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Rotary's Theme for 2016-17
The GREETERS:
09/22/16 Chuck King and John Beals
09/29/16 Matt Kuhn and Tracie Hoker
10/06/16 Jennifer Webb and Joyce Young
10/13/16 Mark Febus and Adam Manning
10/20/16 Ram Nunna and Bridget Herzog
If you cannot greet on the day assigned, contact Kitty and she will schedule a replacement.
The guests at the meeting included: Dottie Overly, wife of member Don Overly; Georgia Mergler, community relations manager for the Washington Centerville Public Library, our speaker for the day; Justin Sprague, of Northwestern Mutual, where he is a financial advisor, guest of Ann Blackburn. Brandon
Gross, a guest of Jeff Senney. Dana White, a guest of Jeff.
Greeters for the next meeting will be: Chuck King and John Beals
The Centerville Rotary Club met at noon at the Clubhouse at Yankee Trace Golf Course. President Ron Hollenbeck led the Pledge of Allegiance, Sivaji Subramaniam gave the prayer, and Peachy Metzner led the singing of God Bless America.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Club president Ron Hollenbeck called Mark Febus of Home Care Assistance to the front of the room to be inducted into the club.
PDG Harvey Smith conducted the induction, noting that Mark will not only be joining our club, but also the other 1.2 million members in 165 countries worldwide that are in Rotary.
Mark said he and his father formed Home Care Assistance a year ago to offer care wherever the home is. He said they hire professional caregivers to go to wherever the person resides. They decided to begin such a service after his grandmother, who has since died, needed home health care. He resides in Cincinnati, but works here, he said. He was born and reared in the area, attending Incarnation Elementary School, Alter High School, and then Xavier University in Cincinnati. He said he competes with his mother in a master's swim program called the Dayton Area Sharks.
President Ron noted that checks need to be in for those wishing to attend the John Germ luncheon coming up in Cincinnati. The sign up sheet was passed around again. He also noted that the Rotary Leadership Institution is coming up in November. He said we can expect to get District grant money for most of our projects, with $1,200 coming for Operation Warm; $1,500 for our literacy project, $500 for Project Read, and nothing thus far for our water pump or the Lincoln statue, though the Centerville Rotary Club name will be on the permanent marker for the statue because of our donation of $1,000 or more.
Ron noted that a brick with Fred Weir's name on it would be placed in the Rotarian's memorial walkway by the Kennard Nature Center. Two bricks can be seen in the picture of our speaker for the day, shown below in this message. One spelled Fred's name wrong, so a new one was made. The misspelled one will be given to Fred's wife, Ron said.
HAPPY BUCKS:
Our Sgt-at-Arms Erich Eggers collected for Happy Bucks for Operation Warm. The new winter coats cost $20, and will be distributed to students through Hannah's Treasure Chest, which is in touch with the local social agencies.
Erich began the collecting of Happy Bucks by stating that he would donate for up to 10 coats for the first ten coats that his fellow Rotarians bought. He was applauded for his generosity. It turned out that Gerry Eastabrooks collected more than $800 from the group as Erich went from table to table calling on members, with a number buying more than one coat and one matching Erich's $200 donation.
The coat money flowed swiftly, as Brad Thorp bought a coat, then Gerry Eastabrooks, then Ray Merz who said he was happy for his grandkids recent visits. Then Boyd Preston bought a coat, and Ram Nunna pledged to buy 10 coats, since he had been gone about a year and a half on business, but was now done with his foreign travel for a while, Raj Grandhi bought a coat, and Kim Senft-Paras bought a coat for getting to spend two weeks in Massachusetts babysitting with her grandson, and also getting to see a mama bear and her two cubs at their cabin. She also mentioned that the CHS knitting club was featured in the DDN today, with members of the Interact Club being in it and a club member starting it. Bob Underwood of the DDN helped get the story in the newspaper for us. Thanks, Bob.
