February 7, 2023 – Our Club had a great discussion this morning with PA Senator Kristin Phillips-Hill about state-related issues. Kristin Phillips-Hill was elected to serve York County residents in the 28th Pennsylvania Senate district representing the majority of York County. As a former small business owner and school board director, Kristin has made government efficiency a point of emphasis throughout her tenure in public service. Throughout her first term in the Senate, Kristin spearheaded a concerted bipartisan and bicameral effort to improve access to high-speed internet in Pennsylvania through her role as chair of the Communications & Technology Committee. She also serves as one of four legislative appointments to the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority. She reviewed reapportionment changes to York County and Regulatory permitting reform. She introduced Senate Bill 350, which would require every state agency to post all permits issued on its publicly accessible website. State agencies would also be required to create an accessible tracking system for applicants to check the status of their applications and clearly state the legal authority that the agency relies on when rejecting a permit application. In total, Kristin authored eight new laws as a senator and had several bills she wrote and provided to House members also signed into law. She continues to oppose new taxes and supports legislation calling for greater reform and transparency of government at all levels but starting at the state level where she serves.
February 14, 2023 - Robin Lathroum, a social worker and clinical nurse, presented an amazing story of teaching women in Uganda to be entrepreneurs. Since the founding in 2017, Robin’s small team has been united by the desire to see change in the impoverished city of Kampala, Uganda. It is their hope that the work they facilitate will create a sustainable livelihood for people in Uganda. Robin was first invited to Uganda with the understanding that she would teach women to make washable sanitary protection. She wanted to offer them more, so they learned how to make soap. (The places she was invited to visit do not have a soap making tradition and it was a commodity that was hard to come by.) They began our teaching with personal care items and soap-making, and recently added lotions, creams, healing salves and balms. In conjunction with this latest addition they began a course in horticulture with Introduction to Growing Healing Herbs. Soon after Personal Care they began teaching basic sewing skills which were then applied to Quilting (including quilts, table runners and placemats), Bags (including totes, handbags and backpacks), and finally beginning dressmaking (beginning pattern drafting). Mosaic Arts in the form of planters and wall art, and Jewelry-making are two of our latest courses. Teaching the students to locally source all materials and supplies for their products has been a really important first step in this process. Through teaching functional craft, Glory Bound Ministry provides an opportunity for people to escape poverty and to become skillful entrepreneurs.
Story by Tim Koller
Students of the Month
Left to Right: Reese McKenna, Hannah Kuhn and Todd Kurl - Committee Member
The Rotary Club of York-East has selected Reese McKenna and Hannah Kuhn as the York Suburban High School students of the Month. The students spoke at the club's weekly breakfast meeting on February 21, 2023. Reese is a junior, a member of distinguished honor roll and National Honor Society. She is the captain of the varsity cheerleading team and vice president of the class of 2024. Reese volunteers in our community including Hunger Free York. She will attend a four year college pursing a law degree. Hannah is a senior who has earned the distinguished honor roll and was awarded the Emily McCleary Award for Academic Excellence and was a finalist in Distinguished Young Women of York. Hanna loves the theater and is a member of the National Thespian Society and volunteers with her church and community theater shows. She will be attending college to become an elementary school teacher with a minor in musical theater. As always, when listening to students of the month, club members feel reassured that the future of America is bright.
Left to right: Karen Comery - Club President, Kate Rohrbaugh, Tavon Parker, Brandon Parker, Elizabeth Wolfe - Club President Elect, Greg Kern - Committee Chair
Since 1987, Rotary Club of York-East has had a long history of supporting our local and international communities. In celebration of our 35th Anniversary Year and in conjunction with Rotary International’s “Imagine” Theme, York-East undertook a “Dream Big” Community Project to award $10,000 to a local cause. The club sought out Dream BIG project ideas from members and looking for local organizations to support. The club members heard from several well deserving grant applicants and chose the Advantage Program because it’s sustainability and impact on the youth in our local community. The Advantage Program is a youth mentorship program geared to expose middle and high school aged children to life’s opportunities. Mentors and mentees meet weekly on Saturday’s for a two-hour time period. During these sessions the curriculum includes topics such as entrepreneurship, financial literacy, civil engagement, culinary arts, athletics, and business principles. Once per month, the Advantage Program aims to expose participating youth to an event or venue outside of York County such as, HBCU’s, NASA, music concerts, college sporting events, historic museums, and other professional sporting events. The overall goal of the Advantage Program is to expose our youth to different life opportunities as well as multiple career paths. The program hopes to be able to provide necessary school items during the school year as well as a scholarship to college. By helping each youth to create a plan for their lives and identifying possible career paths and opportunities, they believe they can keep each student focused on positivity and achieving their goals.
Story by Tim Koller
Volunteering for the Rising Star Program
This past January members of our club had the opportunity to participate in the education-based STEAM Camp that’s offered as part of the Crispus Attucks Rising Star program. The program supports underprivileged youth ages 5 to 18, by helping them to achieve academic success. The members helped the children with skills needed to utilize robotics, coding principles and increase competency.
The York-East Rotary has awarded $2,500 plus $2,500 in a matching Rotary District grant to this worthy local organization. Our club looks forward to projects like this because it is such a great feeling to give and learn how our financial support is being used within our community.
Thank you to everyone that donated their time to this organization. Without you we would not be able to provide these organizations with the funding that they need to make York a better place to live.
Story by Tim Koller
Club Information
Welcome to our Club!
Service Above Self
Tuesdays at 7:30 AM
Currently meetings are held both in person and using Zoom (contact secretary for a Zoom invitation)
Heritage Hills Resort
2700 Mount Rose Ave
York, PA 17402-9207 United States of America
An alternative meeting has been established on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month at 5:30 PM. The meeting location is the Victory Athletic Club at 471 South Ogontz Street.
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