Rotary Club of Norwich, CT
November 5th, 2025
Location-Bella Fiore
THE RONE
Presiding: President Steve Martin
Invocation: Barry Shead
Fellowship: Barry Shead
Birthdays: Jeremy Doyle – 11/7 Lottie Scott (posthumously) Today!
Anniversaries: Ray Baribeault – Today! – 28 Years
Guests: No Guests
Visiting Rotarians: None
Barry gave a nice bio-history of Lottie Scott for all the newer members who may not have had the chance to meet her. Even though Lottie is up in Heaven, all in attendance sang a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday! Here is a link to Lottie Obituary in case it was missed. https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/norwich-ct/lottie-scott-12528029
Membership Minute: Stan Lucas
Mary Richardson was cleaning out the Rotary cabinet and found a stack of nice printed invitations to welcome a friend or colleague to Rotary. Stan passed out to members and said get to work and mail them to prospective members.
Announcements
Barry gave an update on the “Crush It for Inclusion Can Challenge” between Putnam Rotary and Norwich Rotary in honor of National Disability Employment Awareness Month! Last week Norwich was behind, however, Barry gave the final tally today and lo and behold Norwich Rotary came from behind and won the contest by a slim margin! Norwich – $1,670 to Putnam – 1,658! Barry passed out ARC Cookies to all and said a banner will be hung at the cookie facility stating Norwich Rotary the winners. Well done to both Rotary Clubs for raising funds for such a great cause!
President Steve said there is a possibility of conducting a Rotary Blood Drive. Stay tuned for details as they become available.
Liberty Bank will be matching our Happy Dollars .25 cents on the dollar for this year’s Thanksgiving Challenge. Suggested donation is $50.00 per member if you can be that generous. The drive will now through mid-November. Thanksgiving and gift cards will be purchased for the residents of Schwartz Manor and the Colchester food pantry.
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.
Happy Dollars: Mike Matera
Mike Matera started off with saying he was almost late today as a truck came to his store with a huge load of merchandise that he off loaded in record time so he made it to Rotary on time! He also mentioned that his son’s indoor soccer season has begun.
Susy Hurlbert gave $20.00 to say she had a great visit with her son and daughter-in-law in New York City over the weekend. Susy took part in a fashion show for the CT Realtors that raised a lot of money. She also has tickets for the CT Realtor’s that has lots of great prizes and cash prizes. $10.00 a ticket. See Susy for your opportunity to win!
Roz Etra spent a nice weekend with her grandkids in New Jersey and watched them play flag football. Only 3rd graders so not tackle football. They even had little cheerleaders!
Jim Daly said he’ll be having a knee replacement next week and wishes not to hear any horror stories but welcomes success stories about knee replacements! He said he fully expects to be back in good for really fast!
Bill Champagne thanked Barry for the nice tribute to Lottie on her birthday!
Andrew Nollman thanked Barry as well for the nice tribute to Lottie for Fellowship.
Pat Marshall said she plans to retire in July of next year. She said she will be keeping busy after retirement as she will be helping a co-worker with her new baby!
Mandy Crispin said her Rottweiler is now 15 months old! She also said she was happy that Rotary had a speaker a few months ago on “Bags of Hope.” As a result she put them in touch with the Waterford Country School that resulted in 100 bags!
Mike Cooney said the last golf tournament of the season that he managed took place in Monroe to benefit a child without a spleen. A good amount of money was raised! Troop 54 of the Boy Scouts is having an online auction and is looking for auction items. Please support if you can.
Andy Grant thanked Barry for his excellent fellowship on Lottie. He also thanked Rodney for all the good work he does for the Chestnut Street Playhouse as well as Mandy for supporting the Waterford Country School.
Nancy Gentes watched her grandson play high school over the weekend. Unfortunately the game was limited to just parents and close relatives in the stands as there was a security alert and the place was on lockdown. And if that wasn’t enough the weather was terrible!
Paul Gaffney just had surgery and he’s doing all the cooking!
Auction: Andy Grant auctioned off 2 items. First was 2 hours of carpenter service. Susy Hurlbert was high bidder at $20.00! Second item ended up being a furnace cleaning and filter replacement that Pat Marshall paid $200.00!
Lottery: Paul Gaffney
Ryan Telford, Rodney Green and Mary Richardson came up short finding the Ace of Spades. The ARC Cookies went to Gary Young. A bonus tin of ARC Cookies went to Bill Champagne.
Program: No program today.
The meeting concluded with Bonnie Johnson reciting the 4-Way Test at 12:52pm.
**Looking for a few Volunteers (3) to serve on the RONE Committee. Contact Bob Reed (bobr@hallradio.net) if you can to serve.