President-elect Arnie Biondo welcomed everyone to the meeting of the Centerville Rotary Club and led the group in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. PDG Harvey Smith provided the prayer.

Arnie introduced our guests today:

Dan Wilson  who is a guest of Arnie and potential member. Dan is the Director of quality at a local steel manufacturing site.

Adriaelle Lassalle who was a guest of Jeff Senney. Adriaelle works with Jeff at Pickrel, Schaeffer, and Ebeling.

Arnie also welcomed Jennifer Gibbs who was back for a visit!

Arnie announced the Rotary Christmas Party is in two weeks on the Dec 16^th (so no lunch meeting that day), beginning at 6 pm. It will be an evening of heavy hors d’oeuvres and drinks with entertainment.

Our Sergeant of Arms today was Boyd Preston

This quarter we are collecting for Blue Star Mothers (of America) – which is a private nonprofit organization in the United States that provides support for mothers who have sons or daughters in active service in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Rotarians shared a LOT during Happy Bucks this week:

• Boyd Preston went to a UD basketball game with Harvey and in the last 2 min Harvey swore at a bad pass, which was so unlike him! Boyd was shocked!
• Carol Kennard gave for a lovely Thanksgiving with family, although after having so much fun playing the the 2-year old granddaughter, they came home a day early to rest.
• Jeff Senney had a great Thanksgiving and gave some happy dollars for UD  basketball’s success in the recent tournament games.
• Arnie Biondo announced this is the first year they are not buying stuff for kids for Christmas, but instead are taking them to Chicago.
• Brad Huffman was happy to see Jen back and shared he had the experience of a lifetime in NYC as the Centerville Jazz band performed in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade; they had a prime spot in south Central Park, and then ended the day with a cruise around the harbor Thanksgiving night
• Dan Johnson was happy for the UD Flyers success in the tournament.
• Mark Febus was happy to have Thanksgiving again without covid
• Sofie Ameloot gave for Blue Star Mothers, snow walks with family; and announced Delphine is doing a food drive again this year. She will have a box outside her house for donations until Dec 11
• Rebecca Quiñones gave for Sofie’s new glasses and hair cut; Carlos and Isa being home for whole week, and that Sofia has an offer to play lacrosse at Thomas Moore University. She also announced she is accepting donations of PB&J for 2 schools in west Dayton; drop off at her house or Nationwide Insurance and she will bring a wagon next week
• Adam Manning gave sad dollars noting on Saturday he started started crying during the 3rd quarter of the OSU game and finally finished crying yesterday
• Dale Berry gave for Blue Star Mothers
• Uriah Anderson gave for a nice Thanksgiving in Ann Arbor, for getting to watch White Christmas every night now and then invited all to attend Woodland lights - no outdoor amusement rides due to change in inspection laws but now have 2 trackless trains and increased the lighted acreage. It will be open 6-9 Fri-Sun.  Every night starting 12/20 until 12/30 except Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
• Don Overly for how great Centerville Jazz Band did in the Macy’s parade and offered a counseling session for Harvey
• Tom Broadwell was on the road for many weeks to Philly and Orlando, and is happy to be back home.
• Michael Norton-Smith gave sad dollars for OSU and the Browns, and gave apologies for harsh language he hurled at his TV screen over the weekend
• Harvey Smith asked if anyone saw that UD game? It was horrible! When he got home, he got on his knees and prayed forgiveness for UD. God was sad, too. $20 is from God.
• Jen Gibbs was thankful for the warm welcome and was happy to be back; for the cake Elda made for her; her son finished his last year of football and is also visiting Thomas Moore University; and for her oldest son who just finished Army basic training
• Crissy Allums gave for a wonderful Thanksgiving in Louisiana, where her brother-in-law spoiled them; she is still grieving that OSU loss and is mad the Steelers were beat by the Bengals
• Elda Gotos-Gay was happy for Jen Gibbs being here, her youngest son cooked Thanksgiving and then they all drove to St Louis to visit her other son where they celebrated again
• Frank Perez gave for Jen being back; had great Thanksgiving but wanted the club to help settle a family dispute during the game Poetry for Neanderthals - is the word, “fire” one or two syllables? Although Frank argued it was two, he club voted ONE. (Editor’s note: Webster’s shows it as one fahyuhr)
• Chuck King smoked his first turkey breast on thanksgiving and it turned out ok
• Jim Harris had a nice Thanksgiving, his son and daughter-in-law visited from Canada the week before; he suffered through OSU game; and was happy to see Jen here
• Dan Wilson gave thanks to the club, noting “You’re a nice group” and it was nice meeting everyone

The speaker this week had to cancel due to COVID so the program included updates from various directors.

