February marks Black History Month and this is a time to celebrate, to reflect, and look forward.

"Black History Month began in 1976 but was initiated by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, who is known as the “Father of Black History.” He started the first Negro History Week in 1926 to ensure students would learn Black History."   

"The relevance of February goes back to 1926, when ASALH’s founder Dr. Carter G. Woodson first established “Negro History Week” during the second week of February. And why that week?  Because it encompasses the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass—both men being great American symbols of freedom. However, Woodson never confined Negro History to a week." excerpts from  https://asalh.org/

Good Deeds

Valor was very appreciative of all the canned goods our Rotarians collected for their Thanksgiving Drive and the following items for their Community Outreach Drive: Men's underwear, Men's and women's deodorant, Men's and women's disposable razors /Bars of soap, socks & Crompton’s Big and Tall donated a brand new corduroy sports jacket for one lucky Veteran.

• District Picnic

1. Meals on Wheels 901 Polk Valley Rd. Stroudsburg:                                                                                                                                                   *Painting over a small area of wood siding that is currently pink.  Requires 2 people for 2 hrs but no more than 4 hours.  The preferred work     day is Thursday , but will be accomplished on Saturday if weather is an issue.  Jillian Olsen is the point of contact for this event. E-Mail her at jillian.olsen@cherryridgellc.com 

2021-2022 Board Members

 As we approach the 2021-22 Centennial Year, we want to introduce the 2021-22 Board of Directors. This promises to be a great year as we celebrate a Century of Community Service by doing monthly Hundred Acts of Kindness. DGE Mary Ellen Bentler installed the Board at the June 24 meeting. Officers and Directors are:
President - Don Hannig                                                 President Elect - Dave Yarosh

1st Vice President - David Super                                   2nd VP - David Woods

Secretary - Ann Super                                                    Treasurer - Marlo Merhige

Director - Stacy Rodriguez                                             Director - Jillian Olsen

Director - Zerle Bartolome                                             Satellite Director - Gail Kulick

Corresponding Secretary - Ann Super                            Assistant Treasurer - Rob Thompson

Membership Chair - Karen DeMatteo                            Sergeant-at-Arms - Jeff Gilbert

Assistant Sergeant-at-Arms - Jennifer Narkavitch         Rotary Foundation Chair - Jim Becker

Immediate Past President - Cleo Jarvis

• Dropping food off at a food pantry
• Helping to clean a shelter for battered women and rape victims
• Feeding the elderly at a facility that houses elders
• Dropping off balloons to brighten the lives of community members
• Organizing a Highway Clean-up project
• Ringing the Salvation Army Bell to attract donations
• Writing a grant to provide technology to Head-start children
• Fishing with Veterans to soothe PTSD
• Helping to erect an inclusive playground for all children
• Helping to establish a sewing machine project in Peru to empower women
• Contributing to Pedal cart project in India so folks can get to work
• Supporting Cancer Patient Distraction Therapy

• Please respond by Tuesday, August 25th 2020, no later than 10 p.m.  
• Indicate attendance by stating “Yes, I will attend. My Menu Choice is # __”.
• Bring a check payable to STROUDSBURGS ROTARY in the amount of 15.00 or exact change in cash
• MASKS ARE REQUIRED

Members of the Rotary Club of the Stroudsburgs show their appreciation for the staff at Pleasant Valley Manor today. (06/10/2020) The group set up a full cookout spread with chicken, hotdogs, and hamburgers. During the pandemic, staff at the Manor had the tough job of caring for those most vulnerable in the county. A spokesperson for the rotary club tell us, along with first responders, they consider the staff heroes.

"They're first responders as much as any other organization in the county and they certainly had their hands full here, and we just wanted to do something to give back to them," said Leslie Underhill.

The rotary club served 80 staff members at today's cookout.

Courtesy of Blue Ridge Channel 13 News 

North Carolina State University (NCSU) and RTI International were contracted by FSIS and USDA to conduct meal preparation studies in actual food preparation situations to better evaluate consumer food handling behaviors. In the first part of a 5 part study, researchers focused on consumer use of food thermometers when cooking ground turkey patties.

Six test kitchens were set up in both urban and rural areas of North Carolina. Before preparing a meal in the kitchen participants were randomized into the treatment or control group. A total of 383 people participated in the study, 201 in the control group and 182 in the treatment group. The treatment group watched a 3- minute USDA food safety video on using a food thermometer to check the internal temperatures of food when cooking while the control group received no information. Cameras in the kitchens observed participant activity, specifically looking at use of the thermometer to check temperatures, final cooking temperature of the turkey burger, potential points of cross contamination and handwashing practices.  

