Today was a Zoom meeting with 27 people on line. After some conversations President Ralph Witcher opened the meeting at 7:30 A.M.
GUEST ON LINE:
Donna Barna, Pres. Hazleton RC; Bill Delicker, Ontelaunee Vet Memorial Comm.; and Capt. Nick Millward calling in from Japan.
HAPPY DOLLARS AND COMMENTS:
Marlene Heller switched her background 7,400 miles from Tel Aviv to San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.
David Haight was on the phone with us today from Luther Crest. They now are allowed family to visit, and they eat in the Dining Rooms at half capacity.
Gail Micca said that she and Ralph are working on an in-person meeting at the Trivet on Wednesday a.m. June 9th with a Zoom link. She needs some A-V assistance to do it.
Ron Coleman sang a few words about the Cat Hat.
John Scott came on line wearing his Mexican Sombrero that he purchased at our auction last week.
Nick Millward had 2 happy dollars. They have now broken ground on the new garden. And on May 21st he will interview the former President of Mongolia.
Katrina Sundstrom is happy they are back to their son’s baseball tournament.
Ralph Witcher is happy that their 1-1/2 year old granddaughter now is helping to sweep the floor.
Tom Friday is happy that the Helicopter flight test on Mars went well.
Amir Famili’s Nephew has worked for years on the Mars project.
There is a rocket launch tomorrow going to the Space Station.
CELEBRATION DATES:
Pres. Ralph displayed the list of April 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.
Pres. Ralph read to us the Rotary Vision Statement as the quote of the week.
WELCOME GUESTS:
Chair Tom Friday extended a welcome to our guests on line with us today. He encourages us all to invite guests to join our meetings.
Pres. Ralph again said “The world needs more Rotarians.
FOUR WAY TEST:
Marlene Heller read the 4 items and then asked for volunteers to give an example.
Pat Witcher said that we all have been living the Four Way Test throughout this pandemic, and that we are the better for it.
FUNDRAISING FOR THE VET MEMORIAL:
The AWRC board yesterday approved committing $1,800 in cash and then seeking at least $700 in donations to support the new Veterans Memorial in Ontelaunee Park. Bill Delicker was delighted. Bill said that the dedication date has been moved out to Memorial Day 2022 or later because of issues with the granite.
Dr. Kathy Ott, our baking expert, will be selling some cakes to raise funds for the Memorial.
The Amazon Smile fundraising details will be coming in a week or so.
SNACK PACKING FOR LCCC & LOWHILL F.P.
Snackpacks were made and delivered by Barb Kistler, Karen Rodgers and Gail Micca.
30 were delivered to Lowhill F.P. by Barb and 70 were delivered to Gene at LCCC.
Kathy Ott will be delivering supplies to Parkland next week for the April packing.
HIGHWAY CLEAN-UP PROJECT:
AWRC WORK DAY - MAY 1st:
May 1st is a workday at the garden with Interact members and Camp Neidig participants. Please contact Gail to sign up to help make this day great. All are welcome.
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Jean Masiko needs volunteers for the Kingdom Life Food Center distribution on Saturday April 24.
Gail Micca reminds us to “Please consider stopping by to learn about the Green Thumbs Garden Project this Thursday. We will have a general orientation session at 2:00 and again at 6:30. You can sign up here:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/904044FAEAD23A1FE3-garden. Or you simply let me know.”
Kits of garden seeds are being prepared. You plant them and you get two to keep.
Habitat for Humanity still needs volunteer painters on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Contact Amir.
The Tri-District Conference is comin April 29th.
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:
Painting project at Lehigh Valley Zoo, TBD
STATUS OF MORNING MEETINGS:
The AWRC B.O.D. has suspended all AWRC face-to-face meetings until further notice. Zoom meetings are now scheduled for each Wednesday at 7:30 A.M.
NEXT MORNING MEETING:
Wednesday April 28, 2021 starting at 7:30 a.m. We will use Zoom to meet. Our program will be AWRC’s Dr. Barbara Kistler, Dean of Academic Services (Ret) Leading the AWRC Scholarship Program Presentations for Parkland High School Students.
STATUS OF THURSDAY EVENING MEETING:
No Thursday evening meetings are planned until after the pandemic..
PROGRAM:
Pres. Ralph Witcher introduced Jill Reynard, Admissions Counselor at Job Corps giving an Introduction to Job Corps & the Lehigh Valley. With Jill was CALVIN "CAL" HERRING the Business Community Liaison. Ralph said they are remarkable people.
Professionally Jill has spent the majority of her career working in the Human Services with adolescents in placement through Children & Youth and Juvenile Probation. Jill has had the opportunity to work with thousands of children in all aspects of placement services from Case Worker, Intake Counselor to Court Liaison Services. She has taken great pride in working with the youth she has had under her purview.
Since coming to Job Corps, Jill has been able to help many young people around the Lehigh Valley gain admission to free education & training. One of the biggest focuses has been to educate professionals and people in the Lehigh Valley about Job Corps and all that it has to offer.
Jill is a native to the Lehigh Valley. She graduated from Parkland High School in 1995 and attended Lehigh Carbon Community College and Fisher College in Massachusetts. Currently she lives in Allentown.
Calvin “Cal” Herring started his work at Keystone Job Corps in February of 1995. Over this time, Cal has worked as a Vocation Instructor (business and carpentry), Vocational Counselor, College Coordinator, Work Based Learning Coordinator, and is now the Business Community Liaison for Job Corps of Lehigh Valley. He will retire soon. Also Cal is a member of the Hazleton RC.
Jill said she was excited to be with us today to tell this story. Keystone Job Corps Center and Red Rock Job Corps Center are the two that are close enough to the Lehigh Valley and serve them. Recently the management of the two centers has merged to a common structure with Keystone leading.
Job Corps is the largest nationwide residential career training program in the country and has been operating for more than 50 years.
Job Corps is a voluntary program administered by the United States Department of Labor that offers free-of-charge education and vocational training to young men and women ages 16 to 24. Job Corps has a budget of $1.7 billion per year.
Job Corps’ mission is to educate and train highly-motivated young people for successful careers in the nation’s fastest-growing industries.
BTW, Keystone has a Cougar as its mascot. They are located in Hazleton, PA. Jill works both Admissions at the beginning, and then placement and follow-up afterward.
Students can apply by going on line. They must meet low income requirements, and be drug free and not in any trouble. They live in Dormitories and are well fed, have good health care, have a campus life as well as extra events ( not during the pandemic).
The training starts with an evaluation of each student’s literacy and numeracy skills being evaluated. Some will have courses in those subjects as well as training for possible occupations. 75% of the graduates find good jobs. Some go into the Military.
Entry is all year, and students typically stay for 9 to 12 months. Some go on to college after the Job Corps. There also is a way for a single parent with a child to participate.
Since this is a U.S. Government program, they have not been allowed to expand, even though the need is there. Between the two centers they can handle over 900 students at a time. Only half of that is during the pandemic.
One of the needs that Jill has is for more people and businesses to know about these programs. Presentations like this one help.
CLOSING:
Pres Ralph led us in the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
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