Centerville Rotary eBulletin 01 05 2023 (Jan 07, 2023)

President-elect Adam Manning welcomed everyone to the Centerville Rotary Club and led the group in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Brian Hayes provided the prayer and Brad Thorp led singing of God Bless America.

The quote for today: "All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them." - WALT DISNEY:

Adam welcomed guest Cody Terrel who used to work with Adam and is familiar to many as he helped out with Pancake Day. He is interested in learning more about Rotary and our club.

PDG Harvey Smith inducted a new (returning) member, Rand Oliver.

Rand’s sponsor is Harvey Smith and mentor is Jeff Senney (who was unable to be here today.) Rand was a member of the Centerville club over 20 years. Jim Singer originally brought him in to this club, and as his jobs took him to various other communities, he always found a Rotary club to join. With his wife, Penny, they have 4 adult kids and 6 grandkids. He has retired from a position of Dean at a university in Cincinnati, is the oldest of 7 kids, has 63 first cousins.

This week’s announcements:

Through Rotary’s sponsorship, we have 5 seats at the Diversity Council’s MLK Breakfast on Jan 16. Let President Biondo know if you would like to attend. The speaker this year is Rev Peter Matthews, humanitarian, social entrepreneur, and pastor at McKinley United Methodist Church in Dayton.
Next Rotary Board meeting is January 16, 5:30 pm, location TBD
Frank Perez thanked everyone for the generous donations to the Rotary Foundation. Within our club, 40 members are PHF or above. 6 major donors and 4 PHF+8. The lifetime giving of our club is over 1/2 million dollars!
Adam announced this year’s Pancake breakfast served almost 800 guests, and raised $24,300. When added to the golf outing revenue, the club raised over $38,000 this year. Top ticket seller was once again Tom Broadwell who sold 108 tickets. 2nd place winner, selling 34 tickets was Harvey Smith, and 3rd place winner, selling 32 tickets was Crissy Allums. Adam thanked everyone for all the hard work to make it successful. We all thank Adam for his leadership
Sofie Ameloot said the next social will be at the end of this month, so stay tuned.
The Centerville-Washington Park District is hosting a styrofoam recycling event this Saturday morning at the Activity Center Park. Check www.cwpd.org for details.
Crissy Allums announced we received thank you cards from some families we supported through the Adopt a Family Christmas gifts.

This quarter, Happy Bucks will support Florida hurricane relief. Ron Hollenbeck was our Sergeant at Arms.

Generous Happy Bucks were given for:

Ron Hollenbeck for happy holidays, including a visit from his niece, and for finding a show on Operation Warm showing they just delivered the 5 millionth coat!
Carol Kennard was grateful her father is recovering from surgery to remove a lymphoma tumor and for the generosity and support of this club, especially the Rotarian (Boyd Preston) who is now a new volunteer at the Clark County Park District to give her the opportunity to go home to visit her dad.
Larry Marchand was thankful to make a meeting, noting it is good to be back.
Jackie D’Aurora was just happy.
Mike Wier was unsure whether to give a happy or sad buck that Rand has rejoined ;-)
Rand Oliver was glad to be back and gave $20 for 20 good years in this club, looking forward to 20+ more.
Ger Eastabrooks was happy.
Jim Harris announced his first grandchild is on the way!
Don Overly recognized Boyd for being so generous with his time.
Uriah Anderson was happy.
Frank Perez announced he’s going to be a grandpa, too!
Boyd Preston happy for Rand rejoining, and for his birthday this month.
Chuck King was happy.
Elda Gotos-Gay was happy.
Sofie Ameloot for her birthday and was happy her kids were home for the holidays.
Ashlee Walton is leaving for Turks and Caicos!
Adam Manning was happy to have Cody visit and for today’s speaker, Chris Stanley.
Harvey Smith announced he has developed a dismissal form for Rotary in case we need to unenroll Rand ;-) He spent Xmas in FL with family and helped welcome his first great-granddaughter!
Mark Febus said is was great to see everyone.
Crissy Allums said it was great to be here and she was heartbroken over the OSU Bowl Game loss.
Scott Kujuwa was happy.
Dan Johnson noted they were fostering kittens and he was happy they go back on Friday!
Brad Huffman watched the ball drop, but unfortunately it was the OSU football drop wide left to miss the field goal at the Georgia stadium. He and his son had a good time regardless.
Brad Thorp announced on Thanksgiving at son Wyatt’s house, Wyatt prayed for the new child coming which was followed by two daughters-in-law pulling out onesies with BFF printed on the front. Brad and his wife, Chris are extremely excited to soon become grandparents TWICE. Wyatt and Kayla are expecting a boy. Issac & Amber are expecting a girl!
Brian Hayes announced he has a new book being released next week titled, The emotional You.

Our speaker today was Chris Stanley, Executive Director of Fisher/Nightingale Houses, Inc.

Chris Stanley is retired from the Air Force, where he was stationed in Charleston, Texas, Korea, Florida, and in 1992 came to WPAFB. He was First Sergeant, overseeing 500 enlisted, 450 officers, and a medical squadron. He is director of the Fisher/Nightingale House, and long time emcee for the Air Force Marathon. He retired in 2001 and enjoys his16 grandkids (is happy to give grandparenting advice to all the new grands!)

Chris said the Fisher/Nightingale House is a non profit organization that provides houses for military and families while loved ones are undergoing treatment at WPAFB Medical Center or the VA Center in Dayton. There are also houses in Cincinnati and Cleveland; Six total in Ohio.

In May 1990, they assisted over 25,000 families and since then, the organization has grown to 94 houses nationwide, and served over 430,000 families with 11.5 million nights of housing, saving $547 million in hotel costs.

In the last year, 644 families were served in the Dayton area. The program was started by Zach Fisher who wanted to serve in the military, but due to a leg injury, could not serve. He started writing personal checks to military families who lost lives while serving. He then formed a foundation and the first three Fisher Houses were built in Maryland. Zach Fisher paid for the houses and then donated them to the military.

The three houses in the Dayton area have 9, 12, and 16 bedrooms. They have the capacity to provide 13,500 nights per year. Since opening, they have provided 250,000 nights, saving over $31 million for the guests who stay for free.

$610,683 was their budget for 2023 and nearly 97 cents of every dollar goes to support the programs.The house is not a B&B, nor a hotel - they are a HOME away from home. They provide groceries, taxi service, 6-person golf cart to use - take care of them however they want while the guests pay nothing.

Chris noted it is not about giving money but instead having a direct positive impact to change the course of someone’s recovery. Individuals and organizations donate, and all donations are appreciated.

For more information, contact Chris at cstanley@fnhi.org or visit https://www.fnhi.org/

EDITOR NOTE: This photo below shows donations Rotary District 6670 (including our club) gave to the Fisher/Nightingale Houses in 2009. It was a district service project led by our members Hans & Mae Berkel!