Gallipolitan
‘Greg Yank’s Elevator Speech’ to a Potential Member: “Attending my Rotary Club is the single best hour of my busy work week” . . . from the District Assembly, Saturday, April 17th
President Bonnie McFarland opened this week’s meeting of the Gallipolis Rotary Club promptly at 7:15 am and Rotarian Kevin Petrie gave the invocation. Our guests today included visiting Rotarian Bill Knight from Pt. Pleasant Rotary and Juan McCabe, our speaker and guest of Shirley Doss.
Red Badge Rotarians—New members wear the Red Badge of Distinction for a few months as newcomers to the club. President Bonnie asked our Red Badge Rotarians to stand up and be recognized by the club. Remember the steps you need to take to move to the blue badge:
- Attend a club Board Meeting
- Present a vocational talk to the club as a program
- Work on a club project or committee
- Attend a club meeting at a neighboring Rotary Club
- Greeter at meetings and hand out badges to members
District Assembly—President Bonnie, VP/President-Elect Lou Ellen Werry, Treasure Shawn Siders, Secretary Chuck Clark, PDG Mel Simon, and Resty Alonzo all traveled to Circleville on Saturday to attend the District 6690 Assembly. It was a great meeting with may stimulating presentations particularly PDG Mel’s presentation on the Philippine Disaster Relief conducted by District 6690.
District Conference—Time is running out for the registration for the District Conference May 13-16 in Athens. If club members register before the end of April, the fee is only $25, but starting May 1, the registration goes to $50. President Bonnie urged the club to make the effort to attend at least one day and if our club has the highest percent attendance DG Ram will pay our club $500! Use the link in this paragraph to register!
Polio Plus Fundraiser—Shirley Doss reminded everyone that next week’s meeting will be cancelled and Rotarians are to report to the Polio Plus Spaghetti Dinner which will be held at the Senior Resource Center on SR 160 starting at 5 pm. Shirley also said a ‘Sauce Session’ will be held at the Center on Monday afternoon starting at 3 pm and we need arms to stir Alvera Robinson’s secret sauce! Shirley will be emailing a printable electronic ticket to all members today and members are asked to print out 5 tickets to sell for this event. Our club can raise the $1,000 for Polio Plus if everyone can sell 5 tickets.
Rotary Scholarships—Jodie McCalla updated the club on the progress of the scholarship committee. The club has nine candidates for scholarships and all the materials have been received. The committee will meet briefly after the meeting to score the applicants. The results will be announced shortly.
Relay For Life Auction—Dan Whiteley announced the club’s fundraising auction has been doing well recently and will have a trailer load of items today, thanks to Jim Morrison. Kevin Petire added that the club would like to have the forms to sell Luminaries at next week’s spaghetti dinner.
Fellowship—Gordon Amsbary ran club fellowship today and realized today was April 20 and NOT March 20! Gordon did share some of the historical events that occurred on both days. He offered a tribute to honor the recent WV coal mine disaster. We had no fines today as everyone was on time and equipped with their pins and badges.
Happy Buck$—Kurt Dailey bought a couple of happy bucks as he and Emily are expecting a new Grandchild this week and their youngest is graduating from college this year!
Rotary Coin Boxes—Margaret Evans and Marlin Rose both turned in really heavy, ‘stuffed to the gills’ coin boxes to fund their contributions to the Rotary Foundation. Thanks, guys! New members Shana Booher and Sharon Shull joined in and each took a box to fill. This is a great and painless way to contribute to the Foundation!
Split-The-Pot—Jim Morison ran STP for the meeting and our small po
t was $12.00 today! Jim asked our speaker, Juan McCabe to draw the winning ticket which was held by John Ellison! John missed the ‘big one’ of $170.00 by drawing the seven of clubs. The Foundation Fine was assessed against anyone who was wearing shoes WITH laces! Good one!
Program—Today’s program chair was Shirley Doss who introduced her guest, Juan McCabe, a certified diversity trainer, who spoke to the club about some of the unique black history of Gallia County. Rotarians remembered Juan from the Rotary Relays as he volunteered his time to help make our relays a great event! 
Juan spoke of some of the history of Lincoln school, settlers of the Lambert Lands, and a similar group called the One-Hundreds. Juan recounted some of the stories he heard as a youngster at the barbershop and from older adults. “When you look at a person, it is like an iceberg,” he added. “You only see a little bit of that person. The real part of that person is hidden beneath.” Thanks, Juan and Shirley, for a great program.
Next week: NO MORNING MEETING!!! Spaghetti Dinner at the Senior Resource Center, starting at 5PM.