Micah called the meeting to order and Cliff Parker led our prayer and pledge.
Annoucements
- Our district golf tournament will be on October 20th at Sedgefield Country Club. If anyone is planning to participate, please let Micah know.
- Member Recruitment Day will be on October 25th. Everyone is encouraged to bring a guest.
- The Rotary Foundation Banquet will be held on November 17th. A sign up sheet was passed around for those interested in attending.
- The date for our Rotary blood drive will be December 29th from 3:30-7:30 at the Ramada Inn. Our goal is to collect 25 pints of blood to benefit our community.
Happy Clams
- Ben Wooten just completed the Chicago marathon. He was able to raise $500 for the Alzheimer’s Association. He thanked all who made a donation.
- Joseph shared Feed the Hunger is providing food to hurricane victims in Haiti and eastern NC. The food packed through our Rotary/All-American packathon has gone to help those suffering in NC.
- Micah is celebrating 6 years with no additional melanoma occurrences. He had another spot removed recently but it was ok!
Welcome Back, Dr. Brennan!
Dr. Brennan was a long time member of our club and he visited with us to share updates on his partnership program. Many of the participants of the program also visited our Rotary club meetings while they were in the US. Dr. Brennan shared updates on what many of them are doing now. He thanked Beth Powell for all her help making the program a success.
Member Spotlight – Angela Parham
- Angela works for Burlington Christian Academy in the Office of Advancement. She manages the Corporate Partnership Program offering advertising/marketing benefits to local businesses who support the school. She shared BCA offers preschool programs through high school. Construction of the new BCA high school building is set to start at the end of the month. The new building is expected to be ready for the 2017-2018 school year.
- Angela and her husband, Tommy, are UNC alumni and huge Tarheel fans (hence their dog’s name, Kenan). Their oldest daughter will be a high school senior next year and is hoping to continue the UNC tradition (no pressure, huh?).
- What do you consider to be your biggest accomplishment? Her three children!
Member Spotlight Next Week – Dennis Franks
Tom Luzon – Consumer Credit Counseling Services
Peter Sergent joined Rotary in 1989 and is a “Yankee” transplant. He is a graduate of Wingate and he has 2 sons and 2 grandchildren. Peter has been a credit counselor for 23 years and introduced our speaker, Tom Luzon, Director of Consumer Credit Counseling Services.
Consumer Credit Counseling is funded by local United Way agencies, grants and contract services. They help 4200 people per year with 20% coming from Alamance County. Tom shared it was a privilege to talk with Rotary groups because of how much we care about our community.
Helping families save their home impacts all of us. If homes are foreclosed in your neighborhood, your equity/home value will be impacted. We all have a stake in protecting property values.
Tom discussed details of the Mortgage Payment Protection Program. The program helps people who are affected by reduced incomes. The program will make their mortgage payment for 36 months or $36,000 whichever is less. The payments are made interest-free and results into a 10 year forgivable loan. 1300 families have benefited from this program.
Tom also shared details for the education classes offered through the Professional Financial Counseling and Education Services. All classes are held at the local library and additional class details can be found in the handout section below. The classes offered include:
- Budgeting Your Money – participants will learn basic budgeting skills
- Credit to be Proud Of – participants will learn how to establish or re-establish credit
- Budget & Credit Basics for Homeownership – participants will create their own homeowner budget and will practice making mortgage payments.
- Beware of Senior Fraud & Scams – participants will learn how to protect seniors from scams.
A new law was passed January 1, 2016 that allows credit reports to be frozen for both minors and senior citizens. Credit reports have to be frozen individually with each credit bureau agency.
**Handouts from today’s meeting (including a thank you note from Savannah Cloutier, ACC scholarship recipient) are attached below:
Upcoming Schedule
- October 18 – Dan Seiler
- October 25 – Stuart Sioussat
- November 1 – Philip Smith
- November 8 – Jeffrey Smythe
Card Drawing
The winning card was not drawn. The pot continues to grow!
The meeting was adjourned and we all stood to recite the Rotary Four Way Test. Until next week…