President Kathy called the meeting to order. In addition to the Pledge of Allegiance, Rotarians sang “America” or “My Country Tis of Thee” and “The Rotary Hymn”, an adaptation of “Eternal Father,” the U.S. Navy Hymn. An invocation was offered by Dave Dix.
Announcements:
*Auction Table: Stacy Richardson announced a Rotary Auction Table would be at the back of Pierson Hall each Tuesday where people can donate items for auction, become auction sponsors and eventually make reservations for the auction now only six weeks away as it occurs Friday, May 6th. The auction committee was holding its weekly meeting following the regular Rotary meeting at a table.
*4-Way Test: Will Underwood said he would hold his weekly meeting for the committee to prepare to host the District 4-Way Speech Competition April 9th at Roosevelt High School.
*Rotary District Conference: President Kathy reminded us that the Conference is April 23-24 at the Sheraton Suites in Cuyahoga Falls. District Governor Larry Lohman’s home club is Kent and President Kathy said our club is sponsoring a hospitality suite at the event. She urged a big Kent Club turnout.
*Exciting Support: President Kathy said our club raised $430 for the Blanket Project and $750 for the Literacy Project through the bracket buster event. She said Rotary over six years in the bracket buster promotion has raised $3,150 for Literacy.
*Lord’s Lunch: Todd Kamenash said our club is the host for the April 23, 2022 Lord’s Lunch at Trinity Lutheran Church and volunteers are needed between 9:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.
*Bracket Report: Todd Kamenash announced that so far Laing Kennedy’s recommendations for the NCAA in the men’s division were 99 percent correct. He said Carol Crimi is leading in the women’s division.
*Invocation signups: Robert O’Keefe circulated a signup sheet for invocations. She said she would like to fill it through May.
*Bruce Bain: President Kathy announced the passing of Bruce Bain, a former Kent Rotary Club member. Bruce was president and eventually an owner of the Bonnot Company and Gougler Industries located on Lake Street in Kent. An Akron resident, Bruce held an engineering degree from Yale. He was a staunch supporter of Kent Rotary for many years. Bruce was 90 years old.
Happy Bucks: Among those donating were: Roger Sidoti donated $5 in honor of his fifth grandchild, this one a grandson whose mother is Liz, his journalistically super-achieving daughter. Todd Kamenash donated to celebrate his son, Charlie, who participated in Biomed’s recent 7th grade talent show by doing a dad-joke themed stand-up comedy routine. The performance is on Todd’s Facebook page. Paul Organ donated because Kentucky was upset in the NCAA basketball competition and Paul went to a rival school.
ROTARY POTPOURRI: JUST THE FACTS
Our program chairman, Todd Kamenash, expanded our knowledge base of trivia when he had club members by table provide answers for 20 questions per table, two sets divided among the tables. The A group answered questions ranging from the largest known animal to have inhabited Earth (answer: Blue Whale), to naming the countries bordering Ukraine (answer: Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldovia, and Russia). We learned that a person who suffers from ephebiphobia is scared of teenagers, that a Mandelorian is a Star Wars fictional character, and that Aretha Franklin was the first woman inducted in to the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame. We also learned that the Fourth Commandment is to Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother and that when we touch an octothorpe we are pushing the pound button on our keyboards. The B group learned that the 8th Amendment offers protection against Excessive Bail and Cruel and Unusual Punishment, that power outages are mostly caused by squirrels, and that a growlix is a punctuation mark used in comics and cartoon to represent swear words. We learned John is the most common name taken by popes and that the real name of Lady Gaga is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. Finally, we learned that collywobbles are the feeling of butterflies in the stomach and that children are born without knee caps which apparently develop in us after birth. It was a great exercise and this reporting of it merely mentioned a few highlights. Responding was Roberta O’Keefe.
Respectfully submitted by: Dave Dix