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CANTON ROTARIAN GARY SIRAK, AUTHOR OF "THE AMERICAN DREAM", TO SPEAK THIS FRIDAY
Gary Sirak has been helping people achieve their American Dream for the last 30 years of his life.
 
He is the CEO and top producing agent of Sirak Financial Services in Canton, Ohio. The financial institution has been around for 60 years.
 
Sirak Financial Services was started by his Gary's father, Stan Sirak, who taught him the most important lesson of his career: “My job isn’t to make as much money as I can. It’s to help the other person in the room to accomplish their goals.”
 
Gary has written two books. The first is “If Your Money Talked - What secrets Would It Tell?”, about personal finance and the most common mistakes people make with their money.
 
The second book, “The American Dream Revisited”: Extraordinary People, Extraordinary Results” is a deeply personal topic for him. A serendipitous conversation in a coffee shop spurred him to write the book, as the ideas and beliefs of the book have been with him his entire life.
 
The American Dream Revisited teaches people the value of determination and grit, hope and optimism. It speaks on the importance of education and mentorship. It highlights the value of having a sense of humor, even in the most dire of circumstances, as well as the power of giving back.
 
 
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LUNCHEON MENU & ASSIGNMENT FOR MARCH 16TH
BAKED FISH
BROCCOLI
POTATOES
SALAD
 
SPEAKER CHAIR - JEFF SCOTT
INVOCATOR - PP JACK BARKAN
GREETER LEADER - PAUL FEASER
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ROTARIAN IN THE SPOTLIGHT....
"Congratulations to Theresa Blocher of Kiko’s -Canton, Ohio for her appointment to the Ohio Auctioneers Commission".
 
Theresa Blocher is a third-generation member of the KIKO Company and has been full-time with the company since 1989. She is a real estate Broker and Auctioneer, and is the Sales Manager Broker for the KIKO Company.  Theresa has a Bachelors Degree in Business from The Ohio State University, and is actively involved with the Ohio Auctioneers Association and has served on their Board of Directors. She is a lifetime member of the Ohio Auctioneers Association, and a member of the National Auctioneers Association, the Ohio Association of Realtors, National Association of Realtors, Stark County Association of Realtors, Minerva Chamber of Commerce, and Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce. She is actively involved in her community and serves on the Board of Directors for the Minerva YMCA, the County Wide YMCA Board of Trustees, and a member of the Rotary Club of Canton. 
 
Congratulations Theresa on your appointment to the Ohio Auctioneers Commission!
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CANTON ROTARIAN BOWLERS RAISE MONEY FOR JA
On Saturday, March 3, 2018, two teams of Canton Rotarians took part in the Rotary challenge at the annual Junior Achievement Bowl-A-Thon at Park Centre Lanes in North Canton. The object of the Rotary Challenge is to see which Rotary Club can raise the most pledges for Junior Achievement. Also participating were Rotarians from the Massillon, North Canton, Jackson, and Plain Rotary Clubs. Canton came in second to the Rotary Club of Plain Township in terms of pledges raised.
 
Shown below are (l. to r.) Canton Rotarians PP Rick Taylor, Bruce Schorsten, Drew Pelger, PP Dan Matthews, Bruce Hale, James Boggs and Justin Candea. Also participating but not shown was Shawn Dougherty. As you can see, a good time was had by all!
 
 
 
 
SAVE THE DATE....SEMI-ANNUAL HEALTH SCREEN & WELLNESS FAIR SCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 2018
The Rotary Club of Canton will once again hold its Semi-Annual Health Screen & Wellness Fair on Saturday, April 21, 2018. This event will be held at the Mercy Medical Center, Mercy Hall Auditorium, 1320 Mercy Drive N.W., Canton, 44708.
 
A 12-hour fast is recommended for more accurate results. In addition to the blood screenings, Mercy Medical Center will be offering additional free health screenings and educational materials.
 
To register for this event please follow this LINK or visit cantonrotary.org. To view and print the flyer please follow this LINK
 
 
 
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WEEKLY MEETING NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
At our weekly meeting on March 9, 2018, President Amanda Tietze welcomed the 52 members and 6 guests to the meeting. 
 
Rotarian Kurt Goodenberger gave the Invocation.
 
Secretary Suzette Matthews welcomed the following guests to the meeting: Joe Gazzo (speaker); Jill Gazzo, Susan Scott, Shelly Valentine and Jerome Pruett (all guests of program chair, Jeff Scott); Jay Wilhelm, guest of Rebecca Marchino.
 
Rotarian Rebecca Marchino provided the Rotofact of the day.
 
The "Happy News" was then provided by the following:
  • Rick Taylor - in recognition of the awesome Greek Plaki Fish;
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  • Ernie Schott - to thank Frank Fleischer and Steve Fettman for their hard work on the Philomatheon/Taggart's fundraiser on Tuesday, March 6, 2018;
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  • Amanda Tietze - to celebrate spring coming soon and this year's Home and Garden Show this weekend at The Stark County Fair Grounds;
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  • Joe Gazzo (speaker) - to celebrate his son and daughter-in-law's move into a new home in Chicago, IL; and to celebrate his wife, Jill, being in attendance and for her health and recovery after recent surgery;
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  • Bruce Schorsten - in recognition of the great local boys and girls high school basketball teams that are competing in the regional basketball tournament going on last weekend;
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  • Jerome Pruett - to celebrate being welcomed back to a Rotary meeting after his speaking engagement last week.
 
Vice President Mark Rojek presented a short slide show on the club's Semi-annual Health and Wellness Fair project. 
 
