President Bob Sweitzer opened the meeting by leading in the Pledge of Allegiance. Andy Denton followed with the invocation.
GOLF OUTING THANK YOUS:
Chairperson, Scott Miller thanked his committee, the sponsors, volunteers and golfers for making our event such a success. In total there were 56 sponsors, 90 golfers and other contests which brought in close to $25,000. After the expenses were paid and $2,500 was donated to “All Kids Bikes”, the club still made over $13,000. Dick Hall thanked Scott for his efforts in leading the event, and presented the plaques along with Dinah Henderson.
The following people and businesses were then recognized with plaques for their contributions to the outing. Leslee Salhany of Simon Salhany Realty received the Diamond Award. Tm Loepp Law, Ray Fogg Enterprises and Holy Family Parish received a Gold Award. Denise and Eric Green of StowNut Donut and Diner, Keith Redmon of Redmon Funeral Home, Bonnie Housley of Creative Illusions, Brad Ruth of GLBA Business Advisors, Brent Townsend of B&B Landscaping, Dave Renninger, and Pat Messmore of Pat Messmore Agency all were recognized with a Silver Award.
A Bronze Award went to Will Sumser of Hope Financial, Jim Laber at ATNet Plus, Bob and Annette Oborn, Chuck Owen of Gionino's Pizzeria, Matt Pallo of Edward Jones, Chris Meyer of Silver Lake Florist, Craig Brazelton of Proz Group, Scott Miller, Jacqui Bowman of EXP Realty and Flynn's Tire and Auto Service of Stow.
PROGRAM: Andy Denton, Program Host, introduced Sue Wimer and Amy Baldwin of First Serve who presented our program. Sue is the Director of Outreach Ministries and First Serve on the staff of First Congregational Church of Hudson. Amy is Co-director of First Serve. Both women believe in building strong relationships between communities and among people. They live the mission of First Serve which is to build relationships with individuals and organizations from different cultural ethnic, faith and economic backgrounds.
The work they do involves a large group of church and community partners, which are listed on the attached brochure. In primarily serving the North Hill community, First Serve builds relationships honoring the history of the North Hill neighborhood, which was originally Polish and Italian immigrants. Today many more nationalities from a wide geographic base are included in their service area. They include people from Butan, Burma, the Dominica Republic, Ukraine, Guatemala, China and Myanmar and many other countries. First Serve hopes that when people show up as strangers, they leave as friends.
On the day of First Serve, which is Sunday, September 7 this year, people gather on the lawn of 915 N. Main for coffee and donuts at 8:00. From there, they proceed inside for an interfaith service until 9:00. After that people divide into their project group and spread out into the community, During that time, they could be working on a soccer clinic, washing windows, refurbishing a teacher's lounge, making homecooked meals for caregivers, weeding, mulching, gardening, taking inventory, cleaning up an area, writing notes of encouragement to students, and making homeless sleeping mats from plastic bags to name a few. Project leaders introduce the participants to the project and the majority finish between 11:30 and1:00, in time to return to the lawn of 915 N. Main for a lunch meal. For people who want to stay around after lunch, there is a book discussion on a social justice area and by 4:00 the work is done. In April the First Serve staff visits their community partners to see what they need help with and they build the project list from those requests. This year there are 56 projects that participants can choose from when the sign-ups become active on August 1. Starting then, the projects can be viewed at joinfirstserve.org and anyone can sign up to participate.
Funding for First Serve comes through a Day of Giving which occurred on June 1 and as a charity partner of the Akron Marathon, as well as through grants, partnerships and donations. Last year they were the top fundraiser through the Akron Marathon. In addition to the day of service, there are ongoing opportunities for service at the 3 elementary schools, the high school and particularly for a clothing room, and to offer staff support and appreciation to teachers and other staff in the North Hill schools.
For further information contact Sue at swimer@hudsonucc.org or Amy at abaldwin@hudsonucc.org.
