Berwick Rotarians Stand Kettle Duty for Salvation Army

Rotarians, Bob Lombard, Jodi Alley, and Joe Scopelliti "Chillin" at the kettle.

It was bitterly cold on Thursday this week,  but several Berwick Rotarians braved the weather to take turns ringing the bell for the Salvation Army at the Berwick K-Mart.  K-Mart Christmas shoppers were very generous and the collections will be added to the Salvation Army’s annual fund raiser.

December Club Projects

December is a busy time for Berwick Rotarians.  We have 2 projects and a Christmas party coming up over the next few weeks.

On Saturday,  Dec 5th,  we embark on our annual Children’s Christmas Shopping tour.  The Berwick Rotary partner with the Beriwck Interact Club to host about 40 special needs children on a day of shopping and fun.  The participants will meet at the Berwick Middle School in the morning,  and then are transported to the Downtown Dollar Store and then to Kmart for some shopping.  Around noon,  it’s time to return to the school for some lunch and if their lucky, a visit from Santa.  It’s a rewarding time for all the Rotarians and Interact Members who participate and the children look forward to it every year.

On Dec 10th,  the Berwick Rotary is taking a turn at ringing the Salvation Army Bell at the Kmart in town.  The Rotarians will be on duty most of the day,  collecting donations in support of the Salvation Army’s annual kettle drive.   Another chance for fellowship and to get out and about in the community.

On Dec 17, the Berwick Rotary and UNICO Clubs will be gathering for a joint Christmas Party at the Berwick Golf Club.  This is an opportunity for both clubs to get to know each other and share our seasonal festivities.

Election Day Blood Drive Nets 38 Pints

Rotary helped the Red Cross collect 38 usable pints of blood at the Nov 3rd Blood Drive held at St Mary’s Church in Berwick.

Rotarians helping with the blood drive teardown.

.                               Although the goal of 50 pints was not achieved,  the Red Cross expressed their sincere appreciation of the efforts of the Berwick Rotarians and AARP who sponsored this drive  A total of  114 patients will be helped with the blood collected today.  

 

Many thanks also to all of the Berwick Rotarians who came out and helped setup and teardown the equipment and serve as escorts for the donors!

Rotary Meeting at One Guy Brewery in Berwick

This week the Berwick Rotary Meeting was held at the One Guy Brewery on Front Street in Berwick. We enjoyed an evening of fellowship at meeting to discuss plans for the upcoming Blood Drive.  Then we went back to enjoy the locally brewed beer, pizza and conversation!

Committee Forming for March 27 Rotary Dance to End Polio

President Joe is looking for 4 – 5 volunteers to serve on the Planning committee for the March 27 Rotary Dance to End Polio.  This committee will include both Rotarians and Interacters to plan the details for this Berwick area event that will coincide with similar dances beginning held throughout the District to bring attention to Rotary’s work towards polio erradication and to raise important dollars to support RI global immunization efforts.  Contact Joe if you can help with this.

Rotary Accepts Little League Team Championship Trophy

Program Summary for October 22, 2009
Program Chair:  Chad Hebrink
Berwick Area Little League

 Head Coach for the Rotary Little League Team – Jeff Andreas 

Coach Andreas presented the Team Trophies that the team won for their First Place standing in the local Division Playoff and their Second Place standing in the Regional Division playoff.

Coach Andreas presents trophies to Rotary Club President Joe Scopelliti

 Jeff thanked our Club for our continued support of Berwick Area Little League through our sponsorship of the Rotary team of players and for allowing the pitching machine to become part of the property of BALL so that all teams can have access to its training potential. 

 The players and the coaches had a great year!

Curtiss-Wright Corp – Project Manager Kelly Petock

This week’s program was presented by Kelly Petock,  a project manager from the offices of Curtiss-Wright here in Berwick.  Kelly described the sign changes out in front of their office located on Rt-11 up near the power plant.  The company was formerly known as Scientech and was recently purchased by Curtiss-Wright.

There are about 20 professions working  in the Berwick office who specialize in the development of custom business software for use by companies across the United States.  Scientech has a close relationship with PPL and has delivered and maintains a comprehensive software solution used by the nuclear power station to track maintenance, parts, people and documents. 

Kelly Petock accepting a token of appreciation from Berwick Rotary President Joe Scopelliti

Kelly enthusiastically noted that they have had great success in employing college interns and often hire recent graduates of local colleges. If you know of anyone in the software or engineering fields graduating soon, pass the word along that Curtiss-Wright/Scientech may be a potential local, high tech, employment opportunity for them.

Never Too Old For Magic!

Brent with President Joe and the Floating Table

The club was treated during our Oct 1st meeting to a magic show arranged by program chairman Al Strausser.   Al introduced professional magician, Brent Kessler to the club.  Brent has worked all over the country performing feats of magic, mind reading and slight of hand.  He gave a short sample of a few very memorable illusions.   We were treated to floating coffee tables, mind reading snakes and invisible decks of cards.  Everyone was truly amazed by the program.  Thanks Al for bringing Brent to our attention.  Anyone needing the services of a good magician can find out more about Brent at www.themindtease.com

Here more about it in this week’s Rotary Post!

Review of Projects and Potential Projects

President Joe used the Sept 10th  lunch meeting to discuss some upcoming projects and some potential activities that
Rotarians might want to consider.

Highway Cleanup – We are scheduled for Sunday,
October 18 at noon. Plans are in place to engage Interact students with our cleanup project.

March 27, 2010, Dance for Polio – This is a district wide event where each club is encouraged to hold some type of
charitable dance event. President Joe asked if the club was interested in moving forward since this is an opportunity to
provide funds for a core Rotary cause and take advantage of district publicity.

Some of the ideas discussed for the dance included the possibility of a dance contest and how to involved multiple
generations so that it will give a wider exposure to Rotary’s core missions and values. We also have to discuss venues (Nick
suggested the YMCA), avoiding conflicts with other events, and time for the dance. Give Joe your thoughts on the matter.

Read more about upcoming projects plans in this week’s Rotary Post Newsletter.

Interact Night

Interact and Rotarians learning about the RI Convention.

 Walt Lutz was excited to share information about the 2010 Rotary International Conference with the Club members and all the Interact guests. This is a unique international gathering that is geographically close to our area, so there is a lot of momentum building to encourage local Rotary, RYLA and Interact clubs to seize the opportunity to attend this special event.  

There will be many programs for all different attendees. It is an event that allows all of as Rotarians to see Rotary from a worldwide perspective. This year there is work being done to investigate opportunities to arrange campus housing for Interact and youth exchange attendees, to make their accommodations much more affordable than a hotel stay. Registration for youth attendees will also be at a greatly reduced rate. Walt suggested that perhaps the local Interact clubs arrange this as an end of the year trip for club members so that the Interact students from this area could attend together. 

17 Interact Members attended this meeting.

Registration and Conference details can be found on the Rotary International Website or on our District 7370 website. Early registration discounts expire December 15th.
 
Walt then opened the floor so that Rotarians and Interact Students could share news about outreach and projects.

Interact Projects included: Snowball, Gift to Cancer Society, Scholarship in memory of Dave Vaughn, Gift to Proscenia Foundation, and volunteers for United Way projects.

President Joe thanked the Interact for their past help with our projects and reminded them of dates coming up this year:

Oct 10 – PPL Community Days
Dec 5 – Children’s Shopping Tour
Feb 11-13 – Donut Days
March 27 – Dance for Polio ( we need a joint Rotary/Interact committee to plan this.)