The full article can be viewed at https://extension.psu.edu/are-you-handling-food-safely-at-home

• Stroudsburgs Rotarians-$50
• All others including Stroudsburg Rotarian Political Candidates-$60
• Political Ads-$70

 

• 16 churches joined together to see what the needs were of the West End community.  Collectively a food pantry and clothing closet came together. 
• There are 50 volunteers* 2018 200,000 lbs of food given out * 26,612 items of clothes given out * 12,706 volunteer hours. 

  

• Services provided in Monroe, Lehigh and Northampton Counties
• Provide transportation for medical social services.
• Provide: activities, socialization, adaptive instruction, support groups
• Provide: prevention presentations to community groups, early school screening (under 6 years of age).
• Monroe services 275 clients
• Have supplies & adaptive equipment available to purchase.

Over 2 billion people suffer from soil-transmitted diseases and parasites.  They live in areas that do not have adequate sanitation.  They struggle with proper hygiene.  They do not have the right clothing, resources, or healthcare.  And being sick = struggling.  Kids miss school, can’t help their families, suffer with pain. Many of these diseases and parasites get into the body because people don’t have shoes.

There are over 300 million children who do not have shoes.  And countless more with shoes that do not fit. Sometimes they receive donations of shoes, but these are kids.  Their feet grow.  And they outgrow donated shoes within a year.  Right back where they started. 

The Shoe That Grows is the Solution!  To learn more, visit theshoethatgrows.org

August is Membership Month, a time to celebrate your club, your members, and the good you do in your community and around the world! Many people join Rotary to serve others locally and globally. Rotary allows members to make a difference while promoting fellowship and international understanding.

We offer many programs that allow you to engage with fellow members and make new connections outside your club and district. Here are just a few ways to get more involved:

Article credit by Wayne Witkoski of The Pocono Record.

Two of David Schweidenback’s favorite subjects that often creep into his mind — bicycles and sewing machines — may not seem related.

But when looking at the more than 20 years he has dedicated to Pedals for Progress, it makes sense when he explains it as he did in another of his many return talks to the Rotary Club of the Stroudsburgs last Thursday at Sycamore Grille in Delaware Water Gap.

Schweidenback firmly believes that if you give people the tools they need to make their lives batter, they use them to become empowered. They can better take charge of their own lives. He realized that points during his work as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador.

You give people in an underdeveloped place like Rivas, Nicaragua bicycles where Pedals for Progress made its first delivery, and they can travel to work and deliver goods for their business. Youngsters can get to school.

“A bicycle to a person in Nicaragua is like a pickup truck here,” Schweidenback said. “They now have a life where they can take their produce to market.”

Credit: Wayne Witkoski at The Pocono Record

Leila Bouchakouk, a senior at East Stroudsburg High School South and graduate of Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, returned to the club to give a presentation she has given many times to other groups on her Muslim religion, Islam.

She also had spoken to the club previously on another subject of which she is well versed – diabetes. She is a Type 1 Diabetic who wears an insulin pump.

Bouchakouk also has been a lead delegate for the past three years of East Stroudsburg South’s United Nations Academic Inpact ASPIRE (Action by Students to Promote Innovation and Reform through Education) , a social justice and global citizenship student group. East Stroudsburg South is the first high school group in the world to be given ASPIRE status by the United Nations Academic Impact among 900 UNAI member institutions in more than 100 countries. UNAI is a global initiative launched by then Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in 2010 to align institutions of higher education with the UN.

Dennis Jeter remembers 11 years ago when he first became a member of the Rotary Club of the Stroudsburgs.

“Jim Becker (a fellow Rotarian) said I had to join,” Jeter said with a laugh.

At the time, he and Neal Simpson, an East Stroudsburg University administrator, were the only African Americans on the club. Eleven years later, Jeter worked his way up the ladder of board positions to become president. Like the business that he founded and leads -- A Sound Strategy in Stroudsburg that handles software development and website management for businesses in the area – he keeps the ship sailing smoothly.

Jeter also is believed to be the first African American elected to lead the club’s chapter, started in 1922, whose membership consists mostly of business owners. In 1987, women were included.

Jeter is one of two men of color in the area named to head a longstanding local organization, the other being Clyde Jerome Henderson, who presided over East Stroudsburg Elks Lodge 319 in 2012 and 2013 and likewise kept things running smoothly for that club that also is very active in community endeavors. East Stroudsburg Elks Lodge 319 was chartered in 1895.

Black History Month is observed in February but Jeter said he never dwelled on his groundbreaking distinction with local Rotary and he feels the membership has not either. Instead, he feels members work toward common goals of the club.