President, Brad Ruth opened this morning's meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and Marissa Williams, Program Host, followed with a great invocation about not taking anything for granted.
CONGRATULATIONS:
Birthdays: Don Coughlin will celebrate his birthday tomorrow. Linda Trevorrow led us in singing to him.
Anniversary: Tom and Penny Loepp celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary on July 2.
Rotary Anniversary: Eric Weber joined Rotary 10 years ago on July 13.
CONCERN:
Rotarian, Bob Oborn is hospitalized at Cleveland Clinic Akron General. Although he was already scheduled for surgery this coming Friday, he went in a week earlier. Please keep both Bob and Annette in your prayers. Send him a text or an e-mail to wish him well because he is bored and staying there until the surgery.
HAPPY BUCKS:
Don Coughlin's granddaughter, Fiona, has been a busy young lady. She was one of 17 singers who performed at the Akron Civic Theater, and sang the National Anthem at a Rubber Ducks Game. Look for more performances by her. She will be a junior at Firestone High School in the fall.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Reverse Raffle: The committee will meet at 6:30 on Tuesday, July 13 at City Hall. Additional people to serve on the committee are welcome.
Breakfast Committee: Brad asked the Breakfast Committee people to remain for a brief meeting today after the general meeting.
Foodbank: Mary Dula told us that 9 people are scheduled to volunteer at the Foodbank from 4:30 to 6:30 tonight. Dinner will follow.
Beer Pouring: Christina Gary again circulated the clipboard for people to sign up to pour beer at the July 24 event, Western Reserve Racing Endurance Run. Our tent will be located at the Oak Tree Shelter at Silver Springs Park and will go from 10:30-a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Our Foundation will make a great profit for this event, but we do need volunteers. Contact Christina at 330-607-3003 or
christinamgary@gmail.com to let her know you can help.
Board Meeting: Our board will meet this Friday, July 9 at 7:15 a.m. on zoom. Minutes of last month's meeting are attached to these minutes.
Adopt-A-Spot: Our bed at 91 and Graham needs you. Please weed!!
Program Host Information: Brad explained that the Program Host will switch from telling about their Happiness Moment to the impact, positive or negative, that the pandemic had on their lives.
PROGRAM:
Marissa explained that the pandemic gave her time to be with her parents. They are in New York State and so were under some pretty strict rules. She worked from there and found other ways to connect with people. She wrote letters and played online games with others but is thankful we are meeting in person again.
Tiffany Roper is the CEO of Eat, Speak, Love which helps entrepreneurs help themselves through contacts they make with other people. Her background includes two degrees from Kent State, the latest in Clinical Mental Health. During the pandemic she decided to start her business and retired from her position at the county. She was assigned a mentor through Mortar who guided her through the process of establishing her venture.
EatSpeakLove, LLC (ESL) serves to amplify Akron's minority and women-owned businesses and empowers them toward economic equity. Through ESL patrons experience new culinary adventures, trainings and seminars, and subscription boxes which offer people the opportunity to fall in love with new products created by people in our area. When the first smallBIG Box project was launched. they sold out in 48 hours. As people develop a relationship with her company, the story behind the business becomes part of the venture and that creates more relationships within the community.
She explained that she is in the process of setting up a new business in downtown Akron between Key Bank and the Peanut Shop. She cannot yet go into great detail about it but it will create an artistic space for youth. To find out more information about ESL and to explore and really interesting concept, go to
www.eatspeaklove.com.
JOKE: Rich Bedell shared a great joke with us about a clock. Ask him to tell it to you. Next week immediate Past President, Linda Trevorrow will have a joke for us.
Brad send us out to do good things in the community.
Submitted by Andrea Denton
JOKE: Tina Gary ended the morning with a great mother-in-law joke. She can tell you about it.
