Welcome new member Brenda Svec!

North Coast Rotary recently inducted Brenda Svec, Sheffield/Sheffield Lake City Schools Curriculum Director as a new member in Rotary.  Brenda has been working in education for 17 years. She has three adult children who attended Avon schools; Brenda and family have lived in Avon since 2001.  She explained that she sought to join Rotary because her children as well as the students in the Sheffield/Sheffield Lake School district have benefited from Rotary’s initiatives.  Brenda concluded that she strongly believes in giving back to her community. North Coast Rotary looks forward to working together with Brenda in support of our communities!!

Blankets – Keep Them Coming!

Our communities have rallied to supply blankets for the Blankets for Beds initiative, and Ridge Cleaners continues to clean, sanitize and wrap them for distribution.  

Rotarian Jamie Wise delivered fifty cleaned and sanitized blankets to Neighborhood Alliance in late November.  

Thanks to our collection partner, Good Neighbor Thrift Shop, Rotarian Ken Mather picked up 17 bags of blankets and took them to Ridge Cleaners and his wife picked up more the week after!  

Thanks to our collection partner the French Creek Family Y whose blanket box was overflowing with donations, many of which were new and were promptly delivered to Blessing House!

THANK YOU TO ALL for helping to provide warming blankets for those in need.

Above – Blankets delivered to Neighborhood Alliance

Below – Overflowing donation box from the French Creek Family Y

Senior Care Baskets for Neighborhood Alliance – Fun Packing!

Clubmembers and friends donated boxes and fun items  and Cathy Pugh, Jamie Wise and Jinnyn Tata provided the personal care items paid for by a Thrivent Community Impact Fund Grant donated by Gina Eschke.  Combining the donations we were able to pack 20 large Senior Care Boxes!  Personal care items, small games, warm socks, ornaments, gift cards and candy were some of the items included.  

Thanks to Pete Sandrev, who made the Avon Wine Room available for us to enjoy a social evening while we packed! Neighborhood Alliance appreciated receiving the care boxes valued over $500.

The Neighborhood Alliance organization has been caring for the community since 1927.  Today their services include daily meal delivery and nutrition services for seniors, emergency shelter, homeless outreach, in addition to programs for children. 

Avon S. O. A. R. through Parenting

The Avon Local Schools programs S.O.A.R. through Parenting are being supported by North Coast Rotary (financially and in-person) for the 2nd year.  Program topics that are immediately relevant to parents with titles such as “Raising Superheroes, Building Strong Relationships, Coping with Parental Stress and Calming the Storm” are identified by Avon Local Schools’ Social Workers Rebekah Bryson and Lauren Eigenbrod. They design the programs to include interactive presentations, group discussions, handouts, resource-links and one-on-one Q&A.  

Attending Families enjoy a light dinner then High School students in Honor Society or Key Club engage the children in activities, once the program begins.  

January 22nd and February 26th are currently the last evening sessions.  Avon parents look out for communications on future programming!

Welcome Paul Beran New North Coast Rotary Member

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President Cathy Pugh inducted Paul Beran, PhD into North Coast Rotary membership.  Paul, an Avon Lake resident, is a recently retired educator (Dean, Vice President, University Chancellor and University President at two different institutions.). Paul shared, “I am pleased to be in the North Coast Rotary as Rotary is consistent with my personal perspective about service above self.  I look forward to being part of a group who believes and practices those core values.”  

As a former Rotarian, Paul actively engaged college students to establish a University of Arkansas-Fort Smith Rotaract club.  

Welcome to Paul – whose leadership and rotary experiences will be of great help to North Coast Rotary! 

Medical Equipment & Supplies Collection and EMPTY BOWLS By the Lake

Rotarians supported two events on Saturday October 19th.  Sprenger Towne Center made available storage and a pick-up location for used but usable medical equipment.  Thanks to Sprenger and many donations from our communities, we were able to fill a truck with walkers, bath chairs, wheelchairs, a hospital bed, dental equipment and more. Big Frog donated a box of scrubs and several boxes of shirts which are always needed. At this time, Rotary is seeking a location to store future collections.  Once identified we will again accept used but usable medical equipment for this initiative.

Also on Saturday, several Rotarians picked-up soup and served soup with many other volunteers at the successful EMPTY BOWLS by the Lake fundraiser where all proceeds benefited Second Harvest Food Bank, Avon/Avon Lake CRS, Commodore Cupboard & other local food banks.

Blankets needed for Homeless StandDown

North Coast Rotary will be supplying blankets to the Homeless Stand Down on October 24th. A huge THANK YOU to those who have already donated!

If you have not yet donated your used but usable blankets or wish to donate new blankets, please take advantage of our collection boxes at: French Creek Family Y, Domonkas Library, Braeden Friss State Farm Agency, First Federal Lakewood Avon Lake Branch, GenFed Financial, Avon Lake Public Library and Ridge Cleaners. Thank you in advance for your support!

Saturday Oct. 19 – Used but Usable Medical Equipment and Supplies Collection

Once again Sprenger Towne Center, Anne Naumann, Becki Russell and staff, are collaborating with North Coast Rotary to collect used and usable medical equipment.  Bring donations to 200 Community Drive, the Clubhouse at Sprenger Towne Center on Saturday October 19th from 10 AM – Noon.  Rotarians will help unload your items and our Rotary Medical Equipment Supplies Abroad truck will take them for storage in our MESA Warehouse in Fostoria Ohio.  Any items that can be used domestically are shared with organizations here.  Shipments to countries in need occur regularly. The most recent shipment was to Ukraine in September.  We thank you in advance for your support!

Supporting Maternal and Child Health

Past President Joe Matuscak took advantage of an opportunity to support maternal and child health when boxes of new baby safety and health supplies including thermometers, newborn nasal aspirators and more were made available to him.  Through our connections, we were able to donate to University Hospitals St. John & Westshore Childbirth Educators, Neighborhood Alliance, El Centro and the United Way who will be distributing them in our communities!