The Ken
1-10-2022
Fine Master: Brandon Blatz
Table Attendance & Split Club: Brandon Blatz
Invocation: Brandon Blatz
The Ken: Donna DiFrancesco
The small meeting was called to order by President Dick at 12:24 p.m. with a warm welcome back from the holiday season. Brandon led us in prayer.
Dick spoke again on the award Paul Chisholm received at the Christmas Gala. Paul announced that the 2022 Gala will be held around the same time of year, early December, and that they made $3,000 on the affair. That money will be put towards a summer picnic, where and when to be determined, for all the not for profits involved. Grant checks went out from Charities and the Foundation at years end. Rick mentioned we need to find a way to engage members to start attending meetings and possibly send out a survey asking why attendance is so low. Dick will prepare one this week. Steve is working actively on the speaker list, and the speaker scheduled for January 24 is Skylar Shurr from Hearts for The Homeless. Members need to start bringing guest so we can familiarize everyone on what Rotary is and what we do. Also suggested was to invite local businesses to join a meeting. So many people are unfamiliar. Bill announced that a past member, Roger Moore, passed away. He was 95. There will be NO MEETING on January 17 in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Split club of $9 was won by Dick and Donna picked for the Ace but got the 3 of clubs instead.
Dick announced our speaker, Jerry Sheldon from Sleep in Heavenly Peace. This non-profit was started in Idaho and there are now 280 chapters around the country. Their motto is “No kid sleeps on the floor in our town!” Sleep in Heavenly Peace - Buffalo Chapter, is a charitable organization whose main objective is making handmade beds for children who do not have beds of their own. They make single beds and bunk beds for the approximately 95 requests they receive per month. There are 10,000 kids in Buffalo without beds and in 2021, they made over 700. They operate out of the Eastern Hill Mall and every bed is made brand new, and comes complete with bedding. The volunteers work in 3 hour shifts 2 days per week, and he is booking volunteers out as far as the summer. In addition to volunteers, they could also use monetary donations. If you have any questions or would like to volunteer or donate, please contact Jerry at 716-570-3449 or by email at jerry.sheldon@shpbeds.org.
Fine Master Brandon asked for confessions. Chuck confessed to being in Florida during our last snow storm and watched it on TV. Linda fined herself for coming to last weeks meeting, when there really wasn’t one, but enjoyed a quiet lunch anyway. Art expressed a heartfelt thank you for the outpouring of sympathy and concern over the passing of his beloved, Barb. Dick went to the Bills game for free! We were then quizzed on New Years trivia. The first NY Eve ball weighed in at 700 lbs. and was 12’ in diameter. The numbers on the Waterford Crystal ball are 7’ in height. A few bucks were raised. Meeting was adjourned at 1:10 and everyone enjoyed lunch and companionship.