President Sofie Ameloot welcomed everyone to the Centerville Rotary Club and led reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. PDG Sivaji Subramaniam provided the prayer.

 

Today’s quote provided by Don Overly: "If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway." (Mother Teresa)

Guest: Braden Huffman (son of Brad Huffman)

Thank you to our greeters today: Bob Daley & Pat Turnbull.

Sofie’s announcements:

1. With the help of an attorney the Education Foundation Trustees have made the decision to amend the name of the Centerville Rotary Club Education Foundation. Inc. to the Centerville Rotary Foundation.  There will be 2 committees, one for Education and one for Community Support.  If you are interested in serving as a trustee for one of the committees, please contact Kelly McDonald.

2. The public image committee. We have decided to hire an Intern for Public Image and Media Support. It will be posted soon. If you know someone that would like to apply let us know. It will be about 4 hours a week at $15.00.

3. Golf Outing : Carol has sent out a press release. We still need more sponsors, golfers and baskets!! We have added 2 more sponsors since last week, we are at $2845.00, so we still have a long way to go! We really need YOUR help! Please ask where you do business. Those are really the easiest ones: a connection from you.  Members were asked to please be available on May 9th to help out with the golf outing.

4. District Gala, please don’t forget to sign up on DACDB if you want to join us Friday April 25, 2025, 5:30p - 10:00p at Wright Patterson Air Force Museum, Hanger C, 1100 Spaatz St. Fairborn, OH 45431. Tickets are $65.

5. We have ordered a Peace pole and it will be installed in one of our parks, more on that to come. Carol remembered we did this once before and put a Peace pole at the Centerville library. We have a nice picture with Erich Eggers and Kim Senft-Paras.

6. Sofie’s challenge to invite a person to our meeting still stands! Look around you to see who you may bring. We all need to work on growing our club. When Sofie joined there were at 73 or 75 members now we are at 63 now. We have a net loss of 10 members in just 7 years. Please bring your friends! You will have more fun too! Right now the first two lunches are taken care of by the club but we may look into getting that changed.

7) Our next Service week will be in the week of April 19-26. We will have 3 projects for you lined up with the highway clean up on the 19th, one project right after the meeting and the 26th we will have a mulching project at Yankee or Oak Grove.  Kristin asked that we invite non-members to participate in our service projects.  It will help give them exposure to both Rotary and to our club.

8) HAPPY BUCKS: LAST DAY FOR District 5300 Disaster Relief in LA recipient of first quarter Happy bucks. In April, we switch to Operation Warm as the recipient for the next quarter.

9) For Next Week…

· Our program next week Emily Weitz, BSW, LSW Outreach Coordinator “On Our Sleeves”

 

 

 

 

 

Margaret has a lengthy resume depicting her experience as a nurse practitioner and service in the military.  She has participated in numerous special programs for veterans and has received many awards recognizing her dedication to veteran’s causes.  Margaret was inducted into the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame in 2008.  She has provided support to many community groups (i.e. Blue Star Mothers) and has served on the adjunct faculty at the Wright State University School of Nursing.   Margaret retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army Reserve and is the current President of the Dayton Woman’s Club. 

 

 

Margaret provided the following commentary in her presentation to the Centerville Rotary Club. 

In 1890, 30 women decided to meet outside of a church or school setting.  This led to the establishment of the Dayton’s Woman’s Club (DWC) in 1916.  It was a house created by women after the Great Flood.  The club is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization devoted to empowering women and strengthening our community educationally, professionally, and individually through historic preservation, public engagement, cultural activities, and educational programs. 

 

 

Margaret noted that the word “heritage” means a lot to her.  “If something is torn down, what will be passed on to future generations?”.  Serving children is very important to her.  They are our future.  Her motto is “We have to preserve the best of the past and that is done by improving the present and with a goal of creating a better future”. 

 

To that end, DWC takes care of children and provides them with things they are not getting at school or at home (i.e. how to use a knife and fork).  DWC sells cookies and uses the proceeds to put on a program called “Miss Manners”.  DWC calls it business etiquette 101.  Children learn how to better function in business through newly learned skills such as 1) how to make a proper introduction, 2) learn cultural differences, 3) learn how to converse with one another, 4) learn icebreakers and 5) learn manners.  

 

 

While DWC started as a private club, they now want to be seen as a community asset. With modifications to the house, DWC can now accommodate 250 people. With these changes, the property has become a wedding venue. They have also hosted two (2) high school proms in the house for students whose schools did not offer them. DWC offers a pre-show dinner for Schuster events. Margaret says you can visit, have dinner, and then walk to the event at the Schuster. They’re only one block away! 

 

Margaret encourages people to come to the club. Tours are available. For more information, visit https://daytonwomansclub.org/