Rotary Club of Norwich, CT
May 14, 2025
Location-Bella Fiore
THE RONE
Presiding: President Rodney Green
Invocation: Rodney Green
Fellowship: Susy Hurlbert
Birthdays: Kevin Wickless – Today!
Anniversaries: Kelly Whipple-5/15 1 year, James Hyman-5/15 1 year, Jeremy Doyle-5/15 1 year, Alexis Kahn-5/16 3 years and Mandy Crispim-5/16 3 years.
Guests: Brittany Dwyer and Don Wallace from American Wharf Marina. Stan Lucas introduced his daughter Anna Lucas. Molly Bruno introduced Isabelle Del Vicchio and Bill Champagne introduced Kari Wall.
Visiting Rotarians: None
Susy gave a fellowship on a brief history of Flowers in Connecticut. Connecticut’s State Flower is the Mountain Laurel. Connecticut also has its share of native wildflowers including columbine, trillium and jack-in-the-pulpit! The most popular annual flower is the Marigold. The most popular perennial flower is the Daylily and the most popular flowering shrub is the Hydrangea.
Membership Minute: Stan Lucas
Stan invited Membership Committee member Paul Gaffney to give a report on how recruitment activities went at the recent Whisky, Wine and Cigar event. Paul said that 8 attendees filled out the form requesting more information on Rotary membership and he and other members will follow up with these people and make sure they are invited to a regular lunch meeting.
Announcements:
May 22nd will be a Rotary Work Day at Gemma Moran Food Center in New London from 1 to 3pm. Andrew Nollman will be emailing members on how to sign up to volunteer.
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.
Rotary Golf will be September 3rd. Get your 4-somes together as well as sponsors!
Happy Dollars: Mike Matera
Mike welcomed all our guests and gave Andrew Nollman and his committee for hosting a very successful Whisky, Wine and Cigar event. His son Jonathan will be playing the 1st soccer game of the season on Saturday.
Bill Champagne gave $20.00 to welcome Cari Wall who is serving on the Norwich 250th Committee. Bill said the 3 areas the Committee is focusing on are a Liberty Pole on the Norwichtown Green, Samuel Huntington and recognizing Black’s and Native American’s that fought in the Revolutionary War. The Committee is looking for volunteers to help them in their mission. Bill also added that Lottie Scott is not doing so well and is currently residing at Harrington Court in Colchester.
Stan Lucas welcomed Isabelle Del Vecchio. He also said that Anna’s new boutique is hopefully to open in the next 3 months.
Pat Marshall thanked Andrew Nollman for the great Whisky, Wine and Cigar event! Pat also celebrated Mother’s Day in Boston with her Son and daughter-in-law. She added her daughter-in-law could have been a little more welcoming (that’s putting it nicely). She than wisited her other son and grandchildren for pizza in New Haven and had a funny story about losing her Jeep key’s only to find they were in the Jeep all along as she started it to turn on the air-conditioning. Senior moments we some of us can all relate to!
Jeff Brining said that his son now has his driver’s license and he’s now paying a lot more for auto insurance! Jeff also welcomed Brittany and Don. He looks forward to the NPU Annual Banquest under the tent at American Wharf!
Molly Bruno welcomed all our guests. She had a great vacation in Puerto Rico last week and is looking forward to going to a conference in Saratoga Springs next week. DC after that and then her birthday on June 11th!
Mike Cooney reminded that the Native Daughter lunch on June 11th is filling up fast and more seats have been sold than last year already. He ran 3 golf tournaments last week and all were in the rain. His daughter Katie pitched her first baseball game and she did great! Mike also shared a very sad story about a Cub Scout he knows that is experiencing a very difficult time with an abusive family and asked for prayers for this beautiful unfortunate child.
Roz Etra said she has been really busy as of late running around visiting her daughter in Philly. Her daughter ran in a road race with 35,000 runners and she finished very respectfully in the 27,000 area. Upon Roz returning to Connecticut she was feeling under the weather and her doctor said she was burning the candle at both ends and to pace herself better!
Bonnie Johnson said she had a great 3 week vacation in Europe. Came back exhausted however! She thanked Ryan and Kelly for delivering the food to Colchester in her absence.
Gary Young said he had a good time with Stan and friends up at Tuckerman’s Revine in New Hampshire. He’s going to be busy in the coming weeks as he’s traveling to Texas next week and hosting family after that.
Auction: Cristin Wickless
Cristin will donate $20.00! Rodney had tickets to a “Music That Matters” fundraiser worth $100.00. Steve Martin was the high bidder at $100.00.
Lottery: Bonnie Johnson
Ryan Telford was picked first and he found the Ace of Spades! Well done Ryan!
Program: Today’s program speaker was Brittany Dwyer, owner of the American Wharf Marina. Brittany gave a rundown of all the improvement that she and her husband have made since purchasing the Marina and all the great future plans they have to bring the property back to its original grandeur from when it was built in the 1980’s. For more details on the property and all they have to offer, not just boaters but the general public log on to www.americanwharf.com
Bonnie Johnson lead the club with the 4-Way Test and the meeting was adjourned at 1:15pm.