Please join Bethlehem Morning Star Rotary this Thursday, June 19, 2025 for our Live/Hybrid Meeting.Our meet & greet starts at 7:15am with the regular meeting starting at 7:30am.
Our speaker will be Kristen Walsh from the Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites.
Director of Development Kristen Walsh will introduce us to Historic Bethlehem as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, what this means for the City of Bethlehem, and upcoming events.
IN PERSON LOCATION DETAILS:
Seven Sirens Brewing Company
327 Broadway, Bethlehem, PA 18015
Metered street parking is available on Broadway and on 4th Street. Meters begin at 8AM. Additional parking is available in the tenant parking lot along 4th & Wyandotte Streets and the Cathedral Church parking lot.
Our transition from one Rotary year to the next is upon us. Our meeting on June 26 will celebrate the changeover of officers and the board of directors. I wish to invite you all to join us, but especially the Past Presidents as we celebrate the lineage of Bethlehem Morning Star.
There are so many people to thank for making the past year a success and while I will thank some of them, you all deserve my gratitude for your support as President. While Jennifer Cunningham is transitioning off as a Director, she has been elected as our next President-Elect. Jennifer and others have worked hard around the areas of youth and education. It has been apparent since I joined these areas have been a passion of this Club for many years. Please help to support her as we move forward.
Tom Hartzell will serve a second term as Director and will be joined by Donna Holton and Michael Orbin. I wish to thank all of them for serving our club. I also wish to thank Robin Metzler as he finishes his second term as Director but continues in the role of Sergeant at Arms. I want to thank Betty Isaacs for her willingness to continue to provide her wisdom as our immediate Past President to me and the Board.
I also wish to thank Janet Kolepp, Shawn Bariana and Rod Seifert for their support in scheduling speakers for our meetings and making the technology work. The quality of speakers has been excellent this year and has connected us in ways that we don’t know how it will impact our Club. In my travels I have realized that many Clubs shy away from hybrid meetings due to the complexity of making it work. Whether a member can join us personally or virtually, that keeps us connected as I believe that we are intended in Rotary.
Larry Eighmy and The Stone House Group also deserve many thanks for the meeting space that we enjoy and a degree of flexibility when things don’t always go right. Their support and providing the equipment allowing us to make our meetings available to more people is appreciated.
Fall is a busy time for Bethlehem Morning Star with the Celtic Classic Race-5k and the Salute the Troops Concert. Sheila and Rod Seifert will once again coordinate the team for Salute the Troops. We are looking for a coordinator for the Race. Tom Kolepp will be available to help with guidance but is unavailable to personally handle some of the things needed for the Race. If you have any interest in helping with this, please let me know.
Looking forward, the Area 2 Clubs are planning a summer picnic on August 23, 2025. Please save the date and more details are to follow. There is also a lot of information available on the Club website.
As my first term ends, I wish to thank the entire Club for its support. As I’ve said, this isn’t “my” Club, it is ours. I look forward to serving you in the next Rotary year as President. The past 12 months have passed quickly because when you are having fun, time does seem to move quickly.
Our speaker at our June 12, 2025 meeting, Fred Rooney, shared his journey from practicing law to creating the first lawyer incubator program in New York City in 2007 which aimed to provide affordable legal services and training for young lawyers. He explained how the program evolved from a pilot project to a successful model that inspired similar programs across the country. He shared his extensive international experience with legal education programs, including his work with Fulbright and various incubator initiatives around the world, while highlighting the transformative power of education in challenging environments. Rooney highlighted the importance of combining social impact with financial sustainability in legal practice, and his ongoing work in promoting access to justice through global initiatives. CLICK HERE to view "A Dream Sponsored" video.
Morning Star Rotary Treasurer Val Walk has emailed the club’s 2025-26 club dues invoice to active members.
If you haven’t seen it, please check your junk/spam folder, and contact me if you need the invoice resent.
By June 30, please pay either...
$250 for the full Rotary year 7/1/25-6/30/26 – or –
$125 for the first six months 7/1/25-12/31/25
Payment method options include:
Check payable to Morning Star Rotary. Give to me at a meeting, or mail it to my attention at 1409 Bogie Ave, Wescosville, PA 18106
Cash. Give to Jean at a meeting.
Debit or Credit card. On www.morningstarrotary.com, log in, then scroll down to Site Pages on the left, and click Pay Dues Online Here. The club uses PayPal to collect it, but you do NOT need a PayPal account; Your debit or credit card is fine. The estimated PayPal fee is added to the dues amount.
Zelle. Several members requested a way to pay electronically without a fee. The club now has Zelle; send the amount to ID jean.searfoss@gmail.com , and identify yourself please.
Your prompt cooperation will be appreciated. The club will pay Rotary International and Rotary District 7430 in July, and active members as of 6/30/25 are in the headcount for those invoices to the club.
If you have not yet contributed to the Rotary Foundation for the 2024-25 Rotary year, it is not too late. You can send your contribution on-line or give your check (payable to Rotary Foundation) to Tom Hartzell. You can also mail a check to Tom Hartzell, 1341 Biafore Avenue, Bethlehem, Pa 18017. Checks should be received no later than the June 26 meeting to be mailed to the Foundation before the end of the month.
Francesco Arezzo, a member of the Rotary Club of Ragusa, Italy, has been selected by the Board of Directors to become Rotary International’s president for 2025-26. Arezzo will become president on 1 July.
The Board conducted a special session following the unexpected resignation of RI President-elect Mário César Martins de Camargo on 8 June. Guided by the RI code and policies, the Board selected the new president-elect from a pool of candidates who were considered by the Nominating Committee for President of Rotary International in August 2023.
The 2025-26 presidential message, announced at the 2025 Rotary International Assembly in February, will remain Unite for Good, which calls on Rotary members to be a force for unity in a world increasingly divided by politics, geography, and ideology. Through service projects, Rotary brings together people of every background — across races, religions, and professions — in a shared mission to do good in their communities.
Arezzo is an orthodontist in private practice. He is active internationally as a member of the Italian, European, and American orthodontics associations. He is vice president of the National Association of Italian Dentists for the province of Ragusa and was the founder and head for seven years of the delegation for Ragusa of the National Trust for Italy. He is a Knight of Honor and Devotion in Obedience within the Sovereign Order of Malta.
A Rotary member for more than 30 years, Arezzo has served as vice chair of the Joint Strategic Planning Committee and as RI director, learning facilitator, and as district conference presidential representative.
Arezzo is a Benefactor of The Rotary Foundation. He is married to Anna Maria Criscione, an entrepreneur in the tourism field. They have two children.
You asked for a better mobile experience with Rotary’s Learning Center, and here it is! Introducing the new app, a more direct and intuitive way to access the Learning Center on your mobile devices.
It’s now easier than ever to complete your role-based courses, track your progress, and explore other courses and resources — wherever you are.
To get started:
Download Rotary Learning Center from your app store.
Open the app and enter your My Rotary username and password.
Find your courses.
If you’ve accessed the Learning Center previously through the Go.Learn app, you’ll find that the RotaryLearn app is a more streamlined experience. After you get started with RotaryLearn, you can remove Go.Learn from your mobile devices.
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