The noon meeting opened with our new president, Jim Miller, acknowledging the first meeting of our club's 45th year. Following an invocation by Shirley Lambert and the Pledge of Allegiance, Alan Grossman introduced a guest, Dennis Lee, Director of Business Development for Century Global Technologies. Dennis recently moved to the area and decided to check out the club after finding us on the internet as he is interested in helping people.

Alan then paid tribute to our friend and fellow rotarian, Bill Shantz, who passed recently after being diagnosed with melanoma cancer. Sergeant Steve Payerle then shared a beautiful photo presentation of our memories with Bill. Alan announced plans for a memorial to be held on Wednesday, July 29th at 3:00 pm at the Westerville Bible Church. Masks will be required, and proper social distancing will be followed.

Our president then introduced our speaker, John Lowe, CEO of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams.



John led us through his journey that began as a friendship with Jeni Britton Bauer, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Jeni's. This relationship led to the offer of CEO, a new but much-needed position, where he has been able to grow the company from 4 local scoop shops to over 40 nationwide in his 10 years. He has faced many ups and downs during that time, both professionally and personally, including the listeria outbreak in 2015, and now the pandemic. Through complete transparency and the faith of financial backers, Jeni's has been able to retain the trust and support of its loyal customers through it all. As they currently face decreased sales in their brick and mortar stores, resulting in furloughs and pay cuts, their e-commerce and wholesale business are strong, making survival possible. John is very optimistic about Jeni's future and can't wait to "get back at it" and continue to grow.

The meeting concluded with the recitation of The Four Way Test.