Norwich Rotary Club
November 8th, 2023
Location-Bella Fiore
THE RONE
Presiding: Past President Susy Hurlburt
Invocation: Mandy Crispim
Fellowship: Barry Shead
Birthday’s: None
Anniversaries: None
Guests: Andrew Nollman introduced Kelly Whipple and Mike Matera introduced Steve Martin.
Barry’s fellowship was a list of the 8 most famous figures in history that were from Connecticut. Drum roll please and here they are!
#8 Norwich’s Native Son from the Revolutionary War-Benedict Arnold!
#7 is another Revolutionary War biggie-Ethan Allen!
#6 is none other than one of America’s most famous authors-Samuel Clements, better known as Mark Twain!
#5 is the creator of everyone’s favorite circus- P.T. Barnum!
#4 is the inventor of the automatic handgun-Samuel Colt!
#3 is the famous Helen Keller!
#2 it’s back to famous Revolutionary War hero-Israel Putnam
And #1 is the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin-Harriet Beecher Stowe!
Membership Minute: Stan Lucas: Stan reported that the membership drive is continuing and all should invite potential new members as your guests to a regular club weekly meeting. There are a number of applications in the pipeline, but we want more! Stan is willing to host another party at his home on Broadway in Norwich on the 20th of December at 5:30pm. Members are encouraged to bring prospective members. Spouses and significant others are welcome too. More details to come.
Announcements:
The Happy Dollars “Turkey Drive” is still continuing and will go through November 13th. All monies raised will benefit the residents of Schwartz Manor in Norwich. There’s still time to give to Happy Dollars and please give generously and make Thanksgiving great for our neighbors at Schwartz Manor. April Griffin from the Norwich Housing Authority and a resident of Schwartz Manor will be at the November 15th meeting to receive the gift cards.
Jen Granger reported that her committee for the Dictionary Project has finalized the count of 3rd graders and hope to deliver 409 dictionaries to the schools on November 29th. If you can to help deliver the dictionaries contact Jen. Deliveries will be from the UCFS office on the morning of the 29th between 9-9:30am.
If you know of a speaker for one of our meetings please contact Kevin Wickless to get on the schedule.
Rodney Green reported that the last winter coats were delivered earlier today. Thanks go out to Rodney for his hard work on the Annual Coat Project. Hundreds of kids will be warm this winter!
Susy Hurlburt said the link for the Clock Project should be up on our website soon for donating to the clock. As of today we are about 1/3 of the way for the money to complete the clock project.
Mike Matera said he is working on getting a new sound system for our weekly meetings.
The speaker for the November 15th meeting will be Caleb Bailey, Executive Director of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra.
Happy Dollars: Mike Matera
Mike Matera gave $40.00 for the Thanksgiving Challenge. Mike said that his dad Joe, who is dealing with Parkinson’s Disease, is going to a gym in New London three times a week that has a program for Parkinson patients that encompasses 1-hour sessions that have been a big help and Mike sees improvement in his father’s speech.
Stan Lucas told a story of playing softball with Mike’s father Joe way back when and Joe was playing left field and could run all the way to right field and catch a fly ball!
Bill Champagne mentioned a New London Day newspaper article about another traitor from Connecticut that was not Benedict Arnold. William Colepaugh who was from Niantic was a spy for the German’s during WWII. He was jailed after being turned in by another spy during the war. He was eventually released in 1960. He settled in Pennsylvania and actually became a Rotarian.
Andrew Nollman gave $20.00 and passed out a flyer for a fundraiser to support Israel with 100% of the donations to go to the families affected by the recent tragic events. It will take place at Bella Fiore Restaurante, 543 West Thames Street in Norwich on Tuesday, November 14th from 4 to 8pm. Andrew also had a great weekend attending a wedding in Washington D.C. and was able to do a good amount of sightseeing!
Pat Marshall celebrated her son’s 48th birthday this past week. Upon her wishing her son a happy 48th birthday he had to remind her that he was actually 49! Pat also attended a wedding with a Halloween theme and all in attendance came in costume. She dressed as a chef. Someone at the wedding suggested that anyone over 55 can’t skip. She took up the challenge and proved them wrong. She returned to worked the following Monday and told her co-workers the story and then proceeded not to be able to skip! After happy dollars she proceeded to skip back to her seat!
Susy Hurlbert welcomed our guests. She said that Ernie’s grandson turned 3 years old over the weekend and she kinda likes the “Grandmother role!” They are also installing a new swimming pool at their new house! She is also looking forward to attending a Real Estate Conference in Anaheim, CA for 7 days coming up soon.
Gary Young was one of the 6 Rotarians who took part in the Madonna Place Trivia Challenge this past Friday night. Out of 60 questions they only got 18 correct. Very tough questions indeed and Gary shared some of them with the club. Rodney Green needs to be on the team next year as he guessed every one of the correctly!
Barry Shead celebrated his mother-in-law’s 90th birthday over the weekend. He likes his wife’s family as everyone get along! His mother-in-law was very happy with the party as she claimed to have never had a party in all her 90 years!
Steve Martin was happy that his son is now the proud father of a baby girl. He also said he took part in the trivia challenge Friday evening and he won the 50/50 raffle in which he donated the money back to Madonna Place!
Weekly Auction: Mandy Crispim gave $20.00 for the cause or was happy to by a $20.00 Amazon gift card!
Lottery: Bill Champagne.
Susy Hurlbert, Jim Daly and Kelly Whipple all drew cards and could not find the Ace of Spades! Andrew Nollman wrestled Stan Lucas winning Barry’s ARC cookies! Stan left his hearing aids at home and needs to check the prescription on his glasses! Stan took the good natured ribbing in stride!
Program:
No Program today.
Past President Susy recited the 4-Way Test with all in attendance and the meeting was adjourned at 1:00pm