Kick off for 2015 Pancake Day was this week! Time to start securing those sponsors - we encourage every Rotarian to participate. Thanks for your efforts!

 

 

 

 

Rotary's Theme for 2015-16

 

01/21/16 Phil Raines and Dave Wolf

01/28/16 Mitch Biederman and Dan Sortman

02/04/16 Vas Appalaneni and Raj Grandhi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Mato, our guest exchange student from Slovakia; Stacy Mathis, executive director of The Castle, and Dick Neff, on the board for The Castle; Bridget Herzog; and Kaarthika Thakker and Casey Swoboda, our speakers of the day from the Interact Club at Centerville High School. They are co-presidentsl.

Our Greeters at the next meeting will be Jake Bartel and  Sivaji Subramaniam.

 

 

President Brad Thorp began by calling Jim Hester to the podium for his induction as a new member to the club. PDG Harvey Smith inducted Jim and told him he would get his badge in January. It was noted that the reason his sponsor, Ann Blackburn, was not at the meeting, was because "she had to go home and put the dog out." 

 

 Our newest member, Jim Hester, is shown after his induction to the club, with PDG Harvey Smith (L) and

 the Centerville Rotary Club President Brad Thorp (R). Having help found a Rotary Club in the past, Jim is well 

 schooled in Rotary's Service Above Self mission. We welcome him with open arms.

 

 Jim Hester said he lives in Springboro and works at the Lebanon People's National Bank, where he is a vice president. He previously worked for the Huntington Bank in Chillicothe, Ohio. He and his wife have a son Sam who is a junior at Ohio State University. He said he was one of the founders of the Rotary Club in Chillicothe that met at 7:30 a.m. on Thursdays and had about 35 members. When he was 22 years old he was the lmanager of the Huntington Bank. He was working on getting a degree from Ohio University but got waylaid by his job. He received his associate degree in 1989. He graduated from high school in 1981. We welcome Jim to the fold.

 

Brad noted that District Governor Bill Shula will be at the Holiday dinner at Yankee Trace on Dec. 17. There is not meeting that day and a cash bar begins at 6 p.m. with the dinner served promptly at 7 p.m., followed by entertainment from Forte at 7:30 p.m.

 

Brad also noted that the club's two water pumps to be installed in Mali in W. Africa, are being worked on.

 

Ray Merz distributed brochures on the overall clean water project, which is being worked on in five African countries: Mali, Malawi, Ethiopia, Kenya and Zambia. The LifePump was developed by Design Outreach of Columbus, which did the research and development engineering in 2011. It is a Christian humanitarian non-profit 501(c)3 organization seeking to create life-sustaining solutions that alleviate global poverty. The products it makes help provide better health, educational, and employment opportunities. 

 

Brad said the sustainability and maintenance of the pumps is part of the program.

 

The drawing for the SuperBowl raffle will be held Dec. 13 and the winner will be announced at the Dec. 17 holiday dinner, Brad said. 

 

 

 

 

Sgt.-at-Arms Erich Eggers collected Happy Bucks for Reclaiming Futures.

 

Members gave $5 if their birthdays are in December, and members gave money for our newest member, the Reclaiming Futures program, for missing meetings and for announcements, such as a brass band concert to be held Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Methodist Church on Shroyer Road.

 

Boyd Preston thanked all the members participating in the family gift giving program for getting their wrapped gifts in on time.

 

Pat Beckel said his wife learned that the local Air Force Museum has a section dedicated to her grandfather for his military participation that saved 1,000 American lives.

 

Jeff Senney used his donation to say that his table of members wish to return to the hard crusty rolls previously served at the Thursday meetings. The rolls had diminished in size and increased in hardness over the months and so they were replaced by more edible soft rolls, which some members though were more like bread. Member Sally Beals said if the old rolls are brought back, they should at least have soft insides so they will be edible.

 

Lee Hieronymus said he was not served burnt pancakes at the recent Miamisburg Pancake breakfast, for the first time in a while.

 

Joyce Young said our member Tom Zobrist needs to be congratulated as the Auditor's office recognized him for his good work for the township.

 

Arnie Biondo said he has interviewed 11 students thus far who have shown interest in going abroad as a Rotary exchange student. 

 

Harvey Smith said his granddaughter is graduating from the University of 
South Florida and that he will be staying in Florida for Christmas. 

 

Mato said he met a man from Slovakia when he went to downtown Dayton recently and was surpised when he realized he has been practicing speaking so much English that he had a little bit of trouble understanding the man when he spoke in Slovakian. He said he appreciated what the Interact Club has been doing in collecting books and has gotten a lot out of working with the students and being in the swim club.