Meeting on March 10, 2020

Greeting:   President Roger Sidoti welcomed Rotarians and guests to the Rotary Club of Kent.

The patriotic song of the day was God Bless America, played by David Dix.

President Roger led us in the Pledge of Allegiance and Sue Hetrick offered the invocation. David Dix led us in singing the KSU Fight song to cheer on the KSU basketball teams that are playing in the MAC tournament.

The Rotareminder author is Sue Hetrick, and Rachel Kerns will take photos.

There were no visiting Rotarians.

Roger Sidoti introduced his guest, Gwen Rosenberg.  Shawn Gordon’s guest was Ashley Hendrix.  Jennifer Lennox was a guest of Sandy Reid.

President Roger commented on a Health Dept. memo regarding Covid-19.  He noted that Rotary meetings will proceed as usual unless we are advised to make changes.

David Dix reminded us of the NCAA Watch Party on March 20^th at Rays.  Half of the proceeds will go to United Way.

Shawn Gordon announced that all schools are covered for our literacy read in.  She then made a plea that people don’t go to the hospital emergency rooms for the flu.  Call the Health Dept. for advice.

Mary Beth Harper urged us to contribute to the bracket buster contest.  Each bracket (men’s or women’s) costs $10. The proceeds will help fund AED equipment.

Stacey Richardson asked us to support the up-coming auction on May 8^th.  Forms were distributed for sponsoring opportunities for the auction. A new item this year is a wine wall.  Donors are needed for wine bottles. 

Carol Crimi reminded us that we will be preparing and serving a dinner to those who are food insecure on March 28^th.  Donations of food can be made by anyone who is not able to help at the dinner.  See Carol for details.

President Roger passed around a note received from one of the contestants of our 4-way speech contest.

Will Underwood introduced the members of his District Speech Contest committee as follows:  Shawn Gordon, Rachel Kerns, David Myers, Amanda Senn, Curt Stumpf, Nancy Whitehead.  Pleas were made for help at the District contest, which will be held from 9am to 2pm on April 11^th.  Also, donations are needed to help with costs of the event.

Stephanie Evans introduced Nicole Thomas of Children’s Advantage.  Nicole is Director of Program Development and Director of Trauma Services at Children’s Advantage.  The agency is a children’s mental health agency offering a wide range of services to children and their families.  Services are offered in schools, in homes and at the agency.  The agency has about 1700 clients.

Nicole thanked Rotary, especially the Rotary Foundation, for providing financial support for a new program called Getting Ahead.  The program will serve families with a goal of helping families heal and become independent from services.  Child care and incentives for program attendance are included.  The program will run for 16 weeks and can serve 12 families at one time.  Nicole talked about her career path and her passion for work with victims of trauma.  She is excited about family-centered services designed to eradicate intergenerational trauma and poverty.

The family-based services will be offered in a building, newly renovated for the purpose of treating families. The agency was able to secure a capital grant to purchase and renovate the building.  The building will be called the Family Center. Nicole said that the programs offered at the Family Center will keep families together.  Children’s Advantage is partnering with other community agencies to offer resources to families.

Amanda Senn said she was impressed with the comments about intergenerational trauma and ways to end that cycle.  She thanked Nicole for her presentation.

President Roger noted that the schools benefit from the work of Children’s Advantage staff.

We ended the meeting with the Four Way Test.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Sue Hetrick