Norwich Rotary Club
February 21st, 2024
Location-Bella Fiore
THE RONE
Presiding: Mary Richardson
Invocation: Rodney Green
Fellowship: Ray Baribeault
Birthday’s: No Birthday’s.
Anniversaries: No Anniversaries.
Guests: Mike Matera introduced his guest Jonathan Matera and Mary Richardson introduced Roz Etra.
Visiting Rotarians: None.
Ray entertained us all with aboy a dozen of funny puns! He started off that he got thrown out of a coffee shop…. He was wearing a “T-Shirt!”
Membership Minute: Stan Lucas said that Roz Etra should be made a full member of the club!
Announcements:
President Mary said the board has approved the membership applications for Margarita Martins-Querido, Cary Trantalis and Cara Westcott. Any Rotarian with an objection to these applicants should contact any member of the board with their concerns.
President Mary said that any member who wishes to have an updated badge should let her know as she’s submitting an order for our new members to receive their new ones. She has sheets you can fill out stating all your information and classification.
The club is participating in this year’s Norwich St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 3rd. Mike Goldblatt will lend his 1942 Caddie Convertible and members are invited to march behind and represent Rotary!
The 4 Way Speech Contest will take place on April 20th.
March 13th will be the Service Person of the Month presentation.
The Whisky, Wine and Cigar event will be back again on May 1stat Bella Fiore. Edwin Muenzner, CPA has signed on as the Food Sponsor! Tickets will go on sale on March 1st. $75.00 per person.
The Rotary “Day of Service” will be May 18th. Last year over 11,000 meals were packaged for the Gemma Moran- United Way Food Center. This year Area Rotary Clubs hope to package double that number! Mark your calendar now to donate a few hours of your time at 3 Rivers College in Norwich. 10 Rotarians from our club are requested to help out on that day.
The Native Son/Daughter Lunch is scheduled for June 5th. Submit a candidate and you can find an application on the Rotary website. March 15th is the deadline for applications.
Serviceperson of the Month meeting will be on March 13th. Make every effort to attend and honor this month’s recipient.
Anyone with spare clean egg cartons please give them to Bonnie Johnson.
Members are encouraged to fill out a donation form and donate to the Rotary Clock Project.
If you know of a speaker for one of our meetings please contact Kevin Wickless or Alexis Kahn to get on the schedule.
Happy Dollars: Jen Granger
Jen said she just returned from a conference in Washington, DC and it was a rewarding experience.
Gary Young welcomed Roz back to the club. He also said that the results from his colonoscopy on Monday were good!
Pat Marshall visited her son this past weekend and her 12 year old grandson asked her if she was too old for hugs! Hearing that Pat hugged and picked up her 6’4” son and proved to her grandson that she is NOT too old for hugs! Pat also warned that Managed Medicare may not be the best choice and be sure to have a proper estate plan in place.
Roz Etra thanked all Rotarians for their support since Joel’s passing. She led the club in a rousing rendition on “Yankee Doodle” in honor of President Washington’s Birthday and gave a short history behind the tune! She also had Joel’s 4-Way Test plaque from his office and returned it as a gift.
Barry Shead said he is doing some tax preparing work for a friend who owns an H&R Block franchise. He noted that the franchise was in the top 25 in the nation. He also said he was watching a movie with his wife and one of the male characters had an earring. Barry asked his wife what she thought he would look like with an earring? She replied “You’d look DIVORCED!”
Rodney Green said he will be gone for the next two weeks as it’s he and Lucille’s annual trip to Aruba. He will be coming back early however to attend the PETS Conference in Boston as he will be our next club president! That’s dedication!
Mary Richardson gave to say that Gary is very brave!
Mike Cooney said that over the past weekend the scouts met at St. John’s in Plainfield and many of the parents were nervous seeing their sons and daughters being promoted to scouts. His 8 year old daughter Katie did one of the readings at the event and his son Matt took part in the Blue and Gold ceremony. He’s surprised that Roz is introduced as a guest as she’s really Rotary Family and he had praise for the song she led.
Weekly Auction: Theresa Madonna pledged $20.00 to the auction.
Lottery: Bonnie Johnson
The first ticket drawn was our President Mary Richardson! She picked the Ace of Spades out of the 52 cards! The cookies were won by Jim Daly, however, Barry really had the winning ticket, but didn’t want to claim his own ARC Cookies!
Program: No program today.
The 4-Way Test was led by Bonnie Johnson and the meeting was adjourned at 12:48pm