Thank you to all who joined us for our lunch meeting this week! It was a packed agenda (and a packed house!), and we enjoyed seeing three different elements of what Rotary provides for our club members and our community.
First, we heard from Gabe Bento, a senior at Liberty High School who specializes in the Educational Technology field while studying at BAVTS. Congratulations to Gabe, who was our Artisan of the Month for January.
Gabe Bento, BAVTS Artisan of the Month, speaks to Club members
Next, we presented checks to, and heard from four community organizations that were beneficiaries of the Bethlehem Rotary Foundation grant awards. Each recipient gave us a summary of how the funds they received will go to work in our community. As a reminder, our Foundation awarded nearly $20,000 in grants this year, and hearing from the beneficiaries is a great way to remind ourselves that our hard work at Tastes & Tunes makes a real impact in our community. At our meeting this week, we heard from:
- Kim Checkeye – Truth for Women – Supporting The Truth Home - $2,000
- Bob Rapp – Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering – Supporting the Winter Homeless Shelter - $2,000
- Hopeton Clennon – Central Moravian Church – Supporting student scholarships for a community service trip to Jamaica - $1,250
- Sue Kiefner – Wesley Church – Supporting the We Got Your Backpack program - $1,000
Grant Recipients, L to R: Bob Rapp, Kim Checkeye, Sue Kiefner, Hopeton Clennon
A special thank you to Maria Nathans who came up with this creative way to distribute the checks from the Foundation. It provides a special moment for the grant recipient and the members of our club!
Last, and certainly not least, Cathy Abreu gave her classification talk. So often, we are only familiar with our Rotarian colleagues from the time they/we join Rotary… and classification talks allow us to hear about the journey before Rotary. Thank you Cathy for helping us all get to know you… your talk was fantastic!
Cathy Abreu giving her Rotary Classification talk.
Be on the lookout for an invitation to our Annual Meeting. Along with the invitation, I will be including the slate of officers and directors, which I am happy to report, is full!! Thank you to Ham Malek and the members of the Nominating Committee for their work. Remember that we NEED a quorum to hold the election of the Board, so please make every attempt to attend this meeting. I will be including reminders in my newsletter each week leading up to the election. I am still working on a date for that meeting.
Come join our meeting this week as we hear from our own Lisa Jordan! Lisa’s program is entitled “How Art Can Build Community and Understanding”. We will also be hearing from two additional Bethlehem Rotary Foundation grant recipients!
Some reminders:
- Plan on joining our Dropkick Meeting this Thursday, 5:30PM at Taps Tavern!
- Registration for District Conference is open. The conference this year is in Allentown, so it will be very convenient for us all to attend. Here is the link to view the event and get registered… District Conference Registration
