January 2016 Bulletin (Jan 13, 2016)

Monthly Featured Member - January 2016

Keith Werbeach has been a Rotary Member since February 1, 2006 after attending a few breakfast meetings with his friend Bob Voss. He joined the Chesterland Rotary after attending several events the Rotary put on in particularly Shining Stars. What appealed to him most was the fact that the organization helped others without too much fanfare and because of the tenants behind the 4 Way Test.

So far Keith has held the offices in the Chesterland Rotary Club as a Grant Coordinator, Vice President, President Elect and come July, President. The position he enjoys most is his membership on the District 6630 Grant Committee. The Grant Committee decides and recommends which Local and International Grants are approved and suggests how some grants can be improved.

“It is interesting being a Rotarian”, Keith says, “because there are like-minded people who just want to make their community and the world a better place to live. It’s great to see the war on polio being won.” Keith says, “It is the one exception to one of my favorite quotes by Benjamin Franklin, “There never Was a Good War or a Bad Peace.”, to me the war on polio is a good war and I will be glad when it is finally won. I have several friends growing up whose life was completely turned around by polio and I’m glad to see its end.”

Keith is a graduate of Painesville Harvey High School and Bowling Green State University where he graduated with a degree in elementary education and a minor in math. While going to college Keith was a lifeguard at the Painesville YMCA, a security guard, worked for a vending company recovering pool tables with his brother Ra, worked for a rubber company in their banbury room mixing 200-300 pound batches of rubber for later use, and made jar rings for Ball Rubber.

After college Keith got a job as a Floor Supervisor at Metzenbaum Sheltered Industries but was promoted after a year to the position of Production Manager and then Manager of Metzenbaum Sheltered Industries, in all a vocation lasting 29 years. Keith had the opportunity to then become the Manager of Maple Leaf Community Residences, a company that currently owns 22 properties that he and his staff property manage for use by people with developmental disabilities, in 2006 and then separated from Metzenbaum Center as a free-standing non-profit corporation in 2008. After 40 years of service to individuals with developmental disabilities Keith will retire in 2017.

Keith is married to the love of his life, Debbie, and has twin daughters Jessica and Shannon who are now 24 years old. Debbie will be retiring this May from her work as an Adapted Physical Education Instructor for Metzenbaum Center after 33 years and Jessica will have a Masters Degree in Architecture in 2017, Shannon will be starting her efforts to have a Doctoral Degree in Geography in 2016. Both Jessica and Shannon have a link with Rotary belonging to the Interact Club at Chardon High School, Jessica winning a college scholarship from the Chardon Rotary Club and Shannon spending her Junior year in Italy as a Rotary Exchange Student.

In the past Keith has been a Board Member for the Chesterland Chamber of Commerce for 18 years serving as the president for 3 years and Vice President for 2 years. He is still active and volunteers at various Chamber of Commerce events.

In his free time Keith enjoys kayaking, golf, hiking, brewing beer, touring the National Park System and sitting on the beach occasionally going in the water to body surf then coming out to enjoy a cold one.

December 2015 Speaker Summary

Posted by James Zeitz

First, at the December 2 meeting, Fred Nevar and Jim Zeitz were recognized for attaining their Paul Harris +1 status. Then, Betsy Magolin and Sally Comitigano spoke to us briefly about the new café opening at the WG high school. The café is to be run by students from Metzenbaum and business students. The café will be open all day except during lunch and will be a place for students to get coffee, tea and snacks. All the work setting up the café has been done by donations. They need $1000 to purchase a few items in order to finish the project, especially signage, and asked for our consideration.

The speaker was Suzi Kay. Although she works for the United Way, she was here to talk about volunteer vacations. She had volunteered at a dude ranch in Montana and found it to be a great experience. Another example of a volunteer vacation is working for the US Forest Service. Suzi encouraged everyone to consider a volunteer vacation but stressed that it should be done outside of the community where we live. Then it would be a vacation!

WG student Katherine Kulp, accompanied by her mom Theresa, was present to receive the Student of the Month award at the December 9 meeting. Some of her activities are secretary of Interact, Latin club and swim team captain. Katherine also has helped raise $10,000 over the last six years for Rescue Village.

The speaker was Judy Zamlen-Spotts from the US Department of Veteran Affairs at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center. She is the Community Outreach Coordinator. Judy is also a Marine veteran and a CASA volunteer. There are 98,000 vets in NE Ohio and many are not enrolled in the VA for benefits, especially in Geauga County. Now there are income guidelines to receive medical benefits but Purple Heart veterans are covered automatically. Judy asked our help to identify veterans who have not registered. Even if they cannot qualify for benefits, they may be able to help another veteran, because the dollars allocated are based on registered vets.

There was not a speaker for the December 16 meeting. It was a club meeting where items from the December 14 Board meeting were discussed. Meetings on the last two Wednesdays of December were cancelled due to the holidays.