THE GALLIPOLIS ROTARY CLUB

The Gallipolis Rotary Club, for 41 consecutive years, has offered a scholarship program to benefit graduating high school students from Gallia County schools entering the world of higher education. 

Selection of scholarship winners is by the scholarship committee composed of members of the Gallipolis Rotary Club.  The committee members review applications and rank the applicants based on grades, school activities, work, need and the student’s effort and clarity in completing the application.  Applicants must be residents of Gallia County.  In the past, scholarships have been awarded to graduating high school students.

The deadline of for return of the application is Friday, March 16th.  The scholarship application can be downloaded from the Gallipolis Rotary website at: www.gallipolisrotary.org/scholarship.  Students may return this application by e-mailing jodie.mccalla@gmail.com or returning by mail to Gallipolis Rotary Club, P.O. Box 214, Gallipolis, Ohio 45631.

Rotarian Kevin Dennis and Matt Eurell presented an interesting program today at Gallipolis Rotary about the Gallia Strong Tower program.  Rotarian Kevin Petrie introduced our speakers.  The Strong Tower program is a Wednesday evening ministry of Vinton Baptist Church and is open to anyone with ‘hurts, habits, or hang-ups!’  While one may initially think it only applies to victims of substance abuse, it welcomes victims of addictive behaviors, and hurts such as divorce, isolation, and physical and mental abuse.  Participants meet in a safe, non-judgmental environment first in a large group and then in specific small group sessions.

Rotarians heard first-hand from Matt Eurell, a program participant and success story.  Matt spoke about his experiences in hitting rock bottom and then finding his way back through Strong Tower.  He emphasized the importance of finding positive people who can show hope to a struggling individual.  He confessed setbacks, but starting anew, with new people in his life, new surroundings helps make success achievable.  Kevin closed his presentation speaking about the documented success rate for faith-based programs such as Strong Tower.  Thank you, Kevin and Matt, for the interesting program!

President Shirley Doss welcomed Rotarians to the meeting today and asked Secretary Chuck Clark to play the sample PR videos which are now showing at the Silver Screen VII.  These 30 second spots were produced by RI exclusively for promotional purposes by the local clubs.  These videos will continue to show through May and are funded by a PR grant from District 6690.

Fellowship—Gordon Amsbary ran our club fellowship for the meeting.  We had a member birthday today—Cleeland Willis, who was serenaded by a quartet composed of Paul Koch, Emily Dailey, Melissa Kimmel, and Margaret Evans who gave an excellent performance of Happy Birthday for Cleeland.  Gordo informed club members this month is ‘National Heart Month’ and today is ‘National Wave All Your Fingers At Your Neighbor Day.’  Gordon collected a fine from Bonnie McFarland for a recent picture in the paper.  Sammy Lopez offered up a buck for Gordon’s own MISSING membership pin!  Paul Koch was ‘dinged’ for arriving after the bell.

Happy Buck—Bonnie McFarland bought a Happy Buck in honor of the help she received from Rotarians Sammy Lopez and John Ellison for their valuable assistance in some community health presentations recently.

Split-The-Pot—Jim Morrison ran our STP for the meeting today selling enough tickets to push our small pot up to $8.00 today!  Our lucky ticket holder was Paul Koch.  Paul missed the ‘big one’ of $22.00 by drawing the Queen of Clubs.  Now that was close!  Jim had a little trouble with an ‘exploding’ deck of cards at the end, but the fine was assessed against anyone who did NOT arrive after the bell!’  Touché, Paul!

President Shirley reminded members the monthly club board meeting will be held directly after the meeting.

Here are the program assignments for the next few weeks:

Feb 14        Regular meeting
Feb 21        Lee Bauman
Feb 28        Cleeland Willis
Mar 6          Dave Nadler
Mar 13        Jeff Lanham
Mar 20        David Smith
Mar 27        Margaret Evans
Apr 3          Dan Whiteley
Apr 10        Kurt Dailey
Apr 17        John Ellison
Apr 24        Debbie Rhodes

Club President, Shirley Doss, welcomed members and guests to the regular meeting of the Gallipolis Rotary Club.  Zac Fosler was our program chair for today and his guests included Matt Yates, Outreach Coordinator, and Steven Vanover from Generation Now, a Division of Sojourners, headquartered in McArthur.

Matt presented an interesting talk about the Generation Now outreach which targets at-risk youth ages 16-21, who are on the streets in the seven county area of Vinton, Hocking, Ross, Jackson, Scioto, Gallia, and Meigs counties.  Matt explained that he and Steven drive the streets in Chillicothe or Jackson or Gallipolis looking for kids that are hanging out.  They can offer them help or counseling. 

The white van he drives strongly displays the Sojourner name and  is equipped with X-Box video games, a popular attraction wherever he parks in the summertime.  If a young person has dropped out of school, there is a program to help the individual attain a GED as well as training programs to provide needed skills.  The goal is to assist the individual to live independently.

