Brian Hayes opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and Ray Merz gave the prayer

 

Brian introduced our visitors: Dan Wilson who was a guest of Arnie Biondo; Rick Hartley, who recently moved to Centerville about a month ago and is a customer of Remodeling Design and Erich Eggers suggested he visit us; Kelly McDonald, recently moved to Centerville from Hawaii and is a Rotarian checking out local Clubs.

 

The Thought of the Day is from Albert Einstein:  A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.

 

Brian made the following announcements:

Frank Perez requested members get their golf teams together and registered on line for our 6 May golf outing. With teams already signed up and sponsorship golfers, we still have space for 40+ additional golfers

 

Adam Manning asked those that will not be golfing to signup as a volunteer to assist during the event – contact Adam to sign up

 

Mike Wier announced that 33 of the 60 seats for the Dragons game on Tuesday 3 May. We can invite additional people – let Mike know so he can track who is attending.

 

Ron Hollenbeck provided an overview of Rotary International’s Global Grants to support Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene. Ron highlighted that the Life Pump has become one of if not the preferred water pump due to reliability, the ability to remotely monitor the pumps performance, and the depths the pump can reach to access clean water, with Malawi designating it as the only pump they will accept.

 

 

Rotary’s Area of Focus is on increasing sustainable access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). The areas funded by the Global Grants from 2014-2021, the Rotary Foundation has awarded $154.3 Million that supported 2,153 Global Grants. Over the seven year period, the average yearly grants awarded were around $20M. 

 

 

The most significant projects funded were for safe water supply, WASH in schools, household water treatment and storage, and sanitation.  He also highlighted that the largest areas that were supported by these grants were Asia, Americas, Africa, and India.   

 

 

 

Today was the last day to contribute Kentucky Recovery Bucks:

 

Crissy Allums: Happy

Pat Beckel: Happy his sons in gymnastics tournament in Dayton this weekend and for the one year anniversary of his cigar shop “Beckel’s Humidor & Aficionado”

Arnie Biondo: Happy for those that have contributed to the club sponsorship drive for golf/pancakes

Wayne Davis: Happy for visitors and the one year anniversary of Pat Beckel’s Cigar shop

Brian Hayes: Happy

Jim Harris: Happy for our visitors today

Lee Hieronymus: Will be moving farm equipment later in the day

Ron Hollenbeck: Happy for Visitors and comments about a faucet?

Chuck King: Happy

Scott Kujawa: Happy to sit next to Lee

Adam Manning: Happy about his nephew

Larry Marchand: Happy

Ray Merz: Weather difference here versus Naples FL

Don Overly: Happy for Visitors

Frank Perez: Happy

Jeff Senney: It’s a big change to be back from Maui

 

 

Arnie Biondo introduced our guest speaker from Hannah’s Treasure Chest – Kelly Kempton. She has graduated twice from Wright State and she and her husband are parents of twin daughters.

 

 

Kelly reviewed the mission of Hannah’s Treasure Chest as: Enriching the lives of children in need.  They work in partnership with 70 partner organizations, case workers submit requests, Hannah’s volunteers complete personalized care packages and then the case workers pick up and deliver items to the children.  Hannah’s serves children living at or below the poverty level in Butler, Greene, Montgomery, Preble, Warren and Hamilton counties.  The children served are from birth to 18 years of age, Hannah’s facility is 14,400 square feet, and their volunteers are mostly school teachers. Her presentation was organized as a tour through their facility.

 

 

Donation Intake: Each donated item is inspected for condition and cleanliness, acceptable items are put on the shelf and other items are given to other partners such as Matthew 25 ministries that can use the items. Un-useable clothing is shredded and used as insulation.

 

 

Library: Age appropriate books are provided to the children

Toy Room:  Toys are inspected to make sure they are complete, and are cleaned and sanitized. Toys are given by age and the child’s interest, each child receives something soft and snuggly, an educational toy, and a game the whole family can play.

 

 

Care Packages: Volunteer “Shoppers” assemble the individual care packages for each request submitted. Each item in a care package is recorded and placed in a black bag clearly  labeled for the recipient.  The black bag helps prevent theft if it is delivered and the family is not home.

 

 

Equipment: Equipment such as strollers, high chairs, car seats, safety gates, etc. are cleaned and inspected and checked for recalls. Each item delivered is clean and safe

 

 

Diapers: 1 in 3 families have a diaper need. Diapers are packaged in bundles of 25. Thousands of diapers are provided to children in the southwest Ohio are, allowing children to stay clean and dry.

 

 

Picking Up: The Social workers that send in the requests arrive at Hannah’s pick-up door and pick up their order and they then deliver the orders to the children.  Hannah’s volunteers never meet the children they serve.

Shop Hannah’s:  Shop Hannah’s opened in May 2021 and offers overstocked donations for sale, where you can get great deals and support a great cause.

 

Thankful Families: Hannah’s receives numerous thank you notes from appreciative families.  Kelly highlighted that Operation Warm and our donation of 636 warm winter coats is such a blessing for them to be able to give new warm coats to children in need.  She said this week, 4 coats were delivered to children that had been homeless, but their family just moved into a home – she said they had nothing before.  There were 5,000 children supported this past year.

 

 

Closing Questions: It was asked how many volunteer hours Hannah’s had for 2021, there were 18,818 volunteer hours, which is a 29% increase over 2020’s number.

 

 

Kelly sent this information after the meeting and asked that we get it out to our membership:

Hannah’s Treasure Chest will be holding its first Champions for Children Fundraising Breakfast on Thursday, April 28, 2022 from 8am-9am at The Golf Club at Yankee Trace! We are delighted to invite you and all of the Centerville Rotary members to celebrate our mission and enrich the lives of children in need in Dayton. Centerville Rotary will be meeting just after us in another room at Yankee Trace. I know there is already a group forming to play a round after the breakfast, if any of your members are interested. This event will also feature a plated breakfast and the opportunity to experience our impact through the stories of the caseworkers and families we serve.

 

All proceeds from the Champions for Children Fundraising Breakfast will benefit the mission essential programming of Hannah's Treasure Chest. Tickets are $50 per person and $500 per table of 10. If you would like to purchase tickets, please click here or call me anytime at (937) 963-9044. I have attached our sponsorship packet for your members. We are so grateful for Centerville Rotary’s service to Hannah’s and look forward to sharing more of our impact with you.

 

 

President Hayes stated our next week’s speaker will be Tim Benford and he will speak about Electric Vehicles. He then closed the meeting by leading the group in reciting the Four-Way Test.