President Brian Hayes welcomed everyone to the Centerville Rotary Club and led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance. PDG Harvey Smith provided the prayer.
Thought for the moment – Actor Johnny Depp made the statement – “I think the thing to do is to enjoy the ride while you’re on it.”
President Brian had these announcements:
- Don’t forget your Pledge Cards. They should be returned to me. Be sure to indicate which project it is for so that we can allocate the proceeds to the proper Pledge.
- Today our Guest Speaker is Pam Gromen of the Centerville Washington Park District to discuss Earth-Friendly Actions. Ginger will give a proper introduction in a few moments.
- Reminder of Carol Sue Galloway’s invitation to attend Vienna Springs Grand Opening today, 4-6 pm
PDG Harvey Smith invited Ginger Clark and Scott Kujawa up to be formally inducted into our Rotary Club. Congrats and welcome!
Ron Hollenbeck announced the Rotary Foundation reported $440 million was raised this past year, which funded 2,000 global grants including our Malawi pump project which received $370,000. Chuck King & Ron recently helped clean rods to go into the pumps.
Judy Budi announced we still need people to sign up for pollinator garden seed collecting, which will take place at Bill Yeck Park, Smith entrance on Thursday, September 9, 4:30-6 pm. This is the first phase of our 50th Anniversary project to move the Rotary memorial, plant trees, and establish a pollinator garden at Grant Park, McEwen entrance.
Rebecca Quiñones thanked everyone who brought water to donate to the House of Bread. She made 3 trips down so far. The House of Bread is ordering 100 cases/week but they run out early each week. Can also donate funds. She will make a delivery tomorrow morning.
Ginger Clark said to date we have raised $8,050 for Operation Warm - well on track to make our goal of 530 coats.
Sofie Ameloot announced she is signed up for the Tour de Gem bike riding fundraiser again this year. Her goal is $750 for Ronald McDonald Charity. Oct 5 is actual tour, but you can do it anytime. He invited everyone to join her on the ride.
Happy Bucks this quarter are for Operation Warm - to provide new winter coats to children in need.
Pat Beckel was our Sergeant at Arms today. Pat introduced Jill from Bakersfield, CA, who recently moved here to work for Kettering Health. She was a Rotarian in California and is now shopping for a Rotary club.
Pat also introduced a prospective member Nick Crews, who builds ADA compliant homes. And he thanked Rebecca for leading the charge to help the House of Bread, saying “The way Rotarians respond is beautiful!”
Happy Bucks this week included:
- Jim Stuart for our prospective members.
- Robert Ford was happy to be here
- Ger Eastabrooks hopes Jill joins our club.
- Crissy Allums for our guests.
- Ron Hollenbeck for our new inductees, his wife Lori got a COVID booster shot, thanked Pat for getting the Entertainment District, and for his sister-in-law who got her black belt.
- Carol Kennard for our guests and inductees, and for Ron’s efforts to secure the Rotary grant for Malawi pumps.
- Mark Febus for the new inductees and Jill visiting.
- Jill was happy to be here, noting everyone was so welcoming.
- Elda Gotos-Gay was just happy.
- Mark Gerken noted seeing Chuck King at the Foreigner concert and Carol Kennard walking down his street was a sign that he needed to get back to Rotary! Welcome back!
- Nick Crews was happy his wife was good at golf this week.
- Don Overly was happy.
- Frank Perez had a great family reunion and pig roast this past weekend.
- Larry Marchand gave to ensure another 100% donation table.
- Ray Merz gave thanks to the man who invented air conditioning.
- Bob Fry ran into Rand Oliver, who is considering coming back to the club and said he will visit next week.
- Dave Trout donated for a coat.
- Dick Hoback gave for new members.
- Dale Berry gave for new members especially Scott Kujawa and announced the Township has a new Director of the Enrichment Center, Uriah Anderson!
- Scott Kujawa was happy.
- Jim Harris was happy for the new members and good crowd today.
- Uriah Anderson was happy to be appointed Director of the Enrichment Center and noted he graduated from high school in Bakersville, CA.
- Ginger was happy for her co-worker Pam Gromen to be here today.
- Jeff Senney was happy to be going to see grandkids this weekend and and take them to an Indians game.
- Don Stewart moved his youngest to OSU last Thursday, but they are not empty nesters as they still have a puppy. Don then gave Happy Bucks to Rebecca to purchase more water.
- Dan Johnson announced his wife is celebrating that the kids are all at school so she gets a break during the day.
