Norwich Rotary Club
January 3, 2024
Location-Bella Fiore
THE RONE
Presiding: Mary Richardson
Invocation: Gary Young
Fellowship: Susy Hurlbert
Birthday’s: No Birthday’s.
Anniversaries: No Anniversaries.
Guests: Jen Granger introduced Beth Varas, Molly Bruno introduced Margarida Martins-Querido, Andrew Nollman introduced Ryan Telford and Stan Lucas introduced Aldith Gratton.
Susy’s fellowship centered about New Year’s Resolutions. She had statistics that when all was said and done most people did not keep their resolutions after a few months. The most popular ones were exercise, save more money and eat healthy.
Membership Minute: Stan Lucas: Stan asked every member to put forth an effort to propose at least one new prospect for membership in the club. If you log on to the Rotary International website you can find a list of the many classifications that prospective Rotarians can fill. This week you can email your suggestions to Stan, Mary or Molly and they can follow-up. Better yet invite a prospect to a lunch meeting. The Jingle and Mingle event at Stan’s house was very successful and Stan thanked Mary and Molly for all their help setting up the party. Also, think of the Business Memberships now being offered.
Announcements:
The Board met and the membership application for Ryan Telford was approved! This is the 2nd posting. Any member of the club that would have objection with this individual joining the Norwich Rotary Club please contact President Mary or any member of the Board.
Mary said that April Griffin from the Norwich Housing Authority is leaving her post and she will but us in contact to the new person to deal with for the Thanksgiving Challenge Gift Cards for the 2024 year.
Jim Troger of the Norwich Sunrise Rotary Club will come talk to our club about the 4-Way Test Speech Contest to get more involvement from our club.
A “Get Well Soon” card was passed around for Mandy Crispim who has had a medical procedure and will return in March.
If you know of a speaker for one of our meetings please contact Kevin Wickless to get on the schedule.
Happy Dollars: Nancy Gentes
Nancy started things off wishing everyone a Happy New Year and saying it’s good to be back. She also gave kudo’s to Stan for the Jingle and Mingle Event at his home.
Gary Young said his New Year’s resolution consisted of chopping wood for 3 hours and then playing tennis!
Bill Champagne said that being in the Real Estate business means being on call 24/7 or you might be left out of a good sale. Due to the holiday’s things were a bit slow and he said he now knows what retirement might feel like!
Jen Granger welcomed our guests. She then gave a short explanation on Happy Dollars and what the money is used for. She encouraged members to bring needs to the attention of the Happy Dollars Committee for consideration.
Mike Matera said he had a wonderful Christmas holiday with his family. His son played his first Monopoly game and loved it. He also completed his session one of the youth soccer league he was in and has improved greatly.
Jeff Brining wished all a Happy New Year. The holidays were fun skiing with his family. He gave thanks for his fellow Norwich Public Utilities employees for the stellar job they did a couple Monday’s ago dealing with the huge wind and rain storm. Over 6,300 NPU customers were without power in 47 different locations and most were back with power by Tuesday morning.
Pat Marshall said she enjoys her dogs company very much and loves to go walking and taking the dog to work. She also told a story (pictures too!) of when she went on an African Safari and was told that an elephants gender could be determined by the elephants poop! The guides told her you just have to stick your finger in the poop and give a sniff! She did it much to her guides delight! She also had a story of roaming about in a shark suit during her employers Christmas party!
Rodney Green gave $40.00 for his 40 years in the restaurant business. He said if you really enjoy what you do, stick with it! He also told a story of having family over during Christmas and everyone got $71.00 worth of scratch lottery tickets! Quite a gift since he had 17 guests! Many came up winners, but Rodney said he came up with zero!
Susy Hurlbert welcomed our guests. She is also happy to see 2024 come. She had great holidays with Ernie and all their kids. They got the C/O on their new house!
Mike Cooney said he’s glad to be back after a few weeks away with some of that time being at a conference in Mexico. He said the food was so-so and told a funny story of going on a Tequila Tour! Glad to return home for the holidays with family after that adventure!
Mary Richardson welcomed our guests and thanked Mike Matera for the really nice blanket she won at the Yankee Swap at the Jingle and Mingle event. Her cat Bob loves the blanket!
Andrew Nollman thanked NPU for their quick response getting his power back on during the recent storm. His wife Lona however insisted that the food in the refrigerator be thrown out after 4 hours much to his chagrin. He had a great time with family during the holidays and was happy to announce his donation of $200.00 to the Rotary Foundation from his winnings from the Fantasy Football he participated in.
Mike Goldblatt gave $20.00 to thank Stan for the great time at the Jingle and Mingle event. He also said he’s very concerned with the direction the country is heading with all the anti-semitic hatred across the nation. He never thought he’d see such hate in his lifetime. He’s glad to see 2023 go as he had Covid, Lyme and almost died. His beloved cat also died. 2024 will be better.
Lottie Scott said how much she enjoys Rotary and opened a Christmas card from Mike Goldblatt.
Barry Shead had a great time at the Jingle and Mingle party at Stan’s. He said 75% of Christmas parties are usually duds, but Stan’s wasn’t! His New Year Resolution is to drink more and swear more!
Aldith Gratton said she was grateful to Stan and is so happy to be considered for membership in Rotary. She also said there has been studies done and people who swear are usually of higher intelligence! Barry was thrilled to hear that!
Molly Bruno thanked Stan for the party and told an interesting tale of defrosting the turkey she was preparing for Stan’s party!
Margarita Martins-Querido said she was happy to learn about Rotary and is happy to be considered for membership. She said the country she came from she probably wouldn’t be admitted.
Stan Lucas visited Costa Rica and threw a huge party for all the people involved building his new house down there. He had tales of assembling a grill for the party, shopping for Christmas Lights and handing out really good cigars to everyone, even women!
Weekly Auction: No auction this week!
Lottery: Pat Marshall
Pat Marshall, Mike Matera & Susy Hurlbert all drew cards and could not find the Ace of Spades! Bob Reed won Barry’s ARC Cookies!
Program:
No program today.
The 4-Way Test was led by President Mary and the meeting was adjourned at 1:18pm