ. They opened Look At A Book inside the Antiques Village in August, 2013. 

Laura Mlazovsky, Board Chair for Friends of Project READ said "The bookstore will raise thousands of dollars for Project READ's literacy programs each year."

The bookstore is across from Sam's Club at 651 Lyons Road, inside the Antiques Village. Dan McGuire, Antiques Village owner, said he is honored to be part of Project READ and provide the space to sell new and used books to support their efforts.

 

 Chuck King said five people were still needed to fulfill our Adopt-A-Family gift donations, and that the gifts need to be brought to Centerville High School or the Dec. 1 meeting, wrapped. All gifts need to be delivered by Dec. 1, he said. 

 

Dick Hoback mentioned that Food2Go was having a fund-raiser at Chick-fil-A from 6 to 8 p.m. Nov. 17.

 

In mentioning the Miamisburg Pancake Breakfast coming up, Bob Kilpatrick also noted that his club had just awarded 7 Paul Harris Fellows. He said Lee Hieronymus had come to their meeting and talked of the success of our Pancake Breakfast, and when the late arriving Lee popped into our meeting, he said he indeed had boasted about our success, challenging their club to match or exceed our $19,000 total. 

 

The club continues to get thank you notes from the various schools at which dictionaries and thesauri were distributed to third and fifth graders. Many of the notes, some of which included art, were handed about the tables. Charming and delightful messages from all, most liking the longest word and the ability to look up words they don't know how to spell.

 

Ron asked again for ballots to be turned in for the Rotarian of the Year. They are needed by Nov. 17, and you can contact him if you need more info or a paper ballot.

 

Ron said the Holiday dinner will be held Dec. 15, so by Dec. 1 names should be submitted as to who will attend and what guests or guests will also be attending. Each member is allowed one free guest, he said. Others are welcome with additional payment. 

 

Letters the previous week were handed out regarding the Paul Harris Fellow donations. The club will continue to contribute $500 of the $1,000 for the award, as per the information on the letters. The new Paul Harris awards will be handed out at the Holiday dinner at Yankee Trace. Additional information was sent by e-mail from Ron about lesser donations and club points to match them.

 

Boyd Preston noted at a previous meeting that Friday, Nov. 18, will be our next service day at the House of Bread. Volunteers work from 9 to 2 p.m. John Callander, Don Gerhardt, Jack Workman, Boyd, and Jeff Senney have been regular participants in helping each time.

Don't know for sure if hosts have signed up for this, so including information below still.

Jim Hester spoke about the youth exchange at a previous meeting, noting that three families are needed to host each exchange student. Our exchange student Saloni Bagwani needs a host parent from December 2016 thru February 2017 and a host parent from March 2017 thru May 2017. One host family has dropped out and Saloni will next be with host Ram Nunna.

You can contact Jim Hester at jhester@lcnb.com or 740-505-8547

 or Kim Senft-Paras at kparas@wcpl.lib.oh.us or 937-610-4420

 or Rebecca Quinones at moverebecca@gmail.com or 850-374-2943

 

Sgt-at-Arms Erich Eggers collected Happy Bucks for A Day of Caring, 365. 

 

Erich started out the Happy Bucks with Happy Bucks for just being Happy.

Peachy gave and then Ann Blackburn gave, noting that the social at Rebecca Quinones home was tonight (Nov. 17). 

"Sivaji Subramaniam gave for his future absence. He's heading to Vienna, Austria to visit one sister and then to London, England to visit another sister, who will be celebrating being the first woman president of ....?....

Others gave for The Day of Caring, 365, or for being Happy and Patrick Beckel gave, noting that a certain agency he is associated with somehow, is offering the free service for a day of certain objects for the household such as snowblowers and generators, etc. ...then he said something about his wife doing her laundry in a stream and how she loves her green card....and Butch Spencer gave for playing golf and Dale, who is always happy, was always Happy, and someone that was maybe Don Stewart or someone sitting near him said, he was giving for Patrick's poor wife...and Jim Harris gave or Doc Hoback giving him rides while he was recuperating from hip surgery, and Carol Kennard gave for the good day to be in the parks, and Frank Perez said "ditto."

Jim Hester, ever witty, said his big dream of opening a clothing rental business was just burst by Patrick's announcement of his new free rental business. "Patrick bought it," he said.

President Ron Hollenbeck said he had a good meeting with new member Mark Febus and that he learned a lot about his new business and that Mark earned one of his commitment points needed to take off the yellow ribbon on his new member badge. Another new application for membership has been submitted, which if accepted, means 18 new members in the club this year, he said.

Rebecca Quinones then introduced the two Interact members from CHS who came to ask for some help with several of their new projects. See below.

 

Saloni Bagwani is seen here with club member Rebecca Quinones and two of the other Interact members, Noe Camp and Abby Magoffin. The girls discussed the club's latest projects.

Noe said they are collecting new sheets, blankets, pillows and socks for local refugees who have come to this country with nothing but the clothes on their backs. They are working through Catholic Social Services. They also could use some help in planting trees in the Beavercreek Wetland on Nov. 27, Abby said. The donated items can be brought to the Dec. 1 club meeting.

 

Today's Speakers: This meeting was considered a Club Assembly. Our guest speakers were two of our own newer club members: Chuck King and Rebecca Quinones. Club president Ron Hollenbeck told a little about each and then asked each for of the same questions and then let them tell us about themselves. Much applause was given to the two for such spontaneous and enlightening presentations.

