A balmy winter day (50 degrees!) brought out a nice group of Rotarians for the luncheon.  "Rev. McGreevy" did his thing with the prayer, but the flag was MIA again.  We all turned to face the courthouse and say the pledge anyway, but it looked as though we were pledging to Joe Murtha, who never did turn around!  That's okay, he got fined for it!

 

We welcomed Bill Boone of Logan Monument again, as well as our speakers for the day, Keith Myers and Pat Walsh.

 

Mike McGreevy took over in Doug Wells' absence, and did indeed have the deck to work with.  The first draw went to Jake Hill, drawing for the BIG POT from the last meeting when we had no cards.  Next up, a winner for the day was drawn and Susan Aldridge took the small pot of $12.  Thankfully, she did not draw the Ace of Spades, and the BIG POT has grown to $23!  Let's build that amount up for a while.

 

Stepping to the plate today was Larry Willard.  He looked very intent on picking some pockets today.

 

First was the lone late-comer - John Smith.

 

Next, Larry turned on his tablemates.  It seems that a tour of the new Central Elementary was arranged for the Kiwanis Club this week.  Larry fine Christy Bosch and Dave Snipes both a buck for allowing Kiwanis to get a tour before we did!

 

Birthdays and Happy Bucks:  Susan's son turns 4 this month; Jake Hill has a birthday; Jon Mesarch has a birthday, too; Mark Hamon announced that he won a vacation for his bank branch's performance (Congrats!); Doug Fisher announced H1N1 clinics this week for ANYONE to get a vaccination; Valery chipped in $2 - happy to have the refurbished Rotary banners done & back in place at the meetings, and also to recognize her nephew Sam Holl for his stellar performance with the Katy High School (TX) football team this year; Bill Boone paid a buck to tell his his son was interviewed by Channel 6 Sports at a golf lesson on Saturday, and asked his opinion of the Tiger Woods story.

 

Dec. 21 - Larry Menchhofer

Dec. 28 - No meeting

Jan. 4 - Mike McGreevy

Jan. 11 - Andy McGhee

Jan. 18 - Holiday - Martin Luther King Day

Jan. 25 - Bob Lilley

 

Joe gave us a great report on the bike project.  The Posse has rehabbed 68 bikes and purchased 90 from Walmart!  This brings their total above the 150 they had hoped to donate to Toys to Share.  They have received contributions of $2700, including $700 from the Christmas Party's Brown Bag auction. 

 

Now, they need help next Sunday to get the bicycles from the second story of the old Western Auto building to the Century National Parking lot for the distribution.  They need a few more pick up trucks and drivers to help make the transition.  Report for duty at 9:30 AM in the alley behind the old Western Auto building.  We will be assisted again this year by the youth group from the First Presbyterian Church.  Kathy & Mike Krumlauf are handling security at the Century Bank lot, but we need all the help we can get to load and unload bicycles.  They more people that come, the faster the job goes!!!

 

Congratulation to everyone who helped with this project, and especially to Joe Murtha for the "use of the hall"!  Another big feather in the Logan Rotary cap!!

 

At the December Board meeting, several pieces of business were handled.

 

Larry Menchhofer was selected as this year's Paul Harris Fellow.  This is Larry's second Paul Harris Fellowship and we tip our hats for his commitment to the Rotary International efforts.

 

The Club usually donates $250 each to Smith Chapel Food Mission and the Logan Jaycees Christmas Basket project at this time of year.  The Jaycees will not be doing Christmas Baskets this year, so it was decided to donate the entire $500 to Smith Chapel.  Did you know that there are over 900 approved families/individuals in our community that are served by Smith Chapel?  It is a great place for your charitable contributions.

 

The Board also completed the list of recommended officers for 2010-2011.  The slate was presented to the Club today.  Bob Lilley made a motion to elect by acclamation, seconded by Larry Willard and approved by all.  Our officers will be Jim Robinson, President; Doug Wells, President Elect; Susan Aldridge, Vice President; Mike McGreevy, Secretary; Joe Murtha, Treasurer; Van Cardaras, Doug Fisher and Jake Hill as Directors.  Thank you all for your service to the Club!

 

Bob Lilley announced that anyone receiving an e-mail from Steve Rieder should not open it!  His computer was been taken over by a virus that is attempting to spread itself to anyone in his e-mail listings!

 

Dave Snipes reported receiving lots of thank you cards from third graders that received dictionaries from us.  We passed them around and enjoyed reading their comments.  He also stated that we received a thank you from the Hocking Valley Community Hospital Foundation for our donation to them.

 

The 2009 Rotary Christmas celebration was a doozy!  The decorating done by Amy Wells was beautiful and enjoyed by us all.  There was excellent food and spirits, and a great group of friends whose company we could all enjoy.

 

We had a spirited Brown Bag auction, with some excellent gifts for many of us to take home.  In case you were wondering, the green bikini did appear, and left with Van Cardaras this year!  The party ended with a ticket hunt under the chairs for the winner of the door prize - each table had a box filled with candy and gift card from The Olde Dutch Restaurant.

 

A great time was had by all, and many thanks to Doug and Amy Wells, with an assist from Jason Quier for making it all happen.

 

Jon Mesarch was in charge of the program today, and he introduced us to the Logan High School boy's varsity basketball coach, Keith Myers and the girl's varsity basketball coach Pat Walsh.

 

Keith was happy to report a team full of upperclassment this year, including 4 returning lettermen.  They are working hard to get everyone healthy and in shape but he expects to have a good year.  They are not as tall as some opponents, but they will be working to pick up the tempo of their game and take advantage of greater mobility.

 

Pat reported that the girl's program currently has only 24 players today for the three teams - Freshman, JV and Varsity.  This means that all of the girls get a lot of playing time!  They have even incorporated a German exchange student that is currently at LHS!  Pat spoke about the time and commitment needed by the girls to be able to participate and be effective on the team, and the fact that it does limit the number of girls interested in playing.  The varsity is currently 3-0, but he says they have lots of room for improvement and he expects greater challenges as the year progresses.

 

Best of luck to both our coaches as they work to train and motivate our Logan High School basketball players