Matt presented a recently release video of the work of Generation Now called Live It Right.  Here is the link to his video: http://vimeo.com/35551309.  Thank you, Matt, Steven, and Zac for the interesting program today!

Now Showing—Our club has two promotional videos showing at the local Silver Screen VII.  Patrons will see one of two high quality videos produced by RI to help clubs achieve greater name recognition in our community.  Here’s a link to these videos:

http://vimeo.com/35972876(Rotary—You’re Welcome) and http://vimeo.com/35978572(The Missing Piece.)

Rotary Reading—Emily Dailey was not with us today, but sent the books via Kurt for this month’s reading in the Gallia County Local Schools first grade classes.  Tomorrow, February 1st is our official day to read.  February and March are the last months we will read in the schools this year!

Fellowship—Gordon Amsbary began club fellowship with the tune, “Crazy,” by Willie Nelson.  It was a great hit by Patsy Cline.  Gordo attempted to pry a fine from Margaret Evans, but to no avail!  Melissa Kimmel voluntarily offered up a buck for her missing badge and Happy Buck for sending off a ‘foster dog’ to a great home in DC. 

Split-The-Pot—Lee Saltzgaber was drafted into action this morning to run STP.  Our small pot grew to $6.00 and our lucky winner was Kevin Petrie.  Kevin asked that the winnings be donated to the Vinton Field of Hope Project.  Kevin missed out on the (not so big) big pot of $13.00.  Our foundation fine was assessed against anyone who has not donated to the Field of Hope project this year.

Political Activity—President Shirley reminded members about the prohibition of political activity by members at meetings.  Shirley read the email from District Governor Brent which spelled out the general guidelines for Rotarians to follow.

Upcoming Program Assignments—Here are the program assignments for the next few weeks:

Feb 7          Kevin Petrie
Feb 14        Valentine Dinner
Feb 21        Lee Bauman
Feb 28        Cleeland Willis
Mar 6          Dave Nadler
Mar 13        Jeff Lanham
Mar 20        David Smith
Mar 27        Margaret Evans

Have a great week!

Gallipolis Rotarians and guests learned about the dangers of hypertension at the regular weekly meeting of the Gallipolis Rotary Club.  Past President Lou Ellen Werry presented as our speaker, Dr. Michael Englund, from the Holzer Cardiovascular Institute.  Pictured above are Past President Lou Ellen, Dr. Michael Englund, and Club President Shirley Doss.

Rotarians had the opportunity to check their blood pressure and received a heart shaped stress ball and a ‘Know Your Numbers’ health test recorder.  Ann Carter, Director of Nursing for the Cardiovascular Institute handled the BP checks.  Dr. Englund presented a fact filled, interesting talk and Rotarians learned that high blood pressure is the most common cardiovascular problem.  Known for years as the silent killer, high BP strikes over 74 million people.  Heart disease is the number one cause of death associated with high blood pressure.  Dr. Englund stressed the importance of knowing your numbers and living a lifestyle that can lower your risk to heart disease and diabetes.  Rotarians enjoyed asking our speaker many questions about lifestyles, nutrition, and vitamin supplements.  Thank you, Dr Englund and Past President Lou Ellen, for this interesting program!

President Shirley welcomed club members and guests to our meeting.  April Rice, from Farmer’s Bank was a guest of Heather Crum.  Welcome, April.  Rotarian Jodie McCalla, ‘Skyped’ in from her temporary office in Baltimore.

Fellowship—In the time remaining Fellowship Chair, Gordon Amsbary, led our club fellowship starting off with some Belushi trivia.  There were a no fines, but Jim Morrison offered a Happy Buck for something, which the Secretary could not hear.  Gordo’s words of wisdom concluded with Siddhartha.

Split-The-Pot—Shana Booher ran our STP for our meeting.  The small and large pot were both at $7.00 today as Clyde Evans pulled the Queen of Hearts last week.  Our lucky winner today was Kurt Dailey, and this actually makes twice in a row he has been drawn—the problem being his ticket last week was given to Clyde! Kurt narrowly missed the big one by drawing the King of Clubs.  Kurt assessed the foundation fine against anyone who hasn’t taken their blood pressure in the last week!

Rotary Readers—Project Chair, Emily Dailey asked for additional readers for our successful reading project for the first grade classes in the Gallia Local Schools.  There are only two more opportunities to read this year—February and March, so if you haven’t participated in this great project, be sure to see Emily!

Finally, here are the program assignments for the next few weeks:

Jan 31          Zac Fosler
Feb 7            Kevin Petrie
Feb 14          Valentine Dinner
Feb 21          Lee Bauman

Have a great week, everyone, and see you back next Tuesday!