Frank Perez welcomed everyone to the 13th Zoom meeting of the Centerville Rotary Club, as we are still unable to meet face to face due to the coronavirus.
Frank welcomed members Pat Beckel and Jim Stuart who were able to attend the Rotary Zoom meeting for the first time this week.
Jim Stuart led the Pledge of Allegiance, Ron Hollenbeck recited the 4-Way Test, and Harvey Smith led us in a prayer.
President Frank Perez provided these updates:
- We received a very nice Thank You letter from the St. Vincent de Paul Society. In the spring we had funds available from cancelled programs so the board chose to donate $550 to SVP.
- Just a reminder, we have two new opportunities for members to get involved. We need a chairperson for our website and a chairperson for social media. You don’t need to be an expert, just willing to help and learn. If you are interested or know a member who is interested, please reach out to me or Brad Huffman.
Carol Kennard noted the Centerville Rotary Club’s 50th Anniversary will occur on June 13, 2022, less than 2 years away. It is time to start planning for how we want to celebrate this milestone. Several people have already signed on to the planning committee but she welcomes more. Contact Carol with your ideas and suggestions, even if you cannot serve on the committee. Current committee:
Sofie Ameloot
Judy Budi
Elda Gotos Gay
Lee Hieronymus
Chuck King
Adam Manning
Kim Senft-Paras
Boyd Preston
Rebecca Quinones
Harvey Smith then challenged Don Overly, our club’s first president to serve on the committee. Don accepted the challenge as long as Harvey did, too. Harvey agreed!
Our Happy Dollars for this quarter are going to Project Warm – please be generous with your Happy Dollars for this good cause. You can send your check to the club mailbox: Centerville Rotary Club, PO Box 41431, Centerville, OH 45458. Boyd Preston called on Rotarians for Happy Bucks:
- Brian Hayes ($20) is happy his son is moving out of the house!
- Boyd Preston paused Happy Bucks to wish a happy birthday to the July Rotarians, including Ron Hollenbeck who celebrates his birthday today.
- Pat Beckel ($20) is happy to be back at the meeting and announced he was the recipient of the Centerville Small Business of the Year award for 2020. Congrats Pat!
- Joyce Young ($20) donated a coat in honor of Pat’s award, and to thank Boyd for delivery of delicious corn on the cob.
- Elda Gotos Gay ($20) is happy to see the rain.
- Arnie Biondo ($20) is happy to see Pat Beckel and noted there is a nice new bench dedicated to Harvey Smith in the park.
- Carol Kennard ($20) followed up noting the Harvey bench was placed in Grant Park by the Centerville-Washington Foundation who honored Harvey at last year’s Founders Event for his outstanding contributions to the community.
- Brad Thorp ($20) gave to question (tongue in cheek) whether voter fraud was involved in Pat’s award :-)
- Ron Hollenbeck ($40) gave in honor of his 40th birthday (wink, wink) and showed a stack of books his wife gave him, as she’s always telling him to “go read a book” to keep him out of her hair.
- Mark Febus ($20) said to have a great week!
- Terry Hanauer ($20) is happy to see other people on this Zoom, as he is still stuck in Michigan.
- Jeff Senney ($20) is happy to be visiting grand babies, taking a trip to Put-in Bay with Sharon, and an upcoming visit from his son. He also noted that since he is over 65, golf courses have allowed him to shoot in front of the tee but since he shot 38 two weeks in a row, he’s been moved back behind the tee.
- Chuck King ($20) is happy to see the rain especially since that gets him out of mowing the lawn.
- Frank Perez gave ($10) for Jim Stuart, and ($10) for Patrick Beckel making it to the meeting this week.
Our speaker today is Heath MacAlpine, chair of the Rotary Youth Exchange program for District 6670.
Arnie Biondo introduced our speaker today: Heath MacAlpine, chair of the Rotary Youth Exchange program for District 6670. Arnie noted Heath had 48 hours to prepare for today’s program as our original speaker had to cancel. Heath started in this District position in October 2015, and held his first committee meeting at our Pancake Day. Since Heath has been chair, the District has sent around 55 high school students overseas.
Heath gave an overview of the Rotary Youth Exchange Program and noted our district had 11 students outbound this year to Brazil, Italy, Spain, France, Poland, and other countries. We also had 9 international students inbound this year.
The purpose of RYE is to create a more interconnected and understanding world. As students experience different cultures and meet people from around the world, they become more understanding of foreign people and countries in the future. The U.S. has a “nasty case of nationalism”, and we need to better understand the connections between countries. The U.S. Depart of State supports this program and sees its value in improving world understanding.
The program is called a Scholarship, as that term is better understood at the high school level. The value of the entire experience is close to $24,000.
Most of the costs of the program are provided by Rotary, with the exception of travel costs, which add up to almost $7,000 for the student. Many families cover this cost, but Heath suggested our club consider covering the student’s costs so to enable students who may otherwise not be able to get this experience. Some clubs do this or help the student find employment to earn the money.
Heath then shared the history of our club and RYE:
And also how we compare with some other clubs in District 6670:
Heath shared the story of a student named, JJ, who got into the Rotary Youth Exchange program because she had the dream of being accepted into the Air Force Academy, however, her school did not offer the extracurricular programs she needed to qualify. He then shared this photo of JJ getting sworn in to the Air Force Academy three weeks ago:
Heath asked why Centerville isn’t more involved and several members noted that there are so many options for students at CHS, that they don’t want to be away from their commitments for a whole school year.
Dawayne Kirkman shared his story of being a Youth Exchange student. He comes from Bowling Green, KY, and was the only person in his high school to apply for the program. He spent several weeks in the Netherlands, and then had a student stay with his family for 4 weeks. He said the experience changed his life!
Heath provided his contact information and encouraged the club to have discussions on how we might be more involved - even suggested this might be a good goal for our 50th anniversary celebration!
Frank Perez thanked Heath for the great program and said for everyone to be safe, stay dry, and have a great week!
