[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 13]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 17927]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




EXTENDING MY DEEPEST GRATITUDE TO NOON ROTARY CLUB OF MUNCIE, INDIANA, 
   A DEDICATED GROUP OF VOLUNTEERS WHO WENT OUT OF THEIR WAY TO HELP 
                            HOOSIERS IN NEED

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MIKE PENCE

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 31, 2008

  Mr. PENCE. Madam Speaker, I rise to thank the Noon Rotary Club of 
Muncie, Indiana for their invaluable service to the residents of my 
hometown of Columbus, Indiana following catastrophic flooding that city 
experienced in early June.
  An article published in the Columbus Republic on July 25, 2008 
outlined the tremendous support this group provided:

       Three Saturdays ago, carloads of Muncie Rotarians descended 
     on Eastside Community Center, determined to help prepare and 
     deliver meals to survivors and volunteers.
       They've been coming back ever since.
       ``This Muncie group is awesome,'' said Celeste Racette, a 
     member of the Columbus Sunrise Rotary Club who worked with 
     the Delaware County group in coordinating the volunteer 
     effort. ``They not only helped prepare and deliver meals but 
     they have kept coming back and they even set the folks at 
     Eastside up with Gleaner's Food Bank out of Indianapolis to 
     deliver a week's supply of food.''
       They'll need it. Lenore Hollowell, who is coordinating the 
     meal delivery program Eastside initiated in the early hours 
     of the flood recovery, said Thursday that the group is 
     averaging 550 meal deliveries each day.

  The article continues:
       The Muncie group offered more than just helping hands.
       The Rotarians who arrived on the first Saturday and 
     immediately were sent to devastated areas with prepared meals 
     were welcomed warmly but also given guidance for future 
     visits.
       ``If people didn't want the lunches, they definitely wanted 
     the water,'' Celeste said. ``That need was discovered on 
     their first trip. On the next trip the Muncie group brought 
     down 40 cases of water, four coolers and endless bags of ice 
     so that we could hand out cold bottled water along with the 
     meals.''
       While the Muncie group was in Columbus, one of its members 
     struck up a conversation with Lenore Hollowell about 
     additional sources of food.
       Gleaner's Food Bank in Indianapolis was mentioned and 
     within the space of hours, e-mails were being traded back and 
     forth setting up the delivery of a week's supplies.
       ``The delivery ran the gamut from eight cases of yams to 
     two cases of mop handles . . . from three cases of chocolate 
     chip cookies to four pallets of bottled water . . . there 
     were even 1,200 prepared meals from Federal Emergency 
     Management Agency.''

  The Noon Rotary Club of Muncie will likely make their final visit to 
Columbus on August 2. I want to extend my deepest gratitude to this 
dedicated group of volunteers who went out of their way to help 
Hoosiers in need.

                          ____________________