President Elect Arnie Biondo filled in for President Brian Hayes and welcomed everyone to the Centerville Rotary Club and led the Pledge of Allegiance. PDG Harvey Smith provided the prayer and Lee Hieronymus led the club in singing God Bless America.
President Elect Biondo had several announcements:
- Our Club Theme this month covers the area of Rotary Fellowship
- Our speaker today is Melody Bennett from the House of Bread
- Guests today include:
- Justin McMullen (guest of Jeff Senney)
- Lane Schnell (Susan’s daughter who was visiting us again)
- Alberto Guy (Elda’s son)
- Reminded the club the Leadership Change luncheon will be held at Benham’s Grove on June 30
Directors/ Others report to the club:
- Adam Manning-
- golf outing raised $11,900. While strong it is a little below our $13,000 target to support the 50th anniversary project. Committee is exploring ways to cover the difference.
- 50 RSVP’s have been received so far for the 50th dinner. Hoping for better club participation so will be following up to ensure all got the invitation
- No lunch meeting next week since 50th dinner is that night.
- Mike Wier- tickets are in for re-scheduled Dragon game for July 6th (Wednesday) @ 7 PM. See him for your free ticket(s) or email him
We have started assigning greeters for each meeting again! Check the eBulletin to see when it is your turn, and if you can’t do it that week, please schedule a sub!
GREETER SCHEDULE
June 9 - Uriah Anderson & Dave Trout
(Anniversary dinner)
June 16 - Vas Appalaneni & Brad Thorp
June 23 - Mark Balsan & Kisha Taylor
June 30 - Pat Beckel & Sivaji Subramaniam
(at Benham’s Grove)
Monthly Theme: Rotary Fellowship
As part of our 50th anniversary club moment, Kim Senft-Paras highlighted that June begins Rotary Fellowship month. She started with a definition of fellowship: “a noun meaning friendly association, especially with people who share one’s interests”. Kim commented that this month’s Rotary International magazine has a focus on fellowship, including an action plan for addressing. She finished by reaffirming that we all should be thankful for all members of our club and Rotary in general and help ensure each knows he/ she matters to all of us.
We will be sending our Happy Bucks for this quarter through Matthew 25 Ministries to provide support where needed in the Ukraine.
Sergeant of Arms this week was Pat Beckel
Happy Bucks were given for:
- Pat B. started off by being thankful for the successful Centerville Mayor’s breakfast and the very successful (8000 attendees) Merchant Market at Stubbs Park.
- Ginger Clark thanked the club for the seeds we collected for spreading at Grant Park. Left over seeds are being put in packets to give away at the Americana Parade on July 4th to be planted throughout our community.
- Harvey Smith - Happy for the beautiful day
- Don Stewart - glad Harvey is here today, something he cannot say every meeting
- Kim Senft-Paras – Spent the month of May with her grandkids in Massachusetts and had a wonderful time
- Boyd Preston - had a great Memorial weekend visiting our son and friends in Chicago. Went to Cubs game at Wrigley where the home team continued their losing ways.
- Bill Menker - Happy World Cup qualifying soccer games are going on. If Ukraine can win 1 more game, they are in the World Cup.
- Uriah Anderson - just happy
- Susan Schnell - happy daughter is home for the summer and for the Ukraine
- Jeff Senney - Happy Melody Bennet is here to speak to us
- Lee Hieronymus - Reminded the club we will have his firetruck for the Americana Parade on July 4th and is looking for club members to ride. Squirt guns will be provided or bring your own.
- Chuck King- played golf recently and had his 1st birdie of the season. He used no putter to accomplish.
- Wayne Davis- Happy Lee lead the singing and is happy all the time to see Don and Harvey here. Also happy for great work being done by the Heart of Centerville group.
- Adam Manning - Took 3 teenagers to see the new Top Gun movie and 2 fell asleep during it but he enjoyed it.
- Jim Stuart - Happy to see Wayne Davis here
- Elda Gatos Gay - Happy her son joined us today
- Jim Harris- Attended his only grandson’s wedding last weekend and had a great time with the extended family.
- Dick Hoback- appreciated Lee leading the song
- Arnie Biondo was happy his daughter was coming to visit them tonight
Our speaker this week was Melody Bennett from The House of Bread (HoB).
Melody has been with HoB for 13 years, an organization that received an Integrity Award last year from the Better Business Bureau and next month she will be in Columbus to receive an award from the National Association of Social Workers.
- HoB offers a free lunch to all who come every day and never closed during the pandemic
- Serves about 3000 meals per week (about 155,000/ year)
- Used pandemic Care funds to replace the roof and upgraded the ventilation system
- Has 16 employees currently, both full and part time
- Food comes from partners (e.g., Trader Joe’s) and private donations of food and cash
- Has their own garden now to supplement meals with fresh vegetables
- Holds a frozen turkey drive once a year and donations are used throughout the year
- Had a successful $1MM Capital Campaign recently which allowed them to add a family dining room with play space for kids and much needed space to the main building.
- Clientele includes people who are street homeless, a group that has been increasing sharply during the pandemic. They try to provide additional food that they can take with them for later consumption.
- HoB also has special events for guests like the upcoming July 4th picnic and birthday parties for the kids.
- Covid requirements have forced them to cut back on number of volunteers they can use from the normal 10-12 to about 2/ day.
- HoB works with other agencies in the area to help guests get the assistance they may need. They typically make 35+ linkages a week with these agencies on behalf of guests
- They also provide direct help where they can with gas cards, making Dr appointments, providing a PC and/or WIFI support in the building to do homework etc.
- They are currently working on a family engagement night program called Families Forward which is a partnership with 6 local schools. HoB provides meals and Catholic Social Services and the Echo group at UD provide help in addressing needs of the families involved.
Pat Beckel and his guest, attorney Justin McMullen
Proud Mom, Susan Schnell and her daughter Lane
President Elect Biondo lead the group in reciting the 4 Way Test and wished everyone a good week. He also reminded the club that there is no lunch meeting next week given the 50th dinner that night.
Attire for the 50th anniversary dinner is dressy. Please save the 50th Polo shirts for service days and the grand opening of our project at Grant Park. If you haven't sent in your RSVP yet, contact Adam immediately! See you at Yankee Trace at 6 pm, Thursday.
