Volume 2                              July 15, 2022

Stories JIM & LORI ECKELBERRY, FOUNDERS, KATIE'S KIDS   Joining us this Friday will be Jim and Lori Eckelberry, to tell us about Katie's Kids, the charity they started in memory of their daughter, Kaitlyn Eckleberry.    Jim Eckelberry, Founder and president, is an Executive Relationship Manager at Huntington National Bank with over 30 years of serving the business community in NE Ohio.  He holds a Bachelor degree in Marketing from the University of Akron and an MBA from John Carroll University. He was recent President of the  Board of Northern Ohio Golf Charities and in 2009 he served as Tournament Chairman for the Bridgestone Invitational.  Jim has formerly served on many Boards including Weathervane Community Theater, United Way of Summit County, Ronald McDonald House of Akron, Akron Rotary, and is a graduate of Leadership Akron. He resides in Canton, Ohio with his wife Lori and three daughters (two grown and one heavenly).    Lori Eckelberry, Founder and Vice President, is the proud mother of Kristina, Kaitlyn, and Kortney and works as a first grade teacher at Avondale Elementary in Plain Township. She received her Bachelor and Master Degree from the University of Akron and has been employed by Plain Local Schools for the past 30 years. Lori enjoys working with kids and watching them learn and grow. Being a mother has been Lori's biggest reward. She served on the Hoover Softball Booster Club and as a leader in Plain Local's Teacher Association.   MENU JULY 15, 2022 Swiss Steak   Mashed Potatoes   Corn   Mini Salad Bar   Rolls & Butter   Dessert   Beverage PERMANENT ZOOM LINK FOR MEETINGS Thanks to Jennie George, we now have a new recurring Zoom link for those of you who prefer to attend on-line.    You can join us remotely each week on Zoom at the following Link:    https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88921020315?pwd=aTZYeEEvcXlPcCswQlRLNEs0dVZVUT09 NEW PROJECT! ROTARY BUS SHELTERS FOR SARTA! We have a NEW Rotary project in the works: Rotary Bus Shelters!    Co-chairs Sue Marzano and Rich Dever have been working in the background with SARTA to bring new bus shelters to areas of need, sponsored by our Rotary Club of Canton. One of our members had seen similar bus shelters in another area with the familiar Rotary gear wheel and thought that might be a good project for our club to get involved with.   Recognizing a need for bus shelters for SARTA riders who often have to wait for their transportation in some nasty weather, Sue and Rich contacted SARTA and got the ball rolling. The first Rotary bus shelter will be at 4th and Hartford SE in Canton, close to Hartford Middle School and the STEAMM Academy there.    Each shelter will cost $8,000 to construct. Thanks to the generosity of a couple of club members who offered to match whatever the club could provide up to $4,000 (and who wish to remain anonymous), the money for the first Rotary Bus Shelter has been secured and SARTA is moving forward with building the first shelter. The shelters will have the Rotary logo and reference our the sponsorship of the Rotary Club of Canton.    Sue and Rich and their committee will be working to accumulate more dollars so that we can underwrite more bus shelters.   With that in mind, their will be a "Dine-to-Donate" at Kozmo's Grille in Massillon on  Monday August 22, 2022 from 5 to 8 PM. If you come there that night, 20% of your food purchase will be donated by Kozmo's Grille to the bus shelter fund. More info on this event and others will be forthcoming, but be sure to mark your calendars to hold that date!    There will be other opportunities for you to support this highly visible project of the Canton Rotary. Stay tuned for details.    If you'd like more info, please contact Sue Marzano or Rich Dever.        COMMENTS (AND REQUEST FOR HELP) FROM PRESIDENT RICK Hi Fellow Rotarians,   A few things I would ask you to help me with this week:   1) Please review your contact info in our directory. We want to make sure that you're receiving all notices, etc. from the Club. We will put slips out on the tables this week for you to provide any updates you think are necessary. Thank you. (If you're having trouble logging in to our website, please let me know and we'll give you a hand). rickt@kozmosgrille.com   2) I hope to have our list of committees on the tables this week, too (and in the Rotogram next week, in case you're not in attendance this week). I ask you to review the list and sign up for any and all committees you might be interested in serving on.    Since we no longer have an office or an administrator, we all have to kind of pick up the slack, including me. There's an old proverb, "Many hands make light work." If we can get a lot of all of us to maybe provide just one hour of time to Rotary each week, we can make light work of supporting our community, engaging our members, building our club, and being really successful in our fundraising and other endeavors. Please take a minute and sign up to help with something that matches your skills and/or interests. THANK YOU!    3) Finally, PLEASE ATTEND OUR MEETINGS if you can! All of us enjoy our weekly meetings better when we have a good turn out. If you can't come in person, please Zoom with us. Either way, we'd love to see you!  WHAT'D I MISS LAST WEEK? At our meeting last Friday July 8, 2022, President Rick Taylor welcomed about 35 members and several guests to our weekly meeting. After the usual club business, including Secretary Paul providing an update on local activities, we heard a very insightful and in depth analysis form Dr. Michael Grossman, Professor to International Studies at Mount Union University, on the situation in Ukraine and the historical perspective of the lead up to the invasion and subsequent hostilities. We might have gotten the best explanation anywhere of how it all got to this point. Thank you Dr. Grossman.    Happy Bucks will be posted next week.