Collegeville Rotary club is proud to congratulate its own Vince Raffeo as the 2018 recipient of the Marvin J. Lewis Community Service Award. This award is presented by the Perkiomen Valley Chamber of Commerce on 4/5/18 to a member of the community who qualifies both in deed and spirit and who, through their long-term efforts and involvement, have made a significant, positive impact upon life within the Perkiomen Valley. Each year the recipient is chosen by the Chamber’s Board of Directors from a number of nominations submitted by its members.Dr. Donald Lundgren with "Common Peace". He will be speaking on the the power of nonviolence as a pro-active expression of participation and change in the world as part of the Season for Nonviolence.
The "season" begins with the anniversary of Mohandas Gandhi's assassination on January 30 and ends with the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr's assassination on April 4. This year marks the 70th commemoration of Gandhi's death and the 50th commemoration of King's death. The Season is anchored by a mission, statement of principles, and commitments by participants towards living in a nonviolent way.
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Several members of our club along with two students from PV High School Interact Club spent several hours on Saturday morning removing hundreds of pounds of trash and more than a dozen tires and other large items from a field alongside the creek near First Avenue across from Kimberton Whole Foods store. Thanks for all that participated.
Our club level speech contest was held on March 11, 2018. The first place winner will be going on to the regional competition on April 14, 2018.
Ashley Liu of Methacton High School has won first place at our annual speech contest with a gripping speech about over emphasis on class ranking during high school. Erin Quinn of Perkiomen Valley High School was awarded second place.
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We are pleased to welcome Mark Million as our new club president effective on 7/1/17. Mark has been a very active and dedicated member of our club for the past 3 years. We are looking forward to implementing his many new initiatives to continue the club rejuvenation that has started with Mary Cook. Thank you very much Mary for getting us through the transition phase and putting us on a sound footing with several new members and a new meeting location at Ursinus College.
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Sahas Kurumety has been selected by the Collegeville Club to participate in the Rotary Youth Exchange program for school year 2017/18. Sahas just completed 11th grade at Methacton High School. He is very excited to have been given this life changing opportunity to spend the year abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina to immerse himself in the culture and become fluent in Spanish. He will be departing in August 2017 and returning in June 2018.
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For more than 50 years, the Collegeville Rotary Club has sponsored the Halloween Parade. Join us, once again, on October 28 on Main Street for this event. There is no need to register for costume judging or the parade - just bring your children (or pet), and meet behind CHOWs (454 E. Main) at 6 pm. If you prefer to just watch, pull out a chair and line the street from CHOW to the Pretzel Factory. The parade starts at 6:30 'drizzle or shine'. Stay through the parade - a special guest has promised to arrive. 
The Collegeville Rotary and the Collegeville Fire Company are working together to serve our community. We are announcing our First Annual Golf Outing on May 18, 2015 to support our Fire Company.The venue is the breathtaking Bellewood Country Club (400 E. Schuylkill Road, Pottstown, PA), known for its outstanding golf course and fine dining. The day will include full access to the course and facilities, lunch, prizes, raffles and a buffet dinner at the elegant club house. The format will be a 4-person scramble with prizes awarded for the first three places. Skills events will also be included. Registration and Lunch start at 11:00am; Shotgun start at 1:00pm; Reception and Dinner at 5:30pm
We welcome everyone in the community to join us at the Collegeville Rotary's Pancake Breakfast - February 22 from 8:30 am to 1:30 pm at Moorehead's Catering. The PV and Methacton Interact Clubs and the Collegeville Rotary Club invite you to our hearty breakfast buffet, where your donation will raise funds for our local food pantry, The Daily Bread Community Food Pantry.
The Rotary Club of Collegeville sponsored its annual Halloween parade. No one knows how long we have been doing this, but parade chairman Joe Greenwald believes this to be his 25th year! This is a long standing tradition that the community looks forward to each year. Families, neighborhoods and businesses came together to create floats, imagine outrageous costumes and put on a show! The Perkiomen Valley High School marching band, Longhorn football and cheerleading, andarea fire companies were all on hand to celebrate. Of course Santa made his usual appearance on a fire truck, delighting everyone young and old. Prizes were awarded by age group for best costumes. The rain threatened us for a bit, but it turned out to be a great evening enjoyed by all!
