Stories

I got to sit and chat with Jim Oehlert, and his lovely bride, Beverly at their beautiful home in Limerick.  We sat outside, under the gazebo overlooking a "Jim" built Koi pond with about 100 fish of various shapes and sizes in it...This couple is the stuff dreams are made of.....They complete each other's sentences and smile at each other....They are truly in love after 59 years!  But, let's start at the beginning...James Oehlert "Jim" was born and raised in Limerick Township with one brother and one sister....Mom and Dad were of German decent...His Dad started Oehlert Brothers Oil Company and their first delivery was 12/24/48!

Charlie "Chops" Laskey presented Dick Mull with the "Citizen of the Year Award" at our Changeover Dinner at the Spring Hollow Golf Club on Wednesday night, July 11th, 2012. Chops reviewed many of Dick's accomplishments in our community, especially in the East Pikeland Township. He was also given the sapphire pin of the Paul Harris Fellow Award. Dick's four children, brother and many other family members were there to surprise him. Congratulation Dick, you earned it! Thanks for a great presentation Chops.

Our annual changeover dinner was held this year at the Spring Hollow Golf Club in Spring City on Wednesday, July 11, 2012. Barry Shafer did a great job of putting all of the details of the dinner together for us. Tom Spann gave us a run down of all of the things we accomplished this year. Gene Krasley swore in our new President, Barry Shafer. Barry presented Tom Spann with a past presidents plaque and pin. Barry then chatted about some of his ideas for the upcoming year. He handed out the new committee list. Everyone was super excited to see what committee's they will be serving on.  Barry then invited everyone to his home to continue the celebration.  Some people celebrated a little bit too late.  Thanks Tom for a great year. Barry good luck in the upcoming year.

On Wednesday, June 27th, Tom Smith (Bercek and Smith Engineering in Royersford)  inducted Laurie Faust into our Club.  Laurie is the director of the Open Door Ministry on Main Street in Royersford.  Connie Lawson (Sweet Ashley's Chocolate) brought Laurie as a guest to our club a few times.  Laurie was hooked right away.  Anyone who is interested in joining our club is welcome to come to a regular meeting and have lunch on us.  This is a great way to "test drive" the club before making the commitment to join.  Thanks Connie for bringing in another new member!

At the regular weekly meeting of the Spring-Ford Rotary Club, the proceeds from the 34th Annual Pancake Breakfast totaling $7,000 were donated to the following community organizations: Spring-Ford High School Baseball, Spring City Pool, Spring Valley YMCA, Spring-Ford Historical Society, Project Outreach, Spring-Ford Youth Athletic League (SFYAL), Limerick Historical Society, Royersford Public Library, Spring City Library, and Open Door. The listed organizations supported our efforts by working at the breakfast, selling tickets, and helping Rotary promote the event. In the 34 years of hosting the event, well over $100,000 was raised and given back to the community. We gave away 39 great raffle prizes, mostly contributed by the Rotarians and local businesses.

Again we thank all in the community who supported our event. We served over 800 hungry people this year. We couldn't have done this without the help of our 39 Rotary members, their spouses and children. Also, much thanks goes to these community organizations (over 90 in all): Spring Ford baseball, Spring-Ford H.S. Interact Club and the Spring City Pool organization. The amount of help we had made things go so much faster. Moving, setup and cleanup went at a record pace.

Thanks much to the Interact Club for their cleanup efforts. Here is a summary of the event: Served 805 -Paying customers - close to a record crowd. 91 Helpers worked the event. We served 1600 links of delicious Hatfield sausage, over 700 glasses of Orange juice 100 apple juice and tomato juice. Tom Droege singlehandedly flipped about 2000 Pancakes. We scrambled about 1800 eggs, brewed and served about 900 cups of coffee, 700 slices toast served. Also, we served nearly 300 slices of world-famous shoo-fly pie baked by the Royersford First United Church of Christ.

On Wednesday, March 8th, there was a speech competition held at the weekly SF Rotary Club meeting.  The participants gave a 5-7 minute speech on what the "4 Way Test" mean to them, and how it could be applied in their lives.  They were members of the Interact Club at SFHS.  More than 60 years ago, in the midst of the Great Depression, a U.S. Rotarian devised a simple, four-part ethical guideline that helped him rescue a beleaguered business. The statement and the principles it embodied also helped many others find their own ethical compass. Soon embraced and popularized by Rotary International, The Four-Way Test today stands as one of the organization’s hallmarks. It may very well be one of the most famous statements of our century.  Herbert J. Taylor, author of the Test, was a mover, a doer, a consummate salesman and a leader of men. He was a man of action, faith and high moral principle. 
1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to All Concerned?
3. Will it Build GOODWILL and Better Friendships?
4. Will it Be BENEFICIAL to All Concerned?

