President Adam Manning welcomed everyone to the Centerville Rotary Club and led the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. Bishop Brian Hayes provided the prayer. Since this is the first meeting of the month, Brad Thorp and Lee Hieronymus led the signing of “God Bless America”.
Today’s inspirational quote provided by Don Overly: “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” Herman Cain (American businessman).
Thank you to our greeters today: Ron Hollenbeck and Ron Tringali.
Guests: In addition to our speaker, Paula Dytko from Paula’s Paranormal Project, Isabella Konya and Haley Johnson joined us from CHS’ spirit chain committee.
President Manning invited Isabella and Haley to share the fundraising plans for this year’s Spirt Chain event. Both are seniors at the High School and active in several organizations. Spirit Chain is a long running annual program at CHS in friendly competition with Fairmont HS and is a school wide effort. Their focus this year is to raise funds for four charities:
- Victory Project- mentoring & personal development program for disengaged young men in Dayton
- Karen Wellington Foundation- helping women and families living with breast cancer
- Brad Bucher Foundation- helping CHS students needing financial help to participate in school activities, a fund of the Centerville-Washington Foundation.
- Food2Go- provides weekend meals for students at Centerville City Schools
Isabella and Haley then collected donations from various club members. Donations can also be made via the Venmo tag or the contact info on the above sign.
President Manning had a few announcements:
- Adam thanked Sofie, Ron H. and Pat T. for attending the CHS club fair yesterday with the Interact Club. Sofie reported a very successful event as 82 students expressed interest in joining the club. The club will be moving to morning meetings this year to try to improve participation. Adam and Sofie will be attending their first meeting next week and will ask for volunteers to again help with Pancake Day.
- The 2025 pancake committee met before our meeting. Good progress is being made. Pancake tickets are available, please pick up yours. For new members (1 year or less in the club), number of tickets to be sold are pro-rated per club bylaws. All members are encouraged to volunteer to help at Pancake Day. Sign-up sheets will continue to be available at upcoming meetings. Pancake Day is October 25, 2025 at Centerville High School. Fillable Sponsor Form is available HERE.
- Service Day signup sheets were on the tables and Adam encouraged members to volunteer. The Hannah’s Treasure Chest event (9/24) is full. Highway clean up (9/27) needs 6 more workers and Threads of Miami Valley (9/24) needs just 3 more.
- Sofie reminded the club our next social event is next Thursday (9/11) from 5 – 7:30 PM at The Cottage, uptown, Centerville. Club will provide snacks, wine and beer. If you have not already done so, please let her know if you can make it.
Happy Bucks this quarter will go to Texas Flood Relief.
Pat Beckel was the Sergeant at Arms with assistance by Brian Hayes.
- Pat B.- gave for the warm and friendly spirit of our club members and their strong support of local businesses. He thanked Boyd for patronizing Beckel’s Humidor to buy cigars for his family vacation in Maine.
- Jim H.- visiting family
- Dale B.- for the rain
- Chuck K. – His 74th birthday is Saturday
- Lee H.- Just got back from vacation where they went to Spokane, WA, Idaho and Montana. While in Montana, they visited the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park celebrating the long-term friendship between Canada and the US. He was happy to learn that Rotary clubs on both sides of the border support the park.
- Elda G-G- happy to see Pat B.
- Harvey S.- Talked with Dick Hoback who is doing a little better. He is glad he and his wife are now able to share an apartment at Bethany as previously they were apart. He sends best wishes to club.
- Mark K.- Looking forward to visiting relatives in Alabama and for OSU’s football win
- Ron H.- happy to hear positive comments for Boyd
- Sofie- for Interact club and Spirit Chain. Very glad Mark K.’s company agreed to be a pancake day sponsor.
- Lisa G-M- finished a story she was writing last week, and her son is on the Arco pit crew. They are going to Bristol Motor Speedway in TN to watch the car race.
- Bill M.- for our guests
- Adam M.- OSU win and got to watch a lot of football on Saturday.
- Ron T.- looking forward to a lot of family time over the next 3 weeks
- Pat T- was at Hannah’s this morning to celebrate the arrival and distribution of our 740 donated winter coats.
- Brad H.- was at the OSU game and had over 50 people at their tailgate before kickoff’
Today’s speaker was Ms. Paula Dytko with Paula’s Paranormal Project who was introduced by Pat Beckel.
Paula was a professional photographer for 15 years, has been married for 10 years and has 2 children. She has been interested in the paranormal since 2nd grade.
- She has been focused on her company, Paula’s Paranormal Project, for the past 3+ years. Her unique business focus is conducting tours of haunted historical locations, working with local historical societies, where possible.
- She keeps groups small as they are more intimate and to encourage discussions. Her focus is on haunts within Ohio but has conducted tours in other states, most recently in New Orleans. Her next out of state tours are scheduled for Gettysburg and back to New Orleans. She would like to expand to international sites eventually.
- She is very active on all the major social media sites (e.g. Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, X etc.) with TikTok being her biggest presence to date.
- In addition to her small group tours, she offers VIP tours, Concierge tours (you decide where to tour) and Residential/ Commercial where she will visit a home or business with a problem and help calm the situation.
- Upcoming offerings include:
- SushiNero (Miamisburg) Haunted Dinner Club- Sept 11, 6:30 – 9:00 PM
- Centerville Haunts in the Heart, Sept 25, 6:30 – 10:00 PM
- VIP Spook-Ghetti (Spaghetti) Warehouse After Hours- Oct 2, 6:30 – 10:30 PM
- Ghost Hunt at Poasttown Elementary School- Oct 4-5 (overnight), 7:00. PM- 3:00 AM
- Most Haunted Waynesville, Ghosts of Main Street Tour- October 11, 7-9 PM
Paula selected “Folktales for a Better World” as the book we will donate to the library in her honor.
Speaker next week is Beth Flippo with Sexa Drones.
Greeters will be Brad Thorp and Ernie Havens
President Manning led the group in reciting the 4 Way Test and wished everyone a good week.
