Some of the incoming board members who were inducted at the picnic.
The induction of President Brad Hoch by PDG John Kramb
It was a beautiful summer evening with a nice breeze, good food and great camaraderie.
President Bill Braun concluded his year of great leadership by reminding us of what all we accomplished over the past year.
As you can see, the list is fairly long!
- ROADSIDE CLEANUP - We picked up trash along our segment of Route 30 east of Gettysburg on two different occasions in October and April. Matt Shields headed up this effort.
- PARKING CARS AT CARNIVAL - As usual we are helping at the Fireman's Carnival by collecting money for the parking fee. This is taking place this week (Tuesday thru Saturday). Mike Hanson is organizing this effort.
- RUTH’S HARVEST-We loaded backpacks 4 times during the year at Lincoln Elementary School. Scott Wehler headed this up.
- BELL RINGING, ETC. - In December, we rang the bell for the Salvation Army (Kib Roulette), we helped serve Breakfast with Santa at the Gettysburg Hotel, we donated $250 to the Breakfast for underprivileged families, and we tied bows on wreaths for the Sargent Mac Foundation Wreath Project.
- DICTIONARY PROJECT - We gave out over 300 dictionaries to 3rd graders in 5 elementary schools. (Sandy Leathery headed up that effort.)
- LITTLE LEAGUE -As we’ve done since 1947, we sponsored a Gettysburg Little League Baseball team with a donation of $650. (Rotarian Matt Shields is the coach for that team.)
- FOUR-WAY-TEST ESSAY - We awarded a prize of $100 to Abigail Blaney for winning the Four Way Test Essay Contest. (Shannon Harvey led that committee to select the winning student.)
- EISENHOWER AWARD - We awarded the 2019 Eisenhower Humanitarian Award to Dr. Kirby Kiefer along with a Paul Harris Fellowship. (Chris Kimple is responsible for heading up this effort and chairing the committee to make that selection.)
- OKTOBERFEST - The Wednesday Rotary Group organized and pulled off the first ever Oktoberfest which netted about $1000. (Sandy Leathery and Tony Spangler chaired that committee).
- SCHOLARSHIPS - A Scholarship Committee reviewed 23 applications for scholarships, interviewed 9 students and selected 5 students to receive scholarships in the amount of $1600 each. Brad Hoch was instrumental in getting sponsors to make donations so that the scholarships were more in number and greater in amounts than in the past. Students were: 2 from Gettysburg; 2 from Biglerville; and one student from Fairfield. Ashley Andyshak Hayes chaired the committee to select the recipients.
- LOBSTERFEST - This event was headed up by Syl Hershey and his committee, was a successful event which netted between $9,000 and $10,000. Many people worked to pull that event off but the buck stops with Syl.
- GLOBAL GRANT SCHOLARSHIP - We assisted a student at Gettysburg College by the name of Edith Tea in getting a Rotary Global Grant Scholarship to pursue a Master of Science degree in Hydrology (Water and Sanitation) at Vrije University in the Netherlands. Shannon Harvey and Brad Lancaster worked with Ed Hauck and the Board to make this scholarship happen.
- CLEAN WATER - In terms of international involvement, John Kramb was the liaison between our club and other Rotary Clubs to install toilets in 10 girls’ schools in India. Our club gave $1500 toward that effort.
- Brad Hoch and Alex Hayes have done the legwork and paperwork to bring on board the New Oxford Rotary Club which will become the “Gettysburg Rotary Club at New Oxford” effective July 1, 2019.
- PHILANTHROPY - A committee under the direction of Sandy Leathery has selected 9 community organizations from 22 who applied to receive small grants from our club of between $500 and $2000, totaling $10,300.
- LITERACY - We fielded two losing teams of Trivial Pursuit who did not bring home the trophy, but we can claim that we made a worthy donation of $1000 to the Adams County Literacy Council. John Kramb, who headed up this effort, claims that everyone involved had a great time and Rotary received some good public relations for its $1000 investment.
- ROAD RALLY - At least 3 car loads of Rotarians participated in the Land Conservancy Road Rally. Scott Wehler’s team won an award at the end of the rally but he wasn’t there to accept it.
- BYRNES HEALTH EDUCATION CENTER - We provided $1700 to the Byrnes Health Education Center for educational assemblies at Gettysburg High School.
- THE ROTARY FOUNDATION - The club donated more than $8,000 to the Rotary Foundation
- NEW MEMBERS - We brought in 9 new members: Kyle Willet; Daryl Black; Charlie Gomer; Robin Fitzpatrick; Martin Zimmann; Dotty Dalphon; Donna Scherer; Christine Miller; and Suzanne Robinson. Three others are in process who will not be dues-paying members until after July 1.
- IN MEMORY - Sadly, we lost Jack Phillips, a long-term member of the club who has done so much for the club and the community, and we lost Jack Regentin who was a member for the past 2 1/2 years and a very devoted Rotarian who kept paying dues even though he was very ill.
- We had 44 regular Monday meetings, 38 program speakers, 11 board meetings plus 2 stand-up board meetings
- We lost a secretary, program chairperson and vice president, and a treasurer. But, Alex stepped in as secretary, Deb Geesey and Brad Hoch filled in programs for the remainder of the year, and new kid on the block, Tony Spangler, took over as Treasurer. Brad Hoch convinced Ken Farabaugh to take the vice president’s position, which means he will be president for Rotary Year, 2020-2021, the latter half of our Centennial Year.
- We have some young blood coming on the board but we’re losing three devoted directors: Bob Gough will be leaving the board and Kyle Willet takes his place as Club Service Chair; Scott Wehler will be leaving the board and Brad Lancaster will be taking his place as Community Service Chair; and I will be sitting in Deb Geesey’s chair although I can’t come close to replacing her as Past President.
- We’ll also be having new faces on the board as Larry Redding will join the board as Program Chair and Vice President; Ken Farabaugh will be President-elect; and Dan Trimmer will be representing the Gettysburg Rotary Club at New Oxford.
We have been a busy club and we can carry this momentum into the next year under incoming President Brad Hoch.
President Bill recognized the efforts of various members who provided excellent service above self and presented them with tokens of appreciation.
President Bill then participated in then happily turned over the presidency as PDG John Kramb conducted the induction of President Brad and then all of the new board members.
