The Rotary Clubs of West Reading/Wyomissing and Conrad Weiser partnered to obtain a Rotary District 7430 Grant to provide scholarships for Aaron’s Acres special needs youth and families to attend a summer camp program in Berks County at the South Mountain YMCA. The Rotary Club members from West Reading/Wyomissing and Conrad Weiserran a carnival during the summer camp program with events adapted to the needs of the campers. This provided a special fun day at the camp for the youth and their families.
A check will be presented by both Rotary Clubs on February 5, 2015 at the West Reading Wyomissing Rotary meeting at noon at the Wyomissing Family Restaurant in the amount of $3,250 to Risa Paskoff, Executive Director of Aaron’s Acres. She stated, “Families raising children with special needs face a tremendous amount of challenges, including financial ones. By providing scholarships to families, we are eliminating one of the possible stressors they may face. In addition, we are providing a 2 week period of time that is positive for the child as well as for the family. In this way, the mental health of the familial unit is improved. The family feels energized and recharged which results in them being able to face ongoing challenges throughout the year. Our goal is to provide a 2 week period that is stress free---in all aspects. Everyone involved with Aaron’s Acres is grateful to have received this grant.”
Karen Dewalt, President of the West Reading/Wyomissing Rotary, said “We partnered with the Conrad Weiser Rotary to write a grant to better serve the needs in our community. By joining together we increased the funding and opportunities for the special needs children supported by Aaron's Acres at South Mountain YMCA Camp”.
Luncheon Cost from $15 to $17 Effective February 5, 2015
The Rotary Club of West Reading/Wyomissing Board of Directors managed to keep the cost of our Rotary luncheons to $15 for the last few years. The $15 covered the cost of each Rotarian’s lunch as well as our Student-of-the Month, parents and school personnel accompanying the students. Neither a first time guest who is considered a potential new member or our guest speakers pay for lunch. While we are currently losing money every luncheon meeting the $2 increase to $17 will ensure continuation of our program and tradition of honoring our special guests with their complimentary luncheon.
The West Reading Wyomissing Rotary Club will be soliciting items for donation to the Habitat Berks ReStore located at 5370 Allentown Pike, Temple PA 19560 on Sat March 28.
My apologies for not getting a bulletin to you prior to today's meeting. So instead, here is a short recap of the meeting in case you were unable to attend.
We welcomed Terry Reed back from his mission in Uganda. In a few short minutes he captivated us with stories of his experiences. He talked about the people the team is helping now and will continue to help, life in Uganda and Rotary in Uganda. Rotary has a very notable presence with numerous, viable clubs and a strong commitment by it's members! Terry gave our banner to several of the local clubs and brought some back which he presented to our president, Karen DeWalt.
Our guest speaker was Dr. David Bingaman, LSW. Dave is currently the Program Office Supervisor of the Leesport Office of Family Care for Children and Youth, Inc., a state-wide foster child and foster parent agency. The Leesport Office which he supervises services eleven counties in Southeastern Pennsylvania. He shared wonderful information about the foster care program in this area and distributed literature for us to take home. For more information on becoming a foster family go to http://www.fccy.org/
March 11 - New Generations leadership conference. We are looking for 1 or 2 volunteers to help sign up the participants at the start of conference on Wednesday morning, March 11th from 8-9:30 am at Penn State Berks campus. For information, contact Kit Fegley: jkflaw@comcast.net
March 21 - Casino Night to benefit the Rotary Clubs in Berks County. Place: The Crowne Plaza, Wyomissing. Time 5-10 pm. Further information, tickets, sponsorships, go to the "DOWNLOAD FILES" section on our website: http://portal.clubrunner.ca/6818
If you have any past copies of The Rotarian magazine sitting around at home, will you please bring them along to the next meeting? We like to share them with new members and guests.
'Service Above Self'
We are ordinary people brought together through Rotary to accomplish extraordinary things.