March Speaker Chair Jeff Scott welcomed his speaker, Joe Gazzo, Director of Education from the Baseball Heritage Museum in Cleveland. 
 
President Amanda then concluded the meeting with the following announcements:
  • next week's speaker will be Canton Rotarian, Gary Sirak, author of "The American Dream";
  • members are encouraged to take a couple of the health screen flyers to display at their business, church or any local establishment;  
  • a reminder to adjust clocks for Daylight Savings Time.
The following Rotarians turned in a makeup during Fridays meeting: Virginia Neutzling (Military Veteran District Meeting); Dave Ewing (Plain Twp.)
 
The following Rotarians will receive a makeup for attending the New Member Project Committee meeting on March 9, 2018: Amanda Tietze, Anne Richards, Tony Pierce, Rich Dever, Bruce Hale and Dennis Dent.
 
 
 
 
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DISTRICT GOVERNOR MIKE RAULIN'S MONTHLY MESSAGE
Governor’s Column (February 2018)
 
Spring is just around the corner, but district activities are not waiting for spring. Just over a month ago, next year's club presidents met in Canton for Pre-PETS training, which introduces incoming presidents to the many responsibilities that they will face in the coming year. In less than two weeks, those same people will meet in downtown Columbus for All Ohio PETS—a day and a half of training and inspiration. I want to take this opportunity to thank and commend those of you who are leading your club this year and those of you in line to lead your club next year. Rotary Clubs in this district are blessed with talented individuals who take the time to provide outstanding leadership. I also want to remind everyone that the district does more than just train our incoming presidents. On April 21, we will have a district training program that is geared to other club leaders. More details on this program will be distributed soon.
 
Rotary Youth Leadership Award
 
The RYLA program took place this past weekend. I love being a part of RYLA and am so thankful for the opportunity to spend a weekend with these great kids. I want to thank Barb Loudon, Dan Moore, and all the people from the Rotary Club of Salem for making the program work so well year after year. There are a few people, like myself, who are not from Salem that enjoy being involved as well, but we all owe a debt of thanks to Salem.
 
I want to also thank all of the clubs who supported RYLA students this year. It is a great investment in your community. If you want to see how great an investment, invite your RYLA student(s) to your club meeting to talk about their experiences and what it meant to them. In fact, invite their parents as well. There could be some great potential members among those parents. I wish all of you could be a fly on the wall at RYLA to watch the magic of that weekend. This is yet another program of which we can all be proud!
 
District Conference
 
Mark your calendar. The district conference is just over 10 weeks from now. It will be Thursday evening through Friday afternoon, May 10 and 11, at the Avalon Inn in Warren, Ohio. This is a great facility, which hosts RYLA every year and hosted last year's District Conference with Sieglinde Warren. You will notice that the district conference will not cut into your weekend time this year. It will be just one-day, but that day is packed with high-quality speakers, programs, and events. For those of you who like playing challenging golf courses, we will have an informal golf outing at the adjoining Avalon Lakes, a Pete Dye designed course, on Thursday morning. The green fees will be $75, which is half the normal rate (carts not included in that price).
 
The district conference will start on Thursday late afternoon with an informal reception and a formal dinner, followed by a brief memorial service and an outstanding inspirational speaker. The hospitality suite on Thursday evening is once again sponsored by the Rotary Club of Warren. We have several outstanding speakers and programs on Friday, starting with breakfast and continuing until roughly 4 PM. Most of you should be able to easily get home for dinner on Friday and have the weekend available for the family. We will have programs that highlight RYLA, youth exchange, the Rotary International Foundation, and Membership. We will end with the exchange student talent show and song to capture the spirit of Rotary (Let there be peace on earth).
 
The theme of this year's conference is the Magic of Rotary. That was not my intended theme when I started planning for the conference about 18 months ago. Originally, my theme was Explore Rotary, which you may remember was my focus for my initial talk to the clubs. But it was those visits that helped me to realize that there truly is a "magic" to Rotary. Rotary Clubs bring together incredible people—caring, optimistic, and talented people—who see opportunities and know how to take advantage of them to Make a Difference in the world (our RI theme for this year). I have been impressed with Rotary ever since I joined, but meeting each of you and visiting your clubs has taught me so much more about the spirit of Rotary and what we can achieve with that spirit.
 
I hope that all of you will be able to join us for all or part of the district conference. We have a block of rooms at a very competitive rate at the Avalon Inn and Resort set aside for the people who attend the conference. The online registration will go live in the next couple of days (www.RotaryDistrict6650.org).
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PRESIDENTIAL THEME 2018-19: BE THE INSPIRATION
Theme logo 2018-19 ENRI President-elect Barry Rassin’s theme for 2018-19, Be the Inspiration, asks Rotarians to inspire change in the world and in each other. “I ask all of you to Be the Inspiration to help Rotary move from reaction to action — to take a hard look at the environmental issues that affect health and welfare around the world and do what we can to help.”
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AWARDS BENEFIT FROM AMAZON.COM
 
3x your impact!
 
From March 12-31, Amazon is tripling the donation rate on your first smile.amazon.com purchase!
 
Go to smile.amazon.com/ch/23-7353867 and the Canton Rotary Charitable Fund receives a donation for every purchase that you make.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Please mark your calendar for these upcoming events:
 
     -  NO MEETING - Friday, March 30, 2018 - Good Friday
     -  Health Screen & Wellness Fair - Saturday, April 21, 2018
 
Speakers
Mar 23, 2018
Invocator - Steve Fettman
Mar 30, 2018
View entire list
Russell Hampton
National Awards Services Inc.
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