Past President Samantha Maruzzelli brought the meeting to order at 12:15 PM at Purkey’s Pink Apple with Frank Oliver reciting the 4-Way Test and leading the Pledge of Allegiance and Dave Wilson giving the Invocation.

 

 

Dave Wilson heard from former exchange student Rodrigo from Peru. He is doing well and misses everyone.  He is now working for Pepsi International as an industrial engineer.

 

 

DG Roger Mattes will be at our Aug 2 club meeting. Our Board of Directors will meet with DG Roger for 30 min after the Aug 2 meeting.

 

The July Board of Directors meeting will be July 31 at Towne and Country Grille to approve the budget and 3 new member applications.

 

Club dues are now due at $135/yr.

 

If desired, please sign up for the blue Rotary t-shirts.

 

Do any members have ideas for service projects that need funding, so they can be added to the budget for this year?  Please let Pres. Mike know before July 31.

 

Are there any other items to include in the budget?  Please let Pres. Mike know before July 31.

 

 

Past President Samantha then presented awards to Rotarians who were not able to attend the June 28 Officer Installation and Awards Banquet.

 

She presented Executive and Thank you Awards to former Treasurer Sandy Lane.

 

Sandy Lane (left) with Samantha Maruzzelli

 

PP Samantha then presented an Excellence in Humanity Award to Jon Buxton.

 

Jon Buxton with Samantha Maruzzelli

 

 

Lou Divis reported that Peace Camp will take place Aug 6-9 with the Thursday being time at Lazybrook Park. The Peace Camp runs daily from 9 AM to 2 PM with the last half hour being yoga.  All Rotarians are welcome to attend or observe.

 

 

Tom reported that the date for the Tunkhannock Rotary Picnic at Ron Furman’s cabin is Sun Aug 12, although it could change.

 

Following the meeting, Ron Furman confirmed that the Tunkhannock Rotary Picnic at his cabin will take place on Sunday, Aug 12.  We will meet at 1:30 PM and eat at 2:30 PM. For those not having 4-wheel drive on their vehicles, Ron will have someone giving rides up to the cabin to avoid another Fran Turner-like incident.  Please sign up at the next couple of Rotary meetings or let Ron know you plan to come (and how many people) so that they can prepare an appropriate amount of food.

 

 

Pres. Mike needs volunteers for some key committee chairs/co-chairs to replace members who have served in these positions for a long time and give others the experience:

 

 

Norm Kelly remarked that the committee is waiting for the return of our partners from the Methodist Haiti Partnership to return from Haiti to move forward with the Haiti water Global grant. Our portion of the grant money is already in a separate account set up by Sandy Lane. So, until we hear from the Partnership, everything is on hold for right now.

 

 

It was reported that the District Jamboree had at least 10 members in attendance which was a great turnout from our Club.

Past President Samantha Maruzzelli adjourned the meeting at 1:15 PM.

 

Carol began by introducing her educational and work background prior to moving to Tunkhannock after retiring from her Vice Presidency in a Massachusetts’ biotechnology company in Oct 2010. Although she continued to consult for her former employer for several years, she wanted to find a way to start to give back for the good fortune that had allowed her to take early retirement at age 60.  During the last 6 years of her working career, she had no time for volunteer organizations, so she was now ready to find the best organization in Tunkhannock to begin to “give back”.  

 

In Oct 2011, Carol consulted with Kristin Smith-Gary at the Library who suggested Rotary and Tunkhannock Business & Professional Women as organizations that she thought might be good for her to join.  Kristin said a member of the library board, Sandy Lane, would call Carol to talk about Rotary.  Sandy invited Carol to several Rotary Meetings as a guest and in Jan 2012, she was inducted into the Tunkhannock Rotary Club.

 

Two weeks after joining, Carol was approached by a white-haired gentleman who introduced himself as Al Noble. He suggested that she might consider donating money to the Rotary Foundation.  Carol remarked that she usually did due diligence on any charities to which she contributed. Al said to go online, check them out and then donate.  She was impressed with what she found, made her $100 donation and went back to Rotary the next week to tell Al what she had done. 

 

Al was happy, said he had thought about what she had said and that there was a no-cost Rotary Foundation workshop coming up in Mar at the Ramada Inn in Clark Summit. It was on a Sat from 9 AM to 3 PM with a free lunch.

 

So, Carol had her first Rotary Moment when she attended and heard about local projects funded by District Grants and then international projects that were being done by Rotarians from clubs in our District. Then DG Budd O’Malia told a very touching story about the polio program in India where a women refused the vaccine for her son, who in the next year developed polio.  When she asked for him to be vaccinated at that time, they had to tell her no since the vaccine could prevent polio but not cure her son. This story and the fact that the woman became a polio vaccine advocate really touched Carol since her favorite uncle was a US polio survivor. She vividly remembered how crippled he was all his life from polio and he respiratory issues that shortened his life as happens with many polio survivors. 

 

After DG Budd’s presentation, the District Foundation Chair Ted Silver talked about everyone going back to their Clubs and talking about how important it was to support the Foundation. Then he talked about something Al had not mentioned and that was the Paul Harris Society for an annual commitment of a $1,000 donation. He showed a bar graph of what each $1,000 donation could do and before she left the workshop, Carol had signed up to join the Paul Harris Society.

 

Carol’s second Rotary Moment happened 6 months later, on a Wed morning in Sept 2012.  She was having a relaxing breakfast in the kitchen when she got a call from President Bill Barber.  He said the Board had met the previous day and that they agreed to offer her the position of Secretary, since the currently Secretary Allen Mickle had resigned from the position. He told her it would not be much work, just take a few meeting minutes and send in the monthly attendance to the District. Believing Pres. Bill, she accepted and has been your Secretary for the last almost 6 years, although she quickly came to realize Bill’s job description was a little bit of an underestimation.

 

Carol Ziomek