Meeting Recap

Jerry Balint gave the invocation and led the pledge.

Students

The executive team from the National Honor Society visited us on Friday. They put on a number of fundraising events during the year, including the dodgeball tournament the club has competed in in years past, and also look for service opportunities with other organizations.

Walk to End Alzheimers

The Alzheimer's Association Walk to End Alzheimer's®, the world’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer’s takes place Saturday Oct 18th at the Zoo.  You can visit our club's team page at https://act.alz.org/site/TR?fr_id=18810&pg=team&team_id=950023 to either join the team and walk, or to donate to the team.

Rotarian of the Month

Speaker: Strongsville Emergency Food Bank

Last Friday, Brian Kiplinger introduced Ursula Kaunas, Executive Director of the Strongsville Emergency Food Bank, as our speaker.

Brian shared the Rotary Club’s role in helping establish the food bank’s permanent home back in 2014 — a true community project that remains one of our proudest accomplishments.

Ursula, who retired from Cuyahoga County before stepping into this role in 2023, spoke about the food bank’s mission, operations, and new initiatives. The food bank now supports over 230 households, including seniors and large families, through a mix of purchased groceries, community donations, and partnerships with Walmart, Schwebel’s, and local churches.

She highlighted recent improvements, such as:

• Expanding food options to include healthier staples and fish.

• Launching partnerships with Camp Cheerful adults and Strongsville High School special-needs students through the new BRIDGE program, giving them meaningful volunteer experiences and employability skills.

• Enhancing the Power Pack program for schoolchildren, providing nutritious weekend food bags year-round while reducing stigma and cutting costs.

The food bank runs on an annual budget of about $100–150K, supported entirely by Strongsville residents, churches, businesses, and civic groups. Ursula also reminded us to like and share the official Facebook page to help build visibility and support.

She closed by inviting members to tour the food bank after the meeting — a chance to see firsthand the impact of Rotary’s legacy project and the continuing work of volunteers serving our neighbors in need.