December 2024
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Club Executives & Directors
President
President Elect (Programs)
Treasurer
Secretary
Club Service - Internal
International Service
Ways and Means Director
Foundation Liaison
First VP (Charitable Giving)
Recording Secretary
Sergeant-at Arms
Sergeant-at-Arms
Sergeant-at-Arms
Past President
Keep The Dreams Alive Sponsors
We are extremely thankful for the gifts of support from the following companies and individuals who
have helped keep our Strongsville Rotary dreams alive this year:
 
Visionary Sponsors ($5,000)
Southwest General Health Center
 
Hope Sponsors ($1,000)
Altenheim
Gerald Balint
Prudential Insurance
Rick Weiser
Serpentini Chevrolet
Superior Energy Systems
VFW Strongsville Post 3345
 
Wish Sponsors ($500+)
Kevin Crocker
Kiwanis Club of Strongsville
Manjit Khuban
Rick Voigt
 
Other Sponsors ($100-$499)
Edward Bond
Daniel Cricks
Sandra Croft
Charles Cury
Neha Dayakar
Jamie Debenham
Bill DeMarco
Kenneth Dooner
Sheila Dunn
Joseph Dzurilla
Kristine Heinrich
Bruce Kahn
Bernice Kaldy
James & Mary Kaminski
Robert Kammer
Richard Kiplinger
Neal Klabunde
Brian Kruszewski
Kevin Lynch
Scott Maloney
Beth Mlady
Peter Nixon
Karen Novak
Dale Piper
Ed Plaspohl
Joyce Reed
Elizabeth Rowan
Dan Sage
Robert Simon
Barbara Stettnisch
John Turnbull
Sarah Zatik
Club Information
Welcome to our Club!
Strongsville

Service Above Self

We meet In Person
Fridays at 7:15 a.m.
The Walter F. Ehrnfelt Recreation & Senior Center
18100 Royalton Rd. (Rte. 82)
PO Box 360401
Strongsville, OH 44136
United States of America
Contact John Turnbull at 216-235-6086 for more information about our meetings or joining the club.
Home Page Stories
Support the Strongsville Rotary Foundation at Rosewood Grill Strongsville throughout November!
 
Join us at Rosewood Grill Strongsville this November for "Hospitality for Hope". Every Sunday this November, enjoy a special 3-course meal and know that half of your dinner proceeds will go toward supporting the Strongsville Rotary. Together, we can make a difference for those in need in Northeast Ohio.  Check out the menu.
Save A Warrior believes in challenging conventional thinking. The way they challenge the idea of suicide is so novel and so inspiring, it connects the lives of all who are transformed from sharing in this experience.
 
The members of the Strongsville Rotary Club were so moved by the mission and what SAW has been able to accomplish since 2012, the club members voted to donate $5,000 to the organization which is approximately the cost for someone to go through the program.
 
George Schindler and Chris Kneeland of Hospitality Restaurants visited this morning to present a check to Strongsville Rotary Foundation president Ashley Gay from the fundraiser held at Rosewood Grill Strongsville to celebrate their reopening last month after renovations. The funds are earmarked towards the Strongsville Town Center Enhancement and Walkability project.
 
The City of Strongsville held a ceremonial groundbreaking ceremony for the Strongsville Town Center Initiative.  The Strongsville Rotary has pledged $50,000 towards the project, and current Rotary Club of Strongsville president John Turnbull participated in the ceremony.  Proceeds from StrongFest benefit this project among other local and international projects, and we look forward to hosting future events at the new facilities. 
The Rotary Club of Strongsville and Rotary Club Kraków have completed a joint project and purchased two ambulances for Ukraine.
 
Pictures from the transfer of one of them are included. It was also specially prepared by us - it is painted in a different color than traditional ambulances, due to the fact that the average life of an ambulance in Ukraine is one week - Russian soldiers have priority to destroy all kinds of medical equipment.  The second car will be ready in days and handed over ASAP.
 
Therefore, the Rotary Club Kraków decided to continue the project and collect funds for further purchases of ambulances for Ukraine.
 
In addition, our contact at Rotary Club Kraków and his wife have made their whole house (in our private house) available for refugees and at the moment we are hosting 7 people and we are waiting for another 2 to arrive in the coming days.
 
