Rotareminder notes
Called to order by President Elect Amanda Senn. We sang America the Beautiful, recited the Pledge of Allegiance and Sue Hetrick gave the invocation. The fun song was Piano Man.
There were no visiting Rotarians or guests.
Announcements: Dominique Bollenbacher said that the city of Kent is looking to fill a volunteer civil service vacancy. For more information, contact Dominique. Kathy Myers said it’s not too late to buy tickets for their fundraiser “Changing Destinies,” which is on 9/19 from 6-9. The event, held at Highfields Event Center, includes auction items and great food. Go to colemanservices.org/events to get tickets.
Student of the Month: Kathy Scott introduced the Stanton Middle School Rotary Student of the Month, Eden Craver-Dean. Eden is an 8th grader on the Titans team, who has given a lot of volunteer time to her community. She helps with the community gardens on the South Side of Kent, helps kids with disabilities to play on a softball team, in addition to playing on the Girls of Summer softball team. She is a girl scout and takes an active role recruiting new members. She’s also active at her school, where she is a member of the Student Advisory Council, a Student Ambassador and Student Council. Eden says she’d like to eventually study investigative criminology or become an attorney.
Birthdays: The question is: Tell us about a time you got in trouble because you did something your parents didn’t know about.
Tom Hall – Tom remembers trying to jump between his house’s roof and a neighbors’ roof – and missing. He fell on his back, but didn’t want to tell his mom, so went to his Little League game pretending nothing happened. On the way to the game, he hit his head on the car roof as they went over a bump in the road, so both his chest and head hurt. He didn’t have any broken bones, but he said it wasn’t his best Little League game that year.
Todd Kamenesh – Todd remembers blowing saliva bubbles on the bus, and then getting detention for “spitting” on others. He made up an excuse for why he had to go early to school to serve his detention, and thought he got away with it. He didn’t realize that the school had also sent a letter to his mother…
Roger Sidoti – Roger said when he was in high school the basketball team told their mothers they were going to see “Dr Zhivago” at the movies, when they actually went to see “Barbarella.” Apparently the lie was kept up for about two weeks, but came to a crashing halt when one of his teammates confessed that they hadn’t seen Dr. Zhivago.
Mark Pennell – Mark told a story of how he was sending toy cars down a ramp and got gas on one of the cars, which caught on fire. The car flew into a bush, which caught on fire too. He put the fire out and then trimmed the bush so the evidence was wiped clean. His mom was so thrilled with his unexpected landscaping that it took him 20 years to tell her the reason why he had trimmed the bush.
Sue Whiting – Sue was 5 years old and wanted to go with some older friends to the playground, but her mom said no. Sue went anyway, but wanted to leave before anyone else, so had to walk home alone. She got lost, but reunited with her mom about 45 minutes later, when her mom came out on to the street looking for her.
Program: Dominique introduced her father, Britain Bollenbacher, as someone who loves Jesus and endeavors to serve Him and his family with his heart, strength, mind and soul. Britain serves as the Chairman of the Board of Rooted Community Development Corporation, a community development organization that focuses on the South End of Kent. The organization has a community building at the corner of Cherry and Franklin and has a focus on serving the youth and seniors. They have executed 16 one-day service activities where more than 100 volunteers served 342 residents in the neighborhood. Britain explained that as a Christian organization, their board was filled with members from local churches, but that a Christian faith was not necessary to serve as a volunteer or as a recipient of their goodwill. He shared that in the South End, 97% of the inhabitants were beneath the poverty line, 75% do not own their own home, and 45% make less than $20,000 a year. Rooted’s youth programs center around mentoring and teaching life skills, which then the youth “practice” at the local senior centers. The senior programs include a number of activities at Tower 43 and Kentway, including bingo, craft time and taking seniors on field trips to places like the Randolph Fair. He said their biggest need is in people, and that they are happy to help figure out what gifts people can share and connect people with volunteer possibilities. Most of their funding comes from private donations. Their future plans include community classes, a social space for seniors and group gathering spaces.
Paul Organ responded and pointed out that Rotarians are interested in making community connections and appreciated that Rooted is in a strategic location in our community.
