Rotary Club of Norwich, CT
October 1st, 2025
Location-Bella Fiore
THE RONE
Presiding: President Elect – Pat Marshall
Invocation: Barry Shead
Fellowship: Ray Baribeault
Ray started off with a moment of silence in honor of Lottie Scott.
Birthdays: Mike Gordon – 10/7
Anniversaries: None
Guests: Barry Shead introduced Crystal and Roy from ARC
Visiting Rotarians: None
Ray’s fellowship was a series of….. you guessed it PUNS!
“My music teacher gave me a guitar… no strings attached!”
Membership Minute: Paul Gaffney
Paul reported that Stan is away in Boston at Mass General Hospital getting another operation on his throat… again. We all wish Stan a speedy recovery and look forward to him returning to the club very soon! Paul reminded everyone to please keep up the focus on new members. Bring prospective members to a lunch meeting and always keep Rotary top of mind when speaking to business associates and friends.
Announcements:
November 7th is the Trivial Pursuit Tournament to benefit Madonna Place. Join the Rotary team!
From October 1st to October 29th is the “Crush It for Inclusion Can Challenge” between Putnam Rotary and Norwich Rotary in honor of National Disability Employment Awareness Month! All donations will benefit the ARC Eastern Connecticut. Bottles and cans only. Bring to Rotary on Wednesday’s! Barry says as of now we in Norwich appear to be winning, but Putnam plays tough and will certainly finish strong. Collect your bottles and cans from you home and business! Winner receives Bragging Rights, Proclamation Banner and Community Pride!
October 29th is the morning to deliver the dictionaries to the schools. Please volunteer your time if you can and help with deliveries. Contact Jen Granger.
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 generous. The drive will be 6 or 7 weeks before 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: Pat Marshall
Paul Gaffney was in Pennsylvania last week celebrating with a party for his niece who was married recently. She and her new husband, who is Australian, met on a bus in Dublin, Ireland, got engaged New Zealand and got married in Hawaii. A real globe-trotting couple!
Bill Champagne left booklets, brochures and Explore Magazine on the check-in table for the Last Green Valley. October is “Walktober” and Bill will be leading a tour of the Uncas Leap area with a member of the Mohegan Council of Elders. Event will be Saturday, October 13th at 1pm.
Barry Shead welcomed Crystal and Roy to today’s meeting. He went to a Giants game last Sunday. Barry asked his son to go and he couldn’t, so he took a long shot and asked his daughter and she said yes! The Giants won the game, both had a great time and Barry figured out a way to avoid the $100.00 parking fee by taking a short train ride to the stadium for only $5.00 a-piece and $19.00 parking fee. Smart! Barry also reported that the Diversity event was a great success and it was great to see so many people of diverse backgrounds brought together. He said the Haitian Student Group from NFA preformed and then was jamming after with Roz Etra’s Klezmer Band and a group from Peru! Barry also added the Bella Fiore won 1st place for the excellent food they served!
Mike Cooney gave dollars for Pat Marshall doing a stellar job filling in for President Steve Martin!
Nancy Gentes gave for Pat as well. She also said the Diversity Event went very well and the event has grown much over the years.
Mike Goldblatt gave $50.00 for the Thanksgiving Challenge! He drove his 1955 T-Bird to today’s meeting as he said he doesn’t drive it as much as he should. Hard to do when you own 20 Classic Cars. Mike goes to Hershey, PA next week to the largest Car Show in the country.
Pat Marshall said she was happy to be presiding over today’s meeting even though it was a smaller group that usual. She’s going to be busy over the next 2 weeks as a couple of he co-workers will be away on vacation. She warned she might not be a bubbly as usual at the meetings as she’ll no doubt be tired! She said how much she loves the weekly meetings and Rotarians are like family!
Auction: No Auction today!
Lottery: Bill Champagne
Keith Caplet, Keith Caplet (again!) and Barry’s guest Crystal drew cards, but could not find the Ace! Tom Adams won Barry’s ARC Cookies!
Program: No program today
The meeting concluded with Bonnie Johnson reciting the 4-Way Test and President Elect Pat adjourned the meeting at 12:47pm and gave the bell a good hard bang! Great job Pat!