National Night Out was proceeding as a real success for Rotary and all the other attendees until…. The rains came!

Tim, Allen, Terri, John and Lin had set up shop along with other service groups and vendors.  We were well on our way to pulling in a bunch of names and email addresses for our December fruit sale.  There was no shortage of people unfamiliar with what Rotary does to listen to our story. 

But Mother Nature had other plans.  Only 20 minutes into the event, the police came around to all the participants and warned every one of the impending thunderstorm.  By the time we packed up and carried everything to our vehicles, big drops were beginning to fall.  Then things opened up and a serious downpour was upon us.  With all that rain and lightning, too, the police made the right call. There was no need to have public risk, even though this was a grand opportunity for Rotary.

The lesson learned here, though, is that there are rewards from attending this type of public gathering.  We should seriously plan to attend any kind of public event in our area, to educate the public on what we do.  If you have ideas for other venues, please bring them to Lin Seyler or Terri Pfennig. 

Our next event is the joint effort, with the Muhlenberg Lions, at Wine and Dine on Saturday.  Help is needed for the set-up on Saturday morning at 7:30 and, of course, at 4:00 to closing (8:00?) for controlling admission and tearing down.

Another most important event is our visit at Blind Hartman’s by the new District Governor, Cindy Hornaman from the Emmaus Club.  There will be a business meeting with Cindy, ADG Bob Hobaugh, Officers, directors and Chairs at 5:00 on Tuesday, August 14 prior to our regular meeting.  Please plan on attending.  You will find Cindy has a lot in mind for Rotary, and having fun while we do it.

One person’s trash is another person’s rewarding community service?

Sound’s silly to say it like that, but Muhlenberg Rotary does find a certain sense of fulfillment and service by meeting several Saturdays each year to patrol and clean up our own little stretch of highway.

Meeting earlier (6:00 AM) to have breakfast at the nearby Crossroads Restaurant doesn’t hurt.  Good food and better conversation lend themselves to a great start to the day.  Saturday it was project leader Sean, President Terri, Allen and Lin to start.  After breakfast, with the usual impromptu discussions of other Rotary efforts, we met more Rotarians outside at 7:00.  Steve, Tim and Jack were ready to join the cleanup.  Also joining us was Terri’s son-in-law’s mom, Sue Skelly.  She’s joined us at a number of events; can we get her to take the step of officially joining us?

Eight is enough, as the old TV title says.  And it’s true for our efforts.  With four quadrants to our cloverleaf for picking up, small groups are busy doing pick-up, while employing the “Buddy System” to stay safe.  This is always a good idea when playing in high speed traffic! 

Shortly after we began, some guy in a new red Colorado calls out to us, “Hey where are the bags?”  This is Tom Kisling showing up to help.  We directed him to where leader Sean is providing bags and safety vests, so Tom can join the pick-up party.

All in all, it was a most pleasant morning to be out.  Nice temperature and low humidity made the morning walk and stoop a good experience.  We’re tentatively scheduling the next effort for July 28^th, when we’ll find more trash has appeared.  Hope to see you then!

Monday is Camp Neidig commencement.  It’s always a treat to see a gathering of future leaders. We have no meeting scheduled for this Tuesday, as we have both the highway cleanup and Neidig event instead.  The meeting on June 26^th at Blind Hartman’s will center on a discussion by Sean, Tim and Mike on the up-coming Wine & Dine event.