ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Club president Ron Hollenbeck announced that Frank Perez, inducted last week, now has his new member badge.
Ron reminded everyone of our July 23 service day.
Boyd Preston reminded members to sign up. It is a Saturday and most work is from 9 a.m. to noon. You can choose from six different charity locations. They include: The House of Bread (preparing and helping serve a warm meal, and helping with the cleanup), Hannah’s Treasure Chest (laying down carpet squares, fixing collection bins, cutting out patterns), Project Read (sorting and packing children’s books), Daybreak (helping make and pack dog biscuits), the Historical Society and The Castle (weeding, cleanup, mulching), and The Centerville-Washington Park District (landscaping, preparing barbecue grill, mulching, etc.).
It was noted that at least 22 Rotarians attended Fred Weir’s memorial service July 13 at Christ Methodist Church in Kettering. Actually more Rotarians than that were there, as Erich Eggers, Kim Senft-Paras, Rand Oliver, and others came for the visitation but had to leave to go back to work or for other previous obligations.
During the funeral service we learned from one of the pastors of the church that Fred had put on the beautiful wood roof of the church and that he had a humorous side that many of us late comers did not get to witness in full force. The service itself was exceptional, with the singing of Amazing Grace, all six verses, and the outstanding operatic voice of the young woman who sang the Lord’s Prayer, and the kind words of the three pastors, including our own Harvey Smith. Fred would have been proud of the church full of family and friends.
That Celia was in a wheelchair was a surprise, and she said it all happened when she was in the stands watching her granddaughter try out for cheer leading, and a man above her decided he was going to come down out of the stands and shouted, “I’m coming down,” and when Celia said, “Wait a minute,” as she needed to move out of his way, he repeated, “I’m coming down!” and clomped on her foot, which damaged it so much she had to have surgery to repair it, “and," she said, "he didn’t even say he was sorry,” for clomping with his big heavy foot on hers as he came down the steps…Anyway, Celia looked stunning as always, and she and Fred’s adult children were taking the loss as best they could. Several women of the church has supplied a large table full of homemade cookies with a candlelit setting. Certainly, we will all miss Fred and his good works.
Here at Rotary, Sean Mitchell came to the podium to accept a check from Rotary for Daybreak in the amount of $1,399. The money was collected through our recent Happy Bucks. Sean thanked the club for being so generous and updated us on the latest additions to Daybreak, namely the addition of six beds for minor clients, and additional staff to work with higher needs youth.
Kim Senft-Paras introduced our sixth $2,000 college scholarship award recipient, Kaarthika Thakker, for recognition by the club. The scholarships are funded through the club’s main fund-raiser, the annual Pancake Breakfast, to be held this year again in the cafeteria at Centerville High School on Oct. 22.
Kim said Kaarthika graduated from Centerville High School, where she was co-president of the school’s Interact Club. She was also a National Merit Finalist. Kim said she plans to study business entrepreneurship. Her references described her as dependable, brilliant, and passionate, Kim said.
Kaarthika said she plans to go to Rice University to study economics, poverty, and justice in regards to Public Health. She thanked everyone, especially the club’s education committee, for putting her at ease when she was interviewed for the award. “I was very nervous,” she said, but the group was very supportive of her. She said she wants to be involved with social entrepreneurship and work with businesses with non-profits. The Interact Club at CHS sold water bottles to raise money for a water project, which provided a business model, she said. She wants to work with Public Health and fight poverty and create non-profits to “better our community,” she said. She said she is grateful for her father’s support in her endeavors. Both he he and her mom have “been there for me,” she said.
Besides the award money, Kaarthika was presented with the book Evicted - Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond, a Harvard sociologist and MacArthur "Genius." The book was on the New York Times bestseller list.
Boyd Preston said he got a call from Project Read thanking the club for providing collection bins with signs on them for the donation of books for Project Read. They were put out in April at the Starbucks, Senior Citizen Center, and the YMCA, and thus far they have received 2,455 books, children’s books that will go to needy children in the area. He said Project Read has gotten calls from DLM and a church, both of which said they would like to put bins out. A bin can also be found at Graeter’s in Centerville.
HAPPY BUCKS:
Our Sgt-at-Arms Erich Eggers collected Happy Bucks for Operation Warm (Coats). The coats cost $20 each and will be given to needy children through Hannah's Treasure Chest.
Erich said the $712 collected last week for Operation Warm (Coats) was the record amount ever raised at one meeting. The club provided 330 coats last year and plans to set a goal of 350 to 360 coats this year.
Erich started the Happy Bucks off by giving another $100 for five coats.
Last week’s coat donations were mostly given in Fred Weir’s name, to honor him and his generous spirit over the 24 years he was in the club.
Harvey Smith also paid for five coats for Fred.
Rand Oliver paid for a coat, as did Pat Beckel and many of our other members.
Sally Beals said she had a birthday Tuesday, and also gave for a coat for Fred.
Brian Hayes gave several dollars, one for mentioning that our club received the President’s Award from Rotary, and motivating another club to go for the award, and another for scoping out Canada …to go after the fall election? …
Jim Hester bought a coat for Fred, as did Tom Zobrist, and Shelley Fisher, Ram Nunna, and Mitch Biederman, ..
Frank Perez gave for his anniversary of 32 years.
Lee Hieronymus and Jack Workman gave for Fred, and Doc Hoback gave for a couple of coat sleeves.
