The GREETERS:
06/14/2018 Jim Briggs and Carol Kennard
06/21/2018 Ray Merz and John Beals..meeting is at Benham's Grove
06/28/2018 Ann Blackburn and Mark Febus
07/05/2018--No Meeting.....Keep celebrating the 4th
07/12/2018 Doug Bockrath and Arnie Biondo
Our official greeters today were Carol Kennard, and Jim Briggs, who subbed for
Greg Horn who couldn't make the meeting.
Our club membership committee met before the meeting began. Joyce Young, chosen to be the grand marshal in the Americana Festival Parade July 4 for all her contributions to the community over the years, including lots of philanthropy, is the one seen waving....probably practicing for her special day in the sun....and it was a very sunny day today after several weeks of rain.
Club Vice President Chuck King and Frank Perez chat together before the meeting, probably
about the need for more volunteers to work at the House of Bread Saturday.
Every one looks a bit worried in this picture. Maybe it's about Jim's socks, which are black this day.
These two early birds skipped by the camera at the door but were caught getting their dessert.
Looks like both went for the cherry pie. Wraps were the entree for the day.
Jenn Gibbs has the biggest smile here.
And Carl Gill, soon to be a member of the club, is back. Didn't even have to change a caption
for this space. Looks like he's a sure addition...
The smiling lady you see below saved the day when our scheduled speaker, a WWII vet, took
ill and couldn't make it. No one can say she couldn't kick the football, as she gave us all a delightful slide show and narrative on Charles Schulz and the Charlie Brown gang. Debe Dockins is the Community Outreach and Development Coordinator at the Washington-Centerville Public Library.
And here's our own gang gathered to greet her.
John Callander also gets a royal welcome.
Jim Harris is one of the club members headed for the Rotary Convention in Toronto this year.
He and Doc Hoback and Harvey Smith plan to have an entertaining time up north.
Tom Broadwell is probably already lining up his gang of pancake lovers for this fall. He's the
grandest ticket salesman of them all.
A candid shot from inside as the room begins to fill.
And another shot with moving people.
Brian Hayes arrives. Jeff Senney is seen greeting him. Jeff is awaiting his guest .
While Jeff waits, Bob Fry arrives.
There's something funny going on, but the camera person is not in on it.
Gerry Eastabrooks is quite fashionable on this day...She's the club treasurer.
And Sally Beals has on a great smile and Spring/Summer outfit.
And these two guys look like they are enjoying the day...Harvey Smith and John Beals have
joined Bob Fry, almost out of the picture.
And here's Jeff Senney with his guest Jeremiah Pate, a local accountant, and maybe a new
And Ray Merz is the only one not moving in this picture...but the hand is ready...
And they're having fun. What's with this Charlie Brown gang?
The Centerville Rotary Club met at The Clubhouse at Yankee Trace at noon. Club President Peachy Metzner led the Pledge of Allegiance; Harvey Smith gave the prayer; and several voices seemed to lead the singing of God Bless America.
The guests at this week's meeting included:
Dottie Overly; Carl Gill of Hospice of Ohio; Russell Maas of the Oakwood Rotary; Jeremiah Pate, an accountant; and our speaker, Debe Dockins.
President Peachy Metzner presided over the meeting. Did I say this man is a man of action?
And here he is in slow motion.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
President Peachy asked members to use the sign-up sheets on the tables to let him know if they will be at the June 21 meeting at Benham's Grove, so an adequate number of box lunches can be provided.
Frank Perez announced that the House of Bread needs five volunteers to help out on Sat. June 15 from nine to noon. Hope you let Frank know, as he still needed a few more helpers.
Peachy said the next Board meeting will be 5:30-6:30 p.m. June 18 at the Centerville-Washington Park District Headquarters, 221 N. Main St. in Centerville.
President Peachy reminded everyone that June 21 will be our meeting at Benham's Grove when our new president takes over and other transitions are made. New officers will be inducted. Boyd Preston will be our new leader. Peachy thanked Ron Hollenbeck for filling his seat at the beginning of his term up until he was well enough to return. A good job was done by all.
Reminder Note...the July 5 meeting has been cancelled....though you can "make it up" by riding on the fire truck driven by Lee Hieronymus in the Americana Parade on July 4. You're to meet at the city building around 9:30 a.m. if you want to ride...Water will be provided for squirt guns. If you have a Super Soaker, bring it along, Peachy said.
PB&J and applesauce are still needed for the House of Bread and kids lunches during the summer, Peachy said. Drop off can be here at a future meeting or at Pat Beckel's insurance office on Franklin St.
