Gallipolitan
Rio Grande Mayor, Matt Easter, addresses Gallipolis Rotary
President Deb Rhodes was back with us again and opened the regular morning meeting of the Gallipolis Rotary Club. We’ve been having excellent attendance and thank you all for for efforts to turn out for our meetings. Rotary is always a little bit better when you are there!
Coin Box–John Ellison turned in another heavy Rotary coin box to benefit the Rotary Foundation. This makes a total of 5 boxes this month alone and new Rotarian David Smith has turned in 2 in the last 30 days! Here are the Rotarians who have turned in boxes in the past 30 days: Marlin, Dave S. (2), Shirley, Chuck, Kevin, and John. Good work everyone.
District Foundation/Membership Seminar–President Deb reminded Rotarians the sign up sheet will continue to be passed around at the next several meetings for anyone who would like to attend this upcoming District event. It will be held Saturday, October 18th, at the Cherry Valley Lodge in Newark. New members, this is an excellent way to learn more about Rotary and it counts as a makeup!!! Red Badge Credit, anyone?
Club Board Meeting–Our next club board meeting will be Wednesday, October 1st, at 1 pm at the OVB Main Office, in the downstairs board room. Mark your calendars, and Red Badge members, you need to make at least one of these to move to the Blue Badge!
Farm Festival–Only 17 more days until the Bob Evans Farm Festival October 10, 11, 12! Chairman, Paul Koch, reminded everyone that the Health Department will be at our meeting next week to administer TB Tests. The biggest challenge is remembering to get it read! You will need to appear at the Health Department on Thursday to get it read and receive your card.
Set up is on Thursday, October 9th and we will need a crew to unload the pallets and set up the freezers and supplies. There are no additional requirements this year, but everyone needs to wear a hat or cap or something like that French guy that showed up last year. District Governor Tom Kokensparger will be with us on Friday to dip ice cream!
Dictionary Project–President Deb announced the club’s Dictionary Project is about to kick off soon. We are planning the distribution the week after Farm Festival, Oct 15th and the club will be scheduling a labeling party in advance to label all the dictionaries. This only takes about an hour or so, but is great fellowship. More on this next week!
Rotary Reading Project–Emily Dailey reminded everyone the reading project is about to being for this school year in the county elementary schools. Emily brought some books and will have more books on-hand next week that members might want to look through. Members need to sign up for a school and a date to read. If everyone signs up, we will only need to read once or twice during the entire year. President Deb emphasized how fun and rewarding the experience was last year for her. The kids love seeing new faces and learning about our Rotary club!
Split-The-Pot–Dan Whiteley was carrying a fairly large wad of bills today as he was selling STP tickets. Our weekly pot has certainly grown over the past weeks as today our small pot was $10. Dan asked our program speaker, Matt Easter, to draw the winning ticket which was held by Rotarian Shirley Doss! Shirley then carefully drew for the large of $50, missing it by drawing something other than the Queen of Hearts. The Foundation Fine was assessed against anyone who had to go to work today!
Fellowship–Lou Ellen Werry led club fellowship for the meeting, first collecting fines for anyone who arrived late or had a missing badge or pin. Next, we had two birthdays–Tammi Brabham and Jim Morrison. For a small donation, the club serenaded the pair with a fairly well performed version of Happy Birthday. Lou Ellen continued and related her experiences this past weekend in New York City. She identified five specific things one can do for under $5 in the Big Apple: 1) Cup of Coffee, 2) Staten Island Ferry, 3) Get your picture taken at Battery Park, 4) See numerous famous people on the streets, and 5) Visit 9/11 Ground Zero site.
Rotarian Magazine–VP Bonnie McFarland recommended an interesting story on page 13 in this month’s Rotarian magazine about a lady who spent 60 years in an iron lung, yet attended college, wrote a children’s book, and volunteered as a phone counselor. Her efforts were recognized by the Rotary Club of Jackson, TN, who made her a Paul Harris Fellow in 2002. Polio was a feared disease in the 40’s and 50’s and is Rotary’s challenge to eradicate completely from the face of the earth. This is Rotary–Humanity in motion.
Program–Today’s program chairman was Jeff Lanham, a self-confessed Rio Grander, who introduced our speaker for the morning, Matt Easter, the mayor of Rio Grande. Matt has been mayor of the village for six years now and related an interesting story of how he came to become interested in the position. He filed for the election, put up some signs, and won by one vote! Matt was challenged by the visions of what Rio Grande could be as a unique college town and has worked tirelessly in creative efforts to promote the village.
Matt has urged Rio residents to help clean up the village and a cooperative project with the county resulted in new sidewalks and curbing on SR 325. Visitors are welcomed by new entrance signs to the village and plantings of flowers. Rockets Over Rio was created last year in an effort to attract the attendees to the Bob Evans Festival to stay over and see a great fireworks display conducted by the same firm that handles ‘Red, White, and Boom’ for Columbus. This year Matt has added a blues band to play until dark.
Matt is grateful for an excellent relationship with the University of Rio Grande over the years. He feels there is a great future for the University and the senergy will benefit both groups. The village is going to be updating the sewer plant and planning on additional improvements. A Family Dollar store will be locating to the village soon. The groundbreaking will take place for the new Rio Grande Elementary School on October 17th. The growth has been slow, but steady for the village of Rio Grande.
Bonnie presented our speaker with a certificate of appreciation for addressing the club. Matt signed a book label for a book that will be presented to Rio Grande elementary in his honor.