The Collegeville Rotary Club proudly announce their Citizens of the Year and Teachers of the Year for 2014! We invite you to celebrate with us on October 15 at the RiverCrest Golf Club as we award the Paul Harris Fellow to our Citizens of the Year, and honor those teachers who represent our schools. Please see below for details.
Our Citizens of the Year are Joel and Loretta Stever of Schwenksville. Joel and Loretta have coordinated establishing and operating the Jerusalem Community Food Pantry for almost 20 years. Their client list has grown from 25 families to 250, with total number served estimated at over 1000 per month. They work tirelessly to provide food and various services to the entire Perkiomen Valley area - from Collegeville to Green Lane to Telford to Lansdale. The Food Pantry is in the process of moving to a new facility, having outgrown their current home at the Jerusalem Lutheran Church. They will need all of our support in their efforts!
Our Teachers of the Year have been nominated by their students. Mrs. Bobbie Paul was selected from Perkiomen Valley High School and Mrs. Maggi McGettigan was selected from Methacton. Bobbie has taught Earth Sciences for 21 years, and Maggi teaches 11th grade English and AP English at Methacton.
Last week the Collegeville Club began what will be a year long celebration its 65 years. Initially named the Lower Perkiomen chapter, the club was chartered on July 27, 1949 and sponsored by the Phoenixville Rotary club. The event was held at Spring Mount hotel in Schwenksville where some 300 people listened to guest speaker Supreme Court Justice Owen J. Roberts discuss the ideals of Rotary. This week we honored our 20 charter members, among them the club's first president, Clarence A. Warden Jr. Other charter members were Henry Brown Jr., Clement Bean, Anthony Chiccarine, William Coburn, Raymond Fishlock, Dr. Ivan Hess, Clay Hess, Robert Johnston, Dr. Herbert Kaplan, Louis Krug, William Philip, W.B. Rawlings, Alves Raynor, Harvey Richards, Andy Rihl, Chester Sellers, Harvey Vanderslice, Clyde Whitman, and W. Russell Zimmerman.
On Wednesday, July 16, 2014 we welcomed our new District Governor Gary Fedorcha and his wife Lynne. After a productive meeting with our board, Gary spoke to the club about his plans for the upcoming year. This will be an exciting and productive year for our district and our club.
The Collegeville Rotary Club held its annual changeover dinner at Rivercrest on June 18, 2014. President David Kaplan welcomed incoming president Lynn Fleisher. Lont time Rortarian Don Wannamaker was honored for his years of service to the club with the "Charter Award". Ravi Kurumety received the "Rotarian of the Year" award for all his good work with our youth committee. The evening was highlighted by a special presentation by Joy Miksic on the Qumi Homes Project in South Africa.
Several Collegeville Rotarians attended our District Conference held at Bushkill Inn in the Poconos on May 2-4, 2014. We were joined by Methacton Inteact founders and Co-Presidents Sasha and Danielle, as well as many, many other Rotarians from our district. The weekend was fun, exciting and informative. Thanks to District Govenor Frank Romano, Jean Romano, Harleysville Rotary club and all the other clubs that worked so hard to make this the outstanding event it was.
We took away plenty of good tips for planning the district conference when our own Doug Cook serves as District Govenor in 2015-16!
We are proud to announce the re-charter of the Ursinus Roteract Club. Rotaract brings together people ages 18-30 in universities and communities worldwide to organize service activities, develop leadership and professional skills, and have fun. Rotary clubs sponsor them, but Rotaract members manage and fund their clubs independently. Rotaract members work closely with their local Rotary club, and may join any club after their Rotaract membership ends. After several years with no Roteract on campus, Rotartian and Ursinus Director of Institutional Research, Angelo Sorrentino took up the challenge to re-establish the club. He was able to find a number of dedicated young students to roll up their sleeves and get to work. Several of them were an essential part of our Pancake Breakfast crew this year.
A dinner was held on the Ursinus campus on April 23, 2014 to celebrate Roteract's charter. Collegeville club president, David Kaplan welcomed the group of students and emphasized the importance of the two clubs working together to serve the community. Also in attendance were District Governor Frank Romano and his wife Jean, and Assistant District Governor Marie Ann Thompson. Both had words of encouragement for the students and reminded them of the world wide opportunities to serve that comes with being a part of Rotary.
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