The students all did a remarkable job, and the club members enjoyed their speeches.  Pictured from left to right are:  Jaclyn Ritter: Interact Advisor,  William Landis: grade 11, Andrew Alban: grade 9, 2nd place winner ($50), Rachel Schwarz: grade 11, 1st place winner ($100), Haley Krouse: grade 11, Kirsten Whitt: grade 10, 3rd place winner ($25), Julie Quinby: Interact Advisor, Photo credit: Michael Alban, father of Andrew. 

We had 10 coats left over from our Christmas Adopt a family project, so we donated them to the Penn Liberty Bank for Family Services. http://limerick.patch.com/events/coat-drive-for-family-services-of-montgomery-county.

The coats were donated by a Car Dealer Association to Spring Valley YMCA to us. Thanks Ann Nelson for getting the coats to us in the first place. Thanks to Beth and Tom Smith for finding yet another need that our club could help with! The bank manager was very thankful.

Tom Spann received a certificate from Dave Kaplan at our meeting on November 30th.  Dave presented the club with a certificate from the Rotary Foundation in appreciation for our financial support of Rotary's $200 Million Challenge. Over the last few years we have raised money for this challenge through the sale of duck race tickets. The proceeds from the challenge were matched by the Gates Foundation. The funds will be used toward Rotary's battle against Polio. We are almost there (a world without Polio). Only through continued hard work and dedication to this cause can we ever achieve this goal. We should celebrate this achievement in our club an remember the battle isn't over 

 

 Tom Spann presented Dawn Shaner with the citizen of the year award on behalf of the Spring-Ford Rotary Club. The Club also awarded Dawn with the prestigious Paul Harris Fellow Award. A donation of $1,000. was made the Rotary Foundation in Dawn's name. Dawn has been actively involved in the Spring-Ford area for many years. She has served many clubs in many aspects over the years. She volunteers for the Spring-Ford Historical Society, the Women's Auxiliary and Garden Club of Spring City, and is currently a board member of the Spring City Library. She worked as a reading specialist for the Spring-Ford School District. Our community is very lucky to have Dawn in it. She has quietly helped many people over the years.

After one rain delay and some dreary weather Limerick Community Day at the Limerick Community Park was great. The Spring-Ford Area Rotary Club and Spring-Ford High School Interact Club hosted carnival games for kids and our very popular Dunk Tank even in the cold 60 degree weather. Thank you to the 55 students from the Spring-Ford Interact Club and 15 Spring-Ford Area Rotary members and their family members that helped to make this event a success. Thank you to our 6 Dunkies from the Spring –Ford School District, who braved the cool weather and had some fun in our dunk tank. Thank you to Steve from Pure Fun Entertainment for use of his moon bounce and four carnival games. Thank you to Limerick Township Park and Recreation for securing a free tent for us to use and three kid’s games a well. As a group we helped to raise over $500.00 for the Spring-Ford Area Rotary.  

 

We would love to have you visit!

We all have busy schedules.  We all run everywhere we go.  In the end there is no better feeling then giving of yourself for your neighbor.  Our club is a great group of people from all walks of life.  I'm sure there are 3-4 people just like you in our membership.  We all have the same goal.  Promote Rotary and help each other.  Take a few minutes to read over and watch some of the information on our site.  The internet is wonderful tool.  You can see what Rotary is all about.  Feel free to come and visit us at our meetings above.  If you have any questions, please drop any of us an e-mail.  Hope to see you for lunch!

Dave Schreiber hands the presidential bell and gavel over to Tom Spann:

On Wednesday night, July 14th we had our changeover dinner.  Dave started the meeting at the Spring-Ford Country Club by listing some of the accomplishments throughout the year of our club.  You could tell how proud he was, but also relieved to be done.  Tom Spann then talked about how excited he was to lead our club.  He has a couple new initiatives that he is excited to start.   Dave Hunsberger stepped down from treasurer. Glenn Holcombe stepped down as secretary. They both gave many years of service. Our club is lucky to have had their leadership over the years. Bill Breslawski is taking over as treasurer and Damian Petaccio is taking over as secretary. Connie Lawson and Phil White have joined our board and are looking forward to "going theough the chairs".

