Norwich Rotary Club
February 14th, 2024
Location-Bella Fiore
THE RONE
Presiding: Mary Richardson
Invocation: Barry Shead
Fellowship: Ray Baribeault
Birthday’s: Mike Cooney – 2/14 and Alexis Kahn – 2/18
Anniversaries: None
Guests: Carrie Trantalis and Cara Westcott from UCFS. Karla Drainville from Chelsea Groton Bank. Jan Savage from the Woman’s City Club.
Visiting Rotarians: None.
Ray entertained us all with a plethora of funny puns as usual. He started off by saying he used to work at an orange juice factory….. but he got canned!
Membership Minute: Stan Lucas reminded members to invite prospective members to a lunch and let’s keep the ball rolling growing the club. More members mean more we can do in the community to benefit everyone.
Announcements:
President Mary asked if anyone sent Dr. Manny Kadish a birthday card and had it returned to please forward it to her and she’ll see that Manny gets it. The post office in Mystic screwed up bigtime and listed him a deceased. Manny did celebrate his 100th birthday on February 2nd and is far from deceased!
President Mary said that any member who wishes to have an updated badge should let her know as she’s submitting an order for our new members to receive their new ones. She has sheets you can fill out stating all your information and classification.
The club is participating in this year’s Norwich St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 3rd. Mike Goldblatt will lend his 1942 Caddie Convertible and members are invited to march behind and represent Rotary!
The 4 Way Speech Contest will take place on April 20th.
March 13th will be the Service Person of the Month presentation.
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 3 Rivers College in Norwich.
The Native Son/Daughter Lunch is scheduled for June 5th. Submit a candidate and you can find an application on the Rotary website.
Anyone with spare clean egg cartons please give them to Bonnie Johnson.
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.
Happy Dollars: Barry Shead
Barry congratulated Stan Lucas on the beautiful handmade rocking horses he makes and he will be auctioning off one today!
Susy Hurlbert said the first gathering this weekend in her new house with friends and family was really a great time! She was also happy Taylor Swift won the Super Bowl!
Bill Champagne encouraged everyone to attend a special event sponsored by The Norwich Race Equity Committee on February 21st at 7pm. The movie “Origin” written and directed by Ava Duvernay will be screened at the Lisbon Landing AMC Theater. Tickets are $10.00 for Adults and $5.00 for Students. Seating is limited.
Kathryn Tracey had a great time celebrating her birthday over the weekend at the Waterfront Restaurant and then a visit to the casino.
Pat Marshall told a heartfelt story about helping her neighbor’s son who was fixing his car in the dark by pointing her Jeep headlights so he had better visibility. The next day the boy’s mother showed up on her front door with an entire cooked turkey dinner! The boy she helped also shoveled out her driveway after yesterday’s storm. She says it pays to be kind!
Mike Cooney said that his kids gave him a birthday gift of a box of Cheerios that were shaped like hearts. He was proud of his kids who shoveled out the neighbor’s driveway. His son Matt will be promoted to a Boy Scout next week after being in the Cub Scouts since he was 5. Mike was also happy the Northeastern University won the Bean Pot Hockey Tournament!
Steve Martin had a great time watching the Super Bowl with his daughter!
Stan Lucas celebrated his grandson’s 16th birthday and gave his a reconditioned pick-up truck for his birthday! He was also proud that his grandson took his SAT’s and scored in the 99% range! Smart kid!
Molly Bruno said her girlfriend got engaged and she was invited to the celebration that included a photo shoot that included dogs!
Jim Daly wished everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day! Jim was also happy to report he just booked a vacation river cruise that will include Paris, France as one of the destinations!
Weekly Auction: Stan Lucas auctioned one of his famous handmade rocking horses! Kathryn Tracey was the high bidder at $120.00!
Lottery: Bonnie Johnson
The first ticket drawn was our guest Carrie Trantalis….. She drew the Ace of Spades and won! Barry’s cookies were won by Stan Lucas.
Program:
Molly Bruno introduced David Saia from Centerville Bank who said that Centerville is happy to have branches in Eastern Connecticut and be a supporter of local charities and events. He also answered some financial questions on services offered for businesses.
The 4-Way Test was led by Bonnie Johnson and the meeting was adjourned at 12:52pm