Can you believe the first day of fall is just around the corner? The autumn equinox is Friday afternoon at 4:02PM… just in time for Emmaus Rotary Club’s “Make A Difference Day” on Saturday September 23.
I hope each and every Emmaus Rotarian is planning to participate in at least one of the six service projects being undertaken as part of MAD Day.
To recap, the six projects (and captains) are:
Packing meals for local food bank - Dr. Anthony Moyer & Karen Hobson
Preparing and serving lunch at Allentown Rescue Mission - Melissa Schwartz
Light weeding and trimming at Hillside School - Gary Guthrie
Planting trees at Camp Olympic - Bruce Fosselman & Sal Verrastro
Serving as “angels” at Miracle League - Bob Halsey & Nicole Steirer
Cleaning up roadside rubbish in Emmaus - John Chisca, Steve LaPierre & Jim Palmquist
We’ll provide more detailed information about each project at this week’s breakfast meeting. If you haven’t signed up for a project yet, please reach out to the captain(s) directly. We will have sign up sheets available at Thursday’s meeting, too. I hope everyone will take advantage of this opportunity to serve our community!
If you’re physically unable to participate, consider attending one of the Miracle League games to cheer on the kids (and/or heckle the announcer!). If you’re going to be out of town or have an unavoidable conflict, consider making a financial gift to help offset the costs of the projects. Any gift - large or small - will "Make A Difference.”
I want to thank Gary Guthrie and all of the project captains for their hard work in organizing and planning what I hope will become an annual event in the life of our club.
Thursday morning we had our annual meeting with our District Governor Rick Gromis. Gary Rohrbach had the pleasure of introducing him and explaining that Rick is form the Reading area. Rick is a 1975 college graduate and he joined Rotary immediately after graduation. Rick's girlfriend's father at the time was a District Governor and Rick thought it would be a great idea to join Rotary. Rick has two children - both Rotarians - and his wife is a former President of her Rotary club. Rick began his presentation by fining Dale $5 because he could with the power of District Governor. Rick took the time to congratulate us on our Golf Tournament. Rotary is making a difference. The theme is exactly what we do as Rotarians. Membership is declining in the US. Rick wants all clubs to do their best to increase membership and membership retention in all clubs. We can do this by making all members connected. People join Rotary for three reasons: Networking, Service and Fellowship. Next he explained about the District conference "Take a Ride on the Reading" on April 27, 28 and 29. It is an a la carte Rotary weekend where you can attend as much or as little of the conference as you like. The cost for the entire day on Saturday will be just $99. The Saturday night entertainment is Bill Haley Jr and the Comets. Rick went over his thoughts for his Rotary year for Membership, Strategic Planning, and By Laws and they are current. All in all, it was a fine meeting. If you want to hear the whole meeting, it will be up on our You Tube page by early next week.
The road to eradicating polio has been a long and difficult one, with Rotary leading the fight since 1985. Going from nearly 350,000 cases in 1988 to just 10 so far this year has required time, money, dedication, and innovation from thousands of people who are working to end the disease.
Here are five things you may not know about the fight to end polio:
1. Ice cream factories in Syria are helping by freezing the ice packs that health workers use to keep the polio vaccine cold during immunization campaigns.
John Cena
2. Celebrities have become ambassadors in our fight to end the disease.
They include WWE wrestling superstar John Cena, actress Kristen Bell, action-movie star Jackie Chan, golf legend Jack Nicklaus, Grammy Award-winning singers Angelique Kidjo and Ziggy Marley, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, anthropologist Dr. Jane Goodall, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Bill Gates, and world-renowned violinist and polio survivor Itzhak Perlman.
3. Health workers and Rotary volunteers have climbed mountains, crossed deserts, and sailed to remote islands, risking their lives to vaccinate children against this disease. Rotary has funded more than 1,500 motorbikes and 6,700 other vehicles, as well as 17 boats, to make those journeys. Vaccinators have even traveled on the backs of elephants, donkeys, and camels to immunize children in remote areas.
4. In Pakistan, the polio program emphasizes hiring local female vaccinators and monitors. More than 21,000 vaccinators, 83 percent of whom are women, are achieving the highest immunization coverage rates in the country’s history.
5. Thanks to the efforts of Rotary and its partners, more than 16 million people who otherwise might have been paralyzed are walking today. In all, more than 2.5 billion children have been vaccinated since 1988.
We are collecting Dishwashing Liquid for the Angel Network Food Baskets this time. Please bring bottles of Dish Detergent to any meeting until November 9, 2017. We have pledged to collect 150 bottles.
Thank you for your consistent contributions to this worthy cause.
ONLY TWO MORE WEEKS OF COLLECTION!!!! LETS KEEP THIS UP AS WE ARE CLOSING IN ON OUR GOAL. EILEEN PROKOP WILL BE STANDING BY FOR EVERYONE'S DISH DETERGENT DONATIONS!
Check the list below to see if you are scheduled to serve as Greeter & Raffle, Sign-in Table, Invocation or EREY.
If you will not be at the meeting when you have an assignment, please arrange for another member to swap with you or cover for you. NOTE-CHANGES MAY BE MADE FROM PREVIOUS TRUMPETS.
Thank you for taking your turn and helping Emmaus Rotary Club run a smooth meeting.
