Written by Patrick Hart

 

Barry Rassin - President of Rotary International

 

Julie Clark - Governor of District 6440

 

President Diana Taylor opened the meeting.  Having returned from his distant travels, our song leader, Dennis Kratohwil, then had us sing “People” in honor of Barbara Streisand’s birthday.  We all felt like the luckiest Rotarians in the world.

 

 

Robin O’Connor shared her good news that her son has become engaged

 

Rich Babjak bragged that one of his daughters has found employment as a financial planner and that his other daughter has submitted her doctoral thesis.

 

David Potts bragged that his daughter turned forty on Wednesday.

 

 

 

Rich Babjak is holding his candy drive to raise funds for Misericordia this weekend and could still use volunteers.

 

Doctor Potts is holding his annual Smiles from the Heart event to provide free dental services to those in need on May 31.  He is looking for volunteers on that day and cash donations to cover the costs.

 

The club’s charitable giving dinner will be held on the evening of May 1. There will be no morning meeting next week.  Special presentations of gifts will be made to Pads and Lake County Haven at our morning meeting on May 15.

 

Our installation dinner will be at White Deer Run on the evening of June 26, and rumor has it that some of our members will be attempting to play golf prior to the banquet.

 

Doug Fendon announced that he has worked out a Rotary awareness program with the GLMV Chamber of Commerce to help inform their members about our club and hopefully attract more members for us.

 

Teri Dreher is recovering well from her second knee replacement.

 

 

Richard Babjak conducted an educational event this week in which he explained how strippers chose their stage names.  He also had everyone present reveal what their stripper stage name would be. The question I guess is whether any of our members will ever have a chance to use this information.

 

 

 

Our speaker this week was Alec Brown, the director of Life Beyond Sports Foundation.  Life Beyond Sports Foundation works with athletically gifted students from disadvantaged backgrounds and tries to turn their skills into college scholarships.  They provide tutoring, mentoring, and counseling in an effort to teach their students the value of education and prepare them for college.

 

The organization has been around since 2009, and they have served about one hundred and fifty students.  They have a success rate of 98% of their students receiving college scholarships and 88% of them graduating.

 

 

 

John Blair won the $33.00 weekly raffle, which seems to be a pattern lately.  Ron Lapins tried to win the progressive pot of $214.00 with 46 cards left, and in what also seems to be a pattern he lost. Yet hope springs eternal.

 

 

There is no morning meeting next week.  Instead we will hold our Charitable Giving Dinner on Wednesday evening.  Larry Neal will be the designated Greeter and Prayer person.

 

“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”   Henry Ford