- Chuck King gave for the new inductees, and noted at our 50th anniversary meeting this week, Harvey mentioned the Rotary memorial needed attention. He and Ron offered to take a look at it, but when he arrived at the meeting he learned Ron took care of it this morning. Thanks Ron!
- Brad Huffman thanked Rebecca for stepping up to help the House of Bread.
- Harvey Smith donated for 10 coats to celebrate his 88th birthday this Sunday!
- Sivaji Subramanium announce his oldest granddaughter was accepted into the Dental program at the University of Pittsburgh and for the beautiful day.
- Judy Budi gave for our new members and congratulations to Uriah.
- Sofie Ameloot gave for our new and prospective members, and said her daughter has moved into an apartment at OSU that got flooded already with the recent rains.
- Rebecca Quiñones gave thanks for the generous donations to the water project, Pat and Carol in her office who supported it immediately, and to Elda who dropped off water and also dropped off food for them.
- Mike Wier got to go to band rehearsal, the first in a long time and noted they have some Christmas concerts planned.
- Pat Beckel was grateful we’re all here, safe, healthy, happy, and encouraged all to keep coming back and invite new members.
- Brian Hayes gave recognition for Rotary anniversaries and birthdays.
Thanks everyone for 100% participation in Happy Bucks this week!
Our speaker today was Pam Gromen, Program Assistant at the Centerville-Washington Park District to share Earth-friendly initiatives.
Ginger Clark introduced Pam Gromen, who has been a Program Assistant for the Centerville-Washington Park District for the past five years, coordinating outdoor and environmental education programs. She also chairs the CWPD Sustainability Team. She has degrees from Jacksonville University & Western Governors University.
Pam shared information about recycling in our community. The Park District’s commitment to sustainability started decades ago, but in 2019 the Board approved a Stewardship Policy. In the past 6 years, they have put in 100 acres of pollinator habitat.
Why Recycle? Pam noted many environmental reasons, including an EPA study that identified many jobs could be created just from increased recycling in the community. Data collected in 2018 show we had 292.4 million tons of trash go into landfills in the US! In Ohio, instead of composting, 500 pounds of food waste get put in plastic bags which are then buried in the landfill where it will not decompose naturally. Landfills get full and then we have to start looking for other locations, and new locations are often controversial - “not in my backyard.”
Pam noted we should be doing all we can to minimize trash through the 3 R’s:
RECYCLE - Know what your trash carrier allows and be sure to clean it before placing in the bin.
REDUCE - Cut back on amount of resources we do use which saves energy.
REUSE - every minute we are dumping a garbage truck full of plastics into the ocean. Animals ingest, and then we eat the seafood. Get rid of plastic!
Sustainable Centerville organization developed with representatives from Scout troops, CWPD, Planning commission, US Rebuilding Association. They meet monthly to work on city endorsed initiatives.
A program was started to inspected recycle bins curbside in Centerville. Bins are tagged if non-recyclable items are included. Once the item is removed, the City comes back and picks up their recycling. Examples of non-recycled items that often are placed in bins: plastic bags, recyclables placed in plastic bags, and lithium batteries (can start fires). What can be recycled depends on market demand.
The cost for Rumpke to deal with contamination gets passed on to the customers and they find about 23% items that don’t belong in recycling.
What to do with plastic bags - Centerville confirmed with Kroger they will recycle all types of plastic bags in their bins.
Recent initiative was the NexTrex Challenge - as a community could we collect 500 pounds or recyclables? Partners included the library, city, CWPD - and they met the challenge! Trex is a plastic lumber product made from recycled items.
Kroger has a mail-in program too - terracelevel.com, which offers a free mailing label to send in recyclables.
Styrofoam is not typically recyclable, but the Park District hosted a recycling event at the Activity Center Park last January. In partnership with Eco Development in Mason, they filled a box truck within an hour and then the Boy Scout bus was filled, too. Food/styrofoam is not recyclable, but packaging is. Will do again January 8, 2022 from 9 am - 1 pm.
CPWD will host a holiday light recycling program through Cohen Nov 1 - Feb 1; in partnership with Fiver Rivers Metroparks.
Pam closed by asking everyone to prioritize the 3R’s, recycle right, stay informed about community recycling drives, compost, and shop green.
President Brian thanked Pam for the good information, led the group in singing Happy Birthday to Harvey and led the group in reciting the 4-way test.
Next week our speaker will be Dylan Pohl of the Victory Project.
