E-CLUB PROGRAM

PRESIDING TODAY IS: Diana Martinelli, E-Club President

Ding! We’re now in session.

Welcome all – Visitors, fellow Rotarians and guests alike to this E-Club program!

Remember the smiling pot. Donations to our E-Club help support our service projects.

We’d like to respectfully remind all visitors that if they would like to contribute the normal cost of a meal for your makeup, we would be grateful. These funds go directly to our many and varied service projects around the world. You can make a contribution through the Give/Donate link on the homepage. Or you can write a check to:  Rotary E-Club of District 7530 and mail it to Treasurer MSRE, 115 Hoffman Avenue, Morgantown, WV 26505.

Four-Way Test

At the beginning of each meeting we remind ourselves of the The Four-Way Test.  Therefore, please remember to ask yourself always . . .

Of the things we think, say or do:

1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

A Reflective Moment

 

 

 Why didn't the skeleton like Halloween candy?

 He didn’t have the stomach for it!

 

New Feature!  

MSRE-Club Member Spotlight:  Jackie Riggleman

We hope you'll enjoy this new program feature, intended to help our dispersed E-Club members get to know each other.  

Our E-Club Meeting Topic:  The Hope and Dignity of Work, by Guest Presenter Bob Pirnner 

 

Every morning at about 7:25 a.m., busses roll up  to PACE Enterprises in Mylan Park, just outside Morgantown. The passengers are local people with disabilties reporting to their jobs. Just inside the building are job coaches and supervisors ready to lay out the day’s duties. 

 

In PACE’s Beehive Café, food service workers have already been at work and the coffee is hot.  As the riders disembark their busses, you hear laughing, small talk, and the occasional grumble … remember it’s 7:30 a.m.!  Every person on the bus has a significant disability.  

 

“Many of our people don't drive and rely on public transportation and our in-house transit program to get them to work,” said PACE Enterprises President and CEO Greg Morris. “We see the ability in each person, rather than the disability.  At PACE, each person uncovers talents and a personal work ethic.”

 

PACE’s mission is to help people with disabilities obtain meaningful employment.    PACE operates on the principle that every individual should be able to experience the dignity and respect that comes from having a job that matches his or her needs and interests. It seeks to make meaningful difference in the community, not only by improving its employees’ quality of life, but also allowing them to earn income on their own. 

 

Since 1972, people have been coming to work at PACE. Some stay in the building to work in PACE’s document shredding department or work in the Beehive Café, which serves meals to the public and also delivers boxed lunches.  Many more go to work at sites throughout the greater Morgantown area. Once there, PACE workers perform facility maintenance, grounds care, administrative duties, and many other jobs.

 

But the money they earn is only a small part of the benefits PACE provides. It also offers dignity, friendships, pride in accomplishment. Having a job helps people to see that they are significant. When people don’t work they often suffer deficits, not just financial, but deficits of purpose, emotional well-being and social connection.

 

We see the disabled poor as lacking material things, but it’s their oft perceived inferiority, powerlessness, hopelessness, and isolation that really hold them back. As a result, many don’t have goals or aspirations. Yet the antidote to such negativity is relatively simple: going to work.

 

And it’s more than just finding something somebody will pay for and finding a job coach. We have to deal with family situations, bad credit, no transportation, no role models, and a negative worldview. Yet, again, the antidote is work.

 

For example, PACE has a contract with the Department of Highways to maintain the I-79 Welcome Center just inside the border with Pennsylvania.  “We’re in charge of the first impression visitors get of West Virginia,” Morris said. That facility is staffed around the clock, every day of the year, with workers who have significant disabilities.  They are proud that no matter how deep the snow, they get there to take care of the traveling public.

 

However, PACE is much more than a social service agency providing services to people with disabilities, although it does do that. It is also a Social Enterprise that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in the lives of its workers. PACE provides goods and services that compete alongside similar businesses in West Virginia.  It does so in a business-like manner, making sure that every venture is financially sound and that every worker is paid a fair wage.

 

In 2016, West Virginia University’s College of Business and Economics worked with PACE leadership to facilitate a future plan. As part of that process, WVU looked at the economic impact of PACE on its community and found that PACE has an $8.2 million impact through the jobs that it creates. 

 

“We are able to build partnerships and alliances in the private and public sectors for the good of our community, our organization, and most importantly, the people we serve,” said Morris. And PACE is looking forward to continued growth and opportunity for West Virginians with disabilities.

 

You can help PACE in its efforts by joining the PACE 2020 campaign. It supports workers who don’t qualify for other assistance and funds programs that don’t have funding options. You or your organizations can sign up now to pledge $20 for the next 20 months, and help give these neighbors the tools they need to show the world what they can do! And if you can’t commit to 20 months, any amount you can provide will be useful and appreciated! Click here to learn more and give now: http://paceenterprises.org/pace2020/