Rotary's Theme for 2015-16
The GREETERS:
01/28/16 Mitch Biederman and Dan Sortman
02/04/16 Vas Appalaneni and Raj Grandhi
02/11/16 Bridget Herzog and Jim Hester
02/18/16 Sivaji Subramaniam and Rand Oliver
02/25/16 Jeff Senney and Matt Kuhn
03/01/16 Phil Raynes and Jim Hester
If you cannot greet on the day assigned, contact Kitty and she will schedule a replacement.
01/21/16
President Brad Thorp opened the Centerville Rotary Club meeting at The Clubhouse at Yankee Trace by leading the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. Harvey Smith gave the prayer, and Brad led the singing of God Bless America.
The guests at the meeting included:
Our speaker Susan Gottschalk, Family Violence Collaborative Director at the Artemis Center; Brian Hayes of Centerville, financial planner for Comprehensive Planning Group, who is a prospective member; Al Scott, Miamisburg Rotarian; and Mato of Slovakia, a guest exchange student, now with the family of member Kim Senft-Paras.
Our Greeters at the next meeting will be Mitch Biederman and Dan Sortman.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
President Brad Thorp began the announcements by calling member Ann Blackburn to the podium to receive a recognition pin from the Rotary International President for sponsoring another member into our club.
Brad noted that the District Conference is coming up April 29/30 in the Mason area. It will cost $129, several board members plan to go and he encourages other club members to participate.
He announced the two birthdays for January, that of member Jack Workman and that of Boyd Preston. Boyd was the only birthday boy present, so Brad moved the birthday table to his table (i.e., the decoration), and noted that Joan of Arc was born on the same day as Boyd, while Jack and Frank Sinatra, among others, share the same birthday in January.
Happy Bucks:
The 50/50 raffle drawing was held at the beginning of the meeting and after Ron won, Sgt.-at-Arms Erich Eggers hit him up to give it back for the new Happy Bucks recipient, St. Vincent de Paul.
Other Happy Bucks were given for St. Vincent de Paul and various other reasons. Kim said she is happy to have Moto in their home and got to go to senior night at the Natatorium with him, since he is on the swim team.
Joyce Young said she would be meeting with the Interact Club at Centerville High School to discuss working with disabled school children.
Ann Blackburn said she was happy to be able to photograph 35 teens for the Juvenile Court System to have their faces at the Lebanon Correctional facility.
Mitch Biederman said his oldest child offered Mitch's allowance for the week to be given to Rotary.
Dave Wolf said he got to spend some youthful time with a 13-year-old family member, which reminded him of his earlier days.
Arnie Biondo said his daughter Emily got an offer to go to Miami University and a scholarship offer.
Al Scott said he enjoys coming to Centerville Rotary as he has no one to cook for him at home.
John Beals gave a $1 for Hieronymus being at the club.
Dick Hoback, Tom Zobrist, John Callander, and Jim Harris gave donations for St. Vincent de Paul...
Carol Kennard donated for having her six-month old granddaughter with her and John overnight, with only three times having the baby wake up overnight, and each time giving her a smile.
Boyd gave $5 for his birthday
Jeff Senney said he got to go to Florida for a couple of weeks and watched Deb Dulaney run in a number of big races.
Deb Dulaney said she got to race and then went on a cruise and spent time with her sister.
Lee Hieronymus said he was on stage at the Schuster Center Tuesday night.
Judy Budi said she was too, and then Lee said, she should pay a Happy Buck for saying so, so she did. And so did Bob Fry.
Ed Flohre said he is now the HR guy at the Washington Square Dorothy Lane Market. He previously worked at the Springboro DLM.
SPEAKER: Susan Gottschalk, Family Violence Collaborative Director at the Artemis Center
Boyd Preston introduced our speaker, noting that over the past 30 years, the Artemis program has helped around 95,000 victims of domestic violence. He said Susan Gottschalk has been with the program for around half that time.
Ms. Gottschalk thanked the group for inviting her to speak about the program. She said the Dayton area has both the Artemis program and a women's shelter for those seeking to get out of an abusive situation. The shelter is through the YWCA. "Most victims will never go to shelters," she said. Only about 200 to 300 victims will go to a shelter in a year, while there are 5,000 to 6,000 victims of domestic violence a year. Most need services but don't necessarily need shelter, she said.
She addressed the issue by asking, What is domestic violence? Most people think of physical and/or sexual abuse, she said. But there are many tactics of abuse wherein a person seeks to have power and control over his spouse. They can do this through isolation from friends and family and mind control and intimidation. They can use physical force and use the children as a means of controlling the victim.
Recently a 10-month old baby was taken out of state by a batterer. The woman had wanted to end the relationship and the batterer said, "Fine, You'll never see your child again," and he took it out of state, she said.
There are all kinds of reasons a person will stay with an abuser, she said. If they leave, the abusing parent might still get time with the abuser.
Their role at Artemis is to make sure the abused person is as safe as possible. The abuser might say if she leaves him, he'll hurt or kill her, or kill himself.
They try to teach them ways to keep the house safer, by putting a barrier in a sliding glass door, for example, or taking the ammunition out of her husband's gun.
Artemis offers support groups and education groups, with voluntary participation.
Women sometimes commit domestic violence in self defense, or act in revenge, she said. These women can also come to a support group.
Children used to be removed from homes with domestic violence, but case workers from Children's Services try to work with moms they ID as having domestic violence issues. There is also adult therapy.
Gottschalk said Artemis has a pantry that has food, school supplies, household goods and other things that may be used if a woman has to move to an apartment. Hygiene matter such as soap and shampoo, are often needed as sometimes the only way a woman can leave an abusive situation is with the clothes on her back. The area has 33-plus law enforcement agencies which they work with to train the officers how to deal with victims of domestic violence.
Gottschalk said the program gets funding by writing federal, state, and local grants, doing fund-raisers and taking donations. They have had cuts in their budget and her hours were cut to 30 hours a week as a result, she said. There are 16 or 17 people on staff. They served more than 5,000 people in 2015, she said.
