Rotary Hears From Holzer Clinic CEO
The Gallipolis Rotary Club enjoyed hearing from G. Patrick Connors, Chief 
Executive Officer of Holzer Clinic at the club’s regular meeting. Others attending from Holzer Clinic included Marjean Kennedy and Marie Dremner. Dr. James M. Wellington, a local Chiropractor, attended Rotary for his second time today and expressed his interest in joining Gallipolis Rotary. President Deb Rhodes welcomed guests and Rotarians to the meeting.
National Library Week–Debbie Saunders spoke briefly to inform members about the upcoming celebration of National Library Week at Bossard Library. April 17-18 the library will have another “Antiques Road Show” where patrons can bring small heirlooms and have them appraised by local antique dealers. There will also live Bluegrass music and food! For Lincoln Day, the library will have a Lincoln impersonator on hand to provide a personal tribute to our 16th President.
Club Board Meeting–The next club board meeting will be Wednesday, April 1st, at 1:00 pm at the Ohio Valley Bank main office. The meeting will take place in the bank board room downstairs. Red Badge members are reminded attendance at one board meeting is one of the required steps to the blue member badge. Board meetings are a great way to make up any missed absences as well.
Literacy Project–Monthly School Reading–Project Chair, Emily Dailey, reminded members that Wednesday, April 1st is the club’s final reading day to the first graders in Gallia Local Schools. Emily was looking for a couple of volunteers for Vinton and Addison Elementary Schools. This has been a great project for our club this year.
Rotary Coin Box–President Deb announced that VP Bonnie McFarland turned 
in another HEAVY coin box to benefit the Rotary Foundation. Bonnie still holds the club record for a single coin box so it will be interesting to see if this meets or exceeds her record. Shawn Siders reported the coin box turned in by John Ellison last week totalled $39.62. Congratulations, John! President Deb gave away Bonnie’s secret, that she keeps the coin box in her car so when she exits McDonald’s drive-thru, the coins go in the box! This is a great way to make your yearly contribution to the Foundation.
Rotary Relays–President Deb announced we will be hearing from Jeff Lanham next week on the progress for the upcoming Rotary Relays. This year we are looking forward to hosting 7th and 8th grade students and parents in this meet. More on the event next week!
Ro-Li-Ki–This year’s combined meeting of Rotary, Lions, and Kiwanis clubs will be held on May 19th, at 6:00 pm at OO McIntyre Park. Be sure to mark your calendars for this fun event.
Split-The-Pot–Jim Morrison ran STP for today’s meeting and our small pot was $6. Our lucky ticket holder for the meeting was Mel Simon! Since the really, really big pot was won a few weeks back, this week’s large pot was only $12. Mel was faced with drawing a single card from an almost full deck, which consequently yielded the four of spades. Mel assessed the Foundation Fine against anyone who does not have plans to travel to Columbus to hear RI President Lee in two weeks!
Fellowship–Gordon Amsbary led club fellowship for the meeting by singing a few lines of some ‘oldie, but goodies’ from the 60’s. Gordo announced that today was National Bunsen Burner Day! Gordon also provided a few tidbits of history of interesting events on this day. He concluded with a few words of wisdom.
Program–Resty Alonzo introduced our speaker for today’s meeting, G. Patrick Connors, Chief Operating Officer for Holzer Clinic. Mr. Connors has been with Holzer Clinic since 1995, and is a native of Pennsylanvia. He has an interesting background and has been active in the establishing of the Clinic’s amblatory surgery centers. One of the major reasons for his affilliation with Holzer Clinic is the challenge of creating a fully integrated healthcare facility in our region.
Rotarians listened intently to Patrick as he described his vision of an integrated system similar to the Cleveland Clinic or Geisinger Medical Center in Pennsylvania. These are institutions that are committed to quality which have a model that would work in this area. A question and answer session concluded Mr. Connor’s remarks.