Rotary's Theme for 2015-16

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patricia Bryant, Community Liason for St. Leonard Retirement Community, a guest of Judy Budi; Jim Hester, guest of Ann Blackburn (MIA); Bridget Herzog, with St. Vincent DePaul, a prospective member; Mato Palovic, our exchange student from Slovakia, staying with host Rotarian Arnie Biondo family. Mato could use a ride to the Holiday dinner on Dec. 17; and Mac Hickman, PDG, of the Batavia, Ohio Rotary, the guest speaker of the day.

 

 

 

 

President Brad Thorp said those wishing to participate in the Paul Harris Awards program need to get money and info back by our next meeting. The club will match the $500 donation for the Paul Harris Fellow.  Ron Hollenbeck also noted last week that for $85 a month, members could sign up to become members of the Paul Harris Society, giving a $1,000 a year pledge. 

 

Brad recognized the veterans in the club individually and the group gave a round of applause to show their appreciation of their service.

 

Boyd Preston brought the five How-to books the club is providing for the book shelves in the new Habitat homes .They are about cooking, home repair, financing, etc.

 

Boyd also brought along forms for the Adopt a Family Christmas project, with 20 children in the Centerville schools being provided giftsby our club members this year . It was suggested that the gifts be limited to no more than $75 for each child.

 

Last year 158 families were helped, with a total of 353 kids, Boyd said.

 

Sign up for the Dec. 17 Christmas dinner, letting the club know if you will be there and/or are bringing a guest, will be at the first Thursday meeting in December, Ron Hollenbeck said.

 

Brad said that the club will vote on The Rotarian of the Year at next week's meeting. Also sponsors of the Pancake Breakfast are being asked to attend that meeting to be recognized, and a number have RSVPed...he said. The Rotarian of the Year will be announced at the Christmas dinner, Brad said.

 

 

 

Sgt.-at-Arms Erich Eggers collected Happy Bucks for Reclaiming Futures, and many members contributed, thanking our Veterans for their service.

 

Club member Mike Wier plays the tuba with the Dublin Silver Brass Band and they just won the U.S. Open Brass Band Championship in Chicago. Hooray for Mike and the band! OoompPaPa! 

 

It was noted that Jim Hester is now a VP at LCNB.

 

Joyce Young said her brother who has been ill and is a Vietnam Vet is doing better.

 

Kim Senft-Paras said the Centerville Interact Club has collected more than 8,000 books in their fall book drive at the high school. The books will be donated to Eastmont Elementary School in Dayton. 

 

Kim said the city's library was named a five star library by the Library Journal. It was one of 28 libraries in the state to receive the designation, she said.

 

Greg Horn noted the passing of Centerville resident and WWII Veteran Karl Pauzer in the past week. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge (side note: Honorary member Irene Ullmer's youngest brother, Kurt Reiss, was killed in the Battle of the Bulge). Pauzer also rode with Patton and helped liberate one of the concentration camps. Erich Eggers also remembered Pauzer as a great neighbor, one who walked his (Eggers') dog three miles on a nightly basis for years.

 

 

 

Mac said he felt he was speaking to the choir, since our club has been recognized as the largest donor in District 6670 to the Rotary Foundation this past year. He said Rotary is a noun. It was the very first service organization, established in 1905. He showed his Paul Harris medal, depicting the founder of Rotary, Paul Harris. He said Rotary is also an adjective, as Rotarians show Rotary-like behavior. "Rotary modifies people," he said. 
"This club made Rotary a verb," he said. 

 The Chicago Rotary Club's first project was public toilets in Chicago. That was in 1906, he said. The sixth Rotary Club president said at the 1917 Rotary International Conference that the mission of Rotary is to work for the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty.

 

The first donation to the Foundation was $26.50, made by the Kansas City Mission Club. The first $500 grant from the Foundation was to help polio survivors, a group that later became the Easter Seals Foundation. "Rotary started the Easter Seals Foundation," Mac Hickman said.

 

The Foundation money is divided into two funds, a District Designated Fund, and a World Global Fund. Dictricts can get matching funds, such as our club has received for The Castle projects.

 

 

There are many ways to donate to the Foundation, Mac said. Besides the Paul Harris Fellow $1,000 donation, you can become a major donor, a Paul Harris Society member with continual $1,000 year donations, and also give through estate planning, etc.

 

Mac said he went to Thailand after the tsunami and saw how Rotary has helped the people of that nation with some of its world project money. Dormitories were built to house survivors of the tsunami and those rescued from the sex trade. The Rotary Club of Palm Beach and Thailand worked to build this, he said. A Bakery/coffee shop that had a brewer that took 25 minutes to brew coffee, was helped out when the Rotary Club in District 6670 of Southwest Ohio donated money to buy a coffee brewer that sped up the coffee making and helped the business get more customers to stop by for coffee, he said.

 

Mac said he visited a whole village built by Rotary in Thailand. As he walked down Rotary Street Two he heard "Rotary, Rotary," coming from the house. Soon a young girl of about age 8 popped out of the house carrying a bottle of ice cold water to offer him. He said it was 100 degrees outside. She came out and said "Thank you, Rotary," Her mother and grandmother were looking out a window and doorway, and Mac said he was lucky to think of having someone take his picture with the little girl and him with the bottle of water in front of the house, which he showed us on a slide. "This is what the Foundation does," he said. Rotary money helped build her house.