Rotary Club of Norwich, CT
May 27th, 2026
Location-Bella Fiore
THE RONE:
Presiding: Steve Martin
Invocation: Gary Young
Fellowship: Susy Hurlbert
Birthdays: Mike Matera – TODAY!
Anniversaries: Jim Daly – 5/31 – 20 years. Theresa Madonna – 6/2 – 18 years
Guests: Stan Lucas introduced Steve Hibino
Visiting Rotarians: None
For today’s fellowship Susy passed out questionnaires with 4 questions featuring what was the worst project you’ve ever worked on? What was your best job? What was the most risky thing you’ve ever done? What was the most risky thing you’ve ever done. Upon collecting the answers they were read aloud and everyone had to guess who matched up with the answers! There were a few surprises with answers featuring snakes, climbing mountains, working at a package store, being an altar boy and many other answers that drew laughs.
New Member Induction:
Stan Lucas and Paul Gaffney called Stephen Hibino to the head of the room and inducted him into the club. Stephen grew up in Chicago and Massachusetts. He’s a graduate of Skidmore College. In 2006 he moved to CT and started his career with Bank of America and has worked in banking ever since. He’s currently a Branch Manager for Ascend Bank. In his free time Stephen enjoys watching and playing almost all sports with his two boys, Max and Felix, but recently integrated his college tennis skills into the world of Pickleball. Welcome to Norwich Rotary Stephen!
Announcements:
Pat Marshall’s service will take place Saturday, May 30th, 12:00 at Sacred Heart Church 52 W Town Street, Norwich, CT 06360. Rodney will close Olde Thymes so he can host a meal for those who choose to attend after the service.
Native Son/Daughter luncheon will be coming up on June 10th. Jeffery Rhodes is this year’s recipient. The lunch will take place at the Holiday Inn Express that day.
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.
*Reminder* as a courtesy to our guest speakers, guests and fellow members, Rotarians are strongly asked to silence all electronic devices during meetings.
Membership Minute: Keep getting new member prospects!
Happy Dollars: Barry Shead
Barry invited everyone to participate in the ARC of Eastern Connecticut Golf Tournament that will take place on June 15, 2026 at the Mohegan Sun Golf Club.
Susy Hurlbert welcomed Stephen to the club! She said her new fully electric car is nice but she’s still working out a few bugs!
Roz Etra had happy dollars that she was going somewhere, but I could not hear where it was.
Rodney Green was cleaning out his garage and found a Star of David medal that he forgot he had and is now wearing it around his neck.
Mike Matera gave 41 dollars in honor of his birthday. He has also hired very nice a young man from Virginia and found out he’s homeless and needs a place to live. Any help would be appreciated.
Margarida Martins-Querido had a great Mother’s Day as her daughter came to visit!
Mike Goldblatt gave as he didn’t realize Pat Marshall died and was very sorry to learn of it.
Molly Bruno said she had 24 hours off from her busy schedule at work. She went up to Plymouth, MA to see Plymouth Rock only to see it not such a big rock after all. She passed around a book what was written from the rocks prospective!
Stan Lucas said he helped his daughter Anna at the show at Brimfield, MA and bought some really great vintage clothing for $400.00 that included a really nice camel hair coat.
Auction: No auction today.
Lottery: Barry Shead
Bob Reed, Susy Hurlbet and Mike Matera could not find the Ace of Spades. Roz Etra was the lucky winner of Barry’s ARC Cookies.
Program: Paul Gaffney introduced Bob Dees from Iconic Norwich. Bob hosts a website https://iconicnorwich.org/ that has hundreds of photographs and stories about Norwich History that is well worth checking out!
The meeting concluded with Bonnie Johnson leading the club reciting the 4-Way Test at 1:15pm.
** Looking for volunteers to serve on The RONE committee. Contact Bob Reed (bobr@hallradio.net).**