Please join Bethlehem Morning Star Rotary this Thursday, September 24, 2026, for our Live/Hybrid Meeting.Our meet & greet starts at 7:15am with the regular meeting starting at 7:30am.
Our Speakers will be Mike Hosfeld & Mark Napierkowski, Mercy School for Special Learning
Mercy School for Special Learning provides an educational program for children, young adults and adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities. Director Mike Hosfeld works with teenagers and young adults to find them meaningful jobs through Mercy Job Works. Development Director Mark Napierkowski engages the community and helps advance the mission of Mercy School.
Here are some things to know from our meeting, Thursday, September 17, 2026:
Paul Harris Fellow: Diane Donaher, President-Elect of the Bethlehem Rotary Club, presented Rick Morrissey with a Paul Harris Fellow award for leading volunteers on their club's pollinator garden project at Sand Island.
Club Action Plan: Register to attend and learn Rotary's approach to building our Club's strategies and tactics for the next couple years! It is scheduled for October 11, 2026 at Moravian University, $60 for the day including breakfast, dinner, and amazing content!
Rocco D'Amato thanked club members for our participation in the Bethlehem Rotary Club's Yard Sale and reported that Dylan Stroop, who spoke at one of our meetings, raised $55K for the Boys and Girls Club of Bethlehem!!
MSR Rotary Exchange Student, Jinnie, assisting at the BRC Yard Sale on Saturday
Cheryl Baker reported that another $500K was secured for Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering (BES)!
Salute the Troops Concert: ticket and ad sales are going well, primary sponsor and top sponsorship tiers are secured; members asked to keep selling tickets and lining up program book ads or "in honor of" tributes
Celtic Classic 5K: 164 runners registered, 200-plus expected; still need more volunteers, sign-up with Tom Hartzell
Monocacy Creek Cleanup: Sunday, October 11, 9 to 11:30 AM at Sand Island; teams will split up for stream cleanup. See Rick Morrissey to sign up.
Holiday Meeting featuring the Liberty High School Acapella Choir is Thursday, December 17, 2026 at the Cathedral Church of the Nativity. Bring your friends!
On September 17, 2026, Clarice James, Founder and Executive Director of MIRA Resources, spoke to the club about the organization's work supporting migrant, immigrant, refugee, and asylee families. Clarice, who also teaches and runs the nutrition program at the Easton Farmers Market, founded MIRA in 2020 and built it entirely on a no-grant, all-volunteer model that now serves roughly 1,600 families every quarter. MIRA runs three departments: education (free ESL classes, virtual and in-person, each taught by a different volunteer instructor), legal (immigration and general attorneys offering free consultations), and case management (employment, housing, and medical referrals), plus interpreters covering more than 13 languages, all at no cost regardless of a family's documentation status.
Clarice asked if we could share with our members the link to her organization's website, themiraresources.org, and this link to information about an art exhibition that just began this week in Allentown on the theme of immigration enforcement: https://www.themiraresources.org/events.
PDG Diane Donaher, President-Elect of the Bethlehem Rotary Club, presented MSR Rotarian Rick Morrissey with a Paul Harris Fellow award for leading volunteers on the BRC's Pollinator Garden project at Sand Island.
Later this fall, I'll be leading our annual club goal setting process, and I'm inviting everyone to give your 10 cents (inflation you know) about where we're headed!
We'll be talking about how to attract new members, engage current members, do more bite-sized service projects, raise more money, partner more with the Bethlehem Club, and get the word out to the community about our international and youth project opportunities.
To help us prepare for that, on October 10, Rotary District 7430 will host a Club Action Plan 2.0 Workshop at Moravian University from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm.
I went last year and it was not only amazing to meet other Rotarians from the area, but also super intellectually stimulating to think about how we could accomplish all those things I mentioned above.
You don't have to attend this to be part of our goal setting, but it is a GREAT foundation and way to learn more about Rotary beyond our Club.
With both the Celtic Classic 5K Race (for youth programs) and the Salute the Troops Concert (for Victory House) this fall, our club has significant fundraising events that require “all hands on deck”!
Rick and I are seeking your help for finalizing the program book advertising by the end of next week. Print design and deadlines from the printer are part of this timeframe.
We are mailing tickets and a form to everyone who has not yet picked their items up at a meeting, but I am attaching the sponsorship form (Download Here) in case you have one or two local contacts who would be delighted to support the Salute the Troops concert and, in turn, local veterans in need.
Please do your part by making a call or sending an email or two in coming days. And, if you have questions, please send a message via email to us at rsantee@ptd.net.
Once again Bethlehem Morning Star Rotary is partnering with the Monocacy Creek Watershed Association for their annual Fall Stream Clean-up on Sunday, October 11, 2026 from 9-11:30 AM. The meet-up location is at Sand Island Park, 56 River Street, Bethlehem 18018. Meet at Tennis Court Parking Lot.
Bethlehem Area Public Library
