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This Week at Rotary: April 26, 2018
 
Chuck King presented Treasurer, Gerry Eastabrooks with the $1,500 donation check received this week from the Centerville-Washington Foundation for our Dictionary/Thesaurus program.
 
A little miscommunication on who was to be the fill-in Sergeant-at-Arms resulted in fun and laughter!
 
Jim Brigg's colorful socks were the focus of many conversations today!
 
Our speaker today was Debe Dockins, from Washington-Centerville Public Library, who gave a great presentation about Erma Bombeck.
Speakers
May 03, 2018
Nat’l Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Montgomery County
May 10, 2018
RYLA
May 17, 2018
At Kennard Nature Nook
May 24, 2018
Threads of Miami Valley
May 31, 2018
AIR CAMP - Reach New Heights
Jun 07, 2018
Scholarship Awardees
View entire list
Bulletin Editor
Kitty Ullmer
Sponsors
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Birthdays & Anniversaries
Member Birthdays
Arnie Biondo
April 11
 
Mark Febus
April 14
 
Dan Johnson
April 16
 
Dale Berry
April 20
 
Lee Hieronymus
April 30
 
Anniversaries
Jim Briggs
Mary Ann Briggs
April 9
 
Katie Neubert
Shaun Neubert
April 24
 
Join Date
Dale Berry
April 2, 2009
9 years
 
Gerry Eastabrooks
April 5, 2012
6 years
 
Jim Harris
April 5, 2012
6 years
 
Brad Huffman
April 6, 2017
1 year
 
Kisha Taylor
April 6, 2017
1 year
 
Kitty Ullmer
April 10, 2008
10 years
 
Carrie Lifer
April 28, 2016
2 years
 
Russell Hampton
National Awards Services Inc.
ClubRunner
 
 
Rotary's Theme for 2017-18
 
Centerville Rotary Club Meeting April 26, 2018
 
 
The GREETERS​​​: ​​​​  
 
04/26/2018  Deb Dulaney and Arnie Biondo
05/03/2018  John Callander and Jen Gibbs
05/10/2018  Mike Wier and Mark Balsan
05/17/2018  Meet at Kennard Nature Nook..at Grant Park..Greeters will be Adam Manning and Doug Bockrath
 
Jim Harris is greeted by one of our two official greeters today, Arnie Biondo (L).
 
Our club president Peachy Metzner (R) is seen here discussing matters with our vice president Chuck King (L) and our president-elect Boyd Preston (M).
 
Dottie and Don Overly came in together and sat with Irene Ullmer and Arnie came in and greeted all.
 
Our speaker for the day, Debe Dockins arrived in time to meet up with our vice president Chuck King, who helps arrange for and introduce our speakers.
 
It may look like Lee Hieronymus has on his flannel, but he doesn't, as the day is sunny and warm for a change this April. 
 
Here our greeter Arnie welcomes Jen Gibbs, who is hosting our incoming youth exchange student soon.
 
And what a great picture this is with our two official greeters, Arnie Biondo and Deb Dulaney (R) with our two incoming club members Jen Gibbs and Harvey Smith.
 
Boyd Preston has just run into Butch Spencer on his arrival.

We're in the back room this day, which appears to have better lighting than usual. Here's Kim Senft-Paras in a very happy mood. The sunshine brings sunshine indoors it seems.
 
Arnie seems to be pondering, while Jim Briggs, the Voice of Dayton, is picking up his club badge.
 
Carol Kennard knows our guest speaker well.  The Nature Nook was renamed the Kennard Nature Nook for Carol's many years of serving as executive director of our local park district.
 
Pat Beckel always brings some witty wisdom to the meeting. He's back with more this week.
 
Deb Dulaney did a great job greeting, as she didn't wait for members to come to her, but offered her hand to welcome them in. Our past president Ron Hollenbeck enters with a story to tell later.
 
And look at the crowd that Ron attracts. 

And Jeff Senney arrives with a smile but brings sad news that he shares during the Happy Bucks.
 
Here's another picture of Jeff, with Raj Grandhi coming in behind him. Raj is always smiling too.
Go figure. It can't just be the weather. And then there's Dale Berry there too.
 
Didn't I mention that Carol knows Deb Dockins? Here they are chatting up a storm.
 
And Eric Beach looks like he's ready to have a good time.
 
 
Judy Budi turns to see who is coming in. Rebecca Quinones and Brian Hayes add to the festive crowd.
 
