Rotary's Theme for 2015-16
The GREETERS:
02/04/16 Vas Appalaneni and Raj Grandhi
02/11/16 Bridget Herzog and Jim Hester
02/18/16 Sivaji Subramaniam and Rand Oliver
02/25/16 Jeff Senney and Matt Kuhn
03/01/16 Mitch Biederman and Jim Hester
If you cannot greet on the day assigned, contact Kitty and she will schedule a replacement.
01/28/16
President Brad Thorp opened the Centerville Rotary Club meeting at The Clubhouse at Yankee Trace by leading the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. Harvey Smith gave the prayer, and Brad led the singing of God Bless America.
The guests at the meeting included:
Our speaker Mato Palovic, of Slovakia; Dottie Overly, wife of member Don Overly; Heath MacAlpine of the Dayton Rotary, who is the Rotary District 6670 chairman of the Youth Exchange; Bill Niehaus, Administrator at Heartland of Centerville, the guest of Judy Budi; Casey Howard, Director of Marketing and Development at St. Leonard's, also a guest of member Judy Budi; Brian K. Hayes, guest of Bob Fry, at his second meeting as a prospective member; Emily Group, a Wright State University senior studying marketing, and shadowing member Ed Flohre for the day. She hails from Cleveland.
Our Greeters at the next meeting will be Vas Appalaneni and Raj Grandhi.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
President Brad Thorp began the announcements noting he received a letter from District 6670 stating there are now 3,000 members in the 52 clubs in the district. He said we are close to being able to get a president's citation for the club, but we need to get two more female club members. We needed one, but with the loss of Cynthi Fraley as a member, we now need two more female members.
Brad said next week Peachy will instruct us on how to navigate the Rotary International Web site.
Brad reminded everyone of the April 29/30 District Conference to be held at the Mason-Deerfield Marriott. It is $129. Info from the District should be coming next week, he said. They will also be doing Shoes for Orphans, so new shoes need to be donated for that, and there will be a silent auction basket again, he said.
Boyd Preston said the sign-up for the March 19 Service Day for the club will be next week, with the alternate day for those who cannot serve on the March 19 date being March 26. A $10 fee for a T-shirt to be worn that day will be tacked on to your next club invoice, he said.
Brad said the Springboro Rotary Club will be holding a Texas Hold'em Poker Tournament and Social fund-raiser Saturday, Feb. 27 at the Settlers Walk Clubhouse, 520 Settlers Walk Blvd., Springboro. It will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. with entry fee $50. The event is limited to 80 players. You can check our Web site for a link to their Web site for more information. Also you can register by contacting Greg Page: greg@gsplaw.net, or at 937-602-5214.
Happy Bucks:
Sgt.-at-Arms Erich Eggers collected Happy Bucks for St. Vincent de Paul.
A number of people gave Happy Bucks for the Dayton Flyers' latest victory. Judy Budi mentioned a prospective new members get-to-gether at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 26 at Paddy's (Former Beef-O-Brady's) just north of the former Elder-Beerman store (now Krogers).
Member Sally Beals gave a dollar for her 11-year-old granddaughter swimming a mile.
Erich was happy because everyone at every table contributed to the Happy Bucks.
Visiting Dayton Rotary member Heath MacAlpine noted that he will be making a bicycle ride from Key West, Florida to Santa Monica, California, soon. He likes to make big tour rides, he said, and will be cycling alone. He said he was in New York during the recent blizzard and is glad to be back in Ohio.
SPEAKER: Mato Palovic of Slovakia, a Rotary exchange student attending Centerville High School as a senior
Mato presented several short videos showing some of the highlights of his country, properly called the Slovak Republic. It was established Jan. 1, 1993, and is not part of Russia, he said. It has 5,500,000 inhabitants and is 49,000 square kilometers.
The capital is Bratislava. The country is a parliamentary democracy, with the present president Andrej Kiska.
Slovakia is in the middle of Europe and has beautiful old castles, ice caves, and mountains with great skiing, as Mato can attest. He showed us pictures of traditional foods, made from some of the countries major products, potatoes, milk, cheese, sauerkraut, etc. Halusky (pan fried cabbage and noodles or potato dumplings) and Kapustnica, (soup made of sauerkraut).
The country is a major car manufacturer, with three major car producers: Volkswagen, PSAPeugeot-Citroën, and KIA.
Mato said Jaguar has said it intends to bring about 10,000 jobs to the country when it begins manufacturing there in the next few years.
He showed pictures of Olympic champions Peter Sagan (Tour de France), Anastasiya Kuzmina (represents Slovakia in Olympic sprints, though Russian born), Martina Moravcova (swimmer), and the 2002 and 2012 Olympic hockey team winners (gold and silver).
"We have very beautiful girls," Mato noted.
Mato talked about Easter and Christmas customs in Slovakia, and the country's flag, which has symbols in a shield on a red white and blue flag representing the spiritual and geographic history of the nation, with the cross Lorraine and three hills representing the three ranges of the Carpathian Basin. He showed pictures of his family's beautiful home and swimming pool, and of his family, showing the Brazilian exchange student they hosted, his brother, mom and dad, and dog Stella, a nine-year-old golden retriever. He said he can walk to a ski area that is only seven minutes from his house. He showed some amazing mountains, and a hiking trail in the mountains, and said he lives about one and a half hours from the Vysoke mountain area, and showed pictures of the high Tatras and a video of hikers in the mountains.
At Centerville High School he is on the debate team, in the Interact Club and on the swim team. He has learned to speak in front of people and his coaches are sending him to the district speech and debate contest. He likes free style in swimming, and in March he plans to visit the East Coast, including Washington D.C., New York, and Harvard University. He also plans to visit the West Coast. He said he went to the OSU football game, where, "I have never seen so many people in one place." At most their stadiums hold about 16,000 people, he said. He said he loves it here. "I don't want to go home," he said. He has to complete his senior year in Slovakia when he goes home, but then plans to go to college, either over there or in the U.S.A.