Another project implemented by our club is the service of refugees by doctors with whom we cooperate on a daily basis (they run a non-profit clinic for the homeless).   If a refugee does not yet have Polish documents entitling him to use the Polish health service, then he or she uses the possibility of all tests and the help of our doctors.
 
In addition the Rotary Club Czestochowa has already shipped the next aid for Ukraine consisting of textiles and canned food worth about $11,300, and are working at two next deliveries: mobile diagnostic devices, mobile x-rays and consumable medical aid (gloves, antiseptics, dressings). The transportation and delivery have been donated by a local Polish company.

The Rotary Club of Strongsville Gives $7,000 in Scholarships to Strongsville High Students

 
Seven Students who are part of the Leadership-Connections Program at Strongsville High School were awarded $7,000 in scholarships. On Friday morning, May 6th students, along with teacher Mike Rodak, attended the weekly Rotary Meeting held at the Senior Center.
 
A group of people standing in front of a displayDescription automatically generated with medium confidenceStudents who attended were introduced by Mike Rodak, who has guided them through the program, told a little about them and their initial meeting in the program, then each student had the opportunity to share their story about how they have grown with the help of the Connections program and how Mr. Rodak has helped guide them through some of the challenges they’ve faced. 
 
All of the students did a great job handling the daunting task of standing in front of 75 people they’ve never met before for and giving a speech about themselves, their high school journey and the program. They definitely held the room as you could hear a pin drop during their presentations. 
 
The theme from all of them was about how being part of the leadership program had a positive impact on their high school years and what they plan to do after high school.
 
Every year the Rotary Club of Strongsville hands out 5 scholarships to graduating seniors from the program. This year due to members of the club stepping up with additional donations the club was able to fund two additional scholarships. This is in addition to $16,000 in other scholarships the club hands out to Strongsville Students, not in the Leadership program.
 
The club looks forward to hearing directly from the students every year, getting to see and meet the students they will be giving the scholarships to, some Rotarians even commenting “it’s our favorite meeting of the year”.
 

The Rotary Club of Strongsville Puts Boots & Life on the Ground to Help Ukrainians!

Thanks to everyone in the community who donated to our fund, which has raised over $60,000 so far.  Money has already been wired into Poland to assist there, and Pat and Brian are assessing further needs.
 
Update from Brian:
 
From Warsaw to Częstochowa to Krakow, we are accomplishing our mission in Poland 🇵🇱
 
Our trip has been a very humbling experience thus far. It is overwhelming to see the look on the refugees’ faces: terrified, uncertain, fear, and the look of “what next” from the children.
 
At our Rotary meeting in Częstochowa, we heard Alina’s story, a 13-year old Ukrainian refugee who escaped with her grandmother. (Pictured below) Alina and her grandmother walked for over 16 hours to get to safety in Poland. The Częstochowa Rotary group has taken her and other refugees into their care. Provided food, job, loving home and stability. The power of Rotary and the human heart is amazing!
 
As we reflect on her story, We are so blessed to be in America. We should not take our liberties for granted. ❤️
 
Update: Medical supplies and donations delivered to our Polish Rotary groups. The funds will be used for a much needed ambulance, medical supplies and family refugee support.
 
Everything here is very well organized and running smoothly. The refugees are well taken cared for and provided many of their needs. Many of whom are returning to their families in Ukraine.
 
We continue on our way to provide goodwill. ❤️ Highly encouraged by the Polish Rotary groups, Pat and I are on a tour today to visit Auschwitz, Birkenau, and the Oskar Schindler Factory.
 
Thank you everyone for the overwhelming support and prayers. We could not do what we are doing without you all! God bless! 🇵🇱🇺🇦
Thanks to Manjit and his family who organized a truck to take supplies down to Kentucky, including blankets he purchased, and CVS donated 500 first aid kits, sanitizers and 240 boxes of face masks, along with donations for the local Rotary Clubs.
 
In addition our Strongsville Rotary Foundation approved a donation of $2,000 to the hardest hit Rotary Districts to help rebuild their communities, some of which had entire business districts destroyed by tornados.
 
Thanks to all our members and supporters for making this possible.

 

Some of the Rotarians who helped distribute gift cards
This year thanks to donations from the Senior Christmas Luncheon and Rotarians we were able to help needy families in Strongsville celebrate Christmas this year with a Christmas meal and toys for the children providing $75 gift cards for each of sixteen children in eight families. Every year the Rotary Club of Strongsville collects funds to make sure that those families most in need have a brighter Christmas. Any donations would be appreciated.