Brian moves in as the lens opens. Pat Beckel will later say he looks like a Pickle in his green suit, but that's Pat for you....Pickling at people for fun.
 
And here's Judy Budi and Ray Merz, turning to find a camera-ready picture taker in their face.
 
The group by the door is still having fun chatting as Phil Raynes comes in.
 
Dan Johnson, the proud father of three now, still sports a broad grin for his growing family.
 
 
Here at the back of the room is Sofie Ameloot and Rebecca Quinones speaking with Jeff Senney, who is probably sharing some of his sad news with them.
 
And now that everyone's seated, look who is coming in, Don Stewart, who hurries to get here but maybe just does not leave in time to get here soon enough.
 
The Centerville Rotary Club met at The Golf Club at Yankee Trace at noon. Club President Peachy Metzner led the Pledge of Allegiance; PDG Harvey Smith gave the prayer; and with Brad Thorp out in California and not here to lead the singing of God Bless America, the club struggled to get through it with a rather low sounding rendition, that Peachy labeled "a semi-okay song."
 
The guests at this week's meeting included:
 
Our speaker Debe Dockins and Dottie Overly, wife of club member Donald Overly. 
 
 
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
 
President Peachy Metzner presided over today's meeting. It seems a touch of the flu had kept him away last week.
 
And below is Peachy right before the above picture was taken, pretending to use his gavel as a hammer on our past president, only the gavel is just out of the picture now. They were trying to get the microphone to work and maybe he was going to hammer it to fix it. Ben came in and saved the day with a microphone that worked. Meanwhile they had a good laugh.
 
Chuck King held up the $1,500 check he was given by the Washington-Centerville Foundation to help fund the dictionaries and thesauri we donate. Carol Kennard captured the moment on film.
 
Peachy reminded everyone that the memorial service regarding our past three members will occur at the May 17th meeting at the Kennard Nature Nook. Sign-up sheets to let Chuck know the number of
box lunches to order were put on the tables. 
 
Peachy also reminded everyone that the District Conference April 27/28 would be held in Springfield.
The conference was at the Hollenbeck Baylay Center.
 
Peachy said that the next board meeting is May 21st.
 
HAPPY BUCKS: The Happy Bucks this quarter go to help the Brunner Literacy Center, which tutors adults 19 and older in reading, writing, and math skills, etc.
 
Erich Eggers, our Sgt.-at-Arms, was absent so Peachy asked Pat Beckel to fill in for him. Brian Hayes popped up, noting Erich had asked him to sub, but then the issue was resolved by having Pat announce his news, and Brian doing the Happy Bucks, collected by our club treasurer Gerry Eastabrooks.
 
Here's Pat Beckel announcing a new date for an upcoming charity event.
 
Pat Beckel said the annual Heart of Centerville's Spring event and Fund-raiser, Trace of Hearts, scheduled for April 26 from 6 p.m to 9 p.m. at the Yankee Trace Clubhouse was being moved to May 10. Tickets are $25, which includes a dinner buffet, basket raffle and cash bar. Pat said not enough people signed up to take part, so the date was moved back.
Pat said it's called Boutiques & Brews, and is a date night out with music, games and fun. It's a time to mix and mingle, he said. You can visit the vendors' booths and find out if you and your spouse are compatible or not, and how you might off one another if desired, without getting caught. There's a dating game and a dig for diamonds, and a bachelor and bachelorette auction. There are 18 booths to visit, he said. All proceeds go to charity, he said.
Brian Bergmann said he has been asked to have an automotive related game.
 
Here's Brian Hayes collecting the Happy Bucks, with Gerry Eastabrooks, our club treasurer, taking in the money.
 
