Rotary Club of Norwich
April 21, 2021
Location-Zoom
THE RONE
Presiding: President Mary Richardson
Invocation: Lottie Scott
Fellowship: Barry Shead.
Birthdays: No Rotarians but April 19, 1868 Paul Harris birthday.
Anniversaries: None
Guests: No Guests
Announcements:
President Mary Richardson had the following announcements: Mary reported that a washer and dryer were purchased with happy dollars and being delivered this week. $3000 district grant has arrived. We’re working on a matching grant. If we end up with $5k, we can donate 33,000 diapers! We’ll need help with labelling, sorting, and delivering. The District Rotary meeting is coming up at the Mystic Hilton this weekend. Madonna Place Trivia Night is April 30th. Gary reported on the golf Committee’s first meeting.
Happy Dollars: Rodney Green
Rodney reported that he is having a hard time hiring people during the Covid stimulus
Roz and Joel: Happy they got to see their grandkids finally after 15 months.
Barry: It’s raining buckets outside. Barry took his wife and son to Wright’s chicken farm in RI over the weekend. He hooked his mask on an ear to use the bathroom and it fell onto the restroom floor. What does he do? He was so hungry, he picked it up and put it back on. That’s disgusting! The Arc Film Festival is going to be virtual this Thursday night.
Jim: Got out to golf even though it was chilly. He’s excited about the baseball season.
Gary: Gary visited with Laura Hobart who is recovering from a broken hip. He brought her cut tennis balls to fit on her new walker. Laura has had 6 surgeries this year. Gary is playing golf with Stan on Saturday. Gary’s brother has Covid and pneumonia in Tennessee. He recalled a National Day of Prayer group memory of a snake being put in the teacher’s desk.
Bill Champagne: Tomorrow the Norwich historical society is having a zoom call at 3:00 pm. Next Tuesday the Norwich Race Equity Committee is going to have Christopher Fazon and two colleagues as presenters. Paul Harris was from Evanstown, a city that just passed a reparations bill. Bill had arthroscopic knee surgery last Wednesday and praised the doctors who performed it.
Kathryn: Happy that community events are starting up again. She helped clean up the industrial park. This Saturday Jewett City is doing an event to help kids be “unplugged”.
Mary: Restaurant industry not the only one having a hard time getting help. She trying to hire people but they don’t show up for interviews, seems like there is no incentive to work
Nancy: Updated on Covid restrictions. By May 19th, all inside venues will open up with no restrictions but masks. Still a lot of cases, but hospitalizations are low. Norwich is still red. Nancy reported that they are getting flooded with applications for jobs, painting a different story.
Bob Farwell: Reported sadly that Lloyd Hinchey has died. Bob thanked the Rotary for its support of An Evening with Author (Lidia Bastrionich), helping the library make it available free of charge to the public.
Program by Bob Farwell: Spoke about balloons and the propaganda leaflet program. George Orwell’s Animal Farm in polish was dropped. The program last from 1951-1956, they send 590,415 balloons 301 million leaflets were dropped to people behind the iron curtain in Eastern Europe. South Koreans are doing a similar balloon drop into North Korea with thumb drives, music etc. S Korea has criminalized it to try and stop it. N Korean expats don’t want to stop.
Auction: None
Lottery: None
Respectfully submitted,
Susy Hurlbert – RONE Reporter