The Concept of Community Service

Rotary is a service organization where Service Above Self is our motto. Community Service provides opportunities for Rotarians and their families to engage in the community in a meaningful way. Service opportunities vary year to year, all however are designed to provide options for Rotarians to give back in a way they may not otherwise have the chance to. If you or your organization have a service opportunity you would like to offer to our club please contact our club at wegorotary@gmail.com.

Some of the many projects WE-GO has supported over the years:

926 Street Cleanup Adult Care of Chester Alex’s Lemonade Stand Agricultural Aid to Madagascar Aid for Refugees from Croatia and Bosnia ARC of Chester County Area Police and Fire Departments Big Brothers/Big Sisters Brian’s House Brian’s Run Bryn Mawr Rehab’s Cruisin’ Not Boozin’Program Camp Joy Camp Dreamcatcher Casa Nueva CHAP Community Health Advocacy Chesco Domestic Violence Center Chester County Foodbank Christmas Gifts for the Disadvantaged Community Volunteers in Medicine East Goshen Colonial Blacksmith Shop Restoration East Side Little League Batting Cages Financial Support for Foreign Exchange Students Food for the Needy Friends Assoc. for Care and Protection of Children Goose Creek Cleanup Good Will Fire Company Gundaker Foundation Guyana School Park Guyana School Backpacks Handicapped Boy Scout Troop Hope Worldwide Hurricane and Earthquake Relief Junior Achievement-Project Business Little League (East Side) May Festival Chester County Hospital

Lodge at Oakbourne Park New Delhi, India Housing for Leprosy Oakbourne Tower Restoration Operation Smile Playing Fields at Penn Wood, Westtown-Thornbury and Fern Hill Elementary Schools PAL of West Chester Polio Plus Rise Against Hunger ROADD Rotaplast Rotary Foundation RYLA - Rotary Youth Leadership Safe Harbor Salvation Army Angels, Food Drive and Bell Ringing Seven Oaks Fire Relief Special Olympics Stetson Middle School Outdoor Education Program Senior High School Scholarship Program Thornbury Township Parks and Recreation Thorncroft Therapeutic Horseback Riding Villa Bosch (Argentina) School for the Blind Warsaw (Poland) Hippotherapy Program West Chester Community Center West Chester Senior Center West Chester University West Chester University Aid to  Women in Rotary, South Africa Youth Expo Youth Exchange

Welcome to WE-GO Video

Rotary Meeting Notes – 1/24/19

12 WEGO Members in attendance. Visiting Rotarian: Gus Mbuy from the WC Sunrise Club.

Announcements:

•        Souperbowl 2019 Planning is going well: 16 Beers, 13 soups, 3 bread vendors we are still working on getting additional dessert vendors
•         Barbara is working on contacting Chaney & WC Rotaract. WC Fraternity is also attending to help.
•         We sold 93 blocks for the Rotary Block Pool. Winners to be announced soon.
•      Feb 14^th meeting will be canceled.
•         Membership Offer still stands. Stephanie is by far in the lead to win!
•          Tickets at the Door will be $60 for non-Rotarians & $50 for Rotarians.
•         WEGO Newsletter – We are going to drop the old format (pdf)
•         Next Thursday is our final meeting before the Souperbowl. We will have a volunteer signup sheet then for the various tasks needed throughout the night.

Program:

Gus Mbuy, a member of Greater W.C. Sunrise Club since 1999, presented information on a project in the Congo, with a view to possible WE-GO involvement.

Gus is the oldest of 8 kids and was born in the Congo. He graduated from High School in 1968. Afterwards he landed a scholarship in the US and attended USLA to study microbiology. He received his master’s and PhD at Cincinnati. He and his wife have 4 kids (3 daughters, 1 son). Currently he can be found teaching microbiology at WCU. He later became a US Citizen. He was away from the Congo from 1968-2004. In 2004, he finally had the opportunity to return to his home country. What he saw was people were suffering…

EHOBO (Empowering Humanity One by One) – a 501(c)(3) charitable organization providing aid to families in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Congo, formerly Zaire is a country located in Central Africa. It is roughly ¼ the size of the United States, the population is approximately 60 million. Government corruption and civil war has resulted in social collapse and wide spread poverty.

A lot of kids in the Congo die from water-born disease and malnutrition. Child mortality in the Congo is the 5^th highest under-5 mortality rate in the world (source: USAID). The mission of EHOBO is to reduce the rate of premature deaths in children less than 7 years of age in the Cong. Over the past 10 years they have served 7 communities; 850 families; and 2100 children. Their programs are focused on nutrition; medical assistance; micro financing; & education.  His trips are financed by Gus’ summer teaching pay and by gifts through Rotary and other friends. They also have 2 fundraising events a dinner and a luncheon. The entire team is comprised of volunteers. Upon graduation all participants receive a certificate of completion.

For more information: http://www.ehobo.org/

Souperbowl Block Football Pool UPDATED

Posted by Commissioner Travis Olszewski 

This year, we are running a Superbowl Block Pool!  100 tickets are available.  @$30 each gives you a chance to win $100 12 times!  This page was updated with the links to the Football Pool and the PAYPAL option to pay.  You can still pay by check if your prefer.  See below for more info.  

SuperBowl Pool Link

   

We are raising funds for our Rotary Projects for 2019 using the Superbowl POOL.  Use the link above to select your SUPERBOWL FOOTBALL Block grid.  There are three blocks per entry.  One for the NFC game.  One for the AFC game.  One for the Superbowl game.  Each quarter will have a winner.  Winners are chosen by the score at the end of the quarter.  

