On Wednesday, November 16th we enjoyed our annual Thanksgiving Luncheon. In addition to our own club members, there were guests from 4 other clubs as well as our Assistant District Governor Janet Kolepp. As always, the Moravian staff prepared a scrumptious feast for all of us to enjoy.
Chris Baird from Bethlehem Area Vo-Tech, was selected Artisan of the Month. He is a graphic communications student and a senior at Northhampton High School. Chris spoke briefly about his background, and how important the Vo-Tech program is to him.
Our main speaker was Jan Musser-Geier, Marketing and Outreach Coordinator of the Salvation Army Children's Services: Foster Care and Adoption Program. The group provides foster care and adoption services through referrals from the PA Dept. of Human Services. The Salvation Army has provided children's services since 1915, which began at the Ivy House in Philadelphia as a program for unwed mothers. The program gradually expanded into foster care, and then in 1995 began to offer adoption services. Although they are part of the Salvation Army division in Philadelphia, they operate as a separate organization from Lehigh Valley Salvation Army, and work in tandem to serve as many families as possible.
We watched an ad which airs every month about children in foster care . A child who is available for adoption is featured on the first Friday of each month in the hope that interested parents will respond. Jan outlined the amazing breadth of services their group offers:
The Salvation Army offers three types of foster care.
- Regular Foster Care: Foster parents provide for the temporary care for children who require out of home care.
- Respite Foster Care: Respite families provide short term care to foster parents who are already caring for children.
- Foster-Adopt (Legal Risk): Foster parents provide care for a child on a temporary basis but are open to adoption should the child become legally free for adoption.
The Salvation Army offers the following adoption services:
- Child Prep which prepares the child for the adoption.
- Child Profile which summarizes the Childs background and special needs.
- Family Profile which is a home study to evaluate the potential adoptive family and Finalization which is the final application steps leading to the adoption.
- Matching which involves sharing information about your family with agencies responsible for children available for adoption in PA through The Statewide Adoption & Permanency Network (SWAN).
- Post Adoption Services to aid in supporting the needs of the child and family post adoption.
- Home Studies for families who are working toward private domestic and international adoptions
We also saw pictures of the Comfort Cottage, which is designed to look and feel like a real home. The Comfort Cottage is used as a training facility where at risk parents can learn better parenting skills so that their children can eventually return home to them. For 95% of children who leave their parental home, their main goal is to return to their parents. In 2015, 517 children were referred to the Salvation Army, unfortunately, they only had the resources to accept 12 of those children. Anyone wishing to help can find more information at Care4kids.net
Other Announcements:
- Thank you to all who attended today’s luncheon. As you know, $5.00 of the lunch fee will be donated to the Polio Plus Program.
- A special thank you to Bruce Palmer for organizing our Thanksgiving luncheon, and to the Moravian Village food preparers and servers.
- We received a thank you note from St. Luke’s University Health Network for the donation of books for its Healthy Kids, Bright Futures program.
- Thank you Sylvia Doyle for coordinating our Club’s food donations for New Bethany Ministries and the Hispanic Center, and thanks to everyone who donated so that others in our community can partake in traditional Thanksgiving meal.
- Bob Weed will be speaking at Whitehall Historical Preservation Society on November 16 at 7:00 pm. The topic- Korea: The Forgotten War. Bob is a marine veteran of the Korean War.
- Next call for volunteers is 12/10. Our club will be ringing the Salvation Army bell at Christkindlmarkt from 11:00am to 8:00pm. We are asking for one hour of members' time for this project. Ron will have a sign-up sheets on 11/30 and 12/7.
- Holiday Party Committee arranged for our club to attend Morning Star’s Holiday Breakfast on 12/22 here at Moravian Village. This will not replace our Wednesday, 12/21 noon meeting, as that date is our annual meeting and time to remember special Rotarians. Schedule: 7:10 – 7:30 meet and greet; 7:30 Breakfast and festivities. Cost is $10 per person, plus you can sponsor a member for the Liberty HS Chorus, who will be providing the entertainment. If you are planning to attend, please see Jill Long.
- Service Project to fight hunger – Saturday, March 11. We will be joining our sister Area 2 Rotary Clubs – Morning Star, Nazareth, Easton, and Saucon Valley. We will be packaging food through Outreach Hunger for local good pantries in our respective communities at Moravian College. Catherine Trawinski and Diane Donaher will be coordinating these efforts for our Club. We will need many volunteers from our clubs.
- There will be no meeting on Wednesday, November 23rd due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
Yours In Rotary,
Gerry Foran
President-Elect
