President Arnie Biondo welcomed everyone to the Centerville Rotary Club and lead the group in the Pledge of Allegiance. PDG Harvey Smith provided the prayer.
The Rotary theme this month is Community, Economic and Development. (Or Halloween if you forget the Rotary theme)
Quote of the day: "If you have a voice within you say "you cannot paint,” then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced."
VINCENT VAN GOGH
President Biondo presented past-president Brian Hayes with a past president pin and thanked him for his leadership.
President Biondo’s announcements:
- Thanks to our greeter today, Ashlee Walton.
- A bag of diapers showed up on his doorstep this morning with a note saying thanks for doing this for the babies
- Our guests this week included Jesse Gaither, a member of the Centerville Noon Optimist Club and owner of Minuteman Press, who does a lot of work for the community, and Bob Sacks, guest of Don Overly and a former Optimist who wants to learn about Rotary.
Other announcements:
- Crissy Allums announced the diaper drive goes through Saturday - keep them coming because she doesn’t like to lose!
- Boyd Preston has pancake tickets is ready to collect your money.
- Frank Perez thanked everyone for helping label dictionary/thesaurus. Books are ready to be distributed to schools and we still need volunteers to help distribute to the schools. We need 2 Rotarians/school and it takes about an hour. We would like to have them all distributed by the end of month.
- Adam Manning is looking for more volunteers to sign up for Pancake Day that is just 2 weeks away!
- Crissy Allums had several announcements/service opportunities
- Operation Warm we donated 444 coats this year,
- Trunk or treat sponsored by We Care Arts, 1-4 pm on Oct 29 committed to one parking spot but could do more. Need volunteers.
- Dec 10 Cookie Walk looking for donated cookies.
- Adopt-s Family: we’ll sponsor 25 children; spend $75 per child.
- Possible help raking leaves for seniors in the community
- Sofie Ameloot announced the Social next Wednesday will be at Zink’s Meats from 4:30-7:30 pm. Jeff Senney threw out a challenge: if 30 people attend, he will donate an additional $500 for coats or diapers
- Sofie also announced the Rotary Holiday party will be on December 15 in the evening.
On TUESDAY, October 25, we will have a combined Rotary/Optimist meeting. 11:45 - 1 pm at Yankee Trace, and then package diapers. There will be no Rotary meeting on October 27.
This quarter our Happy Bucks will go for Puerto Rico hurricane relief. Pat Beckel was our Sergeant-at-Arms.
Happy Bucks given this weeK:
- Pat Beckel congratulated Crissy Allums for a job well done with service opportunities, happy to have Jesse here as he is the Incoming president for the Heart of Centerville
- Adam Maning for our speaker Maggie, and his nephew turns 3, noting the last time we had pancake day, his sister-in-law was pregnant!
- Lee Hieronymus left apology bucks as he had to leave early.
- Carol Kennard is looking forward to a hike in the woods with John this weekend to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary.
- Uriah Anderson thanked the club for sponsoring a ramp to Santa’s cabin at Woodland Lights. Santa is now accessible for everyone.
- Ashlee Walton was excited to be a greeter today and encourage all to come to Zinks!
- Jim Stuart was excited Tennessee beat Alabama but not for the $100,000 fine plus damage to the goal post it cost the university..
- Brad Huffman shared that in 1994-5 he was a Rotary exchange student and last week his host brother from Austria visited.
- Maggie Schneeman was happy to be here.
- Matt Kuhn said he say a very short fat balding dog in Pat’s office when he dropped off diapers and thought it was fitting…
- Ron Hollenbeck for hurricane relief and noted it looks like Elda healed much quicker than Boyd.
- Harvey Smith announced today was Elda’s birthday!
- Ray Merz for hurricane relief.
- Don Overly for his visitor, Bob.
- Bob Sacks was glad to be here.
- Chris Norman announced his 3rd grandson was born last Friday - named Roman Maxwell Norman
- Boyd Preston for hurricane relief.
- Dick Hoback for today’s guests.
- Tom Broadwell for bandages that will be removed today.
- Crissy Allums for Maggie being here and glad we’re winning diaper drive
- Jeff Senney reminded how important the social events are so we get to know each other better. Zinks Wed, 10/26, 4-7:30 pm. Wine, snacks. DON’T MISS IT!
Pat took a break and everyone sang Happy Birthday to Elda Gotos Gay, who said she turns 76 today!
Return to Happy Bucks:
- Elda Gotos Gay announced 5 years ago she was diagnosed with cancer but now everything is ok.
- Chuck King for Elda’s birthday and that he got his snowblower working.
- Frank Perez had wonderful wedding last weekend.
- Dale Berry was happy.
- Jim Harris noted driving around the community, he’s seen lots of pancake signs.
- Jesse Gaither gave thanks for the hospitality. He hopes we win the diaper drive as they need a little humility in their club!
- Arnie Biondo just returned from his 51st Hight School reunion last weekend and their class exchange student from Holland attended!
- Sofie Ameloot for hurricane relief, and for a visit from her in-laws.
- Kelly McDonald had sad bucks as a friend passed away from covid complications. He reminded everyone to get vaccinated!
Our speaker today was Maggie Schneeman with the Dayton Diaper Depot.
Maggie is a life long Daytonian with three kids and six grandkids. She started the Dayton Diaper Depot just a year ago. She knew there was need, but didn’t understand how much. Once she understood the full impact of the need, she had to do something.
They are a small corporation with a simple mission to help families get out of poverty and improve the health of babies.
Maggie shared that babies who cry are much more likely to be abused. Providing enough diapers helps reduce the baby’s need to cry. They distributed 8,000 diapers last year and are up to 75,000 this year. The organization is run by 100% volunteers.
Maggie’s daughter is on the Board for Sweet Cheeks in Cincinnati, a community that is #5 in the nation for children living in poverty. Maggie feels that if you can give a baby 50 diapers, that can help bridge the gap.
The Dayton Diaper Depot works to end diaper need, focusing on:
- Health conditions
- Economic conditions
- Baby’s comfort
When families are struggling financially, some babies only get changed if dirty. May use just one diaper per day, and then switch to a Kroger bag.
Daycares require parents to supply diapers and there is no government assistance for diapers - they aren’t considered a necessity. If parents can’t supply diapers, they can’t work. And it becomes a vicious cycle.
How do they help?
- Organizations donate diapers; diaper drives; grants
- Purchase diapers
- Partner agencies place requests and pick up or they deliver once/month
- Volunteers re-wrap diapers; otherwise someone in the household will sell over internet. Re-wrapped go directly to the babies.
- Include info on Dolly Parton book program - birth-5 years children get a new book every month.
Maggie said Kelly McDonald offered his facility behind Bob Evans to store diapers.
Maggie shared that Dayton schools attendance improved 10% once they started supplying diapers to students. Dunbar has an in-house day care.
They don’t do much with direct distribution but partner with other agencies who have already identified those families in need.
How to help? Check out the website and get on email list notification for when they are wrapping diapers or need help with delivery.
Maggie said we can’t ignore the babies, we’re all in this together. And she gave a big thanks for Rotary and Optimists doing the drive.
Why not cloth diapers? Most don’t have access to laundry at home and laundromats don’t allow you to wash diapers.
The Dayton Diaper Depot is not part of a national diaper bank yet but hopes to soon as they offer discounted diapers. Sweet Cheeks might start ordering from China - much cheaper.
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