Akrotarian eBulletin February 26, 2025 (Feb. 26, 2025)

Mar 04, 2025 12:00 PM

George Rosche

Chick-fil-A Franchise Owner/Operator

Chick-fil-A Franchise Owner since July, 2022. Previously worked for over 20 years in several capacities at Owens Corning: Project Manager Director, Project Controls, Global Capital Sourcing, Director of Supply Chain, Plant Manager, Director of Finance, Finance Leader, and Plant Controller. Prior to Owens Corning, he was with Robert Bosch Corporation as a Financial Analyst.

The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business Finance, Minor: Chemistry · (1997 - 2002)
University of Tennessee at Martin, MBA, Finance · (2008 - 2010)

Mar 11, 2025 12:00 PM

Ed Morrison

Ancient Order of Hibernians

Mar 18, 2025 12:00 PM

Dave Yost

Ohio Attorney General

Mar 25, 2025 12:00 PM

John M. Williams, President and CEO

Akron Urban League

Apr 15, 2025 12:00 PM

Pam Hickson-Stevenson Executive Director

Akron Summit County Library

View entire list

Let's Rock this Friendly Competition to Show Support for our President Elect Katy Miller

Hello Akron Rotarians,

I am sure you have seen the posts on the service project for this year’s All Ohio Presidents-Elect Training Seminar which will be held mid-March in Columbus; Soles4Souls. Every year, the District Governors agree on a project that will fill the need for a non-profit group in our area. This year, we chose Soles4Souls, a non-profit organization that provides new athletic shoes for children in need.

Often children will miss school as they do not have the basic necessities they need to attend, including shoes. This project will provide shoes to children in Ohio; including our district. For each $20 donation, a child in our state will receive a new pair of durable tennis shoes to wear. It is a great project and we hope to improve the lives of many children.

The service project has always been a friendly competition between the Presidents-Elect of each District, and the district with the highest donation level wins the bragging rights of the conference.

Just like many things we do in Rotary, it is a fun event for all and helps children in need.

I am asking all District 6630 Rotarians to consider making a donation of $20 or more in the name of your club’s President-Elect along with congratulations and best wishes for their year. Each message is recorded on the website donation page for all to see. In addition, I will share your best wishes with your President-Elect, so they see the support they have from all of you.

It is a special Rotarian that volunteers for this role of your club’s leader. If you can, please make a donation and add in the comments your congratulations and support. I will keep you all posted on our results.

Please Donate Now using this link or copy and paste this to your browser past this in your browser: https://charity.pledgeit.org/allohioPETS/teams/@district6630

Thank you for your support!

Bob Oborn
District 6630 Governor Elect

Club Inducts Two New Members: Amber Genet Barkoukis and James Slater

Amber Genet Barkoukis and James (Jim) Slater were inducted February 25, 2025 by President Elect Katy Miller.

Amber was sponsored by Katy Miller

Jim was sponsored by Hugh Alpeter

ABOUT AMBER AND JIM

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Akron Acts of Kindness: Playhouse Square Kindness Challenge

We are encouraging our Rotarians to participate in this fun activity sponsored by Playhouse Square.

How to participate:

Spread kindness around Akron by completing as many kindness challenges as possible!

We would love for you to share your journey of kindness with us! To participate, take a photo of you completing one of our kindness challenges & share it with us!

By completingany of the challenges, you will be entered for a chance to win some cool prizes!

One lucky winner will receive a pair of tickets to see Come From Away at E.J. Thomas Hall on March 25, 2025!

There are three different ways you can share your photos with us:

1) Post your photo and tag us on social media using:@broadwayakron and @wecomefromaway

2) Send a Direct Message to BroadwayAkron on Facebook or Instagram with a photo of your act of kindness!

3) Email us a photo of your act of kindness at playhousesquare@gmail.com

Click on the graphic to enlarge

2025 Scholarship Dinner - April 29 at 5pm

Save the date for our annual

Scholarship Dinner

Tuesday, April 29, 2025 from 5-7pm.

The location this year will be at
Our Lady of the Cedars at 507 S. Cleveland Massillon Road
Fairlawn, OH

Cost will be $27.00 per person

Our speaker will be William Visco, PhD

The University of Akron School of Education

Registration will open soon!

Now packing lunches - OPEN M Backpack Service Project

Akron Rotary's Open M has resumed their Food Backpack Program for food insecure students at Innes Middle School for 200 kids in need.

We are continuing our support of the supplemental food service through June 4, 2025.

SIGN UP HERE

Wednesdays at 2:30pm now through June 4, 2025

Location: Open M
941 Princeton Street, Akron, OH 44311

You can sign up directly on the Rotary Club of Akron website by clicking here. We appreciate your participation and look forward to making this a great event together!

Sandy Naragon, Chair

Grant Committee

330-256-5315 - Cell

Please Volunteer to Help at our Meetings!

Happy New Year! I hope that each of you and your families had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season overall!

