We can be proud of our successful July 4th We survived the heat of 2018! Each Rotarian can be proud of their effort to make the Westerville 4th of July celebration a success. Battling 100-degree ground surfaces, the race, parade, concert and fireworks went off without a hitch. Thank you to the 25 committee chairman and their team of volunteers! Well done. Dave Krebs is the 2018-19 President of the Rotary Club of Westerville. Click here to return to the full Rotary Club of Westerville site Click here to view all of the Prez Says blog entries

Proud to honor our First Responders as Parade Grand Marshals It is exciting to honor First Responders and their families as our Grand Marshals of the Rotary Club of Westerville Independence Day Parade this year. We hope it is a way for the City of Westerville to heal from the events of early 2018. We of course will also honor our military veterans, who put their lives on the line for our freedoms. I am proud to be an American in Westerville, Ohio. Let’s celebrate our 2018 Fourth of July together at the Rotary Club of Westerville race, parade, concerts and fireworks! Dave Krebs is the 2018-19 President of the Rotary Club of Westerville. Click here to return to the full Rotary Club of Westerville site

The sands are almost through the hourglass and June 30th is soon to be here. I have greatly enjoyed my year being your Rotary Club of Westerville president. I was asked the other day by incoming president Dave Krebs what are the three things I am most proud of in my year. I had to give that some thought, and here is what I came up with: Raising, in a 24-hour period, a donation of over $26,000 to the Fallen Heroes Fund in February.  The circumstances were beyond heartbreaking, but our club rose to the occasion of Service Above Self for those that live the motto every single day. Our new partnership with Star House. The growing homeless population of Columbus in the 14-24-year-old range, needs this safe place to help them go from unsafe housing to safe housing and jobs. Star House meets so many of their needs we are proud to assist in this task. New life being breathed into the Interact Clubs at Westerville Central and Westerville South. Our Rotarian of the Year, Dave Read has worked tirelessly on this task for the last year. He has meet with principals, advisors, students — all in the name of Rotary. We need to be mentors to the youth in our community; They are our leaders in training.  I have a long, long list of thank yous for great work and support from our Rotary Club members that I will share at my last meeting as president. Right now, I need to […]

Westerville Rotary – SO much more than lunch on Thursdays “I don’t have time to make the meetings anymore” is a line I have heard often during my term as President. Let me offer these ideas, as an alternative to attending the club’s usual noon meetings.  Our new Rotary Grill food trailer sells brats and hot dogs at every 4th Friday in Uptown and it is great fun to staff the food trailer! You can work a short 2-hour shift or the entire time the Rotary Grill is open. Be sure to bring a hat to wear.   We have updated Interact Clubs for students at our local high schools. Dave Read has a list of careers the Westerville Interact members want to hear about and you could be that special person. Ask Dave how you can help mentor one of our students.   Star House is our newest club partner. Give Mike Valley a call and commit to make a pledge to assist with our building project. Our club member, David Merrick, helped them design a new staff bathroom and shower area that they desperately need. We are also helping out at Star House on Saturday, May 12th. Let Ellen Cathers know you are free to help begining at 9 a.m. Many hands make light work.   The annual Fourth of July holiday is right around the corner. From our morning 5K to the afternoon parade and evening fireworks, we need all hands on deck for the Rotary Cub […]

Scholarship Committee hard at work If it’s spring it must be Scholarship time! Our Rotary Club of Westerville Scholarship Committee has been busy reading over 150 applications from students from all the area Westerville high schools plus St. Francis DeSales. The finalists have been selected and notified of their interview appointments. All interviews will be conducted April 15. Committee members are seeking students who can demonstrate they live our theme of “Service Above Self.” One student who will attend Otterbein will claim the $8,000 award, paid out over four years. Two lucky students, bound for Ohio schools, will each take home $4,000, paid out over four years. There also will be a one-time gift of $250 send to one of our Students of Month from this school year. This winner is selected at random.  Westerville Rotary Clubs tree planting Spring also is our time for renewal of the Earth. On April 21st, we will team up with the Westerville Sunrise Rotary Club to plant one tree for each Rotarian in our combined clubs. This is a cause that is near and dear to the heart of our 2017-18 Rotary International President, Ian Riseley. The AM club is providing the doughnuts and we are bringing coffee! All are invited to help, including our family members, friends and Interact Club members. The City of Westerville will do all the hard work of having the holes dug. Our corps of volunteers will drop in the tree and move on to the next hole.   Don’t forget, […]

  #WestervilleStrong? Indeed we are It has been a tough couple of weeks. On Feb. 10, our town of Westerville lost two great men – Police Officer Eric Joering and Police Officer Anthony Morelli. When a tragedy hits, you see what people are truly made of. Our community is made of love and concern. All around town are blue ribbons, blue lights, special flags and signs that tell us we are #WestervilleStrong. Indeed we are. The Rotary Club of Westerville found a way to show our support. I heard a quick commercial that Channel 4 was going to have a special donation collection to support the Joering and Morelli families. I asked our Treasurer, Dave Coffman, what can we donate from our club? The club Secretary, Wendell McCurdy was next to be asked, can we share this event with our club membership? The Secretary’s email blast was picked up by our District Governor, Shane Pyle. Shane shared the blast around our whole Rotary District 6690. By air time at 5 p.m. Tuesday evening, Feb. 13 – just 36 hours later – we had collected $20,000. It was an honor to represent our club on air and present Channel 4 anchor Ellie Merritt with the Rotary donation. As of last night, Feb. 22, we have pledges totaling $25,750 for the families of the two fallen officers. This is from our club ($1,000), our membership and Rotarians around Ohio that heard about our cause. The Rotary motto of “Service Above Self” is lived out every day by our police […]

