 | East Hartford Rotary Club High Gear Volume 79 | Issue 17 / November 15, 2023 |
12:05 President Bob rang the Bell and led 17 attendees in the Pledge.
Invocation: Marc Glass inspired us with a reminder of Rotary’s diversity and tolerance for others.
Guests: First Lady, Sandi Buettner, and our speaker, Alan Schultz.
Lunch break: tuna, meatball and chicken grinders plus a meatball pizza.
12:20: Bob restarted the meeting. We learned that our participation in the Liberty Bank fundraiser to benefit area foodbanks resulted in our $5000 deposit earning $1250 during the month of October; so $6250 will be distributed among our 5 chosen foodbanks.
Bob mentioned CIBA Interact Club asked for some help providing Thanksgiving food baskets to several local families. We passed “the hat” and raised $97 for them. Thanks to Sandi for counting the cash!
Next week’s meeting will include a visit by our current District Governor and conclude with volunteers distributing the 40 holiday food baskets which will be in the room.
Anwar introduced our speaker, Alan Schultz, the President of non-profit Pedals for Progress (p4p). Basically, the organization, founded by a former peace corps volunteer in 1991, collects used bicycles and sewing machines to distribute in developing countries. The restored, repaired items enable recipients to do everything from attending school to tailoring clothing. Items are delivered to community outreach groups, which pay shipping costs, then charge recipients a small amount in order to afford the shipping. It’s possible our club will sponsor a collection day this spring so stay tuned for more information about this.
Check out www.p4p.org to learn more now.
Reminders
- Paul Harris nominations should be sent to Jim Watts at Jimw@JWatts.com .You have 2 weeks to submit someone's name. Please take the time to submit a qualified person, who can be a non-member or member of our club. Include a few sentences describing your reasons for suggesting the person(s).
- Lunch is getting to be a problem, because members are not calling or messaging Guy to let him know if they are planning to attend. President Bob is seeking suggestions to solve this!
- Jack Sayre needs more volunteers to ring bell for Salvation Army at Cabela’s end of November and several Saturdays in December.
- MOST IMPORTANT - We need officers for 23-24.
If you have any interest in serving as an officer, please let Alex or Bob know. While the "job" does not take care of itself, there is lots of support. Bob, Sue, George and Marc are more than willing to help.
If you want to know more, call Bob (860) 416-7433, Sue (860) 989-0101, or Marc (860) 841-0843. We will be glad to answer your questions.
Caring Moments
- Ruth Sheehan and Dan Larson both recovering well.
Meeting adjourned at 1 PM.
Submitted by Sue Klock