Posted by Anwar Hossain
 
 
 
Cloudy sky and somewhat mild temperature greeted us as we approached the Ridge. It was hard not to notice the autumn foliage color in almost full bloom. The first thing I noticed as I was paying at the cash table, there was no lunch in sight. That explained why there were more people in the lobby than in the meeting room speculating if or when the delivery will take place. That also explained why so many of us did not make it to the meeting room as the bell rang.
Even at our ages we can simultaneously sing the Rotary Song and slowly march into the meeting room. By the time the Pledge-of-Allegiance was recited, most if not all twenty-one of us had ambled into the room in time for a wonderful invocation by Laura Floyd. “Autumn Prayer” was the perfect invocation theme for the season reminding us of the creativity of the Divine Artist reflected in the hues, colors and the feel for the seasonal change.
Better-late than never-arrived lunch consisted of three trays of ravioli in sauce, a tray of mixed salad and rolls. It could have been worse, which is no lunch that did happen one other time if my memory serves me right. Cheer up, next week is pizza week. Ned Lynch did his best to cheer us up by passing the cookie tray.
Announcements:
  1. Goodwin College Foundation Scholarship event will take place in the River Room on October 17 at    195 Riverside Drive between 3:00-4:30 PM. You are welcome to join since our club is one of the donors.
  2. Koats-for-Kids will take place at 9:00 AM at the Burlington Coat Factory at 9:00 AM on October 20.
  3. Jim Watts announced that the Paul Harris Nominating Committee will meet at 11:30 on October 23 at the Ridge.  
  1. Ilana Bernstein from CRT will be the Guest Speaker on October 23.
  2. Our weekly meeting on October 30 will reflect the theme of Halloween. Participants are free to dress up accordingly.
  3. Salisbury Rotary Club is celebrating their 70th club anniversary on November 5 between 5:30-7:30 PM at Noble Horizons, 17 Cobble Road, Salisbury. All are welcome. Cost is $25/person.
  4. Foundation Dinner will take place at Chez Joseph in Agawam on November 7 and will honor, among others, our own Jim Watts.
  5. Inter Community Health fund raiser will take place at Maneely’s on November 8, 2019.
  6. D.G. Mark Brady will be the Guest Speaker on November 20. Let’s show our support by attending.
  7. A check will be presented to EHPD during our meeting on November 30.
  8. Jack Sayre will have a sign-in sheet next week for Bell Ringing. Depending on how many people sign up, it will be decided how many Saturdays we can participate.
  9. Fireside Chat format will be different this year. It will be in lieu of our weekly lunch meeting, same time same place, sometime in November. President Bob will provide more details soon.
  10. Neal Cunningham thanked all who volunteered for the Hartford Marathon water station project. It was the 26th successful event that our club participated in. He asked us to get ready for the 27Th.
  11. Dan Firestone noted that the Rotary-in-Motion event on Sunday October 13 was attended by 50 bicycle riders, rickshaw pullers, and many walkers. As a result of the generosity of a sponsor, our club will get back the full seed amount of $500.
Seeing no one raising their hands for caring moments or any other announcements, President Bob rang the closing bell only to realize that neither the SAA report nor the weekly raffle had taken place. Since a bell cannot be un-rung, Dan Firestone came to the podium and provided the following report:
  1. Ceil Collins paid for her 23rd Club Anniversary, Frank for “Just Because”.
  2. Neal was thankful for a very successful water station event.
  3. Dan Firestone paid for a successful Rotary-in-Motion event.
  4. Laura for leaving early. I believe she left earlier that we had expected.
  5. Marc Glass for the usual, you know what? Keep parting with dollar bills.
  6. Dan Larson for voluntarily coming up with no pin violation. I am not sure if he paid for the second violation, which is displaying Ned’s badge on his own sweater leaving Ned with no badge.
  7. Ned paid for his 61th Birthday and wanted everyone sixty-one or under to sing the birthday song. The only qualifying member, Laura, had already left. So, we all sang the song. He also paid for his son scoring 4 goals and 4 assists in three lacrosse games.
  8. Dick McCarthy is hoping for a successful Koats-for-Kids.
  9. Dan Russell paid only a dollar because he is fully retired and on fixed income.
  10. Bill Saunders for Steelers winning the second game.
  11. Jim Watts came up with the down payment for fixing the heating system at the Ridge.
  12. Wes Willett paid for an anniversary.
  13. Ruth Sheehan paid just for happy to be here.
  14. Bob Wood for ??????? sorry could not decipher Dan’s writing.
Believe it or not, Dick McCarthy won the flower raffle again this week, and Dan Larson was the winner of the main raffle.
It was time for President Bob to ring the bell again, which he did, so that we could all leave.
Signing off for this week, your scribe, Anwar Hossain, from his kitchen table.