April 23rd 2014 Newsletter

Posted by Roger Cline 
on Apr 23, 2014
 

APRIL 23rd NEWSLETTER

Thanks to Andy Denton for taking notes this week 

Invocation: Nancy Rice got our meeting started with an inspirational invocation.

Guest Announcer: Mike Sekulich was our guest announcer this morning and began by thanking new member, Elizabeth Eaken for helping Mark Lucco at the sign-in table. 

Visitors: Betty Spencer, our speaker was welcomed.

Special Days:   

Rotary Anniversaries: None today

Wedding Anniversaries:  Marty Tass and his wife are celebrating 39 years of marriage

Birthdays:  Karen Monbeck and Linda Trevorrow both are celebrating birthdays this Thursday and Bonnie Housley helped us sing to them.

Drawing:   John Murphy’s table had the winning ticket but drew the 9 of spades so the pot will continue to grow.

Fines:  Linda Trevorrow was fined for no pin.

Rotary Fun Fact:  Cheryl Warren will be the District 6630 Governor Elect for 2014-2015 but no one in the club had the answer. 

Joke: Instead of a politically incorrect joke, Mike shared a politically adjustable joke with us this morning

Presidential Announcements: by Bob Oborn   

Bob welcomed Elizabeth Eaken as our newest member.

Bob reminded people to sign the get well card for Doug Dotterer who broke his leg earlier this month.

Dave Brandon’s son is back in the hospital and will have serious surgery tomorrow.

He reminded us that the New Member Meet and Greet is tonight.  We expect that there will be 8 guests and 12 Rotarians in attendance.

Bob reminded us that the District 6630 Conference and celebration is April 25th-27th at Quail Hollow Resort.   Either sign up to attend on the district website or see Bob for details.  The club will pay for any member who wishes to attend.

The Stow-Munroe Falls High School Awards Banquet is April 30th.  Rotarians who are helping should be there at 5:00 dressed in black slacks and a white top.  Dick Hall will provide the red bow ties.  We expect to serve 260 guests.

Mark Lucco announced that the Golf Outing Committee will meet this Friday at 7:00a.m. at Bob Evans.  He reminded everyone that the outing is on June 6th.  Sponsorships are coming in.   See Mark if you need invoices and to get your foursomes turned in.

May 16th at 7:00 the Interact Talent Show  will be held at the high school.    Please support them with your attendance and by giving them gift cards that they can use for prizes.  You can turn the gift cards in to Bob.

Bonnie Housley announced that the Heroes’ Day Food Committee will meet after next week’s meeting.  Remember that the date of Heroes’ Day is Saturday, May 17th.

Dave Renninger thanked everyone for their participation at the Foodbank.  Our next date is May 7th from 5-7:00 p.m.  If you haven’t signed up, let Dave know you are interested. 

May 30th we will be pouring beer at Rocking on the River.  Pat Messmore will give details soon.

Katie Wright thanked everyone who signed up to participate in “Rotary Reads” and circulated the sign-up sheet again.   We will probably just do this once in May and then resume when school starts again in the fall.

Speaker : Nancy Rice introduced Betty Spencer, a retired teacher, who gave a wonderful presentation on the problem of Human Trafficking, as a person who is locally involved in the National Human Trafficking Resource Center. She presented this problem as the newest type of slavery and opened many eyes at to the magnitude of the problem.

She stated that 12 1/3 million people live in forced labor and sexual servitude.  It is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world with profits of those in control of $35 billion.   The United States Department of Justice states that there are 200,000 victims within the borders of the United States.  Trafficking happens in all 50 states.  Internationally, the United States and Germany are the leaders in the problem.  Ohio has had a very poor record, but legislation in the past few years has helped the state place some potential controls on the situation.   Ohio now has a safe haven law but locally, there are no safe beds for people if a victim is found.  The average of the victim is 13 years old and most are female.  The average age of persons being held is 7 years.   

Their soap campaign places little bars of soap in public restroom facilities with the hotline number 1-888-3737-888, on the label of the bars of soap.  That way, if a victim has the number, they might be able to call for help.   Bridgestone gave $5000 toward this effort. 

The Internet is the most dangerous place for young girls to be contacted, but runaways, and even people in local high schools may be contacted by predators.   We can go to www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking for more information. 

Attendance:  People we missed today were Ron Alexander, Geoff Besso, Jacqui Bowman, Dave Brandon, Bill Choler, Doug Dotterer, Chris DiMauro, Ray Evans, Christina Gary, Mike Jabbour, Debbie Kilgore-Eichler, Carrie Leising, Rich Lubinski, Pat Messmore, Paul Organ, John Pribonic, Bruce Redmon, Dick Spangler, Tim Stephan, Doris Steward, Jim Stimler, and Bob Sweitzer


Bob Oborn
Rotary Club of Stow-Munroe Falls