Today was a Zoom meeting with 47 people on line. After some conversations President Ralph Witcher opened the meeting at 7:30 A.M.
GUEST ON LINE:
NWL H.S. scholarship winner, Reagan Hernandez, and her parents; William Gruen, Pres. NWL HS Interact club with 6 other interactors; multiple leaders from Northwestern Lehigh H.S. ; Tori Morgan, guest of Ralph Witcher; and Capt. Nick Millward calling in from Japan.
HAPPY DOLLARS AND COMMENTS:
We agreed that much of the pandemic caused working from home has been well done and will continue even after the office buildings reopen.
Amir Famili’s two chickens are producing fresh eggs regularly. The excess eggs are given to the Lowhill Food Pantry.
John Scott happily is still 147 pounds lighter after 3 years.
Halyna and Mike Stegura’s daughter, Christina, is moving to Singapore for the State Dept. in the Counselor program.
Tori Morgan is happy that she has a new furry friend. And she thanks Pres. Ralph for his recommendation that helped her earn a “Women of Influence” award.
Bill Palmer is happy to report that the number of new Polio wild virus cases YTD remain at ONE in Pakistan, and ONE in Afghanistan. What a great achievement!
CELEBRATION DATES:
Pres. Ralph displayed the list of May members and their celebration dates. We applauded.
OPENING:
Pres. Ralph gave a very nice invocation. Then he led us in the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. Ralph really likes saying the pledge.
WELCOME GUESTS:
Pres. Ralph extended a welcome to our guests on line with us today.
Pres. Ralph again said “The world needs more Rotarians.”
NEW MEMBER INDUCTIONS:
PDG Herb Klotz introduced the following new members:
Sharon Goldner Lisa Walton Andy Phillips
Amanda Lawler Karen Rodgers
All 5 are sponsored by P-E Gail Micca.
Herb conducted the formal Induction ceremony and welcomed them each into the AWRC with great applause. New member packets have been delivered to them.
S.T.E.M. YEA UPDATE:
See separate article from Gwenn Carr.
MULCHING VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED:
As we have done many times in the past, our club has been asked to spread mulch on Saturday, May 22 from 8am until the latest 11am at:
Bob Rodale Cycling & Fitness Park, 1148 Mosser Rd, Breinigsville, PA
- We meet in the parking lot at 8, Donuts and/or Bagels will be there, bottled water will be there
- Bring a rake!
- There will be piles of mulch placed at the beds by the Park Superintendent IN Advance
- After eating treats and conversing, we will spread the already deposited mulch into the beds.
- It typically takes less than 2 hours.
Please respond to Dennis Houser ASAP if you can commit to attending. Please call Dennis if you have any questions.
NEW AREA 1 ASSISTANT GOVERNOR:
Former Emmaus RC President Rick Zayaitz will be the Rotary District 7430 Assistant Governor for Area 1 (our area) beginning July 1, 2021. He will be responsible for 6 clubs: Emmaus, Allentown, Allentown West, Slatington, Whitehall and the Lehigh Valley Passport club.
LOWHILL FOOD PANTRY:
About 200 lbs. of fresh produce were delivered to the LFP thanks to Amir Famili and his volunteers.
AWRC WORK DAY - MAY 1st:
Pres. Ralph showed a short video of the volunteers in their yellow Tee-shirts working in the AWRC Green Thumb garden There were 18 Interact students plus 4 Camp Neidig students helping last Saturday. The story was on WFMZ. They cleaned up everything from last Winter.
TRI-DISTRICT CONFERENCE:
Pres. Ralph said it was fabulous. Details will come at next week’s meeting.
KINGDOM LIFE FOOD CENTER:
Jean Masiko needs volunteers for the next distribution which is Saturday May 15.
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY:
Habitat for Humanity still needs volunteer painters on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Contact Amir.
VETERANS MEMORIAL FUNDRAISER:
On May 16th there will be a cake sale to raise money in support of this new memorial at Ontelaunee Park
FACE-TO-FACE MEETING DATE:
Wednesday June 9th at 7:30 a.m. AWRC members and guests will meet in person -- at last -- at Madeline’s in Fogelsville. It will also have a zoom connection for all who want to call in. The cost is $15 pp and it includes breakfast in a private room on the second floor.
YOUR SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES:
Service Chair, Gail Micca, asks that you take a look at this section on the left side of this bulletin. New ones:
STATUS OF MORNING MEETINGS:
Starting on June 9 there will be hybrid meetings probably twice a month, plus all-zoom meetings for two more Wednesdays each month.
NEXT MORNING MEETING:
Wednesday May 12, 2021 starting at 7:30 a.m. We will use Zoom to meet. Our program will be Patricia F. Mulqueen, Chief Deputy Northampton DA to discuss How to Affect a Difference with Impact as a Prosecutor. We also will award 2 more scholarships.
STATUS OF THURSDAY EVENING MEETING:
Thursday evening meetings may be scheduled starting in July as one of the four monthly meetings.
NWL INTERACT CLUB REPORT:
Jean Machamer, our Advisor to the NWL Interact club, heaped praise on these students for all that they have been doing during the pandemic. The club President, William Gruen, gave a report.
