September 4, 2013 Newsletter

ROTARY CLUB OF STOW MUNROE FALLS NEWSLETTER:  SEPTEMBER 4, 2013

Invocation:  Roy Mook prayed for God’s support as we serve in the community.

Guest Announcer:  Dave Renninger, guest announcer thanked Mark Lucco and Tony Falcione for getting us signed in.

Fines: Linda Trevorrow and Paul Organ battled it out for last in. Ron Taggart had no pin.

Happy Bucks :  Jon Sues updated us on his granddaughters’ progress in the golf world.

Visitors:  Rick Sands was welcomed as a guest and as our speaker.

New Members:  Brad Jagger was welcomed today.

Drawing: Table One drew the winning ticket but Jeff Wagner drew the 4 of hearts, so the pot will continue to grow.

Rotary Fun Fact: Who was the Rotary International President who started the Rotary Foundation?  Art Klumph was the correct answer given by J.T. Stimler who received a certificate for Handel’s ice cream.

Special Days:

Rotary Anniversaries   Lou Dirker celebrates 10 years of Rotary membership

Wedding Anniversaries: There were no wedding anniversaries this week.

Birthdays:  Our President, Bob Oborn is celebrating his birthday on September 10^th.   Bonnie Housley led us in singing to him.

Joke:   Ask Dave to tell you his joke about a cow.

Presidential Announcements: by Bob Oborn   

            Jeff Wagner will return as our guest announcer for next week.

We offered sympathy to Dan Mazzola and his family upon the death of his father.

Jim Callahan is doing well after his surgery and hopes to be back with us by the end of the month.

Karen Monbeck announced that Aaron, who is the son of former president, Paul Kilgore is in very serious condition in Georgia where he is attending chiropractic school.   He has a virus that has attacked multiple organs.  He is also Debbie Kilgore-Eichler’s nephew.  Prayers are requested for him.

The next board meeting will be Friday, the 13^th.  Get any agenda items to Bob by Monday, September 9^th.

Only 19 tickets remain for the Reverse Raffle.  The Silent Auction Committee will meet after this morning’s club meeting.  Mike Sekulich has the tickets available.

Dick Spangler presented Doug Dotterer with a check for $1000 as the grand prize winner at the Golf Ball Drop.

Pat Messmore announced last week’s winners for the Ohio State football pool.

Next week, Dave Renninger will explain to us the possibility of a volunteer project with the Akron Canton Regional Foodbank.

Member Moment:  Stow resident, Roy Mook told us that he has been married for almost 30 years and has a son and two daughters.

Speaker: Roy then introduced the speaker, Rick Sands who has been the owner of Great Harvest Bread Company for 15 years. He spoke specifically about the Bread for Haiti ministry led by Rick and his wife, who is also a Pastoral Counselor.  He spoke about what an amazing and spiritual experience this has been, after he told his wife that God wanted him to build a bakery in a third world country.   The pieces began to be put in place because of a client of his wife’s was looking for commerce opportunities related to a school in Haiti.  Ultimately, when he visited Haiti he knew that they needed more than a wood stove in order to bake successfully, and began to figure out how to build a stove that would lead to success.   A series of amazing ties began to happen: 

-          A pickle jar in his store for donations has brought in over $130,000.

-          Cheryl Osman, who was formerly of Osman Pies, is his baker now and will go to Haiti to teach baking.

-          When an executive of ConAgra Foods learned of his mission he asked how much flour he needed.  Rick’s answer was two to three tons, and the wish was granted.

-          The project led to an offer from the White House of meeting with Bill and Hillary Clinton because the Prime Minister told them a bakery was coming to Haiti.   Rick could not go, but friends did.

-          The new ovens are now installed.  The bread will feed breakfast to the 2300 children in the school along with eggs from the egg farm.   They will sell pizza and cakes which will buy the wheat to pay for the breakfast program.  At the same time, people will be learning to bake and have another step toward self-sufficiency.

Rick explained that there are about 120,000 people in Haiti with a 90% unemployment rate.   The average life expectancy is only 57.  Every time that Rick goes to Haiti, it takes about a day and a half to get there, but we all could tell that his passion for the project makes it worthwhile.  He had his “pickle jar” on the sign-in table after the meeting but also gave members certificates for a free loaf of bread.   Thanks to Roy and Rick for bringing us a very interesting program.

Missing People:    Today we were sorry not to see Ron Alexander, Goeff Besso, Jacqui Bowman, Jim Callahan, Don Coughlin, Chris DiMauro, Mark Ferguson, Mike Jabbour, Frank Larson, Debbie Kilgore-Eichler, Carrie Leising, Chad Jones, John Long, Jay Minkin, Linda Narhstedt, John Pribonic, Brad Ruth, Lorrie Shaffer, and Katie Wright.

As the meeting was adjourned a little before 8:30, President Bob wished us all a good week.