Norwich Rotary Club
December 13th, 2023
Location-Bella Fiore
THE RONE
Presiding: Mary Richardson
Invocation: Gary Young
Fellowship: Ray Baribeault
Birthday’s: Marielle Winkelman 12/18 and Chris Heller 12/25
Anniversaries: Manny Kadish 12/15-29 years, Chris Heller 12/24-9 years and Bill Champagne 12/31-41 years
Guests: Mary Richardson introduced Ted Pappagallo
Ray had a Fellowship presentation with his usual series of very funny puns! Just a couple “There was a fire at a shoe factory, unfortunately souls were lost!” “Why did the drum go to bed early? He was beat!”
Membership Minute: Molly Bruno: Molly reported the “Jingle & Mingle” Holiday Potluck & Yankee Swap will take place at the home of Stan Lucas at 280 Broadway in Norwich on Wednesday, December 20th from 5:30 to 7:30pm. RSVP to Molly Bruno at 860-961-8627 or Stan at slucas@lucaslaw.comcastbiz.net if you want to come! Bring a dish and a wrapped gift ($20.00 max value) for a Yankee Swap! New Member Paul Gaffney will be inducted into the club as well! Bring a guest or prospective member to join in the fun!
Announcements:
President Mary read a thank you note a resident of Schwartz Manor who was very grateful for the gift card for Thanksgiving. We got a chuckle as the note opened with “Dear Gentleman.” She also read a Thank You card from Barry Shead and the ARC for past club support.
President Mary reminded everyone of the meeting schedule for the rest of the month which is as follows. NO NOON MEETING next Wednesday as the meeting will be held at the home of Stan Lucas at 5:30pm for the “Jingle and Mingle” Membership event. NO MEETING on Wednesday the 27th. Regular meetings will resume on January 3rd.
The Board met and the membership application for Ryan Telford was approved. This is the 1st posting. Any member of the club that would have objection with this individual joining the Norwich Rotary Club please contact President Mary or any member of the Board.
If you know of a speaker for one of our meetings please contact Kevin Wickless to get on the schedule.
Happy Dollars: Barry Shead
Barry was very happy to share that his 4 year old grandson Jonas was released from Hartford Hospital and he is now in great shape! He also said the Brenda Lee just celebrated her birthday yesterday so she broke her own record of being the oldest person to have a #1 record!
Suzy Hurlbert said that the Annual ECAR Raffle was very successful again this year! She’s happy to be healthy this holiday season and was grateful to spend time with her 2 children cooking cookies over the weekend. Suzy urged everyone to slow down and smell the roses!
Rodney Green was happy to celebrate his wife Lucille’s birthday last week with a visit to Radio City Music Hall for the famous Rockettes Christmas Show! Tickets are quite pricey for that privilege of attending. Rodney said that the seats that he had through Chase Credit were the best in the house! New York was cold and windy as usual this time of year. The train ride back from Grand Central Station to West Haven his wife Lucille reminded him at just about every stop that they were to get off at New Haven. Poor Rodney didn’t get much sleep in the train and they didn’t arrive home until 1am!
Pat Marshall said she had great news! She got dressed without falling down! Be thankful for the things we take for granted! Pat also had a great lunch in New Haven with her son and his husband and her grandchildren at Frank Pepe’s! She looks forward to spending Christmas at her sister’s house in Pennsylvania.
Gary Young said he has now gone 3 months without a haircut so that qualifies him to the “Stan Lucas Look-a-Like Club!”
Mary Richardson welcomed Ted to the meeting and gave a buck for Mike Cooney as he said he can’t make today’s meeting because he’s in Cozumel, Mexico at a Conference! Poor Mike!
Molly Bruno was pleased to announce that she will be inducted as the new ECAR President next month and invites one and all to her induction ceremony! Please contact her for details!
Andrew Nollman thanked Jeff Brining and NUP for their great work restoring power after last week’s storm. He was also pleased that he won the Fantasy Football regular season for his group that came with some prize money. He will be donating his windfall to the Rotary Foundation!
Weekly Auction: No auction this week!
Lottery: Bonnie Johnson
Gary Young, Bob Reed & Bob Reed (again!) all drew cards and could not find the Ace of Spades! Bob Reed (AGAIN!) won Barry’s ARC Cookies! Bob will now go buy Powerball tickets following the meeting!
Program: No program today.
The 4-Way Test was led by Bonnie Johnson and the meeting was adjourned at 12:45pm