It was another inspiring and jaw-dropping lunch meeting this week, so thank you to the many Rotarians who attended! We continue to have great attendance. More importantly, we continue to have a long list of guests at our meetings. I cannot stress enough the importance of inviting a friend or colleague to a meeting. A well-attended meeting with a great program is the best way to introduce others to what makes our club so great. Keep up the great work in this area!
We heard from another one of our grant recipients this week. Sister Virginia Longcope from Stephen’s Place joined us to tell us how the $1,760 grant that she received would be used to relocate HVAC infrastructure to improve the functionality of the dining areas within the recovery house that she operates. She also shared with us a success story of how her program transformed a young man’s angry heart to a heart filled with love. Most, if not all of us, either have a family member or friend who struggles with addiction, and it is impressive and inspiring to see the great work that she does to help support them.
Sister Virginia Longcope
Seeing the representatives from the many organizations that have benefitted from our grants gives us a much greater appreciation for the good (and difficult) work that is done by our Bethlehem Rotary Foundation Board. This is a board that does great work, and its efforts often fly under the radar. Seeing the recipients, and actually handing them the check gives us all an opportunity to see the fruits of your labor! Thank you to Mike McGovern (Chair), Cindy Glick, Maria Nathans, Deb Geiger and Maria Esposito for their work on this committee. My apologies if I have forgotten anyone! Thank you for all that you do to help find worthy homes for our grant dollars!
Our program feature was our own Past President, Gerry Foran. As you all know, Gerry has made a career and built a successful business in the world of pension plans. In his program, “What Every PA Citizen Should Know”, Gerry provided some startling statistics about the current, and troubling, financial status of the defined benefit pension plan provided to state employees…. and more importantly, what it could mean to us, as taxpayers, who help to fund this through the state budget. Thank you, Gerry for great information about a complicated subject that was presented in an interesting and entertaining way! Who said actuaries can’t be entertaining!! Well done!!
Gerry Foran speaking on PA State Employee Pension Plans
So this is it… my last opportunities to remind you about the Annual Meeting… please help to make sure we have a quorum for our meeting and election. This Wednesday, February 13th, noon at Moravian Village. Vote for the 2019/20 Officers and members of the Board.
Come to our meeting this week. In addition to our election, we will be induction new member, Greg Capogna. We will also hear from Shannon Crooker, Director of Program Related Investments for the Sustainable Energy Fund (SEF). In her role, Shannon is responsible for planning, directing, coordinating, and implementing all phases of the SEF's Finance Program to include financing energy conservation projects and executing Nonprofit Energy Savings Agreements. It will be a great program to supplement our election!
Some reminders:
- Our club will participate again in the Area 2 Outreach Hunger Event. It will be held Saturday, March 9th at Moravian College. We will need LOTS of volunteers, so please mark your calendars now, since that will be here before we know it! This is part of a district grant match, so please help to support this event… we will be assembling over 40,000 meals for local agencies.
- Be sure to get registered for the District Conference. This year it will be held in Allentown at the Renaissance Hotel at 7th and Hamilton. It will be held over the weekend of May 3rd, 4th and 5th. Know that you can register in an “ala carte” fashion taking in as much or as little of the conference as you schedule permits. Here is the link to view the event and get registered… District Conference Registration
