Sunday, October 21th, 2018
It was another busy week in the world of Rotarians! Our weekly meeting agenda was packed with interesting themes.
We opened our meeting by presenting the check from our District Grant award to the Center for Humanistic Change (CHC). Thresa Krohn, the Grant Writer for CHC, was on hand to tell us how the funds were used to purchase iPads (shown in photo below) or the mentors who volunteer in the program. The District Grant, along with the match from our foundation, provided total funding of $4,104 for this initiative! Special thanks to Laura Kaplus and Deb Geiger whose persistence allowed us to secure this district grant!!
We then heard from Nicole Flores, our Artisan of the Month for October. Nicole is a senior at Liberty High School and her area of focus at BAVTS is Graphics Communication. Nicole shared with us her experiences and her work!
Nicole Flores - Our BAVTS Artisan of the Month
Mike McGovern then introduced Vitalii Antoliiovych Lutak, the Deputy Minister of Education in the Ukraine. Vitalii, speaking through an interpreter, told us about the recent work of the Open World Leadership Center. Vitalii and his team are traveling throughout the United States to learn more about the best practices in the American educational system. Thank you to all who asked great questions following their presentation! As I mentioned in the meeting, I was not quite sure what to expect for this program… and I was, again, so impressed with the content of the program and the engagement with our club…
Vitalii Lutak (R) and his translator (L) speaking about education in Ukraine
And on Friday, the Morningstar and Bethlehem Rotary clubs co-sponsored the Janet Sipple Lecture series at Moravian College, where this year’s topic was Global Health. In honor of World Polio Day (on October 24th) Mike McGovern, the Chair of the International PolioPlus Committee from District 7780 in Maine, spoke at Central Moravian Church. Mike is simply an outstanding speaker, and his message was awesome! His remarks made me realize how unaware I was about how prevalent polio was as recent as 1988! It was great to see Rotarians in attendance from both clubs to support this event. We have come so far and are so close to complete eradication, and it gave me great pride knowing that our club helped through our participation in the Purple Pinkie 5K Run/Walk. Thank you to all who helped through your participation and/or sponsorship. As a reminder, if you had made a pledge to Maria Nathans for the Purple Pinkie, please follow up with her to satisfy your pledge commitment.
Finally, it is with a heavy heart that I must share the sad news of the passing of our fellow Rotarian, Paul Florenz. I mentioned at our meeting on Wednesday that Paul had been hospitalized. His condition quickly deteriorated, and he was admitted to hospice care on Wednesday and passed away on Thursday. While we are all shocked and saddened by the loss of Paul, be somewhat comforted by the fact that his family was by his side.
I do hope that it gets easier to think about life without Paul. I will miss his friendship, his advice, his wit, his humor and his invocations that always made me say “WOW”. Paul…. I am not sure why my ticket was selected to win the cheese board that you made for our Taste & Tunes raffle… but I will always treasure our friendship through that special memento… we will miss you...
Click
HERE to read Paul's obituary.
Please join us at our next meeting where we will hear from Alan Jennings
Announcements:
- The deadline for submissions for grant applications to the Bethlehem Rotary Foundation is October 31st. Please contact Mike McGovern if you need additional information about applications and criteria.
- Mark Your Calendars for these Upcoming Events
- October 20th – Rotary Leadership Institute – DeSales
- October 24th - World Polio Day
- October 25th – Mini-meeting at Taps Tavern
Yours in Rotary service,
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