How are winners determined?  Take a score like 14-3.  The pool winner would be the low digit row 4 and column 3.  If the score was 23-36, the pool winner would be row 3 and column 6.

Your entry is a tax deductible contribution!  Have a chance to win $100 12 times!

How to PLAY and PAY? Enter your BLOCK selection on the Football Pool page first. One entry includes a BLOCK in 3 pools- NFC, AFC Championships and Superbowl.   Then, make checks out to the Westtown Goshen Rotary Foundation or pay online with PAYPAL.  

You or your donor can call or text the Commissioner Travis for an verbal explanation and walk thru. Cell is 570-262-9631 or email questions to wegorotary@gmail.com with BLOCKPOOL in the Subject line.

We will post the winners by POOL/Quarter on the website.  

Rotary Meeting Notes – 1/10/19

14 WEGO Members were in attendance including Bill Hicks & Barbara DeBaptiste. There was also a visiting Rotarian, Dennis Wallace. We had one visiting guest, Stephanie’s cousin, Shawn Carter. We gathered at Timothy’s Tavern.

Announcements:

Plan of Action: Over the next few weeks please send Travis “what you do for the club.” Does not need to be anything formal. This is just to serve as a backup plan in case you must unexpectedly miss consecutive meetings, etc.

SouperBowl 2019 – We currently have 9 different beer vendors; could use 8-9 more (TBD), 8 soups (last year we have 12), 2 bread donations, 0 dessert donations at this point. We could use a few more vendors across the board. Please see Bob Thomas if you have any ideas. Auction items are still needed. We have 9.5 tables sold. The band has been booked.

Dave will be setting up the Pay Pal account for the Block Pool.

Program: Chip Huston – Executive Director, Habitat for Humanity of Chester County

He was a Rotarian in Coatesville, PA for 8 years. He was the President in 2010-11. He has 2 teenage girls in sports which ended up pulling him away from Rotary for the time being.

Habitat for Humanity of Chester County is celebrating 30 years in 2019. They have built 151 homes thus far.

There next project is to build 40 homes on 60 acres of land in West Grove, PA. The goal is to build homes that fit into the neighborhood so that the Habitat houses do not stick out.

Chip’s passion for the local community paired with his “Service Above Self” attitude was evident during his explanation of the overall housing concerns of Chester County.

For more information: https://hfhcc.org/

WEGO Meeting Thursday 1/3/2019

Rotary Meeting Notes 1/3/19

12 WEGO Members in Attendance. Visiting Guest: Barbara Spellman.

First meeting of 2019.  Timothy's Tavern.  

Announcements:

From Reece Davis: I recently spoke with former member, Lisa Balch updated me on her mother, Honorary Member, Lois Hodgson.  She would love guests.  Lois is being cared for in the Barclay Friends nursing & rehab center in West Chester. Communications can be sent in care of her daughter at LisaBalch@verizon.net

Bob Bielski had an accident when he was walking his dog. He fell and suffered a few injuries but is expected to fully recover. Please reach out and wish him well.

From Travis - WEGO Holiday party was a wonderful success! Thank you, Chris, for organizing the event!

District seeking WEGO support for their Silent Auction or Giveaway for the district conference coming up later this year.  Members agreed to support $40 donation from the club.

Plan of Action: Over the next few weeks please send Travis “what you do for the club.” Does not need to be anything formal. This is just to serve as a backup plan in case you must unexpectedly miss consecutive meetings, etc.

From Dave - suggested downloading Otter Voice Notes on the Ipad and Iphone for those hard of hearing.  It takes dictation and presents text to the user.  Howard can use it to record meeting notes for instance.

Program: SouperBowl Planning Meeting – Friday, February 3^st

Our club has eight tables sponsored so far.  Two more tables open for sponsorship.  

You can fill in the Table RSVP online.  

It would be great if some members would visit other clubs in the area and promote the Souperbowl POOL, Finding table sponsors or just getting the word out.

Talked about Silent Auction Baskets.  Need 15.  $100 value minimum.  Hope to get an update list soon.

We could use 1-2 or more vendors: soup, dessert, or bread. We are good on beer vendors.

We will have a meeting Jan 8th at Iron Hill - to determine who in the club will help with what on the day of the event.

Travis reviewed the Souperbowl Block Pool Details.   $30 gives you twelve chances to win $100.  (3 games x 4 quarters).  AFC, NFC and Superbowl itself.

You can select your three pool grids online.  

Send your payment in by check to Westtown Goshen Rotary Foundation.  

Meeting adjourned.

WEGO Souperbowl 2019 Tables Reserved

$500 Donation for a Souperbowl Table.  Each table can seat up to ten.   We can accommodate ten tables of ten.  Sunrise has another ten tables allocated.  

Please RSVP your table soon.  Only two remain.  After that, we can offer entrance without a guaranteed seat.

Ed Olsivicky (no form)

Dave Moldoff (no form)

Bob Bielski (no form)

Reese Davis (no form / half a table)

Alyssa Harnish and Carol Baker (have form)

Bob Thomas (no form)

Tom Corcoran (no form)

John Spellman (no form)
Stephanie Taylor (half a table, no form yet)
Matt Guldin (half a table, no form yet)

First WEGO Meeting of 2019

Timothy’s Double booked room. So we were pushed to the rear restaurant area.  Summarized blog and Souperbowl plan.

Happy New Year

Come join WE-GO Rotary and celebrate the New Year.  

Meetings Thursday Evening 6pm
Timothy's Tavern, Parkway Shopping Center

West Chester Pennsylvania

December 20 2018 Holiday Meeting