Rotary Club of Norwich, CT
August 20, 2025
Location-Bella Fiore
THE RONE
Presiding: President Steve Martin
Invocation: Gary Young
Fellowship: Nancy Gentes
Birthdays: None
Anniversaries: None
Guests: Stan Lucas introduced Atty. Isabel Del Vecchio, Anna Lucas and Ornet Himes from Liberty Bank.
Visiting Rotarians: Steve Martin introduced District Governor Stephanie Phillips
Nancy enlightened all with some funny quotes from Woody Allen and Rodney Dangerfield. One of the funniest was from Rodney Dangerfield – “My psychiatrist told me I was crazy and I said I wanted a second opinion. He said, “Okay, you’re ugly, too.”
Membership Minute: Stan Lucas
Stan commented to maintain contacts that you think would be good Rotarians. Point out all the great things Rotary does to benefit our community. He suggested always having material at the ready to leave with prospective members and of course invite them to a lunch meeting or a Rotary event. Point out that our main mission is “Service Above Self” but the relationships made along the way can also benefit you vocations.
Announcements:
Please bring spare clean egg cartons and give them to Bonnie Johnson.
Celebrate Diversity event will take place on Chelsea Parade on September 29th from 5pm to 8pm. Reminder, that food tasting is a big part of the event. Sponsors are needed badly as there are no grants available this year to help pay for the event.
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.
Rotary Golf will be September 3rd. Get your 4-somes together as well as sponsors. Raffle items and goody bad items are also needed. Brochures are available to get sponsors at all levels and golfers. If you don’t golf, volunteers are also needed, so if you can spare a few hours contact Barry Shead.
Happy Dollars: Andy Grant
Andy started by welcoming our District Governor Stephanie Phillips. He also said he enjoyed starting his day yesterday will a pickle ball game!
Rodney Green said he got on the Rotary website to sign up a 4-some and tee sponsorship for the upcoming Rotary Golf Tournament and saw a 7% processing charge added on if paid online! He said he mailed a check instead as those fees are a bit much. All agreed.
Susy Hurlbert thanked Nancy Gentes on her work with Rotary Grants and was happy to be reminded and gave a check from ECAR for $500.00 for the Rotary Coat Project. She welcomed our District Governor to today’s meeting. She said Ernie’s sister is visiting from Maine and has decided to sell her home in Maine and move to Granby, CT to be closer to family. Her house sold in less than a week, so things are moving faster than expected.
Pat Marshall said fellow Rotarian Roz Etra came to the Norwichtown Retirement Home to entertain the residents and they were thrilled! Pat then gave everyone a cognitive test that she gives to residents who wish to live where she works at the home. Everyone passed!
Bill Champagne spoke of an interesting speech that actress Katherine Heigl gave at the Rotary Convention on climate change and suggested all look it up online. Also sign up for her interesting weekly email newsletters.
District Governor Stephanie Phillips gave Happy Dollars to convey a story of how her day started before the 2 hour drive to Norwich. She loves coffee and had a big coffee to go that she placed on the roof of her car and started driving and discovered coffee rolling down her back window as she drove away with it still on the top of the car! She said her day got a lot better because when she arrived in Norwich for our meeting she was given a warm welcome! She was also happy to see Nancy Gentes, who does so much good for the Rotary 7980 District Grants Committee! She was also happy to see former Norwich Rotary Presidents Rodney Green and Mary Richardson as well as our current President Steve Martin!
Steve Martin welcomed Stephanie to the meeting and said that enjoyed playing mini golf at the Dinosaur Place.
Auction: Mandy Crispim donate $20.00!
Lottery: Bill Champagne
Barry Shead, Rodney Green and DG Stephanie drew cards, but could not find the Ace! Mike Matera won Barry’s ARC Cookies!
Program: President Steve introduced District 7980 Governor Stephanie Phillips. Stephanie started off by commenting on how much fun we have at our meetings. She loved the “Membership Moment” segment of our weekly meeting and will suggest other clubs do the same. She encouraged members to try to give more, especially to Polio Plus, as the need is greater than ever. She would like to see every member in our district (1,860 members) give $100.00 to the Foundation for Polio Plus and other programs that benefit the needy. She said to do more good in our community, especially for literacy and food insecurity as that are her 2 areas that she wants to champion during her term leading our district. She encouraged the club to show the public all the many programs that Norwich Rotary does to raise awareness. She said that she will be implementing a few incentive programs that will kick back some district funds for clubs that raise awareness with social media campaigns and creating 30 second “elevator speech” type announcements promoting clubs and what Rotary does. Also, a Club Logo Contest is in the works. She commended our club for all the good we do in our community and said that Norwich Rotary is one of the lead clubs in District 7980!
The meeting concluded with all in attendance reciting the 4-Way Test and President Steve adjourned the meeting at 1:15pm.