Rotary Club of Norwich, CT
September 30th, 2026
Location-Bella Fiore
THE RONE:
Presiding: Stan Lucas
Invocation: Barry Shead
A moment of silence was observed in memory of Joe Matera
Fellowship: Michael Vaz
Birthdays: None
Anniversaries: None
Guests: Doug Bruce and Jane Carlisle
Visiting Rotarians: None
Michael gave a fellowship of events that happened on September 30th throughout history. Today is the 273rd day of the year. In Canada it’s orange shirt day. In 1935 the Hoover Dam opened. In 1960 the Flintstones premiered.
Announcements:
Please bring spare clean egg cartons and give them to Bonnie Johnson.
If you know of a speaker for one of our meetings, please contact Kevin Wickless or Alexis Kahn to get on the schedule.
If there is a Rotarian who is sick or going through a tough time let the Sunshine Committee know and contact Mary Richardson or Nancy Gentes.
*Reminder* as a courtesy to our guest speakers, guests and fellow members, Rotarians are strongly asked to silence all electronic devices during meetings.
Membership Minute: Paul Gaffney
Paul spoke about corporate memberships. If you know of some just give the names and contacts to the Membership Committee and they will do the follow-up. There are slips to fill out.
Happy Dollars: Nancy Gentes
Nancy welcomed our guests and explained what Happy Dollars does to support the community. She also remembered Mike Matera’s dad.
Mary Richardson welcomed our guests and also remembered Mike’s dad.
Stan Lucas read a nice tribute to Joe Matera. He told of a story of the Rotary Softball team playing against a team that Mike’s dad played on. Nobody played harder than Joe! He also visited his brother over the weekend who has been quite ill.
Barry Shead gave for Mike’s dad. He also gave kudo’s to Michael Vaz and Susy Hurlbert for the great job they did with the diversity event. He added the “Crush It For Inclusion!” Rotary Can Challenge will take place again this October. Norwich vs Putnam. Bring you cans for Barry to collect. Last year Norwich won by just a few cans! Let’s get the jump early! October 6 through October 29th are the dates.
Mike Matera gave $82.00 in memory of his father. He thanked everyone for their support and told stories of how Joe helped with the Tommy Toy Fund throughout the years.
Bill Champagne said during the month of October the last Green Valley hosts tons of walks throughout our region. Many of the events have been rescheduled since the October 3rd weekend was a washout.
Mike Goldblatt gave for Mike’s dad. He and Joe attended many car shows over the years. Last week Mike’s accounting firm celebrated 100 years.
Rodney Green gave a heartfelt tribute to Joe Matera. They were very close friends over the years and enjoyed playing golf, annual trips to Aruba and spur of the moment trips to do fun things together. He said he will miss his friend.
Paul Gaffney gave for Mike’s dad. He also congratulated Rodney and Stan for their impressive finishes in recent golf tournaments and said that his team came in first.
Auction: Paul Gaffney gave $20.00.
Lottery: Barry Shead
Kathryn Tracy, Gary Young and Tom Adams could not find the Ace of Spades.
Program: Jane Carlisle spoke about the Carlisle/Williams Foundation. Our mission is to help kidney failure patients on dialysis to live a better quality of life while on dialysis, and provide them with the support they need to be approved for a life-saving, life changing transplant. We are a public 501 (c) (3) charity that works with dialysis centers and individual dialysis patients to provide hope and support through our flagship ESRD dialysis support bag. We offer links to online, free mindfulness programs and apps to further support dialysis patients. For more information log on to https://the-carlisle-williams-foundation.org/
The meeting concluded with Bonnie Johnson leading the club reciting the 4-Way Test at 1:19pm.
** Looking for volunteers to serve on The RONE committee. Contact Bob Reed (bobr@hallradio.net).**