President Brian Hayes welcomed everyone to the Centerville Rotary Club and led the Pledge of Allegiance. PDG Harvey Smith provided the prayer, including special prayers for the children and families from Texas.
PDG Harvey Smith then invited Uriah Anderson up to remove his yellow “new member” tag as he has completed all of the requirements to learn more about the club. Congratulations, Uriah!
President Hayes had several announcements:
- Our Club Theme this month covers the area of Youth Services
- Our thought of the moment comes from writer, Marcel Proust, who said “Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."
- Our speaker today is Lucy Sanchez from Bike Centerville and she will get a proper introduction in a few moments.
Ron Hollenbeck announced Design Outreach is having a service day June 18, and need volunteers for the 10am-12 pm shift, cleaning pipes/rods at their facility in Gahanna. Let Ron know if you’d like to help.
Arnie Biondo announced next year we want to go back to things we did pre-COVID. Watch for an invitation to take on jobs for the club - including meeting set up, planning social/fun events, and having Interact members help with social media.
We will also start assigning greeters for each meeting again! Check the eBulletin to see when it is your turn, and if you can’t do it that week, please schedule a sub!
GREETER SCHEDULE
June 2 - Crissy Allums & Mike Wier
June 9 - Uriah Anderson & Dave Trout
(Anniversary dinner)
June 16 - Vas Appalaneni & Brad Thorp
June 23 - Mark Balsan & Kisha Taylor
June 30 - Pat Beckel & Sivaji Subramaniam
(at Benham’s Grove)
Chuck King reminded all to respond to your invitation to our 50th Anniversary dinner on June 9 at Yankee Trace.
President Hayes announced the Leadership Change luncheon will be held at Benham’s Grove on June 30. Please email him with your sandwich of choice for that meal - turkey, ham or roast beef (and then try to remember NOT to go to Yankee Trace that week.)
Monthly Theme: Youth Services
Ginger Clark shared this week’s 50th Anniversary Tidbit to celebrate Youth Services. She highlighted our Educational Scholarship program, where we have awarded $232,000 in scholarships since 1975!
Ginger then shared portions of a video where we caught up with some of our former Youth Exchange students. To watch the entire video, visit our new YouTube Channel here:
Arnie Biondo noted the Rotary Youth Exchange program took a hit during COVID and this year there are only 8 inbound coming to our region in August, and 3 of them are coming to District 6670!
President Hayes auctioned off a raffle item that was left over from our Golf Outing.
Jeff Senney got a book for $20
Judy Budi got a book for $5
Arnie Biondo got a $20 certificate for a custom frame order over $100, $5 City BBQ, and Coasters for $100
Adam Manning got an Elevate gift certificate for $40
We will be sending our Happy Bucks for this quarter through Matthew 25 Ministries to provide support where needed in the Ukraine.
Sergeant of Arms this week was President Hayes
Happy Bucks were given for:
- Jeff Senney is back from FL where he saw a dozen stingrays bigger than the table in only 20 ft of water.
- Lee Hieronymus recognized Mary Nenninger (Asst. Gov) and thanked her for showing up. She is also AG for the clubs in Eaton, Oxford, and NE Cincinnati.
- Adam Manning for his nephew graduating today from high school.
- Arnie Biondo was happy to be back.
- Mary Nenninger asked how many will be in Houston next week for Rotary, and getting no response, said she will report back afterwards.
- Ginger Clark mentioned one of her many roles is as a director with the Heart of Centerville and was happy the first Merchant Market drew 8,000 people last Sunday.
- Susan Schnell couldn’t find any clean money this week so she wrote a check instead because she is happy.
- Carol Kennard said next time she records a zoom, she’ll remember to pin the speaker so her face doesn’t pop up so frequently.
- Mark Febus was happy.
- Judy Budi thanked Carol for the work she put into doing the video with the exchange students.
- Bob Fry was happy.
- Harvey Smith was sad for Texas.
- Larry Merchand was happy, and said the Stubbs Park event was nice.
- Prospective member Kelly McDonald said he got to play golf at Yankee Trace a second time and left a few Easter eggs for others to find later.
- Sofie Ameloot was happy to hear what Lucy has to say about Bike Centerville.
- Ron Hollenbeck for Texas and our resident Mr. Manners (referring to a comment on meeting order by Lee.)
- Ray Merz is leaving for what will probably be a his last trip overseas - taking their two sons/spouses to Iceland, Glasgow, Belfast, Liverpool, Dublin, and more. He is sorry to be missing the 50th anniversary dinner
- Don Overly was looking forward to Lucy’s presentation.
