On Wednesday, January 18, President Ellen Overcast gave a lovely powerpoint presentation highlighting the fun and productive events of the first half of her presidency. She has six months under her belt and another 6 to accomplish the goals she set out for the club. One of the many highlights from the first half of her year were the many service projects the club completed including Farmers’ Night, Kutztown Folk Fest, Kutztown Day, Exchange student picnic, Back to School drive, Purple Pinkie, Ghost Tour, Foundation Dinner, and Holiday Boxes. Ellen also had an amazing 6 months of recruitment with 6 new members being inducted. Come out to a meeting and join the fun! Visit us at www.kutztownrotary.com.

Each month the Kutztown Rotary Club recognizes one outstanding student each from Kutztown Area High School and Brandywine Heights High School. These students are selected by their school administrators and are often picked for significant improvement or overcoming challenges, accomplishments in academics, school participation, and community contributions. These students never fail to impress Rotarians with their positive impact on our community. 

 

Pictured with Kutztown Club President Ellen Overcast, are the student of the month from Kutztown Area High School, Blake Nolte and from Brandywine Heights High School Tatyana Ulman. Congratulations to both of you! Please look for an upcoming article in the BerksMont News.

 

 

 

Along with serving the community, members of the Kutztown Rotary Club like to be social. We do a social hour meeting every third Wednesday of the month, we have movie club meetings at area venues, and enjoy many other social activities.

 

For the month of January, we had a great time with social hour at McCall's Collective Brewing Company (see pictures below). We also had an active month of movie nights at Ozgoods, Liberty Taproom at Dryville, and the Kempton Hotel.

 

In February, we will continue with movie group and will pick up social hour again in March. Come join our meetings to find out how we do good and have fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Member Spotlight for this Month is our current President, Ellen Overcast. Below is a short biography written by Ellen. 

 

Hi!  I’m Ellen Overcast & I’ve been a Kutztown Rotary member for about 3 years.  I joined Rotary after several years of helping with many of the service projects and being encouraged by Jim Springer to become a member.  I own Main Street Getaways, a travel agency in Kutztown and enjoy helping clients plan land and sea vacations.  As a business owner, I have sponsored many community organization fundraisers and offer fundraising opportunities with the help of my travel partner connections in the cruise and land industry.

 

I’ve been honored to have won several awards, most recently, the Opal Award, which is national award presented to a woman business owner for leadership and community service.

 

I currently serve as the Kutztown Rotary Club’s president and am on the board of Friend Inc and the Kutztown Community Partnership. 

 

I am married to Peter Overcast, also a Rotarian and member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary as we both enjoy community service and helping others.  I have 2 grown children and 7 grandchildren who keep me busy!  Born in Brooklyn, NY we moved to Pa almost 40 years ago.  We reside in Kutztown.

 

In my spare time I enjoy spending time with my grandkids, geocaching, and cruising as much as possible. One of my favorite cruise memories is cruising with my granddaughter Alyssa and visiting a children’s orphanage as part of the Cruise for a Purpose program.  Some fun facts about me:  I attended Clown School and was considering a career as Zippers the Clown but decided to go back to college for Travel and Tourism after I realized that not all children like clowns, but most people like to travel!  I went skydiving right before Peter & I were married in 1980.  I thought if I can survive skydiving, I can survive marriage 😊 We have been married for 22 years and I couldn’t have picked a better partner in life!