Selinsgrove Area Rotary Club
Rotary Serving Humanity
Vol. 89, No. 10 President – Mary Peterhaensel Guest Editor – John L. Stokinger
Next Meeting: September 15, 2016 – Official visit by the Districk Governor, Richard Drucker. All members are urged to be present. A Board of Directors meeting precedes regular meeting at 10:45 a.m. Mike Flock is the Greeter. SVCC, 11:45 a.m.
September 8, 2016: Twenty-three Rotarians were present to hear Tom Gates introduce Art Montgomery, Ricki Stringfellow and Gretchen Wagoner who spoke about the Selinsgrove Area Meals on Wheels program. Art, a retired Methodist minister, is their board President. Ricki, a retired educator, and Gretchen, a retired RN, are board members and Publicity Co-chairs (Ricki will be relocating so Gretchen is in training). This program was started in 1985 and is a 501(c) 3, non-profit. They have 13 volunteer board members and one paid employee who works 9-12:30 M-F. This year their volunteer drivers will deliver over 8,000 meals to people anywhere within the Selinsgrove School District. The district has 700 home-bound person with 175 of those living alone. The goals of the program are to provide hot meals and social interaction with their clients. Meals are delivered 5 days a week at lunchtime. The total cost to prepare and deliver a meal, including overhead, is $7.42. This includes $3.75 charged by Aramark which prepares all meals and delivers them to All Saints Episcopal Church. Clients are presently charged $4 per meals (this will increase to $4.50 on Oct. 1st). Today they have 35 clients. Clients may review the menu and call today to order a meal for tomorrow, or they may set up a more long-term arrangement. This program is separate from any other similar programs ad is not associated with any County run programs. They receive United Way funding and donations but no government funding. This program does not have any income criteria for their clients. They may receive meals on a long-term or short-term basis. Part of Meals on Wheels’ goal is to promote the program more actively to senior housing centers and to long-term care and rehab facilities.
Announcements: John Fischer informed us that the Golf Tournament is progressing well with 20 foursomes signed up so far.*Dave Lawer passed around a sign-up sheet for the Market Street Festival. There are three opportunities to help: 1) purchase some of the ingredients; 2) sign-up to prepare the ham BBQ on 9/22, and/or 3) sign-up to work at the festival on 9/24.
International Moment: Ken Miller spoke about the 5 Rotary Exchange students he and Dawn have hosted. He promoted hosting an incoming student. He suggested encouraging an outgoing student and he mentioned that we’ll all have opportunities to assist with an incoming foreign student who will be her for four months.
Sargent at arms: Marv Rudnitsky collected happy fines as follows: John F and Tom G – birthdays, John F for golf volunteer, Tom G for missed meetings and cousins who’ve aged 50 years, Dave L., Bob S., Melissa L., Joyce A, Tom G and Charlie M for our guests and volunteers (I lost track for a few minutes), Dave for a black belt, John R for his son’s weekend pass and his wife’s flight for grand-parents’ day, and finally John S for Red Sox and a Tennessee vacation.
Future Programs:
Sept. 22 – Speaker will be Makenzie Stover, Selinsgrove Borough Recreation Coordinator, host is John Stokinger, Bob Fogle is the greeter. SVCC, 11:45 a.m.
Sept. 29 – Club Assembly, Mary Peterhaensel presiding. Tom Gates is the greeter. SVCC, 11:45 a.m.
Oct. 6 – Tent – SVL, Mike Flock is the host. Earl Ferster is the greeter. SVCC, 11:45 a.m.
Birthdays: September 23 – Don Summers, 27 – Ken Miller.
Quotation: “America is the richest country in the world. And yet tonight, thousands of your neighbors will go to bed hungry. It may be your child’s schoolmate who is undernourished and has difficulty learning on an empty stomach. Or it could be a co-worker, a working mother whose low-wage job doesn’t make ends meet. Perhaps it’s an elderly neighbor who has to make a decision whether to delay filling a prescription or buying groceries. The faces of hunger are a broad as the faces of America.” David Nasby, General Mills