District Governor’s Visit and Special Awards

District 7450 Governor Dave Haradon and Assistant Governor Chris Potter joined us for our weekly breakfast meeting this morning.

Current Club Secretary Lou Hatfield was honored by her fellow members for her “outstanding performance service … preparing and distributing detailed minutes of our weekly meetings … as well as her participation in and valued contributions to the Club’s many activities.”

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A similar presentation was made this afternoon to one of the Club’s founders and its long time Club Secretary, Charles Hinton.

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Dave Haradon gave a very detailed presentation on both the greater Rotary International organization and the many areas of service in which clubs around the globe are involved … as well as how the local District 7450, of which our Club is a member, functions and can assist member clubs.

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David then presented special Governor’s Citations to:

Alan Agree

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Alan was and continues to be the driving force behind our Club’s relationship with and commitment to the William Dick School.  Through his vision and efforts, our Club is proud to assist this desperately in-need school and play a small part in helping children who have so many challenges to overcome … minority status, economic disenfranchisement, lack of basic clothing and nutrition,  neglect by the City, etc.  His commitment to this cause is incredibly commendable!  Alan also coordinates our quarterly visits to Hope Lodge and the service we provide for its cancer patients.  Further, he served as an outstanding, extremely hard working and effective president of our Club for two years. 

Phil Huber

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More than a year ago, Phil fell and was subsequently diagnosed with a condition which severely impaired his ability to walk.  He went through many sessions of physical therapy and has only recently felt secure enough to begin attending meetings.  Despite his disability, club members paid regular visits to his home just to visit socially and cheer him up.  Meanwhile, Phil not only continued to pay his Club dues and financially support many of the Club’s fundraising projects, but proactively sought out jobs he could do for the Club from home.  Phil is an example of the  unwavering dedication and commitment all Rotarians should strive to emulate.

and

Irv Perlstein

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Irv, a past Club president, is our Club’s answer to the “Energizer Bunny” and an example of giving of himself for the benefit of others on a regular basis.  For years he has chaired and been the prime “mover and shaker” for our annual charity golf outing, which is the Club’s most complex event to pull off and  largest annual fundraiser.  He also steps up to participate in visits to the William Dick School, serving dinner at Hope Lodge, rings the bell for the Salvation Army, assists with the Club’s semi-annual Adopt-A-Highway clean-up, works at our annual Applebee’s Flapjack Breakfast, coordinates our relationship with the Guardians of the National Cemetery, and the list goes on.  More recently, he has single-handily developed a program to raise monies to provide a Thanksgiving dinner to a needy veteran and his/her family. For those who have worked closely with him they agree that they have ever met anyone as committed to serving other than Irv.

Delivering Thanksgiving Dinners for Needy Veterans

This morning, the Club provided two complete Thanksgiving dinners, complete with all the trimmings, to three veterans support organizations; Heather Estes, founder of Forgotten Threads, Russ Davidson and Alan Winger of VFW Post 6393, and Gabriel Mascio of the American Legion Post 317.  They will, in turn, be delivering these holiday meals to needy veterans in the local area.

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Shown:  Irv Perlstein, Alan Winger, Russ Davidson and Dick Newbert

A similar effort is planned to provide Holiday Meals for veterans prior to the Christmas/Hanukkah holidays.

Students-of-the-Month Presentation – Speaker ACLU Executive Director, Reggie Shuford

This evening, the Club recognized two Maple Point Middle School eighth-graders as students-of-the-month for October and November.

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October Student-of-the Month:  Alexandria Folweiler

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November Student-of-the-Month:  Deanna Ratzman

In addition to receiving a certificate and a cash award, both students and their parents were presented with one-year Honorary Memberships in the Rotary Club of Shady Brook.

We were also fortunate to have Reggie Shuford, the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.  Often criticized, Tit is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization whose stated mission is “to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country under the Constitution, Bill of Rights and the laws of the country.

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Of the projects he highlighted which on which the ACLU is currently focusing, the issue of voter ID generated the most controversy and discussion.

Dinners for Needy Veterans

Irv Perlstein presented McCaffery’s Supermarket gift cards to Russ Davidson of VFW Post 6393.

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These gift certificates were made possible by the monies so generously donated by McCaffery’s customers at last Sunday’s fund raiser.  The VFW will donate these to needy veterans to help make their Christmas holidays a bit brighter.

 

Providing Thanksgiving Dinners for Needy Veterans

The Club set up a booth outside Shop-Rite Supermarket in Lower Makefield today to raise monies to provide Thanksgiving Dinners for needy Veterans and their families.

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Alan Agree, Dick Newbert and Irv Perlstein

Generous shoppers donated enough money for the Rotary Club of Shady Brook to purchase six Thanksgiving dinners, complete with Butterball turkeys, vegetables and all of the other “fixings”.  The meals will be prepared by Shop-Rite’s catering department and delivered to the recipient families through local VFW, American Legion, Forgotten Threads and other veteran’s organizations.

The Club extends its grateful thanks to Shop-Rite’s Karen Bumpus for her assistance in helping us coordinate this effort.

 

Ringing the Bell for the Salvation Army

Today, kicked-off another season of helping the Salvation Army with its per-Christmas”Kettle” drive ringing the bell outside J.C. Penny’s at the Oxford Valley Mall in Langhorne.

Teams of Club members will be greeting shoppers and manning the “Kettle” every Saturday between now and Christmas.

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Lou Hatfield, Debbie Newbert, Larry Jaffe and (photographer) Dick Newbert were amazed at not only the traffic but the number of folks making contributions today.

 

2016 Presidential Election

One Hundred Percent (100%) of the Club’s membership made it to the polls (or had cast absentee ballots) in yesterday’s all-important 2016 presidential election.

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This track-record is a testament to their beliefs in and commitments to participation in our nation’s precious and fragile democracy.

“Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.”

Franklin Delano Roosevelt