Please join Bethlehem Morning Star Rotary this Thursday, November 13, 2025 for our Live/Hybrid Meeting.Our meet & greet starts at 7:15am with the regular meeting starting at 7:30am.
Our speakers will be Zac Whitehouse & Nico Medina. Zac Whitehouse, Short-Term Exchange Student in France this summer and Nico Medina, our inbound Long-Term Exchange Student from Bolivia will share their experience and background with our members.
LOCATION:
The Cathedral Church of the Nativity (Dining Room)
321 Wyandotte Street
Bethlehem, PA
We will do the best we can in regards to hybrid Zoon streaming- cameras and microphones may be from laptops only. Thanks for your understanding!
The “Salute the Troops” Concert on Sunday, November 9, 2025, honoring our veterans and current members of the US Armed Forces, was a successful and very enjoyable event. The Allentown Band including select instrumental and choral students from Northeast Middle School performances were fantastic.
A big MSR “Thank You” to the MSR Rotarians who stepped up to ensure a successful event. Thank you to all MSR Rotarians who sold tickets, purchased a sponsorship, solicited sponsors, attended the concert, and those who volunteered to assist on concert day. Kudos to Marianne and Cheryl for their efforts on gathering items and sponsors for the baskets that were raffled at the concert. A big thank you to Marianne and her crew for their work running the raffle on concert day.
Special thanks to all our concert sponsors. Because of all of their generosity, we will be able to continue supporting Victory House of Lehigh Valley and will accomplish many of this year’s other charitable projects.
...and the concert was mentioned on the evening news on WFMZ....thanks Shawn!
We are deeply saddened to be informed of the death of John St. Clair, a charter member of Morning Star Rotary. John was living in Galilee House at Moravian Town Square in Nazareth at the time of his passing. No further details as to funeral arrangements are known at publication time. We will let everyone know any details as they are received. His friendship and service to Morning Star Rotary will be deeply missed.
At our Salute the Troops Concert on November 9, 2025, Morning Star Rotary presented a Paul Harris Fellow to Ron Demkee, Conductor of the Allentown Band to honor his many decades of service to the musical life of the Lehigh Valley in both education and the performing arts.
Ron Demkee joined the Allentown Band in 1964 as the featured tuba soloist and was elected conductor in 1977. He taught instrumental music for 32 years and conducted the Freedom High School Patriot Band, its orchestra, and other instrumental ensembles from the time the school opened in 1967 until 1997 in addition to being the chair of the Fine Arts Department. Ron also taught at Muhlenberg and Moravian colleges until retiring in 2015. Until recently, Ron played principal tuba in the Allentown Symphony Orchestra since 1980 and served as associate conductor from 1983 - 2024.
Ron has received numerous awards: National Band Association's "Citation of Excellence;" John Philip Sousa Foundation's "Sudler Legion of Honor;" Allentown’s “Arts Ovation Award” for Outstanding Achievements in the Performing Arts and Allentown Arts Council’s “Lifetime Achievement Award;” National High School Band Directors’ “Hall of Fame;” and in 1991, Muhlenberg College- “Honorary Doctor of Music.” We were pleased to be able to add to his accolades by presenting him with a Paul Harris Fellow.
Bethlehem Emergency Shelter, in partnership with The Freezer Ministry and Garden Gatherers, will be hosting a Hut on Main Street in downtown Bethlehem in November and December to collect donations, and bring awareness about the unsheltered and food insecurity by handing out cookies. They expect to hand out over 5,000 holiday cookies and snickerdoodle bars this year. If you are interested in baking or sponsoring cookies, contact Cookie Coordinator Blake Messman at 484-894-3295.
This November, as we celebrate The Rotary Foundation, I invite you to consider not only what we give but why we give. The Foundation is more than a fund for projects. It is the beating heart of our promise that service, rooted in trust and friendship, can create lasting change.
Our Action Plan calls us to increase our impact, and the Foundation is how we make this vision real. Since 1988, Rotary and our partners have immunized nearly 3 billion children against polio. We have committed more than $2.6 billion to this cause, and last year alone we directed $146 million toward the final push for eradication. These numbers are significant, but the true impact is not in statistics — it is in the lives of children who will never again fear polio. It is in the hope restored to families and the peace built in communities once defined by disease.
But polio is only one story among many. Each year, Rotary Peace Centers train new generations of leaders who will transform conflict into dialogue and division into understanding. In 2023-24, nearly 100 new fellows began their studies, continuing a legacy of more than 1,800 peacebuilders from over 140 countries. When we invest in them, we are planting seeds of peace that will bear fruit for decades to come.
The Foundation also touches lives through district and global grants, supporting projects large and small. A clean water well for a rural community, scholarships for young professionals, medical care in the wake of disaster — these are not temporary gestures, but steps toward dignity, resilience, and opportunity. This is how Rotary service becomes lasting impact. And when natural disasters strike, our Foundation allows Rotary to act quickly with disaster response grants.
Our Foundation is not about what we can do alone but what we can do together. Each contribution, no matter its size, joins with others to create a collective act of faith in humanity and in the future.
The last mile of any great journey is always the hardest. We see this in our final steps toward ending polio, in our work for peace, and in every project that seeks to lift people out of despair. Yet every time we give, we declare that our work will continue regardless of the challenge.
This November, let us give with gratitude, with joy, and with hope. Through our Foundation, we Unite for Good, and in doing so, we leave behind not only projects but a legacy of peace, trust, and Service Above Self.
HAVE YOU MADE YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO THE ROTARY FOUNDATION THIS ROTARY YEAR?
See Foundation Chair, Tom Hartzell for information on making your contribution. You can send your contribution on-line or give your check (payable to Rotary Foundation) to Tom. You can also mail a check to Tom Hartzell, 1341 Biafore Avenue, Bethlehem, Pa 18017.
