Centerville eBulletin 08 04 2022 (Aug 09, 2022)

BIG THANKS to Sofie Ameloot for taking notes this meeting!

President Arnie Biondo welcomed everyone to the Centerville Rotary Club and led the Pledge of Allegiance. Ray Merz provided the prayer.

President Biondo shared the quote of the week:

Quote from Albert Einstein: "Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."

Announcements:

Special Guest: new pastor of Normandy Church. (John Guiliani)
Kim Senft-Paras continues to work on membership and extensions (meaning starting new clubs). There is a meeting in 2 weeks to talk about that.
The Social Committee is at work to find 3 evenings for Rotarians to get together. The first one is planned for Aug 30, 5:30 -7:30 at Sueño in Dayton. The next two will be held in October and November. Stay tuned for more on that.
The question about Youth exchange is popping back up and will be discussed more in detail: Do we want to host or send a student out?
Kettering Golf Outing, held on Monday 29^th of Aug at Sycamore Creek. They are looking for a fourth. Please contact Arnie. It starts at noon and lunch and dinner are provided.

Happy Bucks were collected for Operation Warm:

Harvey Smith: for the new pastor of Normandy Church
Boyd Preston: for the new pastor of Normandy Church.
Kelly McDonald: Just happy
Kim Senft-Paras: In MA with grandkids teaching them to swim
Ron Hollenbeck: saw the granddaughters in CA (one of them guessed his age to be 1025!)
Wayne David: thanked Judy Budi for hosting city and staff members at Bethany
Crissy Allums : belated birthday wishes to Ron and Kim
Chuck King: Operation Warm and happy to have a new air conditioning
Judy Budi: had a nice week with granddaughter
Dale Berry: Operation Warm – and they found his glasses …on the mantel
Mike Wier: happy EMS came out so quickly to help his wife in Wash Twp.
Jim Harris: Operation Warm
Ray Merz: happy his wife drove him all the way up to the front door and will pick him back up over there.
Brad Thorp: Operation Warm
Don Overly: Operation Warm and Pastor John
Adam Manning: For the Cinci Reds who are now third after a very bad start in the season
Bill Menker for our speaker: Taryn Filer from the library
Sofie Ameloot: just happy and owes the club!

Our speaker this week was Taryn Filer with Washington-Centerville Public Library talking about Dayton's First Families of Pizza.

Where did pizza come from, and when? The word “pizza” was first recorded in 997 AD in the small city of Gaeta, Italy. But although it was not documented until then, similar food items have been made since the Neolithic age. In the 6th century BC, The Persian King, Darius I, baked flatbreads with cheese and dates on top of their battle shields!

In the 1800s, archaeologists excavated Pompeii, and found hints of a flat flour cake that was widely eaten in Neopolis. Surprisingly, where they found said flour was in shops that were decked with marble slabs and other tools of the trade – both that looked an awful lot like today’s pizzerias.

A pizza chef, Raffele Esposito, prepared three pizzas for Queen Margherita, and she liked one in particular so much, the one with tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella cheese, because the colors represented the Italian flag. They ended up naming it after her!

Why did the Dayton area start out slicing their pizza in squares? A few reasons for this non-traditional cutting styles come from Ron Holp. He says: “I asked Vic (Cassano)... why we cut the pizza in squares. He told me one reason was a lot of people didn’t know anything about pizza...and that if you wanted to try it and it was in pie shape, they would ruin a whole big piece. But, if you had a small square and you didn’t like it, you wouldn’t ruin the whole thing...Another reason was the amount of toppings that they were putting on. If you cut it pie shaped and picked it up, it would all fall on the table...”

Ron Holp operated at Cassano's restaurant in Miamisburg when his wife started experimenting with a new pizza dough recipe - he opened Ron's Pizza in 1964.

One day, Cassano tasted Ron’s new pizza dough, and realized it was so close to his own recipe that he sued Ron, claiming Holp was a copycat. After months in court, Holp ended up winning the case. After what was dubbed “Pizza Wars” by the Dayton Daily News, Ron stayed pretty quiet in Miamisburg, and still sticks with his main location. Ron still uses the same dough that his late wife Abbie created.

Vic Cassano: he opened his first pizza shop with his mother-in- law, Caroline “Mom” Donisi on June 4, 1953. Originally known as “Vic & Mom’s”, it still stands today as Dayton’s oldest pizza chain.

In 2004, a call center was created at Cassano’s headquarters in order to provide the public with a single phone number by which to order pizza, and is currently only one of six pizzeria chain call centers in the country. In 2016, the state of Ohio placed a historical marker at the company’s headquarters in Kettering. The marker represents the restaurant’s contributions to the state’s history. Today, customers can call one single phone number for any location and get delivery. Customers can also visit one of their 33 locations and enjoy a dine-in experience. With an annual revenue of over $100 million, it’s clear that Cassano’s has a loyal patron base who loves the salty crust.

Marion Glass dropped out of Kiser High School when he was a junior, but said that he “wasn’t afraid to work and wanted to learn.” Selling ice cream bars on the streets eventually led to a store front of Marion’s Ice Cream and Sandwich Shop served hamburgers, French fries, and milkshakes.

Marion later decided to sell cigarette and candy vending machines: they were popular in restaurants and stores, but the restaurant and/or store had to rent them from a supplier. Marion started selling them to these places to save them money and get into the business world. One restaurant he approached was the new pizza place on Shantz and Patterson, Cassano’s Pizza King.

Marion offered one of his cigarette and candy vending machines to Cassano, who told Marion he did not have the money for it. Marion cut Cassano a deal and eventually, after working together for a while, Cassano offered Marion a restaurant of his own. Marion ended up with three franchises eventually, and after a silent bidding war for a building, Marion started his own pizza shop and used the name Marion’s Piazza.

Marion’s has ranked number one for several years in Pizza Today’s Hot 100 Independent Pizzerias. Additionally, Marion’s has been voted “Dayton’s Best Pizza” in over 40 local newspapers and magazines. According to Roger Glass, Marion’s will sell an estimated 1.3 million pizzas a year and will have an annual revenue of approximately $25 million.