President Adam Manning welcomed everyone to the Centerville Rotary Club and led reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. Ray Merz provided the prayer.
Quote of the day: "I play the notes as they are written, but it is God who makes the music.” By Johann Sabastian Bach
Thanks to our greeters today: Vimbai Mazani and Kristin Hutton.
PDG Harvey Smith presented Kelly McDonald with a Paul Harris Fellow +6. Thank you, Kelly for your generous support of the Rotary Foundation.
President Manning’s announcements:
- Welcome today’s guests: Gina Smith’s husband, Aaron Smith, and Rick Hood, Rotarian from California back for another visit.
- The next Rotary Leadership Institute Training is January 27 in Wilmington. It is a good way to gain insight into what goes on in Rotary outside of our club. Let Adam know if you are interested and he will get you registered.
- Thanks to Rand Oliver for hosting the Socials committee at his house last night. Rand then announced the next social will be January 17, 6:30 pm at Rand’s house. Bring appetizer or dessert.
- Ron Hollenbeck was collecting checks written to Rotary International Foundation this week. See Ron or Uriah Anderson if you still want to take advantage of the points match for your next Paul Harris Fellow.
- Crissy Allums announced we have 10 more kids that need adopted for Christmas. The commitment is to purchase $75 in gifts per child.
- Brian Hayes said if you haven’t paid your bill, please do so before December 15 as he’ll start working on Q1 2024 then.
- Boyd Preston shared that our benches are in, which will complete Phase 2 of the 50th Anniversary project at Grant Park. The Park District will install them on concrete pads along the ADA path. He and Carol Kennard hinted we can now start working on our 60th Anniversary ;-)
Happy Bucks this quarter are going toward the Maui Fire/Disaster Relief fund. Pat Beckel was our Sergeant at Arms with help from Brian Hayes.
Happy Bucks were generously given for:
- Pat Beckel announced the Veterans event last Saturday was a sellout and raised $50,000 after expenses. This Sunday is the Holiday Walk and tree lighting. Check hocwt.org for a list of activities. He also recognized Kelly for all he does for our club.
- Pat Turnbull paid last week’s bill, and gave for the tree lighting and Santa’s arrival this weekend.
- Elda Gotos Gay wished all a Happy Thanksgiving.
- Ger Eastabrooks had a great time at Cline Elementary School handing out dictionaries and thesauri with her daughter, Amber.
- Gina Smith was happy.
- Carol Kennard is looking forward to Thanksgiving in Pittsburgh with her daughter’s family and celebrating her youngest granddaughter’s 4th birthday.
- Boyd Preston congratulated Brad Thorp on his retirement.
- Wyatt Thorp gave a happy $23 for the 23 years his dad worked for Edward Jones.
- Chuck King said Happy Thanksgiving to all and was thrilled leaves were picked up at his street this week.
- Ron Hollenbeck gave congratulations to Brad Thorp and noted when he visited the Northmont Rotary Club, their guest speaker was Bill Menker, who gave a great program on Search and Rescue.
- Socks Bowersocks was happy for Brad’s retirement.
- Dave Trout for Brad’s retirement and the great weather.
- Arnie Biondo gave $129 for Maui, a percentage of selling his trinkets at a recent craft (?) show.
- Mark Febus just returned from a great vacation in Hawaii.
- Crissy Allums congratulated Brad on his retirement and wished all a Happy Thanksgiving.
- Kelly McDonald for Maui and successful 5 pars strung together at Hilton Head.
- Dale Berry noted Kelly McDonald is good for club and is a good neighbor.
- Wayne Davis for Brad’s retirement and is looking forward to delivering dictionaries/thesauri with Brain Hayes tomorrow.
- Rand Oliver for Kelly’s PHF +6, Brad’s retirement, and for getting to participate in the NYC Veterans Day parade.
- Kristin Hutton is happy to be part of the club and wished all a Happy Thanksgiving.
- Ray Merz is celebrating his 86th birthday the day after Thanksgiving.
- Lisa Goris May was happy everyone in her family, except her is going away for Thanksgiving so she doesn’t have to cook for a lot of people!
- Sofie Ameloot congratulated Brad, thanked Kelly, and said she successfully made Belgium waffles for friends.
- Jeff Senney for Brad’s retirement where he drank red wine, last night at Rand’s house where he drank red wine, and was disappointed he had nothing on his calendar tonight.
- Adam Manning for Brad and Dale’s retirements and Kelly’s generosity.
- Don Stewart played 3 days of golf in Colorado and saw a fantastic blues band last night in Dayton. We are lucky to have so many opportunities in our area.
Our speaker today was Rob Dement, Athletic Director at Centerville High School.
Rob Dement has been working in education for 32 years, first as a math teacher and coach. He said he feels lucky to be working in Centerville. It is an incredible community with a high level of expectation and excellence.
Centerville High School (CHS) has 9 sports in GWOC and 5 of those teams won titles this fall. Six Players of the Year were from CHS (out of 9 possible.) As you can see, CHS is above the norm. He shares with the students that less than 3% get athletic scholarships so he encourages them to get it in the classroom - through hard academic work.
Six Coaches of the Year, selected by peers, were from CHS. Other teams think CHS is successful because of the size of the student body, giving lots of talent to choose from, but it is really the work ethic of the athletes and coaches.
Rob then shared information about the planned multi-purpose Athletic Facility that is in the discussion/fund raising phase. The number 1 thing needed for the athletic teams is space. He noted the decision to pursue the athletic facility was made before the School District decided to go on the ballot. It was never part of the levy plan, but they backed off the fundraising during the levy campaign because some people always believe the levy will pay for it. They are raising private funds for this facility; no levy funds will be used.
They currently have around $3 million raised of the $9 million total project cost. The first phase, which includes an indoor practice facility, turf surface, 4 locker rooms, batting cages, and will cost $4.9 million.
The 2nd phase will include an additional weight room and wrestling facility. Rob said over 30 girls are in the wrestling program at CHS this year, the biggest girls team in this area.
The 3rd phase will be storage for outdoor sports (stored under the stadium now).
The five sports that won titles this year include Football, Girls Cross Country, Girls Volleyball, Girls Tennis, and Girls Soccer.
When you make all State in your sport, your picture goes on the wall at CHS.
The Boys Lacrosse team has grown and is now able to schedule competitive games. The challenge is that there is no great pool of coaches as the sport is too new. Girls Lacrosse is catching up as they hired a coach who played at Penn State.
If you choose to play a spring sport, you don’t go away for spring break.
Kirk Herbstreit has given video messages to players. CHS has a lot of successful alumni who come back to help out. NIL is not allowed at the High School level, yet..
Rob said the high school basketball rules have been change so there will be no more one-and-one allowed. To minimize injuries, the new rule states after 5 fouls per quarter (not 7), 2-shot free throws will be awarded.
Next week’s speaker it Tom Turkey - so enjoy your Thanksgiving and don’t show up at Rotary as we won’t be there!
Our next meeting will be November 30 and our speaker will be Neal Gittleman, Dayton Philharmonic Artistic Director and Conductor.
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