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During the meeting on Friday, July 13, 2018, Past President Amanda Tietze gave her final farewell speech to the Club:"I would like to thank you for nominating me to be your club President this year. It has been a truly humbling and honorable year for me. I know I didn't do everything perfect, far from it, but I would like to thank all of you for your support and making my year as Rotary President successful and one of the most memorable years of my life. I was disappointed in how my year started because of my knee injury, but some great Rotarians jumped in and were a huge help. I'd like to thank President Michelle, President Elect Mark, Secretary Suzette, Treasurer Tom, Lauri and Barb for all their assistance during my down time. Despite the initial setbacks, our club had a very productive year worth celebrating.
I'd also like to thank my husband Matt, my parents, and my children for their support. Family is such a huge part to being a Rotary President. They always enjoy when they can attend a meeting and spend time with all of you.
I'd like to thank my employer the Better Business Bureau and my boss Frank Cilona for allowing me to take time away from my position to tend to Rotary business. Having such wonderful support makes the task of being Club President much easier. I couldn't have done it without the support and love of so many people.
Some highlights from this past year were: we moved to a new venue location with a new caterer, completed the "Pocket Park" project that Craig Young initiated during his Presidential year, continued our program to feed needy kids in Canton City schools with the "Pack the Bus" project, hosted an amazing Exchange Student thanks to Rotarian Mark Clendenin and his family, participated and helped fund a Rotary International Project for the Military Family Center at Pegasus Farm, continued to grow our Spring and Fall Health Screen and Wellness fairs, our "Oktoberfest" event continues to grow and is our largest fundraiser, we hosted two Interact students at the RYLA conference, continued to recognize outstanding students at McKinley High School through the Character Counts program, four outstanding students participated in and received awards in the 4-Way Test Speech Contest...one of our students went on to the District competition and placed 2nd! Suzette Matthews, Denny Fulmer and Raquel Raderchak held the "RunRaiser" event again this year to help raise funds for the backpack/pack the bus campaign. We awarded $4,000 to four Interact students through the IF poem scholarship, held our 2nd Annual Reverse Raffle fundraiser raising $2225. We continued to support our community through events like the Civic Ideation Sprint Event for Strengthening Stark. We enjoyed each other's company at two Fellowship events for a Canton Charge game as well as the Greek Festival. We had 12 new Rotarians join our club this year, raised $9,103 for the Canton Rotary Charitable Fund, donated $11,270 to the RI Charitable Fund, and received a private donation in the amount of $8,864 for the Military Family Center! We also raised $1000 for the Polio Plus campaign, awarded five non-profits $26,000 from the Endowment fund, and continued to support Rotary Scouts, Philomatheon Society, Interact, Junior Achievement, and the Stark County Library Project. We won two awards at the District Conference for the "Backpack/Pack the Bus" and the "Pocket Park" projects and I am happy to report we have met requirements to receive the Presidential Citation this year.
You have great leaders coming up to serve the Club. I have no doubt Michelle, Mark, Drew, Suzette, Tom and the Board of Directors will continue to ensure we maintain our status as "The Finest Rotary Club in the World". I encourage each of you to continue to volunteer, give, participate and encourage others to join Rotary. All of these accomplishments are not because of a few, but because of all of you.
I look forward to sitting among you all again at our weekly meetings. Thank you again for your support and encouragement."