- Chuck King got back from Orlando, St Petersburg, noting he visited his uncle who is now in assisted living and he complains that, “they keep checking on me.”
- Uriah Anderson for recently catching a 27” channel catfish on his fishing trip.
- Karen Huffman (Brad’s mother) thanked the club for such a nice welcoming, noting she wanted to attend as she reads the fabulous newsletter, which is so informative and allows her to keep up with what Brad’s doing. She said she raised two wonderful sons. (Editor note: Thank you, Karen and please come back again!)
- Brad Huffman was happy to have his mom here, and gave her a lot of praise for putting up with him and his brother. She and is dad recently moved here from Columbus and it’s nice to have them closer.
- Elda Gatos-Gas was happy for the meeting and sad for Texas.
- Dale Berry enjoyed the video, noted he remembers each of those exchange students, and it’s nice to hear from them.
- Brian Hayes ordered a car in February that just arrived! He’s excited for his new Toyota Cross.
Our speaker this week was Lucy Sánchez with Bike Centerville.
Lucy is a former employee of Centerville-Washington Park District and Five Rivers Metroparks, was a CWPD park commissioner for 9 years, is a mother of 2, volunteer for Bicycles for All, and treasurer of Bike Centerville.
Lucy noted Bike Centerville was formed in 2014. It’s an all volunteer organization working to make cycling better for everyone. Cycling is good for the environment and provides an economic boost for communities as cyclists like to shop and eat.
The organization collaborates with local governments and is a chapter of Bike Miami Valley, along with other communities.
What is a bike rider? They come in all shapes, sizes and can be casual, serious, fitness. Own it proudly!
They strive to make our community safer for all riders.
This is Bike Month and we are happy to celebrate the Miami Valley as we have the largest paved trail network in the US!
In Centerville you can bike on paths, shared sidewalks, or marked routes through neighborhoods. Lucy highlighted some of our trails:
- Bike Rte 9 - starts at Iron Horse Park where you can travel north to the Kettering-Oakwood Connector and ride to downtown Dayton or connect to trails going east to Xenia and Springfield.
- Bike Rte 32 - get on the Holes Creek trail, through Yankee Trace to Austin Landing, west to the Medlar trail and on over to the Great Miami Trail.
- Bike Rte 12 - combo trail on streets through neighborhoods and winds past multiple parks and schools, with short spurs to businesses. City of Centerville has an interactive map of this trail on their website.
Lucy and her family completed the Underground Railroad bike trail which is a 70 mile loop around Dayton. It is a section of a nationwide trail starting in Mobile, Alabama.
Cyclists spend money - food, drink, beverages. It is considered fitness with a destination.
CWPD has many paved trails within our parks which provide a safe route for kids and fitness. The newest trail at the Activity Center Park just opened.
Bike Centerville hosts community rides in partnership with CWPD. These are slow rides that introduce people to on-street routes in our community. Check
cwpd.org to register.
Bikes for All is an organization that takes donated bikes, fix them up, and then sell adult bikes and give away kids bikes. They are located in downtown Dayton.
Bike Centerville also hosts advance rides for the more serious biker. And they assist with events such as the Bike Rodeo recently conducted by the Noon Optimist Club. Over 100 people were in attendance where they gave away free helmets and registered bikes with the Centerville Police in case they are ever stolen.
Bike Centerville is now working to update their Strategic Pan which includes advocacy. They recently provided feedback to the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission as they were updating the Alternate Transportation Plan. There are future plans to connect the Great Miami Trail to Grant Park.
Within our community they look for low stress surface streets and Map/sign routes to help people get through neighborhoods. Bike signs are a visual reminded to cars to watch for bikes. They are hoping to get an ODOT grant to update our active transportation plan. The Creating Community Connections plan included alternate transportation, and although many items in that plan came to fruition, it is time for an update.
Lucy encouraged everyone to become a member - the registration fee is split between Bike Miami Valley & Centerville. They are always looking for volunteers and will be in the Americana parade so bring your bike and join the ride!
In response to a question about the plan to bring the Iron Horse Trail south past I-675, Lucy noted the newly upgraded Hewitt connection to Bigger Road is the way to get around/across 675. Some of the former rail bed still exists south of I-675, but it is a challenge to get there.
People want TRAILS of all kinds and it’s an amazing feeling when people get out and enjoy their community together.
President Hayes thanked Lucy and noted Jill Wallace here at Yankee Trace is retiring at end of this month. He thanked Jill for all of your assistance to Rotary and we wish her luck in retirement!
Our speaker next week will be Melody Bennett from House of Bread.
President Hayes lead the group in reciting the 4 Way Test and wished everyone a good week.