President Adam Manning welcomed everyone to the Centerville Rotary Club and led the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. PDG Harvey Smith provided the prayer.
This being the first meeting of the month, our song leaders lead singing of God Bless America.
The quote of the day: "The most wasted day is one without laughter”. By Navjot Singh Sidhu
President Manning had these announcements:
- It was great riding on Lee’s fire truck, being the caboose of the Americana parade just in front of Santa Claus! He thanked Ashlee Walton, Rand Oliver, his wife, Penny, his grandson, Kelly McDonald, and Ron Bowersox for riding on the truck.
- This month’s Rotary theme is Maternal & Child Health
- Thanks to Elda Gotos Gay and Bill Menker for greeting
- Welcome today’s guests: Our library director Liz Fultz; guests of Wayne Davis: Pat Turnbull back for a second visit and Tyler Roark, Finance Director; and visiting Rotarian/PDG Bill Shula
Chuck King announced we received three District grants: for 50th anniversary project benches at Grant Park, dictionary/thesaurus program and for operation warm, for a total of $6,363.
Brian Hayes asked everyone to please remember to sign in when you attend the meeting, and return your badge at the end of the meeting!
PDG Bill Shula thanked our club for being so generous with support of the Rotary Foundation and then made a special presentation.
Elda Gotos Gay is the newest Paul Harris Society member. She has made a commitment to donate $1,000 to the Rotary International Foundation over a 5-year period of time. As a Paul Harris Society member, you can designate where your funds go - one of the 7 areas of focus or polio plus program. To sign up, contact RI, or go through My Rotary on the RI website to set up to have $85 per month charged to your card. It is easy to become a major donor.
Liz Fultz, Executive Director for the Washington-Centerville Public Library shared information about The Wall that Heals. Thanks to an Impact grant from the Centerville-Washington Foundation, Centerville Rotary, and many other sponsors, the library is able to host the wall. We are honored our community was selected to host the Wall that Heals. It is a 3/4 size replica of the Viet Nam Wall in D.C. It comes with a mobile education center and includes a memorial program to recognize Ohioans who served and died.
Please watch this video to learn more:
Tuesday, July 25 the Wall arrives. Starts at Sinclair then travels on Clyo Road to Alex-Bell, Far Hills to W. Franklin Street and then to Yankee Park on Yankee Street. They are looking for motorcyclists to be ride captains and people to line the streets, cheering as it goes through town.
Wednesday, July 26 is set up day. It takes 30-40 able bodied individuals to help put it together. Takes 6-8 hours. Rain or shine. Orientation and training is provided for volunteers before it opens to the public. Volunteers are also needed to staff the education trailer, help people find names on the wall, provide transportation on golf carts, and more. Volunteers commit to 3 hour shifts.
The Wall that Heals will be open to the public on Thursday, July 27 in the morning through 2 pm on Sunday, July 30. It is open 24 hrs/day
A 10 am Welcome home ceremony will be held at 10 am on Thursday and include laying of the wreath, Alexis Gomez singing the National Anthem, remarks from local dignitaries and Cindy LaPointe-Dafler, widow of Medal of Honor recipient Joseph Guy Lapoint, Jr, and a military band, closing with the playing of Taps.
Group tours are available. Liz said they need 200 volunteers and about 50% slots filled now. It’s a big event for the whole community - people will be coming from all over the state to see it. To volunteer, visit
https://www.wclibrary.info/thewallthatheals/
Happy Bucks this quarter are going toward Operation Warm, providing winter coats to children in need.
Erich Eggers was our Sergeant of Arms this week and started off Happy Bucks buy donating four coats and saying he was happy to be Sergeant again!
Happy Bucks were generously given for:
- Arnie Biondo for the new club president.
- Kelly McDonald for a coat.
- Jesse Campbell was happy to be a member and looks forward to meeting everyone.
- Amy Hary was happy to be back.
- Carol Kennard was happy to see so many Rotarians involved in the Americana Festival and encouraged all to share photos!
- Liz Fultz was happy to be here and appreciated the hospitality she always receives from our club.
- Adam Manning for riding in parade and noted he saw Dr. Oliver shoot water at a police officer who was holding a computer! He apologized immediately.
- Bill Shula was happy to visit this great club and to honor Elda. He also mentioned the Wall that Heals is so compelling, a truly outstanding experience.
- Harvey Smith for a coat.
- Elda Gotos Gay was happy to be here.
- Wayne Davis for his guests, Arnie’s leadership over last year, and PDG Bill Shula.
- Pat Turnbull for the success of the Americana Festival, noting he started at Centerville 1st day of COVID, so it’s good to see the community back in force.
- Chuck King for our guests, and noted Arnie made two meetings in a row :-)
- Ron Hollenbeck for PDG Bill Shula, had a great chat with Andrea, congrats to Elda, and he would giver her a hug but he’s afraid of what Harvey would do!
- Andrea Share was happy.
- Jim Harris announced a 3 am this morning his first great grandchild was born. Congrats Jim!
- Uriah Anderson welcomed everyone to attend the RecPlex fitness renovation reopening this Saturday at 9:30 am.
- Dick Hoback for Arnie Biondo’s leadership this past year.
- Dale Berry for a coat, and noted the Trustees just passed a proclamation to CWPD and RecPlex in honor of Parks & Recreation month, and presented an employee excellence award to Uriah Anderson!
- Don Overly for his birthday this week.
- Bob Fry for a coat.
- Brad Thorp for a coat.
- Rand Oliver for Lee and his efforts for getting the fire truck in the parade each year. He also noted over 20 years ago the Wall that Heals was here and it’s good to have it back.
- Jeff Senney for a coat, thanked the Township for the recognition, and said he wore his yellow Rotary shirt and then got squirted with water twice from the Rotary fire truck!
- Mike Wier for his college friends who’s names are on the Wall the Heals.
Our speaker this week was President Adam Manning, sharing thoughts about the upcoming year.
Adam joked that the Rant Era is over, as the Age of Enlightenment begins. But in all seriousness, Arnie’s enthusiasm helped him get excited about his year.
2023-24 Rotary International President’s theme is “Create hope in the world.” He also talked about focusing on mental health. We come from a generation that was told to suck it up and keep thoughts to yourself rather than reaching out for help when you need it. We know that doesn’t work, so we need to work to change that thought.
Adam shared his primary goals for the year:
- Increase membership: lucky our club has strong membership; can do more with more members
- Support Rotary Foundation: our club is very generous and he hopes that continues
- Quarterly Service Days/Projects: What areas are you interested in? Share where you think we can make a difference.
- Expand our Scholarships: first student they squirted yelled out “You gave me a scholarship!” He was the recipient of one of our first trade school recipients, which enabled him to go to college.
- Increased Online Presence: can do more with social media, and noted we have a good website that Carol Kennard keeps up to date.
- Social Mixers and Activities: get to know each other and families better, have fun, and celebrate our hard work
He then asked “What drew you to Rotary?”
Cody Terrell said, “the people”.
Wayne Davis said mentors steered him to Rotary, and he stayed to serve the community, for career development, and to help others.
Adam shared his vision to “Remember the Helpers” and said he looks forward to a great year.
Adam’s contact info - amanning@bockrathflooring.com, 937-286-9294.
Greeters next week are Kelly McDonald and Terry Hanauer. And Kelly is our speaker for an update on the golf outing.
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