Last Fall the Interactors sold Krispy Kreme donuts and raised about $1,000.
They have regularly worked in the AW Garden as they did last Saturday. Will said that they worked with Parkland HS Interact students very well. They plan to continue joint projects.
This Summer they will volunteer at an animal farm that treats injured animals. This Fall they plan to have a group travel to the Rotary at the United Nations Day in NYC.
Jean Machamer said that Will started a year ago with but 4 members for this year. Right now they have 33 members.
PROGRAM:
Pres. Ralph Witcher introduced AWRC’s Dr. Barbara Kistler, Dean of Academic Services (Ret). Dr. Kistler represents the Northwestern Lehigh School District and began her service to the board in July 2018. She holds a bachelor of science degree in mathematics from Albright College, a master’s degree from City College of New York and a doctoral degree from Lehigh University. Dr. Kistler is a retired professor emeritus from LCCC where she served as professor of mathematics and dean of academic services.
The AWRC Scholarship Program is an award of financial support given to the top 12th grade student(s) who has demonstrated outstanding service to the community. The intent of this scholarship is to financially assist the award winner towards furthering their education at a college or university of their choice.
AWRC Scholarships are awarded to students attending either:
• Lehigh Career & Technical Institute (LCTI)
• Parkland High School
• Northwestern Lehigh High School
• Lehigh Carbon Community College (LCCC)
2021 NWL Scholarship Winner
The Rotary Scholarship Selection committee evaluated and ranked the applicants from each school with the twin criteria of leadership and service. The selection committee consisted of Gary Englehardt, Gwenn Carr, Amir Famili, Laurie Grube and Barbara Kistler as chair. Many thanks go to their careful reading of the applications.
Each scholarship winner receives a “goodie bag” to help get adjusted to college life. Amazon.com in Breinigsville has given each of our winners a Kindle Fire 8 tablet. We want to thank the generosity of General Manager, Ed Bruddenhagen and his staff for making that possible. Allentown-West Rotary Club donated a pen set for each winner. Brad Maier, our own State Farm Rotarian, knows a cup of coffee might be needed so he has donated a gift card to Dunkin Donuts, a magnet and message board. Gail Micca has made each a large Rotary cookie all packed in a bag from Riverview Bank thanks to Laurie Grube.
Reagan Hernandez is the top winner from Northwestern is. Reagan is not a stranger to Rotary, having been here in February as Student-of-the-Month selected by her counselors for that honor. She is again joined by her parents, Todd and Sheri Hernandez and this time with her grandparents as well, Bill and Trudy Dellicker. Bill is in charge of the Veterans Memorial at Ontelaunee Park.
Coming from a family of leaders, Reagan understands that to be a leader is to serve. In Rotary we call that Club Service or administrative service. She recognizes how important it is to attend to details. She wrote in her application that as Class of 2021 President, which is a 4-yr job at NWL, especially during this Covid time, she has had to deal very creatively in disappointing circumstances to come up with alternatives for events that would be acceptable to students, parents, CDC and the NWL administration. I applaud you, Reagan, for being resilient and a positive leader. She was also elected to Student Council representing her class as a middle school student. As a student council member she has run the school store and helped facilitate school events such as spirit days, pep rallies and community fund raising. She is a member of National Honor Society and Science National Honor Society, yearbook committee and plays varsity field hockey and lacrosse.
In each of these, Reagan is called on to demonstrate leadership and service. Before Covid she served as a representative to what is called “Student Forum” where she met with students from neighboring school districts to work jointly on service projects. She is a member of both the Leo and Key Service Clubs which have many community outreach projects including food and blood drives.
Her church has also given her various opportunities for service such as contributing to the Angel tree program and food pantry drives.
Reagan has been accepted as a biology major at the University of Pittsburgh with the goal of earning a doctorate in physical therapy. She stated in her application that she wants to help people regain their quality of life and to live life to the fullest. We wish Reagan all the best in her future endeavors.
Reagan thanked us for the scholarship. Three school officials congratulated her with praise.
CLASSIFICATION TALK:
Karen Rodgers shared her Classification speech. She has worked in education for over 30 year as a middle school teacher, English and Education college adjunct and an instructional Designer. Karen is the youngest of three daughters and is originally from Michigan. Her experiences moving in her childhood throughout the Midwest before settling in PA helped instill a sense of adventure and flexibility.
Karen is married to Billy Rodgers( 28 years) and they have three children Maya ( 22), Lily (19) and Owen (15). Billy is a recently retired DEA Special Agent who now works to train law enforcement in Digital Forensics.
Karen’s first job teaching in a rural area on the Eastern Shore of Virginia helped solidify her love of teaching and spotlighted the need to teach in a way that engages students. Her experiences also include teaching at Northampton Junior High and in Akron New York before shifting to the college classroom. Teaching students in the Out of School Youth program at Penn State Lehigh Valley and developmental English at NCC prompted her to return to school ( Lehigh University) for a masters in Instructional Technology and Design. Currently she works at Albright College as an instructional designer helping faculty use technology and design student-focused online courses.
Sharon showed great pictures of her family. Their daughter Lily who is a college freshman now, was an active member of the Interact club.
CLOSING:
Pres Ralph led us in the saying “One profits most who serves best.”