August 20, 2020

Selinsgrove Area Rotary Club

Vol. 93, No. 7 – President – Dan Mahoney – Editor – Carol Handlan

 

Next Meeting:  August 27, 2020 – Benjamin Willard of Family Practice will be our speaker on the Mall property and COVID at SVCC. Ken Miller, host.

August 20, 2020:  22 Rotarians and (3) guests joined us for our social distant lunch meeting at the SVCC to hear Nicki Burrows, General Manager, of Kurt Weiss Greenhouses. Nicki was introduced by her host, Earl Ferster. Nicki shared that Kurt Weiss is a 3rd generation family owned business that operates 24/7, 365 days a year. The company has 3 teams maintenance, growers, and production with 60 employees and up to 120-150 depending on the season. They are wholesale growers only and were impacted by COVID-19 during the Easter season and had to throw out the entire crop.  However, after that they really did well since many people were confirmed to home and took up gardening. Their corporate headquarters is located on Long Island, New York and they have facilities in New Jersey and Florida and sister operations in Danville and Mount Carmel. January starts the production for spring. Some plants like hydrangeas and azaleas take up to 2 years before they are able to sell. Kurt Weiss has a variety of flowers/plants that are branded. Very interesting to hear the entire process from the start of the plants to when you buy them at Lowes!

Announcements: 1) Dan shared that the paving for the SVCC was suppose to have been completed but wasn’t and that was the reason for the parking situation and thanked those Rotarians who assisted with driving the golf carts to get us to the club. 2) Carol shared that she has reviewed the website and will be having it updated by Don and Shawn. She thanked Cheryl and Dottie for their help in assisting with the task. 3) John Stokinger shared that this was his last meeting before moving to Maine but plans to continue in Rotary there.

Sergeant at Arms:  Marv and John S. shared a bit of humor.  We collected a whopping $53.00 in happy fines.  Unfortunately, I did not record all of the individual fines (I think I was still stunned from my computer flying off the table) but the majority was for our speaker, John Stokinger’s departure, Art’s final physical therapy, John Fischer’s donation of $100 from the Thursday night golf team and guests.

Future Programs:

August 27 –  Benjamin Willard of Family Practice will be our speaker on the Mall property and COVID-19. Ken Miller, host.
September 3 – Dr. John Pagana, speaking on Coronavirus and Other Health Issues. Charlie McCuen, host.
September 10 – Dr. Frank Jankowski, Superintendent of Selinsgrove Area School District. Marv Rudnitsky, host
September 17 – Ken Wagner, host. – TBA
September 24 – Stacey Napoli, host – TBA

Birthdays:
August 11 – Javier Videla; 16 – Earl Ferster, Konrad Kempfe; 29 – Jay Lemons
September 3 -Tom Gates, 5 – John Fischer, 6 – Melissa Laniewski, 24 – Don Summers

Quotation: “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much” – Helen Keller