President-Elect Lou Ellen Werry Addresses Club
Gallipolis Rotarians heard from President-Elect Lou Ellen Werry at the weekly meeting of the Gallipolis Rotary Club. Lou Ellen went on record to say that, ‘this is not your grandfather’s Rotary Club!’ When the new Rotary year begins in July our club will be focusing on the usual goals from the International and the District level, but we will also be focusing on the Four-F’s—Fun, Fellowship, Fund-raising, and Foundation.
Our President-Elect introduced the new members of the Board of Directors that will serve starting in July—Shirley Doss, Jodie McCalla, Shawn Siders, James Wellington, Kevin Petrie, Chuck Clark, and Debbie Saunders. President Bonnie McFarland will also sit in on the board as Past President. She emphasized the importance of personally investing oneself through regular club attendance and the friendships we make through Rotary fellowship. Lou Ellen emphasized the importance of annually supporting our Rotary Foundation and brought out her own check for this year’s contribution. The Foundation does so many incredible projects in which our club participates including PDG Mel’s Operation We Care, Literacy, Deep Water Well Projects, Humanitarian Outreach, Polio Plus, Scholarships, and so much more! We’re gong to have a great year next year and we are all looking forward to supporting President Lou Ellen and Gallipolis Rotary!
President Bonnie McFarland called our club meeting to order and Rotarian Cleeland Willis gave the invocation. Our guest today was Zac Fosler, who was a guest of Melissa Kimmel. Zac has completed the application process for membership and met with President Bonnie and Past President Debbie Rhodes for an introduction luncheon. Zac will become our 41st member next week!
District Assembly—The annual District 6690 Assembly is coming up Saturday, April 17th and Lou Ellen Werry, Chuck Clark, and PDG Mel Simon will be attending. This is always a great meeting to learn more about the workings of Rotary, so if anyone is interested in coming along, there is room for you!
Literacy Project—Debbie Saunders, reported our club is applying for several District awards including the Literacy Resource Service Award and the Public Relations Recognition Award. We have surpassed the required criteria, so we are hopeful for the citation. Thank you, Debbie and Emily Dailey, for all of your hard work this year!
Polio Plus Project–Shirley Doss announced the date for our club’s Spaghetti Dinner to support Rotary’s Polio Plus initiative–April 27th. Mark your calendars as we will need your help for this fundraiser.
Support to the ESC—Denise Shockley asked club members to complete a brief survey for the Education Service Center in support of a grant for the after school enrichment programs. Several of our members are involved in this program which extends learning after the end of the school day.
Early Start Next Week—President Bonnie announced we will be starting five minutes earlier next week at 7:10 am, as we have a full agenda and a great program by the participants in this year’s Operation We Care medical mission to the Philippines. Please remember to arrive by 7:00 am if at all possible.
Fellowship—Gordon Amsbary ran club fellowship for our meeting today with the announcement that today is National Doctor’s Day! This is also National ‘I Am In Control’ Day. Gordon mentioned a number of famous birthdays and a quiz on Ohio’s first capitols.
Special Event At Bossard Library—Debbie Saunders announced that Bossard Library will be hosting 9-11 survivor, Joe Dittmar, as a part of National Library Month, on April 24th, at 1:00 pm. He has been a speaker for a number of Rotary functions and this is one program you will not want to miss!
Scholarship Committee—Jodie McCalla reminded Rotarians she would like to have a couple additional members serve on the Scholarship Committee to review the applications for this year’s awards. You can email her at: jlmccalla@ovbc.com.
Split-The-Pot—Dan Whiteley ran STP for our meeting today collecting a small pot of $7 and running up the total in the large pot to $138.00! Our lucky winner today was Chuck Clark, but he missed the big one by drawing the five of clubs. Chuck assessed the Foundation Fine against anyone who was not wearing jeans today!
See you all next week, and remember to arrive at 7:00 am!