Norwich Rotary Club
March 13th, 2024
Location-Bella Fiore
THE RONE
Presiding: President-Elect Rodney Green
Invocation: Barry Shead
Fellowship: Barry Shead
Birthday’s: Bob Reed – March 15th. Beware of the Ides of March!
Anniversaries: Andrew Nollman – March 14th – 15 Years
Guests: Ryan Telford introduced Chenoa Hosko. Barry Shead introduced James Hymon. Mike Goldblatt introduced Bill Morgan. Kathryn Flannigan of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern CT brought Joseph Leonard, Megan Leonard, Maxwell Higgins and Natasha Merchant. Kyle Main from Chelsea Groton Bank was also in attendance.
Visiting Rotarians: None today.
Barry’s Fellowship was figuring out how many slang words there are for money. Here’s just some of what Barry came up with! Bucks, bread, cheddar, cabbage, brass, dough, bacon, c-note, cash, ching, coin, cake, loot, mullah, bones just to name a few!
Membership Minute: Stan Lucas asked all members in attendance who served in the military to stand, state the branch of their service and be recognized. Stan encouraged members to consider inviting prospective members to a meeting who have served in the military as they are exceptional people and would make great Rotarians.
Announcements:
President-Elect Rodney had the following announcements:
The 4 Way Speech Contest will take place on April 20th.
The Whisky, Wine and Cigar event will be back again on May 1stat Bella Fiore. Edwin Muenzner, CPA has signed on as the Food Sponsor! Tickets will go on sale on March 1st. $75.00 per person.
The Rotary “Day of Service” will be May 18th. Last year over 11,000 meals were packaged for the Gemma Moran- United Way Food Center. This year Area Rotary Clubs hope to package double that number! Mark your calendar now to donate a few hours of your time at the (NEW LOCATION) United Methodist Church in Gales Ferry. 10 Rotarians from our club are requested to help out on that day.
The Native Son/Daughter Lunch is scheduled for June 5th. Submit a candidate and you can find an application on the Rotary website. March 15th is the deadline for applications.
The Norwich Rotary podium needs some updating. Stan Lucas has volunteered to use his exceptional carpentry skills and build a new one.
Anyone knows of a Rotarian who has been ill, please let the Sunshine Committee know.
Anyone with spare clean egg cartons please give them to Bonnie Johnson to give to St. Francis Hospital.
Members are encouraged to fill out a donation form and donate to the Rotary Clock Project.
If you know of a speaker for one of our meetings, please contact Kevin Wickless or Alexis Kahn to get on the schedule.
June 19th will be our Rose Garden Luncheon.
June 26th will be our Change of Command Ceremony.
Happy Dollars: Mike Matera
Mike welcomed our special guests and reminded members of former Rotarian Ralph Lernard who ran the Serviceperson of the Month meetings for many years prior to today. Mike also said he just returned from a business trip and was happy to see his son and help with his homework.
Andrew Nollman welcomed all our guests. He gave Roz Etra kudos for a great musical performance today. He’s looking forward to visiting Florida later this month and visit his parents. His dad is celebrating his 81st birthday!
Pat Marshall welcomed our guests. She took a spill while at work at the nursing home but is ok. She loves belonging to Norwich Rotary and loves the sense of belonging to such a great group of people.
Jeff Brining welcomed all out special guests. He had a great family vacation in Utah skiing. Came home and went skiing again to upstate New York with his daughter
Ryan Telford gave happy dollars for Pat’s story. Nursing can be a very tough job!
Roz Etra gave for Pat. She had a nice visit with family both in Philly and New Jersey over the past week that included a big birthday party for her grandson Matt at Chucky Cheese’s! She also returned with 25 boxes of Girl Scout cookies to help sell for her granddaughter. $6.00 a box which she then donated back $1.00 back to Rotary!
Stan Lucas will be away for a week or two to spend at his home in Costa Rica and see his son Mason.
Rodney Green explained what Happy Dollars does to all our guests. He also just returned from the Rotary President Elect’s Training (P.E.T.S) Conference in Boston. He met the Rotary International Incoming 2024-2025 President Stephanie Urchick while at the meeting and said she was a very impressive individual. Speaking with other Rotary incoming Presidents from the Northeast he said our club is indeed a really great group of people. Some clubs do not enjoy the same mutual respect and fellowship for each other that we enjoy.
Weekly Auction: Bob Reed gave $20.00 to the auction.
Lottery: Barry Shead
Kyle Main, Mike Goldblatt and Rodney Green drew cards and the Ace of Spades is safe for another week. Jim Daly was the lucky winner of the ARC Cookies, so generously donated by Barry Shead.
Program: Today’s program was the “Serviceperson of the Month!” The honoree this month is Army Staff Sargent Joseph B. Leonard. Staff Sargent Leonard is a subject matter expert at his profession as a powered support systems mechanic. In addition to this, he has taken it upon himself to become an expert with the Army’s primary logistics program Global Combat Support System GCSS-A. It is a complex system that few have mastered. As a result, other states have requested his assistance3. He has traveled to Mississippi, Virginia, West Virginia, New Hampshire and is going to California later this month to assist them. Each state has given him accolades for setting up the system. New Hampshire relayed that he has set a new standard that the whole New Hampshire National Guard will adopt. In his off time, Joseph has a paid part-time position with the East Lyme School system as a wrestling coach for the East Lyme High School. He volunteers time with the boys to do clean-up activities in town and at McCook’s Beach. He donates a significant amount of time assisting the boys with conditioning programs after hours. SSG Joseph Leonard is to be congratulated for his impactful contributions within the command and community!
The 4-Way Test was led by Bonnie Johnson and the meeting was adjourned at 1pm.