Posted by Rick Taylor on Oct 30, 2017
At our weekly meeting on Friday, October 27, 2017, President Amanda Tietze opened the meeting to the Canton/Massillon Joint Rally meeting. Those attending from Canton were 62 members of the Rotary Club of Canton, Mayor Bernabei who brought along 12 guests, Coach Reardon with 12 McKinley players and 5 dignitaries from the Canton City School along with 6 members of the McKinley Booster Club. Canton also welcomed 11 guests who attended with one of our members. The Rotary Club of Massillon indicates they had 64 people in attendance at this meeting (12 dignitaries from the City of Massillon, 14 members including 8 players from Massillon School as well as 38 Massillon Rotarians).
 
Canton was very honored to welcome Zak Taylor, Band Director of the Canton McKinley Bulldog Marching Band, along with the band members and staff. The band performed the National Anthem.
 
Rotarian Bill Liber gave the Invocation.
 
President Amanda introduced the moderator for the meeting, Canton Rotarian Mark Milano. Mark said a few words about the long standing rivalry between the teams of Canton McKinley Bulldogs and the Massillon Tigers. He then introduced the Mayor of Massillon, Cathy Catazaro-Perry. After a baton twirling exhibition with some questionable Massillon "cheerleaders", including Massillon Rotarian George Elum in a cheerleader's skirt, Mayor Catazaro-Perry took the opportunity to give a Massillon season review, introduce the dignitaries attending from the City of Massillon, and Coach Nate Moore and 8 Tiger football players. Coach Moore then took to the podium and spoke in length on his team, what the rivalry game meant to him, as well as the support of the City of Massillon. He then called two of his players to the podium to say a few words. 
 
Mark Milano introduced JR Rinaldi from the Canton Mayor's office and member of the Canton City School Board of Education. JR Rinaldi introduced the Mayor of Canton, Thomas Bernabei. Strolling in with his McKinley letter jacket and with his own questionable "cheerleaders", the Mayor introduced his dignitaries from the City of Canton as well as McKinley Head Coach Dan Reardon and 12 of his leadership team players. Coach Reardon then took to the podium to say a few words about the senior players he had brought to the meeting and gave his perspective on this long standing rivalry game. 
 
Mark Milano released the coaches and players, along with the band, so they could return to their respective schools for pep rally's and other events scheduled for that day. Mark then turned things over to special commentator, T. J. Downing, who is a sportscaster with Q92 radio and 1310 WDPN AM and founder of Lineman School of America, a personal training academy for offensive and defensive lineman. T.J. then proceeded to present a review of the history of the McKinley/Massillon game.
 
Following a screening of a trailer for the newly realeased documentary, "Timeless Rivals", TJ also interviewed Ted Bowersox, former McKinley player and executive producer, and Dave Jingo, producer, director, and editor of the movie.
 
Canton President Amanda Tietze then introduced Massillon Rotary President Sherie Brown. Both Presidents agreed to continue the annual "bet" between the clubs, with the Rotary Club in the city of the winning team receiving $500 from the 'losing' club. These funds will be applied to the winning club's scholarship/charitable fund. **Editors note:  Massillon Tigers defeated the McKinley Bulldogs with a final score of 16-15.
 
President Amanda concluded the meeting. Next week's meeting will be the Club Assembly.
 
The following Rotarians turned in a makeup during Friday's meeting: Bill Maddox (Jackson); PDG/PP Bob Pattison (Lincoln South, NE).