It's that time of year again where I send out everyone's favorite email - plus, you will get to hear my voice even more than usual at club meetings (cue the eyerolls and groans - I know you can't wait!) as I announce the need for volunteers to assist with the following roles at our club meetings for the 1st half of 2025: Greeter (& "Daily Lotto" sales), Invocation Speaker, & Meeting/Technology Set-Up.

My most sincere appreciation and gratitude goes out to the faithful “regulars” I have been able to consistently count on to help fill the respective roles or jump in last minute to cover an empty slot (you know who you are). I also appreciate the handful of "newcomers" (both established and newer members) who helped throughout the course of last year or expressed a willingness to do so moving forward.

I would like to encourage anyone that has either never served as Greeter or Invocator (or who has only done so sparingly) to consider volunteering for a few slots during this 1st half of 2025 - I'd be immensely thankful to see my list of "regulars" grow. Not only are these roles a much appreciated and valued service to the club, but they also present an excellent opportunity to immerse oneself in the weekly meetings.

If you need help signing up, please let me know and I can direct you to the appropriate location on the Rotary Club of Akron website, or I will gladly fill in your name for whatever date(s) you are able and willing to volunteer. For convenience, here is the public URL to the relevant volunteer sign-up page:

CLICK HERE TO VOLUNTEER

For Greeters, please plan to arrive by 11:40ish (if possible) and be prepared to help sell Daily Lotto raffle tickets and have the speaker pull the winning ticket at the end of the meeting.

For Invocation Speakers, I have provided some links with sample invocations below. You are quite welcome to create your own invocation, of course, but please know that custom content is not a requirement! I am happy to assist with this too. In fact, I'll even provide an invocation for you to read if that's what it will take for you to sign up. I assure you, this need not be an intimidating volunteer role for the meeting!

For Meeting/Technology Set-Up, the duties currently require:

Ensuring the computer, projector, and microphones are all up and running smoothly before the start of the meeting. NOTE: Brian Kosarko, Michael Gladysz, or I can/will help train new volunteers - we would certainly appreciate expanding the rotation for this role.
If necessary, correcting the flag positioning so that when viewed from the audience, the U.S./American Flag is to the left of the speaker/podium and the Ohio Flag is on the right.

Thank you in advance for volunteering!

Yours in service,

Connor G. Jarvis, CFP®

Sergeant of Arms

Rotary Club of Akron

Some links with sample invocations (if needed/desired):

https://www.clubrunner.ca/Data/7870%5C2949%5CHTML%5C58164%5CNondemoninationalInvocations.pdf

https://clubrunner.blob.core.windows.net/00000004409/en-ca/files/stories/rotary-invocation-booklet/rotary-invocations/rotary_invocation_booklet.pdf

https://www.dacdb.com/Rotary/Accounts/6170/Downloads/0/Rotary%20Prayers%20-%20Several.pdf

http://www.hsnprotary.org/pdf/rotaryprayers.pdf

Thank you to our Premier Club Sponsors







In memory of JOHN DAILY (57 years of Perfect Attendance)

Interested in being a sponsor?

Download the website sponsorship guide

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Open M Backpack Food Packing
Open M
Sep 11, 2024 – Jun 04, 2025

Volunteer to Help at Our Tuesday Meetings

Jan 07, 2025 – Jun 24, 2025

Breakfast at the Rotary Youth Exchange Retreat
Rotary Camp
Mar 02, 2025 7:00 AM – 9:30 AM

Board of Directors Meeting
Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church
Mar 11, 2025 10:45 AM

Board of Directors Meeting
Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church
Apr 08, 2025 10:45 AM

2025 Scholarship Dinner - Save the Date

Apr 29, 2025 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Board of Directors Meeting
Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church
May 13, 2025 10:45 AM

View entire list

Member Birthdays

Ham Amer

February 3

Anne Jorgensen

February 4

Jeff Sitz

February 4

Laura Horovitz

February 5

Heather Meeker

February 6

Brian Harding

February 10

Michelle Wilson

February 13

Susan Colville-Hall

February 14

Dan Sveda

February 15

James Redmond

February 15

GK Maddox

February 19

Fr. Dean Kokanos

February 20

Stuver Parry

February 24

Rich Fry

February 25

Bill (JR) Manby

February 28

Steve Buie

March 17

Johnna Economou

March 25

Evey Williams

March 28

Join Date

Timothy DelMedico

February 1, 1989

36 years

Mike Wojno

February 3, 2004

21 years

Tom Knauer

February 3, 2015

10 years

Steve Bossart

February 16, 2021

4 years

Jack Harig

March 1, 1961

64 years

Michael Gladysz

March 1, 2012

13 years

David Koly

March 6, 1984

41 years

David Showers

March 13, 2001

24 years

Dan Sveda

March 15, 1988

37 years

Malcolm Costa

March 18, 1997

28 years

Katerina Papas

March 22, 2005

20 years

Bill Manby, Sr.

March 27, 1973

52 years

Connor Jarvis, CFP

March 28, 2017

8 years

Laura Duda

March 29, 2016

9 years

Katy Miller

March 31, 2015

10 years