Norwich Rotary Club
October 25th, 2023
Location-Bella Fiore
THE RONE
Presiding: Mary Richardson
Invocation: Mandy Crispin
Fellowship: Ray Baribeault
Birthday’s: Rodney Green-October 30th!
Anniversaries: Mike Cooney-10 Years today!
Guests: Andrew Nollman introduced Kelly Whipple and Ryan Telford.
Ray continued Fellowship with, you guessed it….Puns! “If you don’t know how to parallel park you better have a backup plan!” The rest were also received with great laughter! Thank you Ray!
New Member Induction: President Mary called upon Membership Chairman Stan Lucas and Bill Champagne to induct Pat Marshall into the Norwich Rotary Club. Pat Marshall works at the Norwichtown Rehab Center and loves working there. Working with people near the end of their lives is a very rewarding experience. Pat was married for 46 years and has been a widow for the past 11. She has two sons and 4 grandchildren. She has a rescue dog, a Pug, who she has ended up loving dearly. Stan then presented Pat with a framed 4-way test, a Rotary mug, A Rotary coin and a Rotary lapel pin to wear daily.
Announcements:
Jim Daly stepped forward to present President Mary with a check in the amount of $8,000.00 that are the proceeds from the Annual Rotary Golf Tournament. Jim said the tournament was a huge success and no rain this year!
President Mary thanked Mike & Rosa Goldblatt for their hospitality last week hosting our meeting. It was super special and everyone enjoyed themselves.
The Happy Dollars “Turkey Drive” is continuing and will go through November 13th. All monies raised will benefit the residents of Schwartz Manor in Norwich. Please give generously.
The Annual Madonna Place Trivial Pursuit Challenge will be on November 3rd at the Bozrah Moose Club. The club is looking for 8 people to fill out a team. There might be a seat or 2 left. The team will be called “The Red Hot Trivia Peppers!”
Rodney Green gave an update on the annual coat project. Earlier this week he dropped off 220 coats to St. Vincent DePaul. The prices for the coats have risen this year with Wal-Mart with the biggest increase. A total of 680 new coats will be distributed this year.
Jen Granger reported that her committee for the Dictionary Project has finalized the count of 3rd graders and expect to be delivering 409 dictionaries to the schools on November 29th. Stay tuned for more information to follow on how to help deliver.
Susy Hurlbert passed out flyers for the Rotary Clock Project and said the Board has agreed to match all donations up to $5,000.00!
Mary said the speaker for the November 15th meeting will be Caleb Bailey, Executive Director of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra.
Joel Etra is at Yale-New Haven in the ICU and is having a rough time. Please keep him and Roz in your thoughts and prayers.
Happy Dollars: Jen Granger
Jen Granger gave $20.00 for the Turkey Challenge and welcomed Pat to the club.
Jim Daly gave $20.00 to welcome Pat and donate to the Turkey Challenge. He also welcomed our guests.
Nancy Gentes welcomed Pat to the club and also had a $5,000 check for the coat project from the Eastern CT Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
Gary Young had $20.00 to welcome Pat and our guests. Gary also told a tale of visiting North Carolina a few weeks back and sending some gift cards at a thank you to the people he stayed with that ended up being stolen in the mail and never made it to the recipients.
Susy Hurlbert welcomed Pat to the club and welcomed our guests. She reported that ECAR has been donating a lot of money lately to area charities and on December 6th there will be a big fundraiser and she has raffle ticket to sell.
Kathryn Tracey has $20.00 for the Turkey Challenge and to welcome our guests. She also had a check in the amount of $5,000.00 from the Lord Foundation for the Annual Coat Drive!
Pat Marshall gave to say she is happy to be in the club and then had a good pig joke!
Barry Shead had happy dollars to welcome our guests and complimented Pat on the Pig joke. He also thanked Mike & Rosa Goldblatt for hosting last week’s meeting. His granddaughter also turned 3!
Stan Lucas gave to thank Mike Goldblatt for the meeting last week. He also thanked Gary Young, Jim Daly and the entire Golf Tournament Committee for their hard work. He also welcomed Pat to the club.
Mike Goldblatt welcomed Pat to the club and thanked all who attended last week’s meeting at his house. He said it’s been a tough year health wise as he has had blood clots in his brain, Lime, Covid and Bell’s Palsy so far. No picnic but he’s getting through it!
Rodney Green welcomed Pat and our guests and thanked the Golf Committee for a successful tournament. He was pleased to see the money come in for the coat project as the costs have risen this year.
Andy Nollman welcomed Pat and our guests. He has been busy getting his parents to all their appointments lately and things are much smoother now. His wife Lona has been recovering from surgery and he can tell she’s feeling better as she wants to help prepare dinner!
Mary Richardson thanked Nancy Gentes for her tireless work writing grants. Grants just don’t drop from the sky without hard work preparing mountains of paperwork. Thanks Nancy!
Bill Champagne gave to welcome Pat to the club. He also encouraged members to take part in the Trivial Pursuit Challenge at the Moose Club. Also, go to “Miss Lottie’s Café” if you can’t take part in the Trivial Challenge.
Weekly Auction: Molly Bruno. Molly has a tile that will link to you phone and help you track your keys if you lose them. Susy Hurlbert won the bidding at $15.00.
Lottery: Bill Champagne
Andy Nollman, Jim Daly and Rodney Green drew cards but the Ace of Spades did not show up! Barry’s Cookies were won by our guest Ryan Telford.
Program: President Mary requested that all Rotarians take part next week in a “Mini Service Project” called “SOCK IT TO ME” and bring new socks for the needy. Socks are need for men, women & children sizes.
President Mary called upon our newest member Pat Marshall to recite the 4-Way Test and the meeting was adjourned at 1:02pm