Courtesy of Ray Leisy, Club Historian
I need to begin this week with an apology to Ron Holtman. Ron took over as President of Wooster Rotary not for the 1986-1987 Wooster Rotary Year but for the 1987-1988 Wooster Rotary Year. Everything else in last week’s article did take place in the 1987-1988 Wooster Rotary Year.
On July 6, 1988 Ron Holtman turned over the gavel to Dave Gallapoo for the 1988-1989 Wooster Rotary Year. President Dave announced that Wooster Rotary was sending five students abroad this year: Jack Jones (Australia), Cathy Mattison (Australia), Julie Cicconetti (Italy), Kristin Briggs (Denmark) and Angela Tannhoff (Germany).
The 1989 Wooster Rotary Auction exceeded goals with 1,165 bidders, 1,550 items sold, $4,685 kitchen proceeds, $21,500 for one item (a 100 year old Steinway grand piano), $174,000 gross sales with an expected $43,000 profit. It was noted that sales from the start until now were over $1 million.
On May 1, 1989, five visitors from Bangkok, Thailand, led by Rotarian Vuiratiat Wongtrakul visited Wooster Rotary.
Ron Holtman had been appointed to investigate a Special Community Project that would make a significant difference in Wooster. Ron announced that $45,000 had been set aside with $15,000 allocated for each of the next three years. The money would be allocated to Wooster High School teachers for scholarships for professional development that would result in improving the school’s curriculum in their area of study. The first awards went to Randal A. Carmel, science; Garth L. Fowler, physics; Todd M. Patterson, biology; Richard Hunyadi, chemistry and astronomy; Judith T. Mathys, French; Mary E. Jameson, French; David Snider, science; and Kevin Hennis, science.