Mark Febus shared an update from the Interact Club advisor Patrick Swan:

It is going pretty well overall. We have been meeting the third Wednesday each month - TBD this month. We have a couple student leaders who have taken the reigns the past couple of meetings. They have made contact and arrangements with Hannah's Treasure Chest and we are offering twice weekly opportunities after school to volunteer there. However, they emailed this week and said that our participation last week helped them finish this year's inventory early and they won't need us until after the new year. 

They have also been working with House of Bread in Dayton. In the past, we have sent students on Saturdays to help with their soup kitchen. Covid has changed their operations and that isn't an option right now, so they are working on a food or sock drive with them. Our students have been working with our elementaries to help coordinate and expand our reach into their schools. 

We have also been providing local opportunities, including PVS Winter Fest, Woodland Lights, etc. Some of the signups have been organized by our own students, others have been directly with the organization in need. 

Lastly, we've also paired with another organization in our school called Circle of Friends. The CofF provides a chance for some of our special needs students to have activities with their "typical" peers. It is a stretch for some of our students to interact with students they maybe haven't had much experience interacting with, but they have done a great job. Last Tuesday, some of our students ate lunch with them and colored turkeys for Thanksgiving and talked about what they are thankful for. The previous month they watched a Halloween movie after school. Their biggest activity of the year is "special prom." Around the time that we hold our prom in the spring, they have a dance sponsored by the Circle of Friends that mixes all the students together for a few hours. It is actually one of my favorite things at our school each year. If you need a boost to your faith in humanity, it is worth coming! If there is anything you could help with, it would be helping with ideas, opportunities or a financial donation for the special prom. Circle of Friends provides a great service, but it is difficult for them to raise funds because most of their students are special needs, and in some cases severely so. Nothing they do is extravagant, but it adds up providing snacks, decorations, etc. for whatever activity they have planned. If you have any funds or ideas on how we could help them raise funds, that would be awesome. 

Sofie Ameloot gave an update from the 50th Anniversary Committee

• Project led by Boyd, Lee & Judy at Grant Park will take place in the spring including planting pollinator habitat and relocating the Rotary memorial bricks.
• Harvey & Ron noted club member donations now total $7,200 toward our goal.
• Kim, Ginger & Bill will provide weekly trivia and tidbits about the club’s history starting in January
• Mark your calendars for June 9 when we will have our 50th anniversary dinner. Chuck and Adam are looking for food donations.
• Dick Hoback is reaching out to former exchange students; let him know if you have contact information.
• Carol & Rebecca are coordinating publicity, starting with a press release in January

Adam Manning announced the holiday party will be in 2 weeks - watch for an email with more information and how to RSVP. It will be at Yankee Trace and include holiday entertainment. Pancake breakfast had to be cancelled again this year, but the volunteer committees for Pancake and Golf will start meeting after the holidays. We had $4,800 in virtual Pancake pledges that will go to scholarships. We will send pancake care packages to those sponsors.

Brad Huffman recognized this year’s golf committee members and asked for more people to step up to help as there is a lot to do to prep for the event. This year’s inaugural event had 75 golfers, and brought in $16,000 ($13,000 was corporate sponsors, $225 individual sponsors.) Sofie did a great job with raffle but needs more help for next outing. Donate stuff! Mark your calendar for May 7, 2022 Golf Outing.

Chuck King gave an update on our International programs - we were going to donate to Haiti, but then the hurricane hit Louisiana so the Board decided to split the donations with $500 to Matthew 25 ministry to send personnel and supplies to Haiti and then $500 to Louisiana. He said the Dayton Rotary Club is working on a water project in Ecuador which we will partner on.

Arnie said to check the email from Ron Hollenbeck this week about the 125 Pin deadline being extended to next week

Boyd Preston announce our generous club collected $242 today for Blue Star Mothers today.

Next week our speaker will be Jessica Barry who will share with us about The Modern College of Design.

Arnie led the group in reciting The 4 Way Test and wished all a good week.