President Arnie Biondo welcomed everyone to the Centerville Rotary Club and lead the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. Brian Hayes provided the prayer.

President Biondo shared that while he was in DC last week, the talk at the Youth Exchange conference was all about peace and conflict resolution.

Quote for the day: ”Success is not final; failure is not final:  It is the courage to continue that counts."  Winston Churchill

Thanks to Brad Thorp for being a greeter today and Pat Beckel who didn’t show up to greet!

Announcements from Directors:

• Crissy Allums encouraged all to sign up for milkweed seed cleaning on March 8 at the Activity Center Park.

• Golf Outing flyer and sponsorship forms are available at the sign-in desk and also on the website.

• The next social will be on Tuesday, February 28, 5:30-7 pm at Rumbleseat Wine, 101 E Alex Bell Rd. Sandwiches, chips, and cookies will be provided.

President Biondo provided highlights from the recent Board meeting:

• Happy Bucks next quarter will go to the Rotary Club in East Palestine.

• Cody Terrell and Lisa Gordis-May were approved for membership.

• Mark calendars for June 3 combo social/service project picnic as a way to thank our sponsors. More details to come.

Happy Bucks for this quarter go to support Florida Hurricane Relief. Rand Oliver with assistance from Matt Kuhn were our Sergeant of Arms today.

Guests today included: Mary Nenninger, our Assistant Governor, Erik Collins (Dayton Rotary), and Cody Terrell

• Rand Oliver was happy to be home from a conference in Indiana and noted the Golf committee meets by zoom today at 4 pm.

• Brad Thorp was happy but broke (gave an IOU)

• Wyatt Thorp was happy but broker!

• Carol Kennard was happy that Ginger Clark agreed to take over photography at meetings.Thanks Ginger!

• Dick Hoback returned from Florida and brought back warmer weather. He also paid a $1 fine for not going to any Rotary meetings while gone.

• Dave Trout gave for hurricane relief.

• Ron Hollenbeck was happy Jeff Senney helped with a connection for legal work and Design Outreach reported 45 water pumps just arrived for installation in Malawi.

• Jim Harris was happy.

• Arnie Biondo was happy his middle child graduated from the Hobart Institute of Welding Technology.

• Uriah Anderson was back from his CA vacation with family where there was lots of wine and he leaves tomorrow for Minnesota.

• Cody Terrell was happy for the nice weather.

• Adam Manning was happy for Cody and excited to hear today’s speaker; Fiona and Adam are both unhappy on their diets.

• Don Stewart had a great cruise with calm seas and great music. He took a plane to get on a boat to hear Train.

• Erik Collins joined the City as Development Director and is looking forward to meeting more people.

• Wayne Davis was happy to have Erik here - his neighbor, coworker, fellow Rotarian, and is fortunate to have him on staff. Reminded us all it is Lent - increase prayer, go without some aspect, and alms giving. Also, today is Wayne’s 4th grandchild’s 4th bday.

• Mary Nenninger is going to the Rotary International conference in Australia and asked who else is going?

• Scott Kujawa is going to see his son next week, where he will get a promotion in the Coast Guard.

• Dale Berry was happy.

• Harvey Smith told the first time he made up at the Dayton Club, they fined a man $100 for getting an award! Harvey then decided never to join the Dayton Club!

• Jackie D’Aurora was happy for the gorgeous weather and sunshine.

• Bill Menker was happy to see Erik here, and he just returned from school where he learned armor making and glassworks.

• Tom Broadwell was hoping for the nice weather to stick around.

• Bob Sachs attended the Rotary Board meeting this week and felt it was well managed!

• Don Overly ate 2 desserts, since someone at his table gave it up for Lent.

• Matt Kuhn was out of town for a 60th bday party where they were served pepper and egg sandwiches.

• Rand Oliver enjoyed Taco Tuesday at the Painted Pepper.

• Ron Bowersocks announced he was giving up desserts for Lent (upon which others requested his dessert!)

Our speaker today was KaLynn Clark, Director of Development with 4 Paws for Ability.

KaLynn said she got into this business because she loves to be  surrounded by dogs while helping others. She also introduced Chris with friend Rio, a service dog in training.

4 Paws for Ability is the largest organization that trains service dogs for kids, with no minimum age requirement. Most require kids to be at least 10 or 16 yrs old. They place 100 dogs per year all around the country. They have placed 1,600 dogs since they started in 1998.

What is a Service Dog?

Individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability (ADA definition). They are trained to be well behaved at places they are invited into.

They are different from emotional support animal.

Service dogs are covered under the ADA, and are allowed to have public access.

What dogs are trained for:

Autism Assistance - they were the first in country to provide this. Includes behavior adjustment, redirect attention, with “over” command they lay across child’s lap like weighted blanket, tracking - life saving for kids who run away or dart - track child’s specific scent, and are a natural social bridge with other kids

Seizure Assistance - pre-alerting before seizure (scent based trained with a shirt child was wearing when they had the seizure) Parents know it is coming. Provide more independence

Diabetic Alert - swab inside cheek to learn sugar level smell

Mobility Assistance - balance support, instead of using a walker or cane, use dog, help with opening doors, undressing - dog can take off socks

Hearing Ear - alert to name call, knock on door, smoke alarm

Multi-purpose - unique to 4 Paws, can train for multiple needs

Veterans Assistance - all needs

4 Paws has their own breeding program. They start training at 3 days old with bio sensor training by introducing them to stress. Next at 4 weeks old is the puppy enrichment program where they are introduced to lots of people and learn basic commands. At 8 weeks old, they go to live with a family with a volunteer trainer who takes them to lots of places, learning to become confident. At 1 year old they go back to 4 Paws for professional training. When placed with a family, they first hang out for 10 days with trainer to learn all the dog’s commands - this phase is really training people how to use the dog’s skills. It takes 1-1/2 to 2 years to get a dog.

How can you help?

• Volunteer - help train, be a host family

• Donate ($40,000 is invested in each dog, family raises half of cost)

• Share with other groups, visit facility

CFC #59894 www.4Pawsforability.org

Hard job for a dog to graduate through the training program.

50% end up with a career change; fabulous flunkies become a great family dog. Some get scared at night, bark, don’t like to share toys, etc.

Ron Hollenbeck has one of those fabulous flunkies and noted if you can’t keep the dog, you can bring it back to 4 Paws for Ability.

Which specific breeds are used? Golden retriever or mix with Labrador retriever, standard poodle, golden doodle, Newfoundland, papillon.

4 Paws for Ability was highlighted on the NetFlix mini series “Dogs”  in Season 1, Episode 1.

Mary Nenninger announced the District newsletter should have arrived in your email recently and includes information on RYLA, District conference, and RI convention. Check it out every month, to see lots of ways to be involved on the district level.