Peachy said he would be sending out information from Eric Marcus, our past district governor about a Rotary day at the Dayton Dragons, Sat. Aug.18, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10, and for that you get a Dayton Dragon's hat and $5 goes back to the Rotary Foundation. The deadline for getting tickets is Aug. 10.
HAPPY BUCKS:
Our Sgt.-at-Arms Erich Eggers and our club treasurer Gerry Eastabrooks collected the club's Happy Bucks.
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 began the Happy Bucks by giving several dollars, fining himself for not letting anyone know he would be absent at our last meeting and for not asking someone to replace him. Then he learned we did not collect Happy Bucks last week because of our special guests, but he said he would still pay a fine.
Peachy then gave a happy $10, saying his grandchildren, still there, are a labor of love.
Chuck King gave a happy $10 for Debe Dockins, our speaker, readily agreeing to speak today on short notice of a day, filling in for the World War II Veteran who reported being ill yesterday.
Lee Hieronymus gave his Happy Buck to announce that next week is the start of Miamisburg's Bi-centennial celebration, and he said that it is Buy-centennial, as you need to come and buy something there.
Kim Senft-Paras gave for seeing Debe at the meeting and said that at a workshop yesterday she was told of all the work Ron Hollenbeck and other Rotarians have contributed in helping fix up the Grotto at the Veteran's Administration, and for last week's scholars.
Don Stewart gave a happy $5 for the message Arnie Biondo sent out that the park district was looking to hire summer workers, and said that they had been worried that their daughter Valerie wouldn't find a summer job, and voila, there it was...And she began with a summer camp program for 3-to-5-year-olds, with a three or four-hour camp in the morning, and one little boy came up to her and kissed her hand when he left, apologizing for all the times she had to correct him while he was there.
Ray Merz gave his Happy Buck for all the work Kim Senft-Paras put into the Rotary Scholarship program.
Bob Fry gave $5 for his birthday, but nobody sang.
Dave Trout gave $7 for his seven grandkids, all special in his eyes, and evidently very smart in everyone's eyes. His oldest is in investment banking in San Francisco. On Saturday his granddaughter who was in China spending a semester at a university there, got all A's in Mandarin. And Sunday, his grandson who went to Buckeye State in Oxford, sported a 4.53 grade point. And the four youngest also did well, with one placing in a national wrestling competition. Meanwhile, all their grandfather can brag about in school, he said, is having the most injuries for minutes played.
Harvey Smith gave noting that he, Jim Harris, and Dick Hoback would be representing our club in Toronto at the International Rotary Convention in July.
Russell Maas, our guest, gave a couple of Happy Bucks, noting he took their twin granddaughters up to Alaska, and they said it was boring.
Dick Hoback gave for the literacy program.
John Callander gave for his high school holding its 70th year reunion this year. They had 103 in their graduating class and about 26 people, which includes spouses, are expected to attend this year. Some of the people he went to kindergarten with, he said.
Jim Harris gave for the "beautiful day."
Joyce Young gave for the polio-plus efforts that have brought the eradication of polio almost to a completion.
Ann Blackburn gave, talking about her oldest son they adopted, when she originally had wanted a girl, and then mentioned four adopted children...and the story unfortunately got lost in the talking between tables.
Boyd gave for the great membership committee...
Jen Gibbs gave to mention that she had made contact with our exchange student from Peru who will be coming in August. She has boys, and that should give him an in at Centerville High School, as one of her boys will be going there. Our exchange student has finished high school in Peru and will be attending Centerville High School as a senior, Jenn said.
Dan Johnson gave for the beautiful weather and the literacy program.
Adam Manning of Carrabba's Restaurant fame...was on a program as a chef and admitted he needed to fine himself $10 for not wearing his Rotary pin and $20 for not mentioning the Centerville Rotary.
Sofie Ameloot gave, noting among other things that she will be traveling back to Belgium for five weeks.
Rebecca Quinones said her husband Carlos was back in town and they had Adam Manning send lunch over from Carrabba's...they deliver...She said they also got a good response from the news story about the need for peanut butter and apple sauce at the House of Bread and for student school lunches, and got boxes donated to help restock the shelves.
Ron said he had a couple of Happy Bucks because after sitting next to our guest Jeremiah Pate, and discussing the club with him, he thinks Jeremiah might be interested in joining us.
He also gave for Chuck King working quickly to get another speaker for the day, when Frank Young's wife called yesterday asking if he could reschedule for some time later. Frank was in the Navy in the Pacific during World War II. (Editor's note...James Ullmer, my dad was in the Navy and served in Okinawa during World War II. A neighbor girl's father, Charles Merkle, was also in the Navy, and we used to wear our father's Navy shirts for our tea parties. We're thankful for that gang of brothers for whom life wasn't a tea party.)
