THE GALLIPOLIS ROTARY CLUB

Melissa Kunkle, Director of Nursing for the Gallia County Health District received a check from the Gallipolis Rotary Club for funding of the Children’s Tylenol which is provided free of charge to children receiving immunizations at the health department.  President Bonnie McFarland presented the check along with Paul Koch, project chair for the Bob Evans Farm Festival ice cream booth.  This important project is the primary fund raiser for the club and helps fund community projects like the Tylenol as well as scholarships for area high school seniors.  Melissa and another nurse, Gwen McGraw, provided TB tests for Rotarians who will work this week’s Farm Festival.

President Bonnie McFarland opened the meeting and ADG Matt Willis provided the invocation.  President Bonnie welcomed our visitors today from the health department.  Because today’s meeting was scheduled as a club assembly, our format was more informal and members lined up to take advantage of the TB tests in preparation for this weekend’s Bob Evans Festival.  ADG Matt was one of the first folks to roll up his sleeve and get his test from Melissa.   Thank you Melissa and Gwen for being with us these past two weeks!

Dictionary Literacy Project—Next week our meeting will become a labeling session for the 400 dictionaries which will be distributed the following Friday to Gallia County fifth graders.  Project Chair, Debbie Saunders, briefed Rotarians to be ready to label these dictionaries.  Friday, October 16th is Noah Webster’s birthday and is the day designated for distribution.  The plan will be for 2-3 Rotarians to go to each school and meet with the fifth grade class.   This is a fun day for students and Rotarians alike.

Split-The-Pot—Jim Morrison ran STP for the meeting today and asked President Bonnie to draw the winning ticket which was held by President Bonnie!  Today’s small pot was $8 and in the drawing for the large pot of $187, Bonnie missed the queen by drawing the two of clubs.  The Foundation Fine was assessed against anyone who ‘has to go to work today!’

Coin Boxes—Two more additional coin boxes were turned in today to benefit the Rotary Foundation.  Shirley Doss and Marlin Rose turned in two stuffed boxes.  Still no news from Shawn on Dave Smith’s box turned in last week.  We’ll have to wait until next week!

Fellowship-President Bonnie thanked Emily Dailey for handling club fellowship for the past quarter.  Our new fellowship chair through December is Cleeland Willis, backed up by the ever faithful Gordon Amsbary.  Cleeland’s first order of business was to fine Marlin Rose for his late arrival at the meeting as well as any Rotarians not wearing their pins or badges.  John Ellison celebrates a birthday this week so the entire club sang a great rendition of “Happy Birthday” to John.

Rotary Reading Project—Project Chair, Emily Dailey, reminded members the club starts our reading in county first grade classes this week!  If you have signed up to read, be sure you are at the school at 8:30 am and they will be expecting you.  Emily urges every club member to sign up for at least one reading session as the children really enjoy having adults come to class and read for a half hour or so.  Chuck Clark read at Southwestern on Wednesday and chose “Horton Hears A Who” and “Arthur’s Loose Tooth.”  It was a fun time!

Farm Festival—Here we are once again and it’s time to dip the ice cream!  Project Chair, Paul Koch, briefed members on our setup this year.  Prices are $2.00 for cones and $4.00 for cups.  Paul reminded everyone we want to give value, but not the store away!  We are also going to have dedicated cashiers on the line this year like we had on Sunday last year.  This way we won’t be handling money and cones at the same time.  We will operate three cashier positions for our busiest times.  Remember, bring along some help as we can always use the extra hands.

Many thanks also to John Ellison and Holzer Clinic for the donation of gloves we have to use.  Thanks also to President Bonnie and Holzer Medical Center for the donation of the hand sanitizer we will use.   See you at the Farm!  Saturday, October 10th is “Day In The Life of Rotary” day and Chuck Clark will be capturing the project for submission to Rotary International.

Rockets Over Rio—Jeff Lanham reminded members that at 9:30 pm or after the URG soccer game, a great fireworks display aptly called Rockets Over Rio will take place.  This is one of the region’s greatest treats and well worth coming out to Rio to see.  Park behind Lyne Center and bring your chair.

Membership Promotion—President Bonnie asked Membership Chair, Marlin Rose, to say a few words about our club’s membership promotion efforts for this Rotary year.  Marlin challenged every member to provide the names of qualified potential member candidates.   Marlin and his committee will build the list and through member contacts will invite potential candidates to upcoming meetings.  Marlin noted the club has received more publicity than ever in the local paper, thanks to the efforts of Debbie Saunders and her PR committee.  Public awareness of Rotary should be much higher now than in the past, so all we need to do is ASK!  We will be revising the brochure and other materials we need to give to prospective members.

President Bonnie emphasized that October is Rotary Vocation Month and we need to stress in our jobs, high ethical standards and the 4-Way Test with our associates and customers.  Business needs good examples of high ethical standards in business and Rotarians are called to actively display these values in our jobs.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 at 13:53 and is filed under Club Newsletters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.