Ron said Chuck was born and raised in Washington, Pennsylvania. He attended Parks College of Aeronautical Technology, St. Louis University. He received an ROTC scholarship and was commissioned in Dec. 1972. He went on active duty in July, 1973 as an aircraft maintenance officer and left the U.S.A.F in 1979.

He was hired by GE Aircraft Engines in Cincinnati as an engineer and program manager and lalso joined the Air National Guard. He went back obn active duty with the ANG from 1987-1991 and 1993-2002 when he retired from the military.

He made his 14th (final?) move to Dayton in 2003 working for LOGTEC as a government contractor.

Chuck was their managing director of all fighter/bomber contracts at WPAFB. He worked at Dorothy Lane Market from 2012 to 2016. He enjoys golf, wood turning and travel when not working on the yard or house. 

Ron asked: What attracted you to Rotary? What keeps you coming back?

Chuck said he was attracted to Rotary because he has extra time to get involved in volunteer work to help others. He went to the club's pancake breakfast fund-raiser in years past and he knew Fred Weir and Ed Flohre. Ed cornered him to get involved in Rotary, he said. He keeps coming back "because it's a great group of folksl

Ron asked: What is the best piece of advice you have ever received? How about the best advice you gave someone? Chuck said his squadron command captain talked about careers and said he should always take the job nobody wants. That way, you do what you want on your own and nobody is telling you how to do it and the boss appreciates what you do. "It worked out well," he said. In San Antonio as an international guard adviser, two deputies were on short term medical retirement. He asked the General if he could fill in until a replacement was found. Later he met the General's wife and she said the General talked about him taking such a load off his back. Later the General flew from Omaha to D.C. when Chuck was being honored. At Dorothy Lane Market he asked to help train new people and he told them that when they see something that needs to be done they should do it and not wait to be asked. 

Ron asked: What other volunteer work have you enjoyed doing? Also, what hobbies or leisure time do you enjoy the most and why? 

Chuck said he grew up in western Pennsylvania in the town of Washington southwest of Pittsburgh. It had about 25,000 people. They lived in the country surrounded by farmers, so as a kid they rode bikes, played ball 'til the sun went down, and everybody knew everybody. "It was a nice environment," he said. The town had one of the first crematory in America and was the hub of the Whiskey Rebellion in 1791, he said. He did volunteer work for Habitat for Humanity and at Christ United Methodist Church near Fraze Pavilion he chaired the coffee and donuts committee for four years, filling in when one of the 70 volunteers didn't show up. 

He met his wife when he was working at GE in Cincinnati, he said. The secretaries all had an interest in a young bachelor. His wife was the friend of a friend and someone saw them together and said to her, "You must be Mrs. King." She became Mrs. King three and a half years later, and they have celebrated their 23rd anniversary, he said. 

 

Rebecca Quinones:

Ron said Rebecca was born on a naval base in Memphis, Tenn. She was later stationed in California and then Florida before returning to her parent's home state of Ohio in 1981. She grew up in a suburb of Cincinnati as the oldest of nine children so there was always a lot of action in their home.

Ron said Rebecca met her husband Carlos while she was a student at the University of Cincinnati and working part-time for Procter and Gamble. He was a brand new second lieutenant in the U.S.A.F, and was stationed at Wright-Patt. Since then they have lived in Florida twice, California, Alabama, and Northern Virginia, just outside Washington D.C.

Ron said: Rebecca and Carlos are the very proud parents of two daughters; Isabel is a freshman at Bowling Green and Sofia is in sixth grade at Watts Middle School. When they moved back to Ohio three years ago, they really thought it would be just another stop on their life journey but have really grown to love Centerville. They now hope to spend many more years contributing to the community. 

Ron asked Rebecca: What attracted you to Rotary and what keeps you coming back?

Rebecca said: Her daughter Isabel and Mato, our exchange student, started urging her to look into joining Rotary and then Arnie Biondo and Kim, who had also hosted Mato, started encouraging her to join and then there was a Happy Hour where Brian Hayes and Dan Johnson coaxed some more...and then she found that when she was having a bad day, looking forward to coming to Rotary lifts her up and changes her outlook. 

Ron asked: What is the best advice you have ever received? How about the best advice you gave someone? 

Rebecca said: When I left home to follow Carlos to Florida my father said, "Just drive off. No tears. I'm here." She said, "I have to be a cheerleader for my kids. I always say just look forward. My rock is behind me. My parents are still here."

Ron asked: What other volunteer work have you enjoyed doing?

Rebecca said: I'm on the board of the Officer's Club that looks after military families. I get involved for the kids, the Interact Club. I'm a product of what happened in fifth grade, she said. The local fire department was helping out families with needs and they asked her what she wanted as a gift and she said "a new pair of shoes."

 "Don't you want a Barbie doll?" she was asked. "No, I want a new pair of shoes,"  she said, showing them the hole in the bottom of her shoe. "I got a new pair of shoes and a Barbie doll," she said. She had a winter coat but the zipper didn't work, so she wore a belt around it to keep it closed. She said their generosity made an impact on her and she knows what it can mean to have a new winter coat.

Ron asked what hobbies or leisure time she enjoys most and why.

Rebecca said she loves scuba diving, mountain biking and reading. She said she can read a whole book on a weekend. Rebecca was the gracious host of the Nov. 17 social at her home in Yankee Trace. She is practicing sharing with others in a big way, something she learned as a child. 

The meeting ended with the group standing and repeating The Four-Way Test.