 
Don Stewart said he only had a dollar to give but as a Cleveland Browns fan he planned to watch the NFL draft on TV this night and he pledged $20 "if it goes to my liking," and that he would pony up. The Browns picked Baker Mayfield as their quarterback, so we hope it was to Don's liking.
Kim Senft-Paras gave for our guest from the library being our speaker, and for the library booksale going on this weekend.
Katie Neubert gave $5 for having been married in Puerto Rico on this day and $10 for the upcoming SICSA one mile, 5K, 10K Lift Your Leg Walk on June 2. Last year they had over 500 dogs in the walk, she said. They are looking for teams as well as single walkers.
Jim Harris gave for the Literacy program and for the grant received.
Lee Hieronymus gave $4 for his birthday, stating someone else would pay the other $1 he owes.
Jen Gibbs gave for finishing up on the making arrangements for the student exchange student from Peru. Someone shouted out "Rodrico," though I don't know if that is his name or not.
Carol Kennard gave for her daughter moving from Rhode Island to Pittsburg and having a job already.
Deb Dockins gave for the Literacy program and for the club inviting her to come.
Chuck King gave $3
Club President Peachy gave a dollar for getting to take care of the grandkids, and also pledged $20 if the Browns' pick goes the right way.
Brian gave for something about... time pushing towards a...? 
Harvey Smith gave $20 for his granddaughter graduating magna cumme laude from Otterbein College, a Methodist College, as someone in the crowd noted, Harvey being a retired Methodist Minster from Normandy Methodist Church in Centerville.
Ron Hollenbeck gave, noting Jim Briggs socks.
After the meeting, when asked about his socks, Jim said: "A dollar will get you a pair of socks anywhere." (Sort of Bombeckian, in his wry humor.)
 
Ron also gave for being in California and visiting with his two granddaughters and son. Then he told a story of seeing two U.S. Marines who said they were looking for a fellow Marine named Mark Metzner who has been AWOL for 45 years. They want to close the case, they told him. He said he told them he knew where they could find him as "he told me he moved to Bolivia." Of course he was referring to our president Peachy Metzner, the only former U.S. Marine in our midst. Everyone got a good laugh.
 
Dale Berry gave for his birthday and Butch Spencer gave for his son being home and their three-year-old granddaughter.
Patrick Beckel gave noting that he offered to a single young man in our club the chance to meet the right lady in a bachelor auction with all expenses paid at the Chop House,...one of the most successful ladies, to be chaperoned by two other intelligent ladies....and he said..."I hve to check my work schedule."  He didn't say, but Adam Manning laughed a lot and seemed the young man he was talking about. Carrabba's is the restaurant he manages.
Then Jeff Senney gave, giving us the sad news that his father Walter Senney, who had attended our club occasionally, passed away last week while at Hospice. Jeff said his dad had two sons, five grandkids, and nine great grandkids. He was stationed in Alaska during WWII.  He lived in Pennsylvania in later years of his life.
Dan Johnson gave, noting the threes have been playing a role in his life, as he is 33 years old and two weeks ago his wife gave birth to their third daughter...and then he said something that sounded like one-third of Happy to be here.
Eric Beach said he is Happy his oldest daughter got a job.
Rebecca Quinones said something about socks.
Sofie Ameloot said her husband is happy to see their garage finally clear of all the shampoo bottles she had stored in the garage from our Rotary donation to the District Conference...almost 400 bottles.
Arnie Biondo gave for the Literacy program.
Frank Perez gave for playing three rounds of golf with five rounds worth of strokes.
 
This Week's Speaker:  Debe Dockins, Outreach and Development Coordinator at the Washington-Centerville Public Library, speaking about Erma Bombeck.
 
Chuck King introduced our speaker.
 
He said Debe has been with the library since 2006 and holds a B.S. degree in journalism and public relations from Murray State University in Kentucky.
She is responsible at the library for running the Dottie Yeck Good Life Award Writing Contest, the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition, the Speakers Bureau, coordinating three book discussion groups, and creating special programs such as Tea at Two, the Memory Cafe series, and the Ghost Walk on Main. 
 
 
The words seen below were what gave Erma Bombeck the courage to pursue a career in writing and put her powerful humor to good use. She was attending the University of Dayton at the time and had flunked out of another college, where someone had told her she couldn't write. 
 