GENERAL MEETING:
President Bob thanked Steve Dunton and Dave Renninger for getting us checked in this morning and welcomed our visitors Dave Henderson and Gary Salhany, along with Sue Wimer and Amy Baldwin, our speakers.
CELEBRATIONS:
Happy Bucks:
Will Sumser announced that he has both bought and sold property recently in Stow. In fact his new location will be very near The Center.
Annette Oborn invited everyone to Guise Park this Sunday from 2-5:00 for Munroe Falls' Summerfest. The Riverfront Community Band will be performing and it will be a lot of summertime fun.
Mary Parr just returned from England and although she wasn't in the right place at the right time to attend a Rotary meeting, she was able to get a picture of their sign.
Rotary Anniversary: Scott Miller has been a Rotarian for 4 years:
Wedding Anniversary: Don and Ellen Coughlin are celebrating 60 years of marriage this week.
Birthdays: Ray Evans and Tom Loepp have birthdays this week, and Annette led us in singing well to Ray.
Drawing: Rich Bedell's table had the winning ticket, but he drew the 9 of spades so the pot will continue to grow.
Concern: Pat Messmore is in the hospital dealing with kidney stones. We hope to celebrate a speedy recovery very soon.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Budget: John Long, Club Treasurer and Rich Bedell, Foundation Treasurer presented the budget for this year. The committee that established the budget was made up of members of the Club and the Foundation and included: Annette Oborn, De-De Mulligan, Gail Moseley, Linda Trevorrow, Rich Bedell, John Long and Bob Sweitzer. Annette made a motion that was seconded by John Pribonic that the membership approve the budget. It was approved unanimously. This budget will start us toward a break-even-budget, putting more back into the community and not building up as large of a savings.
Football Books: Dick Hall only has about 40 left of the 300 books. Remember that money and stubs need to be turned back in to him at the same time. Please make sure that the printing is legible so that if the person wins, their check will not be returned for a bad address.
Adopt A Spot: Marty Tass reported that the flags are gone and the flowers look really nice but weeding is really needed. Bring a trash bag and weeding implement with you and then you can use the dumpster at City Hall to get rid of the weeds.
Dues: John Long says that we are really helping by bringing him our checks for the dues. If you need an invoice, just contact him and he will make sure you get one.
Stuff the Bus: Carrie Malotte said that Stuff the Bus will be August 8th and 9th at Marcs on Graham Rd. and the Giant Eagle in the Target Plaza. If we work in 2 hour shifts on both days, we should do a great job of filling the Teacher Supply Cupboard. We do not meet next week, but there will be sign-up sheets available at the August 6th meeting. There will also be a lot of students working at the Stuff the Bus campaign, so we need to make sure that we take the Youth Protection Training that Jeff Film sent out this week.
End Polio Guardians Game: District 6630 will sponsor this annual event in order to raise money for the End Polio Now Campaign. It will take place at the stadium on Friday, August 15. There are two levels of tickets and you can go to the district's website at Rotarydistrict6630.org to sign up. Bob Sweitzer had extensive information about this in his weekly newsletter last Sunday. Clubs are asked to provide a basket for the silent auction at the event and Bob is preparing a bourbon basket. Let him know if you can help with money or items toward the completion of the basket.
President Bob ended the meeting by leading us in the Rotary Four-Way-Test.
DATES TO REMEMBER:
Wednesday, July 30: There will be no morning meeting but ticket holders will attend the Rubber Ducks game in the evening.
Wednesday, August 6 at 7:30 Morning Meeting at The Center when our program will be presented by Cleveland Clinic Akron General.
Friday, August 8,7:15 a.m. Board Meeting at City Hall
Friday and Saturday, August 8 and 9 Stuff the Bus at Marcs and Giant Eagle.
Friday, August 15, In the evening, Guardians Game for Polio Plus at Progressive Field.
Wednesday, September 10, 7:30 a.m. Morning meeting at The Center with Governor's Visit from District Governor, Bob Oborn.
Wednesday, October 8, in the evening, Reverse Raffle/Silent Auction.
Respectfully Submitted
Andrea Denton