Drew Carter gave for a coat. Ray Merz gave for half a coat, noting that he had been on the Maine coast and the White Mountain of New Hampshire. John Beals said he had been at Flint Ridge, and brought back some ancient pieces of flint from there. It's in Ohio, not Flint, Michigan. Dale Berry said he was happy to be here, and Tom Zobrist gave for a coat and Don Stewart gave for a half of a coat and a sleeve. Jim Hester gave for a coat and Mitch Biederman and Brian Hayes each gave for half a coat. Mike Gentile gave for a coat and Jeff Senney gave for half a coat. Joyce Young gave for a coat, and then there were more and someone said five coats, and then there were more coats and the pen couldn't keep up. It was indeed more than a coat of many colors...and such generosity that it just kept spilling over and overflowed until there was more than $800 in coats, and Gerry was excited at all the giving, as were we all.
SPEAKER: Georgia Mergler, community relations manager for the Washington Centerville Public Library.
Kim Senft-Paras, director of the library, introduced Georgia Mergler as the manager of community relations for the two libraries, and noted that she has been with the library for about two decades.
Georgia started by noting that many people might question why we still need libraries when we have the internet and other quick means of getting information, but she said people still believe that they improve the quality of life and literacy and make this a better place to live.
Georgia said the mission of the Centerville libraries, is to give the community a connection to diverse opportunities for education, enrichment and entertainment.
She said the two libraries, Woodbourne and Centerville. have 2.1 million items, from books and movies, to computers, audio tapes, etc. It is the 14th busiest library in Ohio, with 12,000 visits a week at the two libraries. They have more than a million visits a year to their Web site, she said. You can check out books and e-books and e-audio tapes. Digital has been increasing in numbers. In 2015, 37,000 print items were checked out and 52,000 digital copies of material were made, she said.
The libraries help kids and they have 17 weekly story times, with 12,000 attendees each year, Georgia said. In the summer kids read, and they had 2,500 kids in the summer reading club, she said. There were 700 teens reading over 500 books collectively, she said.
Georgia said they have a money exhibit held in partnership with the Boonshoft Museum to teach kids financial literacy. They got a $100,000 grant to help kids learn how to earn, save, and spend money.
She mentioned the Little Free Library that the Centerville Rotary helped fund, that is at Schoolhouse Park It is in the shape of a school house. Another Little Free Library is in development for Iron Horse Park, she said. It will have a choo-chool train theme.
She also mentioned the How-To Festival held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Centerville Library Sept. 17. There were 39 demonstration stations scattered through the library for people to learn everything from knitting, to making a computer, grilling perfect steaks, and doing 3D printing.
They also have programs with local authors and will be bringing a traveling exhibit about Alexander Hamilton from late November through the end of the year. It will be about the man and the Broadway play now running, she said.
Georgia said you can book time to work one on one with a librarian, which can help the business community, she said. They also have a monthly class with a brown bag lunch.
The summer read for adults was The Other Wes Moore, she said.
Volunteers help a great deal and the Friends of the Library have donated over $104,000 to the library over the years.
There is also a book delivery service manned by volunteers who deliver and pick up books for the disabled and home-bound. Boyd Preston has taken part in that, she noted.
Georgia said the library has a $2.3 million operating budget and gets revenue from a local operating levy passed in 2011 and from the state public library fund.
The biggest part of the budget goes for staff, she said.
She said the Woodbourne expansion project will require the library to close during the work, but the library will move to a temporary site in Cross Pointe Center.People said they want the library to stay warm and intimate, but that there needs to be more programs and updated restrooms. More parking is also needed. It should be ready by the summer of 2018. People also said they would like to see an active zone and a zone for quiet study. They need more space for tutors and others to work, they said. Lighting and heating also need to be upgraded, Georgia said.
She said the library board plans to lease a space with the Cross Pointe Association for a temporary location, moving the staff from Woodbourne there. Centerville Library will remain open, and though not everything from Woodbourne will be transferred to the temporary site, the library will be open for business. The renovated site will be closed from January to the summer of 2018 when it is done, she said.
Georgian Mergler is pictured again below.
Below are three architectural renderings of the new architectural design
The group ended the session by repeating Rotary's Four-Way Test together.
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