Scott Hall gave Happy Bucks to mention the upcoming golf outing used as the Mason-Deerfield Rotary’s one of two fund-raisers. It will be Aug. 29 at Four Bridges Country Club, with the winning 4-member team getting $500 to give to their chosen charity. The Mason club meets at the Marriott on 71 on Tuesday mornings at 7:30 a.m., he said.
Dave Trout gave $20 for a coat for Fred, and had to explain the bandage on his forehead and beat-up nose. He said he was hiking at Sugarcreek Reserve when he blanked out and fell on his nose and forehead. He will need a skin graft, he said. He was lucky, he said, as a guy who was a U.S. Army medic happened to be nearby and walked with him the two miles back to his car. When he was told by a club member that everyone was glad he is okay, he replied, “I’ve never been okay,” which brought a big laugh from the club.
Dan Johnson, Bob Fry, also bought coats for Fred, and Carol Kennard said she wanted to give $5 in gratefulness for the late Robert F. Mays, a most generous man who gave the largest cash donation in the history of the Park District. He died July 6 at age 87.
Dave Trout also gave a $500 donation to the Rotary Foundation, following in Lee Hieronymus’ s suggestion that each member give to the Foundation each year
Kim Senft-Paras gave for our scholarship students, and Ron gave a coat for Fred and a coat for him. Peachy gave for a coat and Arnie gave a sleeve and for Mato being reunited with his family back in Slovakia.
Reminder: The District 6670 Rotary Trilogy will be at 7 p.m. Sept. 7 from 5:45 to 9 p.m. at Normandy United Methodist Church. It will be about New Generations and there is no charge. This is the annual fall training event for all club officers and committee chairs, and all are encouraged to attend. Each member needs to register separately as space is limited. Dinner will be served.
Arnie Biondo, director of the Centerville-Washington Park District, introduced Carrie Dittman, communications coordinator for the Park District, otherwise known as Her Highness, he said, kiddingly. She was hired by former park director Carol Kennard three and a half years ago, Arnie said he was new to the community ""when Carol and two of her colleagues bolted, taking 85 years of history with them." but he was lucky to have Carrie's experience to help them work on branding the Park District for better marketing purposes.
Arnie Biondo is pictured below giving an introduction to the park district presentation.
Carrie Dittman is pictured below:
In the South you might sit on your front porch lounging in the rhythms of nature, with perhaps an iced tea or bourbon in hand, while here in the North we Yanks are more likely to hang out in our backyards, perhaps a fenced backyard, to commune with nature, with or without our neighbors. But say you'd like to broaden your horizons and play a bit bigger, with a pick-up soccer game or graduation party, ... you'd need a bigger backyard.
The Centerville-Washington Park District would like you to think of their parks as Your Big Backyard.
It's part of their new marketing strategy, part of the branding of the park district to bring more awareness and use of the parks, Carrie said.
Carrie said that in May 2015, an on-line survey was made to determine what residents want to see in their parks and what they like most in the parks and programs offered. They also looked at the demographics and psychographics and found in the latter that residents of the area prefer easy music listening and like to travel.
According to Wikipedia:
Psychographics is the study of
personality, values,
opinions,
attitudes,
interests, and lifestyles.
Because this area of research focuses on interests, attitudes, and opinions, psychographic factors are also called IAO variables. Psychographic studies of individuals or communities can be valuable in the fields of
marketing,
demographics, opinion research, prediction, and
social research in general. They can be contrasted with demographic variables (such as age and gender), behavioral variables (such as usage rate or loyalty), and organizational demographics variables (sometimes called
firmographic variables), such as industry, number of employees, and functional area.
Carrie said they wanted to compare the on-line survey to the demographics and psychographics to see how they correlated. Most residents under 18 did not take the survey, she said. The age group that took the survey was in the 25 to 50-year-old age group and the 65 and older group. Some 77 percent of those taking the survey were women, she said. This correlated with 65 percent of the women who had children under the age of 18 in the Centerville, Washington Twp. area.
Carrie said last year they had 2,700 followers on Facebook. This year they had 3,200 followers. And 77 percent were female, she said. And in the 25 to 44 age group. most being 25 to 49. These are the ones taking their children out to the parks, she said.
What the residents like most are the hiking trails, paved paths, playgrounds, spray grounds, athletic fields and dog parks, Carrie said.
They like visiting the parks for exercise, family time, enjoying nature, relaxing, taking the kids and having fun.
The most popular programs are listed in the picture below:
In branding, they make a promise to the public to deliver positive expectations for their outdoor recreational needs and to design to give people a life-long connection to outdoor recreation with high quality programs and experiences, Carrie said. Kids today often only have four to seven minutes of outdoor structured play time, while they spend about seven hours with their electronics, she said. In the Centerville-Washington Twp. area there is a park within a half mile of every single residence, she said.
The branding idea is to make people think of the parks as an extension of their own back yards, she said. Your yard may not be big enough for a graduation party or a pick-up soccer game, but the parks can serve that purpose. The park district was created in 1959 with the commitment to protect natural resources and open space, she said.
Your Community's Big Back Yard is now the catch phrase for the park district.
The park district's news and events bulletin (seen below in the next picture) and the district's
web site (seen in second picture below) are also being updated with new looks. Alexander the Owl
can be seen on June-August 2016 park district bulletin telling residents to Explore your community's Big backyard! He can also be seen in the picture above.