Rotareminder notes
Called to order by President Elect Amanda Senn. We sang America the Beautiful, recited the Pledge of Allegiance and Sue Hetrick gave the invocation. The fun song was Piano Man.
There were no visiting Rotarians or guests.
Announcements: Dominique Bollenbacher said that the city of Kent is looking to fill a volunteer civil service vacancy. For more information, contact Dominique. Kathy Myers said it’s not too late to buy tickets for their fundraiser “Changing Destinies,” which is on 9/19 from 6-9. The event, held at Highfields Event Center, includes auction items and great food. Go to colemanservices.org/events to get tickets.
Student of the Month: Kathy Scott introduced the Stanton Middle School Rotary Student of the Month, Eden Craver-Dean. Eden is an 8th grader on the Titans team, who has given a lot of volunteer time to her community. She helps with the community gardens on the South Side of Kent, helps kids with disabilities to play on a softball team, in addition to playing on the Girls of Summer softball team. She is a girl scout and takes an active role recruiting new members. She’s also active at her school, where she is a member of the Student Advisory Council, a Student Ambassador and Student Council. Eden says she’d like to eventually study investigative criminology or become an attorney.
Birthdays: The question is: Tell us about a time you got in trouble because you did something your parents didn’t know about.
Tom Hall – Tom remembers trying to jump between his house’s roof and a neighbors’ roof – and missing. He fell on his back, but didn’t want to tell his mom, so went to his Little League game pretending nothing happened. On the way to the game, he hit his head on the car roof as they went over a bump in the road, so both his chest and head hurt. He didn’t have any broken bones, but he said it wasn’t his best Little League game that year.
Todd Kamenesh – Todd remembers blowing saliva bubbles on the bus, and then getting detention for “spitting” on others. He made up an excuse for why he had to go early to school to serve his detention, and thought he got away with it. He didn’t realize that the school had also sent a letter to his mother…
Roger Sidoti – Roger said when he was in high school the basketball team told their mothers they were going to see “Dr Zhivago” at the movies, when they actually went to see “Barbarella.” Apparently the lie was kept up for about two weeks, but came to a crashing halt when one of his teammates confessed that they hadn’t seen Dr. Zhivago.
Mark Pennell – Mark told a story of how he was sending toy cars down a ramp and got gas on one of the cars, which caught on fire. The car flew into a bush, which caught on fire too. He put the fire out and then trimmed the bush so the evidence was wiped clean. His mom was so thrilled with his unexpected landscaping that it took him 20 years to tell her the reason why he had trimmed the bush.
Sue Whiting – Sue was 5 years old and wanted to go with some older friends to the playground, but her mom said no. Sue went anyway, but wanted to leave before anyone else, so had to walk home alone. She got lost, but reunited with her mom about 45 minutes later, when her mom came out on to the street looking for her.
Program: Dominique introduced her father, Britain Bollenbacher, as someone who loves Jesus and endeavors to serve Him and his family with his heart, strength, mind and soul. Britain serves as the Chairman of the Board of Rooted Community Development Corporation, a community development organization that focuses on the South End of Kent. The organization has a community building at the corner of Cherry and Franklin and has a focus on serving the youth and seniors. They have executed 16 one-day service activities where more than 100 volunteers served 342 residents in the neighborhood. Britain explained that as a Christian organization, their board was filled with members from local churches, but that a Christian faith was not necessary to serve as a volunteer or as a recipient of their goodwill. He shared that in the South End, 97% of the inhabitants were beneath the poverty line, 75% do not own their own home, and 45% make less than $20,000 a year. Rooted’s youth programs center around mentoring and teaching life skills, which then the youth “practice” at the local senior centers. The senior programs include a number of activities at Tower 43 and Kentway, including bingo, craft time and taking seniors on field trips to places like the Randolph Fair. He said their biggest need is in people, and that they are happy to help figure out what gifts people can share and connect people with volunteer possibilities. Most of their funding comes from private donations. Their future plans include community classes, a social space for seniors and group gathering spaces.
Paul Organ responded and pointed out that Rotarians are interested in making community connections and appreciated that Rooted is in a strategic location in our community.
Jennifer Lennox
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