Wednesday, June 29th was Pierre's last day in the "States". Presdent Dave Schreiber presented Pierre with our club banner. Pierre had to leave our meeting early to get to the airport. I think he had a great year. I know we certainly did. He gave a big wave as he walked out.... and had to wipe his eyes a few times during the meeting. It must be hard to develop all of the relationships, and then just walk out. It is always great to see how the student was when they came, and how different they are when they leave. April Heiser did an awesome job taking care of all of the details for Pierre and his host families. THANKS APRIL! We will be hosting another student next year. As always, we need a host family or two. Would you be willing? These students are always the "best of the best". If you are interested, or know someone who may be interested, please contact April Heiser. April_Heiser@ipgroup.info

Welcome to our Rotary Club! 

The Spring-Ford Rotary is pleased to announce that we have launched our new website, www.SpringFordRotary.org.  The website will let us post news and stories, and let the community have a better idea of who we are, and that we promote "Service before self." 

ClubRunner makes it easy to publish your weekly Club eBulletin, and send to all members and friends of the club, by incorporating home page stories and events with the push of a button.

ClubRunner secures all your private information using the latest security technologies. Hosted in a world class data centre with redundant power, Internet backbones and 24/7 security and monitoring, you can rest assured that your club data is safe and protected. Your members' contact information is secured behind unique logins and passwords. Access to information is also restricted, for example, a member can only view the list of members, but can modify his or her own personal information.

Data on the server is protected by TCP/IP filtering, firewall and anti-virus software that protect against any unauthorized intrusion. Backups of data are made daily and stored off-site.

Every year our Rotary Club donates proceeds from our efforts to worthy causes in the Community.  This year, our club gave donations to the Spring Valley YMCA, the local libraries, the Spring City pool, as well as other worthwhile causes.

ShelterBox is an international disaster relief charity that delivers emergency shelter, warmth and dignity to people affected by disaster worldwide.  For more information visit www.ShelterBox.org. 

 

 

Over the Labor Day weekend, I took my family to Ohio for a family reunion.  The reunion was held at the Canfield Fair, Ohio, which is the largest county fair in Ohio.  The place was enormous, spread out over 350 acres, with 1000+ vendors.  While I was there, I thought, "I wonder if Rotary is present?"  Sure enough, I googled the query on my phone, and was able to find the Canfield Rotary in attendance.

 I had the pleasure of speaking with fellow Rotarian Craig Olson, who gave us some ideas of some community events they do in the Canfield, Ohio area.  They run a "Holiday Flag Display" service that has grown to over 375 homeowners and business owners.  Feel free to visit their Rotary web page to learn more.

Do you have a story about visiting a Rotary club around the world? If so, please let us know, as we would like to post stories and pictures!

 

Jonathan Moyer, senior financial adviser for Univest Bank and Trust Co., recently awarded Frank L. Pellegrini with a 32-inch Samsung flat-screen HDTV. Pellegrini, a partner of Maillie Falconiero & Co. LLP, won the TV after purchasing numerous raffle tickets at the Spring-Ford Rotary Pancake Breakfast, which is held each year by the Spring-Ford Rotary Club to raise money to donate to several local organizations. (Full article can be read here.)

Rotary Club presents $5,211 check

Camaraderie pervaded the air as the rival Phoenixville and Spring-Ford football teams shared a Rotary Club luncheon together Wednesday at Robert Ryan's at Columbia Station on the day prior to their annual Thanksgiving Day skirmish.
(read more...)

A group of Spring-Ford High School students are learning the value of serving others. That ideal was the focal point of the annual dinner meeting of the Spring-Ford Rotary Club and the high school’s Interact Club, held recently at Spring-Ford Country Club.

 

Sponsored by the Rotary Club, the Interact Club “is the largest club in our school,” according to high school principal Pat Nugent, who also is president of the Rotary Club for the 2008-09 club year. “It is a very, very active service club,” he added. (read more...)

The Spring-Ford High School cafeteria annex was a flurry of activity on the Wednesday before Christmas as the Spring-Ford Rotary Club and the high school’s Interact Club met together to wrap Christmas presents.

 

The wrapping luncheon was the culmination of the Rotary Club’s sixth annual Adopt A Family program which provides Christmas gifts to children and families in need. The program this year supported 26 families representing 71 children.

(read more)

Please find us, and of course like us, on Facebook! You can view our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/SpringFordRotaryClub. Take a moment to link to us, and keep in touch with local Rotary events.