THE GALLIPOLIS ROTARY CLUB

Gallipolis Rotarians learned a few interesting facts about the music scene in Nashville from program speaker, Shana Smith.  Rotarian/husband, Dave Smith, introduced our speaker. 

Shana started singing and playing guitar with her Dad who encouraged her to perform and enter talent shows.  She has developed her own unique vocal style and has appeared on Nashville’s Bluebird Café, the Douglas Corner Café, and other opportunities in Music City.  In January, Shana was featured the RFD Channel’s Shotgun Red’s Show and Shana shared some video of the appearance which just aired on the RFD Channel.  Shana’s passion is writing her own songs and has now finished a new CD, The Heart of Happiness, a nearly three year endeavor with Nashville songwriter, Chris Gantry.

Shana is happy to now call Gallipolis home, has enjoyed singing for a number of local groups, and expressed her appreciation how our community has welcomed her.  Rotarians enjoyed the Q & A with our speaker at the conclusion of her remarks.  Thanks, Shana and Dave, for the great program!

President Shirley Doss presided at our meeting today and welcomed members and guests.  We had excellent attendance at the meeting today and Jodie McCalla introduced two guests—Robbie Pugh, from the Silver Screen VII, and Scott Saunders, from Saunders Insurance Agency.  Welcome and we hope you will come back!  President Shirley mentioned the club had received a nice note from Marcia Smith, thanking the club for hosting her father, Eddie Edlebuthe, last weed.

Fellowship—Club fellowship chair, Gordon Amsbary, had all the male club members stand today and give a loud ‘Tarzan yell’ to get things started.  Gordo recommended members read the new issue of ‘The Rotarian’ magazine this month.  Today is the first day of Spring, National Agriculture Day, as well as National Quilting Day.  There were no fines today and everyone was on time today.

Split-The-Pot—Shana Booher ran our STP for the meeting today selling a bunch of tickets and raising the small pot to $7.00!  Shana asked our speaker, Shana Smith, to draw today’s winning ticket which was held by . . . Cleeland Willis! (What, AGAIN?)  In the draw for the ‘Big One’ of $40.00, Cleeland came up a bit short and pulled the Three of Clubs.  Our Foundation Fine was assessed against anyone who has NOT visited Pompeii, Italy!

Scholarship Update—Project Chair, Jodie McCalla, reported the schools are not getting our scholarship information to students on a timely basis.  We have received some applications, but would like to see more.

Relay For Life—Relay Chair, Shana Booher, reported the club will be sponsoring the First Annual Relay For Life Lip Sync Contest, to raise monies for the annual Relay For Life fund raiser.  It will be held at the Ariel Theater and we hope to host 20 groups from business, hospitals, and education for a fun evening.  The date of the event will be announced shortly.

Program Assignments—Here is a list of the upcoming program responsibilities for the next few weeks:

Mar 27       Roger Mace, Gallipolis City Schools
Apr 3         Dan Whiteley
Apr 10       Kurt Dailey
Apr 17       John Ellison
Apr 24       Jeff Lanham
May 1        Bob Hood
May 8        David Wiseman
May 15      Gordon Amsbary

Gallipolis Rotarians turned out in good numbers today for the regular morning meeting.  Club President, Shirley Doss, welcomed members and guests.   Members were greeted by a great breakfast selection this morning of hot oatmeal with a variety of toppings, lots of fresh fruit, bagels, eggs, and turkey bacon.

Rotary Scholarships—Our Committee Chairperson, Jodie McCalla, announced the deadline for this year’s applicants for Rotary Scholarships is nearly upon us.  If you know an academically qualified student who should be considered, please urge them to get their applications filed.

Fellowship—Gordon Amsbary introduced our club fellowship session today with a tribute to the 60’s group, ‘The Monkeys.’  Gordon continued to challenge members with some historical trivia questions.  There are a number of celebrity birthdays this week.  Gordon nearly forgot to collect some fines from late arrivals by Lou Ellen Werry, Emily Dailey, and Zac Fosler.  President Shirley fined herself for not wearing her badge today.  Thanks, guys, the club foundation thanks you!

Split-The-Pot—Rotarian Jim Morrison ran our STP for the meeting today selling a ‘boatload’ of tickets running our small pot up to a respectable $9.00.  Jim asked visitor Eddie Edlebute to draw our winning ticket which was held by David Smith!  Dave drew for the large pot of $32.00, but pulled the nine of hearts.  Dave assessed the Foundation Fine against anyone who was not on the recent ballot last week!

Program—Our program chair for today was Debbie Rhodes who introduced our speaker, Mallory Mount, Registered Dietician for Holzer Medical Center.  Our speaker personally selected our special breakfast this morning to emphasize the importance of starting the day with a great breakfast.  She emphasized that breakfast IS the most important meal of the day! 

A proper breakfast helps achieve good heart-health and maintain healthy weight.  Our speaker reviewed a number of ways to improve our breakfasts, particularly if short on time.  A question and answer time provided members the opportunity to ask specific inquiries and learn valuable nutritional information.

Here are the program responsibilities for the next few weeks:

Mar 20       David Smith
Mar 27       Margaret Evans
Apr 3         Dan Whiteley
Apr 10       Kurt Dailey
Apr 17       John Ellison
Apr 24       Jeff Lanham
May 1        Bob Hood
May 8        David Wiseman

Gallipolis Rotarians learned the details about the recently concluded Rotary ‘Operation We Care’ medical Mission to the Philippines from PDG Mel Simon, at our club meeting today.  Pictured above captured some busy Doc’s at work—Doctors Fredric LaCarbonara, MD, Pt Pleasant,  Venerando Maximo, MD, Dover, DE Rotary, Mel Simon, MD, Gallipolis Rotary, and, Ralph Zaragoza, MD, Dover, DE Rotary.