Debe Dockins gave numerous stories and details from Erma Bombeck's life. One of Erma's statements was: Never loan your car to anyone you have given birth to.
Erma has been called the Socrates of the Ironie Board, she said.
She was born Erma Fiste in Bellbrook, Ohio. Her mom was just 16 when Erma was born. They carry the same first name. Her mom, Erma (nee Haines), only attended school through the sixth grade and her father, Cassius Edwin Fiste, through the fourth grade, Debe said.
Erma was only nine when her father died suddenly of kidney disease, which would be what also claimed Erma's life, and which Erma passed on to her two sons Matt and Andy.
The family lived in the Haymarket District first, now known as the Oregon District. Her mom went to work and Erma was the only child whose mother worked outside the home at the time. Her mom married a man, Albert (Tom is what Debe said, Albert is from Wiki...) Harris, who was just 12 years older than little Erma. In eighth grade Erma attended Emerson Junior High where she worked on the The Owl, the school newspaper. She liked to poke fun at the in-crowd and sometimes found herself in the principal's office trying to talk her way out of an expulsion for what she had written.
She attended Patterson High School where you attended school part time and worked part time. She tried to get a job on the Dayton Journal Herald, but the editor told her he could only hire a full-time person. She asked if she and another girl could share the job and she was hired on as a copy girl, where she met her husband Bill Bombeck, who was attending Chaminade High School
Erma was shy and she knew Bill dated around. He shipped off to the military and was in the Korean War.
Erma wanted to go to college but she found she would have to pay for it herself. She was a copy girl and then worked in the obit department, which didn't call for much humor and witty prose, but rather fact checking and having the people die in alphabetical order...as appears in the newspaper.
When Erma attended Ohio University, she flunked out and was told to forget about a career in writing.
She attended UD and edited a paper for Rike's Department Store and then Brother Tom Price, her English teacher at UD, asked her to write for UD and told her: You can write.
She wrote books, from the perspective of the life of a suburban housewife.   She wrote about house work. "If you do it right it will kill you," she said.
Told she could not bear children, she adopted Betsy, and later gave birth to Andy and Matthew. She lived at 162 Cushwa Drive in Centerville in 1955 when her husband Bill was teaching.  Her neighbor was Phil Donahue.
She wrote for the Kettering-Oakwood Times, making $3 a week for her one column, At Wit's End, but then her salary increased to $50 a week when the Journal Herald picked her up and she wrote three columns a week. Soon the New Day Syndicate picked her up. She went from 38 newspapers to 500, Debe said. When she changed to the Universal Press her column was carried in 700 newspapers. By the time she died on April 22, at age 69, in 1992, her humor was carried by 900 newspapers.
She wrote from a farmhouse in Bellbrook, and wrote 15 more books, with The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank taking her into the six figures.
Her books included:
  • At Wit's End, Doubleday, 1967.
  • Just Wait Until You Have Children of Your Own, Doubleday, 1971. Written with Bil Keane.
  • I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression, Doubleday, 1974.
  • The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank, McGraw-Hill, 1976.
  • If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits?, McGraw-Hill, 1978.
  • Aunt Erma's Cope Book, McGraw-Hill, 1979.
  • Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession, 1983.
  • Family — The Ties that Bind ... and Gag!, 1987.
  • I Want to Grow Hair, I Want to Grow Up, I Want to Go to Boise: Children Surviving Cancer, 1989. American Cancer Society's Medal of Honor in 1990. (Profits from the publication of this book were donated to a group of health-related organizations.)
  • When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It's Time to Go Home, 1991.
  • A Marriage Made in Heaven ... or Too Tired For an Affair, 1993
  • All I Know About Animal Behavior I learned in Loehmann's Dressing RoomISBN 0060177888 HarperCollins 1995
  • Forever, Erma: Best-Loved Writing From America's Favorite Humorist, Andrew McMeel Publishing, 1996
She was also featured in many women's magazines.
She and her husband moved to a large home in Paradise Valley near Phoenix, Arizona, in the early 1970s. 
She worked to try to get the Equal Rights Amendment passed for two years, Debe said.
In 1975 Erma began being featured on Good Morning America, and in 1986 she was the grand marshall in the Rose Bowl Parade, whose theme was A Celebration of Laughter.
Erma worked for Camp Sunrise for three years, helping kids with Cancer with her optimism.
She took time off to travel and slowed down. 
In 1992 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and then her kidneys began to fail. She was on dialysis four times a day. In 1992 she was flown to San Francisco where she had a successful kidney transplant, but died of complications, pneumonia and jaundice, and three weeks later, on April 21, she said good-bye to her family. She is buried in Woodland Cemetery, with her gravestone a 29,000 pound stone from Phoenix, Arizona. "I told you I was sick" is on her stone.
In January, at age 90, her husband Bill passed away and is buried beside her. 
The recent Erma Bombeck writing competition had 350 people, some from as far away as Afghanistan and Australia. 
 
The meeting was closed with the reciting of the Rotary Four-Way Test.
 
 
Club Information
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Centerville
Service Above Self
We meet Thursdays at 12:00 PM
Golf Club at Yankee Trace
10000 Yankee Street
Centerville, OH  45458
United States
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THIS WEEK ON SOCIAL MEDIA
 
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