Micah Fox called our meeting to order and Joseph Williams led our prayer and pledge.
Announcements
- Gail Moore introduced her guest Mike Zurilla. Mike is from Raleigh and plans to relocate to Burlington with his wife and children. He is the new owner of Home Instead Senior Care. Congratulations to Gail and Mike!
- Micah read a thank you note from Tony Holt. He was honored to be recognized at our birthday luncheon.
- Reverse Raffle is coming soon! We are encouraging members to sell or buy 2 tickets each. A sign up sheet is going around to indicate how many tickets you plan to purchase. Sponsorships are available which will include advertising for the business at the event. A sign up sheet is also going around for prize donations. A PayPal link will be available later this week for you to purchase tickets. All proceeds for the Reverse Raffle will go to support Junior Police Academy.
- We received a resignation letter from Mike Dunning. We are now down 5 members for the Rotary year. Jeff Bright has submitted an application and today will be his first reading.
- Peter can now accept credit card payments. We are still looking for a Treasurer replacement!
Happy $
- Carolyn thanked everyone who purchased girl scout cookies. The money raised from cookie sales goes right back into our community. Their troop just recently participated in the can sculpt event.
Virgil Stadler – Stadler Country Hams and Memorable Moments
Betty Andrews introduced our speaker and also served as today’s member spotlight. She owns an Investment Management company and has two children and one granddaughter. In her free time she enjoys shooting hoops, guns and golf. San Antonio in Texas is her idea of paradise.
Virgil Stadler shared the story of how his country ham business grew and the life lessons he learned along the way. He was the first to offer vacuum packaging and movable racks to hang hams. Both of these developments in the industry helped to further his business.
After high school, Mr. Stadler had no interest in college and told his parents he wanted to be a meat cutter. He attended meat cutting school and started a small meat market in his parents’ local store. That was the beginning!
In 1955 he married Ann and they quickly started to save money to purchase a house. They saved $100 a month of her check from Burlington Industries and had accumulated $1000 by year end. Instead of buying a new house, they chose to use the money saved to buy country hams. From there, the Mr. and Mrs. Stadler build Stadler Country Hams.
Mr. Stadler enjoyed much business success but also credited the “hand of God” for his many accomplishments. Whether it was the the interaction with those less fortunate at Glen Raven Methodist Church when he was a young boy or meeting the professor from NCSU that helped him rid his meat plant of ham mites, Mr. Stadler knows God had a hand in all his success.
Since selling his country ham business, Mr. Stadler has enjoyed helping his friends from Graham to Boone passing along a little of what he learned over the years about the business.
The meeting was adjourned. Until next week…