Mel presented a club banner from the San Juan, (Philippines) Rotary Club and attendance make up’s from a total of SIX Rotary Clubs while he was away!  Mel is presenting the club banner to Gallipolis Rotary President, Shirley Doss.

President Shirley welcomed all Rotarians to the meeting today and it was good to see Bob Hood in our midst!  Welcome, everyone!

Fellowship—Gordon Amsbary opened our club fellowship for the meeting accepting a voluntary fine from Jim Morrison who returned from his time in St. John’s without an attendance makeup or banner he had planned!  We had a special belated birthday celebration today for Bob Hood to make up for missing his Jan 1 birthday.  For a small donation, Bob named a quartet of club members including Mel Simon, Resty Alonzo, Kurt Dailey, and Clyde Evans to sing Happy Birthday for him.  Kurt demonstrated the proper method of delivery of the song!  Good job, gentlemen!

Gordo coughed up a Happy Buck in honor of his son who properly shepherded his school class and escaped the terror of the Henryville, IN tornado.  Gordon concluded fellowship with a few words of wisdom.

Split-‘Zee’-Pot—Rotarian Shana Booher ran our STP today and pushed our small pot to $6.00.  Our lucky winner today was Nayyer Hassain.  Nayyer narrowly missed the big pot of $22.00 by drawing the King of Hearts keeping our pot growing yet another week!  Our Foundation Fine today was assessed against anyone who ‘was not wearing blue!’

Program—Dave Nadler was our Program Chair today and organized a vocational talk by red badge holder, Heather Crum.  This talk is required by all new members to help introduce our newest members and their vocation and interests to the club.  Heather jumped in enthusiastically covering her early years, and schooling at Marshall University.  She managed a double major in Marketing and Public Relations while also working at WSAZ. 

Today, Heather represents Farmer’s Bank as their Marketing Manager.  Our speaker took a few questions from members and spoke of her challenges with Type I diabetes and her busy schedule.  Somehow in all her spare time, Heather has earned the title of Miss Fayette County in WV and uses her achievement to promote diabetes awareness.  Thank you Heather and Dave for the interesting program today!

Here are the upcoming program assignments for the next 8 weeks:

Mar 13        Debbie Rhodes
Mar 20        David Smith
Mar 27        Margaret Evans
Apr 3          Dan Whiteley
Apr 10        Kurt Dailey
Apr 17        John Ellison
Apr 24        Jeff Lanham
May 1         Bob Hood

Rotary President, Shirley Doss, welcomed assembled Rotarians to the weekly meeting of the Gallipolis Rotary Club.  We had an excellent representation today of club members, but still missing a few of our regulars.  It was good to see Heather Crum in attendance today!

Fellowship—Gordon Amsbary led our fellowship today and called for birthdays zeroing in on Debbie Saunders who celebrated hers on February 24th.  Debbie contributed and built a quartet of Rotarians John Ellison, Kevin Dennis, Lee Saltzgaber, and Resty Alonzo, who together crooned an excellent rendition of Happy Birthday!  Gordo covered some celebrity birthdays, some comic relief, and concluded with a few words of wisdom.  Gordo did find time to assess a late fine against VP/President-Elect Jodie McCalla for a late arrival.

Split-The-Pot—Shanna Booher jumped in and ran our STP for the meeting selling a bunch of tickets to raise our small pot to $9.00!  Our lucky ticket holder today was John Ellison who graciously donated the winnings to the club’s foundation.  Thank you, John!  Next, our winner carefully drew from a fairly new deck for the large pot of $16.00, only to come up with the Five of Diamonds.  John assessed the Foundation Fine against anyone who ‘doesn’t have their current medical license!’  VP-Elect Lee Saltzgaber was fortunately exempt, as he now holds his Ohio license!  Congrat’s, Lee!

Happy Buck—Margaret Evans bought a Happy Buck in honor of the great medicine that is prescribed for allergic reactions, as they are a blessing to anyone who experiences such a reaction.  Amen, to that, Margaret!

Program—March is Rotary Literacy Month which coincides with our last Rotary Reading Project to the first grades in the Gallia County Local Schools.  Project Chair, Emily Dailey, spoke briefly about this highly successful club project and the impact it has had over the past few years with those first graders.  We have had kids remark to Rotarians about how much they appreciated the monthly visits and appearances by Rotarians in their schools.  We usually have 2-3 every year tell us similar stories when they buy ice cream from us at the Bob Evans Farm Festival!  Members spoke about their experiences with the reading project.  Past President Lou Ellen spoke on her experiences at Vinton Elementary, Kevin Dennis updated the club about Addaville, Chuck Clark spoke about Southwestern Elementary and President Shirley about Hannan Trace.

Today (February 28th), Rotary International is holding a series of webinars for clubs providing advice on how to build a stronger literacy effort in local communities.  Our club has joined with a number of clubs in the Philippines through PDG Mel Simon’s Operation We Care in providing nutrition assistance to indigent school children.  We will have the opportunity to expand our club’s reach through the Rotary’s Guatemala Literacy Project to aid children and adults.  Members can travel to Guatemala to experience first-hand in an international project and the distribution of textbooks and setting up computer labs.  Chuck Clark will be heading up our club’s efforts in Guatemala.

Thank you, Emily, for directing our club’s reading project to benefit our local children!

Here are the upcoming member program responsibilities for the next eight weeks:

Mar 6        Dave Nadler
Mar 13      Debbie Rhodes
Mar 20      David Smith
Mar 27      Margaret Evans
Apr 3        Dan Whiteley
Apr 10      Kurt Dailey
Apr 17      John Ellison
Apr 24      Jeff Lanham

Have a great week and see you next Tuesday!