John Dennis

In 1978 my daughter, Diane Dennis Romspert was a Rotary Exchange Student in Tioquan, Mexico for her Junior year of High School. During that time a college friend of a son of the Mexican family she stayed with (Jamie Tirado Cabal) phoned us and asked if he could come to visit us. We agreed and he visited us for about a week. Some months later he called us and asked if his sister Laura could come to visit us, as she had been engaged to be married and her husband-to-be cancelled the wedding. We agreed and we picked her up at the Philly Airport a few days later. Several days later we got a phone call that her fiancé was at a motel outside of Delaware Water Gap and would like to come to our house to visit Laura. My wife Verna picked him up and brought him to our house to see Laura. On Friday evening we took him and Laura shopping with us at the Allentown Mall. They got along fine and he bought her a gold bracelet. Laura stayed with us several more days and then she flew back to Mexico.  In several months we received an invitation to their wedding, but we were unable to go at that time.  In my time in Rotary our family (I have three daughters) hosted Exchange Students Yoshicka Takaki (Japanese), and Gonzolo (Mexican).

 

As Chairman of the Spaghetti Dinner from the first in 1976, under president Doug Danfelt, an ESU Professor, until the 35th dinner in 2010, we worked together, and had many good times. At one of the Friday evening meatball making events, our song leader Peter Wycoff, showed us a new idea for making meatballs—a square meatball. At the first dinner one of the waiters, a bank president, told me that he never knew that being a waiter was such hard work.  Over the years we served between 350 and 800 people per event. Our first dinner was at the YMCA, the second at the East Stroudsburg Firehouse on Day Street, the next few years at the East Stroudsburg United Methodist Church, then at the East Stroudsburg High School for many years. One year it was held at the JT Lambert School, and then at the Stroudsburg Intermediate School. These are a few of the memories I have of Rotary.

Last week, Dave Super presented an informative briefing on the Stroudsburgs Foundation to both the luncheon and evening meetings. This briefing helped both new and old members to understand our foundation, how it works and how it benefits the community. Dave sent the membership the briefing via email because there was a great deal of useful information. He identified the officers and trustees, current status of investment accounts and the grants process including the timeline. Forms will be out as soon as District finalizes the dates. An important point is that this is our Foundation and to ensure our ability to support the community's grant requests we have to support the initiatives of the Stroudsburgs Rotary so we an invest in the Foundation and have funds available. How else can we be the greatest Rotary Club in the world?