 

After hearing about the tornados in Kentucky the Rotary Club of Strongsville immediately launched into action with a call for blankets that could be delivered to Kentucky.  At our Friday meeting we collected blankets, and on Sunday member Chuck Cury loaded his truck with 110 blankets to take to Mayfield.
 
The Rotary Club of Strongsville once again manned the kettles at the Giant Eagle Market District in Strongsville for a day to raise  money for the Salvation Army.  This year there was $1,254 in the kettle, which is almost exactly the same amount raised last year, and better than prior years.  Thank you to all who donated.
Art Basa, charter member of the Strongsville Rotary Club, provided an update on the artesian wells that were funded by a matching grant from Rotary International in partnership with the Western Pampanga Rotary Club.  The pictures show one of the 22 artesian wells that were built.
Mike Rodak of the Connections program at Strongsville High School reached out to us about a student who needed some help finding a car so she could get to work and to school.
 
This young lady has bounced back from several family challenges having to do with her parents and wants to graduate this year but has rent to pay and bills to pay so she has to work.


 

Strongsville Fire & Emergency Services maintains a commitment to fire safety education with their Firepup® Program.

The Strongsville Rotary Foundation is donating $600 to the program to distribute educational materials the cover a broad range of topics including general fire safety, burn prevention, dial 911, smoke alarms, senior safety, and many other topics for 300 children.
The Rotary Club of Strongsville worked together with the Club Rotario de Tegucigalpa and Rotary District 6630 to fund a computer lab and school library to serve the Zambrano community about 40km north of Tegucigalpa, Honduras.  This will be used to aid in the education of young women of integrity to break the cycle of poverty.
 
The computer lab is named after Bill Gordon, a long time Strongsville Rotarian who, in keeping with this years Rotary Theme "Rotary Connects the World", started the process of connecting people that several years later got the project funded.
The Strongsville Rotary Foundation were honored to present the Harry Fuehrer Community Award to Kelly Kling, coordinator at the Strongsville Emergency Food Bank today who has done so much for the food bank and its clients.
 
The Harry Fuehrer Community Award is presented each year to a deserving member of the Strongsville Community who has embodied the Rotary motto of "Service Above Self". It is named after Harry Fuehrer, the first president of the Rotary Club of Strongsville.
 
Kelly Kling presented with Harry Fuehrer Community Award

The StrongsvImageille Rotary Foundation on September 12 presented a $5,000 donation to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Strongsville Post 3345.

View media coverage here from the Strongsville Patch and the Strongsville Sun Courier.

The donation includes $2,500 raised at the foundation’s annual golf outing on August 12. The other half of the donation was a match by the foundation, a non-profit organization affiliated with the Rotary Club of Strongsville. Along with the donation to the VFW, proceeds from the golf outing will fund $17,000 in student scholarships next year.

The Rotary Club of Strongsville celebrated its 35th anniversary this week. You can view the 7 minute presentation below that shows some of the people and projects from the past 35 years.

Find out why Rotarians from NE Ohio are passionate about Rotary.  If it sounds interesting to you are welcome to be a guest at one of our meetings Friday mornings at 7:15 at the Strongsville Senior Center, or contact us to learn more.

The Brick.
Invocation given by Dale Finley at the November 30 club meeting.

A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jags side door!
He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, “What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That’s a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?”
This video provides a look inside the people, clubs and service of Rotary District 6630. We hope this video helps you discover the benefits of joining a Rotary Club. District 6630 is comprised of over 50 Rotary Clubs throughout in Northeast Ohio. Rotary is a volunteer organization of business and professional leaders united worldwide to provide humanitarian service to help build goodwill and peace.

Contact us, or come us a guest on Friday mornings to learn more. 

Speakers
Ursula Kaunas
Dec 06, 2024 7:25 AM
Strongsville Emergency Food Bank
Sanjana Katiyar
Dec 13, 2024 7:25 AM
Rotaract Club of UC
Ken Mehalko
Dec 20, 2024 7:25 AM
Christmas Program
Jamie Nixon
Dec 27, 2024 7:25 AM
Club Social
Savannah Drdek
Jan 24, 2025 7:25 AM
Student Visionaries
Paul Kuzmickas
Feb 07, 2025 7:25 AM
Cleveland Clinic
Ashley Gay
Feb 21, 2025 7:25 AM
Chili Open Setup
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