Rusty Bucket social Feb. 22 to mark RI’s birthday I want to extend an invitation to you to come to our “Birthday party for Rotary International” at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb 22 at the Rusty Bucket restaurant on Polaris Parkway. While I am doing an extraordinary job as President this year, I request no presents for myself! I am instead accepting gifts for our newest Rotary partner, Star House. Please see the list of suggested Star House donations below. And please feel free to bring your friend or spouse to celebrate RI’s birthday with our Westerville Rotary Club at the Rusty Bucket, 400 Polaris Pkwy, Westerville, OH 43082 Thanks and I look forward to seeing you on the 22nd! (P.S. – I am joking about the extraordinary – I am pretty run of the mill) 🙂 Lisa Lisa Janszen is the 2017-18 President of the Rotary Club of Westerville. Needs for Star House TOWELS (LARGE & WASHCLOTHS) TENTS Sleeping Bags Blankets Men’s Underwear – boxers and/or boxer briefs (all sizes and New ONLY) Women’s underwear (all sizes and New ONLY) Hair Oil/Grease Shampoo Body wash Shaving cream Tarps Socks (men’s & women’s and New ONLY) Men’s and women’s shoes (steeled-toe, non-skid, tennis shoes and boots – Gently Used and New ONLY) Jeans & khakis (all sizes for men and women) Back packs (adult regular and hiking) Drawstring bags Sweatpants (all sizes, men’s & women’s) Hoodies (all sizes, men’s & women’s) Men’s undershirts (all sizes) Stamps Earbuds and/or headphones Umbrellas Ponchos […]

New Year starts with 50th Fish Fry in focus Happy New Year! I hope everyone has had a great start to their 2018!   The Westerville Rotary is off and running with our 50th Annual Fish Fry & Bake just over the horizon. It’s set for 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday, March 4 in the Otterbein University Campus Center. The Fish Fry is one of our signature events in the Westerville community. This year marks a HALF CENTURY (!) that we’ve been hosting this great event to serve the community and raise money for the college scholarships awarded each year by the club. Event Chair Eric Gibson has been busy the past two weeks giving out ticket packets as members come in for our weekly luncheon meetings. Posters are ready to display in your place of business or at local shops. The Fish Fry is an event where we encourage every Rotarian not only to sell tickets, but also to come out to the Otterbein Campus Center and work a shift on the big day. Morning and afternoon shifts are available, performing a multitude of jobs. The Fish Fry always is a day I enjoy. Seeing everyone and soaking up the energy of the event is awesome. Plus every dollar we raise helps fund our scholarships — do it for the kids! You will be hearing much more about this year’s Fish Fry in the coming weeks. Membership up—Get acquainted! Over the last year we have grown in membership. […]

Pancakes, Thanksgiving and Family Day   Last week at our meeting, I wore my Pancake and Syrup pajamas. I am so appreciative of all the pancake mix and syrup that you have donated for the DRIVEN Foundation’s food drive. We are narrowly ahead of the Sunrise club. Giant Eagle has agreed to allow Rotarians to purchase pancake mix and syrup at their cost. They will then box up our donations and deliver to DRIVEN. Our club donations will be tracked to our totals. I am happy to continue to collect pancake mix and syrup at my house and at our regular Rotary luncheon meeting Nov 30. This is a small act of Service Above Self that will make a large impact in the lives of families in the Columbus area. While we are discussing last week, I have to thank everyone that took time last Saturday morning and helped clean out the Rotary Storage unit and move everything into the larger storage unit. Thanksgiving is here and I can’t believe how fast my year as President is rolling along. I appreciate everyone attending the meeting at the Old Bag of Nails last week — out of the ordinary routine for sure! I know that I am thankful for everyone’s support. I think we making some great strides in our Westerville Community and beyond. We have some wonderful, talented giving people in our club. I look forward to meeting lots of guests at the Family Day at Rotary on Friday, Nov. […]

District Gov. Shane Pyle brought The Force! The Prez says – YES we are all super heroes and we all have our own super hero powers! Our visit Thursday (Oct. 5) with District Governor Shane Pyle was an entertaining one! His presentation at our lunch had it all – singing and dancing, Skyping with our R.I. President Ian Riseley, and cheering on our club as we work to make a difference in our Westerville and beyond. During our Board meeting with Shane, prior to our club luncheon meeting, we discussed our club activities month by month. His summary – “I’m leaving you alone. Your club is great.” Thank you, Governor! Thank you also to all the club members who worked at the Uptown Rotary Park renovation last Saturday, Sept. 30. I appreciate your efforts in supporting this renovation project we are undertaking in tandem with the Sunrise Club. If anyone picked up a Chase water bottle, please return it to Dave Krebs. Looking ahead, October is the month Rotary International features our Polio Plus program and the efforts to wipe out polio around the world. As a way to raise funds for this cause, we are planning a fun night of euchre on Saturday, Oct. 21 at Giammarco’s Italian Restaurant, (6030 Chandler Court, Westerville, 43082). This is a combined event with the Sunrise Club. There will be food and prizes! The proceeds will benefit Polio Plus. Be sure to sign up early for this as space is limited. The party […]