This Week's Speaker: Debe Dockins, speaking about Charles M. Schulz and the Peanut Gang.
Our club vice president Chuck King introduced our speaker. He said:
Debe Dockins has been with the Washington-Centerville Public Library since 2006 and holds a BS degree in journalism and public relations from Murray State University in Kentucky.
She is currently the Community Outreach and Development Coordinator at the Washington-Centerville Public Library and is responsible 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.
Her talk this day was on Charles M. Schulz and the Peanut Gang.
Debe said that when Charles was born to Carl and Dena Schulz in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Nov. 26, 1922, he was named Charles Monroe Schulz. His dad was born in Germany and his mother was of Norwegian descent. An uncle nicknamed him Sparky after the horse Spark Plug in Bill DeBeck's comic strip Barney Google.
He was a great reader of the funny papers, Debe said.
Charles grew up in St. Paul but the family moved to California for a number of years to help out with a sick relative.
In 1927 the family returned from California to St. Paul, Minn. Charles was a shy boy, somewhat isolated in high school, sharing a lot of the same characteristics as Charlie Brown, Debe said.
She said he especially liked hockey and later owned a hockey rink. His grandmother stood with a broom and served as his goalie in their Minnesota basement in a six-foot wide area, she said.
In 1937 when he was 15 he wrote a letter to Ripley's Believe it or Not! about their dog Spike eating tacks and razors and not suffering from that, and he drew a picture of his dog. His drawing appeared in Robert Ripley's syndicated panel, captioned, "A hunting dog that eats pins, tacks, and razor blades is owned by C. F. Schulz, St. Paul, Minn." and "Drawn by 'Sparky'" (C.F. was his father, Carl Fred Schulz).
When he was a senior in high school he submitted some cartoon drawings for his high school year book, but when it was published, they weren't included, she said.
After Charles graduated, he was drafted. His mother died of cervical cancer after his graduation, at age 50.
Debe said Charles had a machine gun during the war, but the only time he needed to use it, he found he had forgotten to load it, but luckily the German soldier willingly surrendered.
He went to art school and started getting his work in major publications, like the The Saturday Evening Post, the Miami Tribune, etc., with his cartoon called Li'l Folks. The name got changed to Peanuts against his will by the syndicate that picked it up so it would not be confused with something similar, she said. He wanted it called Good ol' Charlie Brown, a title now used for reruns of the strip, she said.
She said Charlie Brown was known for being sensitive, insecure, and overthinking things. He was a procrastinator and would ultimately fail at things.
At art school Schulz met Donna May Johnson, a red-haired girl who turned Schulz down for another though they were friends for life.
He dated Joyce Halverson and they married in 1961. They moved to Colorado Springs, and he adopted her daughter who was one year old.
His cartoon character Schroeder played only Beethoven and thought he was the first president.
He added Lucy in 1952, the queen of crabby, Debe said. Lucy was infatuated with Schroeder.
Linus was the youngest and smartest of the Peanut gang, she said...the group's conscience and believer in the Great Pumpkin.
Pig Pen was added in 1954, she said. His gum drops were black and a cloud of dust surrounded him.
In 1959 he made Sally as Charlie Brown's younger sister. She has a strong moral sense of fairness, Debe said. She also talks to school walls when needed.
Snoopy, when created, originally had four legs, but later just two, which he used for his happy dances.
The World War I Flying Ace was added, and in 1965, a TV special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, which used children's voices, was aired in December. It won an Emmy, one of five he would win.
In 1966 Peppermint Patty was created and the Charlie Brown musical, the most produced musical ever, she said.
When Franklin, a black youngster, was added to the comic strip after the assassination of Martin Luther King, some syndicated newspapers refused to run the strip, she said. Schulz said if they wouldn't run it with the new character, they couldn't have the strip.
Woodstock was added in 1970 and Marcie in 1971. She was a brain but terrible at sports and thought there were penalty boxes in baseball.
In 1972 Schulz divorced.
He remarried, to Jean Forsyth Clyde, in 1973.
In 1999, Schulz discovered he was in the late stages of colon cancer and was forced to retire. He had had heart problems before that.
In Dec., 1999 he drew his final strip.
On Feb.12, 2000 he passed away in his sleep at age 77, in Santa Rosa, California.
On Feb. 13, his last strip was picked up and ran.
After his death his estate still brought in $32 million.
During his lifetime he earned $131 billion, Debe said.
Charlie Brown and his gang of big headed children inspired the young and young at heart, Debe said. Have a good time and enjoy this weekend, she added.
Here are a few of the slides shown during Debe's presentation.
And
And
The meeting was closed as usual with the reciting of the Rotary Four-Way Test.
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