A variable weather day at the Ridge, cloudy with a chance of meatballs when we arrived, pouring rain at meeting end and bright sunshine by the time we arrived back to work or home. It was chicken parm instead of meatballs as the entrée on the buffet table and this Italian favorite was
enjoyed by a goody crowd for a July midday.
Guests included
Peter Bearse, a Rotarian from Danville, New Hampshire; PDG
Dick Borden and
Rick Lawrence from Manchester; and prospective members,
Oliva Henze and
Jessica Leroy.
Bob Buettner choose today to share the Rotary lunch experience with his bride,
Sandy, and his daughter in law,
Kathy from Miami,FL. Kathy was here to drop her daughter off at Camp Gramma for a couple of weeks.
Neal Cunningham and
Alex Wisz butchered the Welcome Song with
Steve Jacoby wandering around shaking hands in their midst.
Jay Stewart, who gets entirely too much enjoyment out of her duties as Fine Master, was our Sergeant At Arms once again. She collected for Club anniversaries from Happy Jack Martin (3 years), Ted Mosebach (19 years) and Bob Wood (30 years.) The Empress, the first female East Hartford Rotarian ever twenty seven years ago, made a contribution in celebration of her return to the Club in 2012 as well. Some unnamed optimist made a contribution to make a bold prediction of the resurrection of the Beantowner Nine. (I suspect it was Ruthie; she is always setting herself up for crushing disappointment). Susan Hansen paid for her visage on the front page of the Gazette this week, Pat Gately paid because she was just happy to be here, and our President paid to honor the United States Women’s Soccer World Cup Champions. Alex Wisz paid to recognize his pride at his daughter, Jessica, completing Army basic training in South Carolina.
President Marc conducted the first half of the weekly announcements as follows:
With a reminder that the District Golf Tournament is August 3 at Twin Hills in Longmeadow. See Bill Saunders if you’d like to join the East Hartford contingent.
With a notice that his first Board of Directors Meeting as President will be on July 30th.
With an introduction of Dick McCarthy who reminded us that the Sergeant At Arms party is next Wednesday evening at 5 p.m. at the Ridge. There is no charge for this party and spouses and others are welcome. No Noon Meeting Next Week.
With a calling on Neal Cunningham who reminded us that the annual Glastonbury Softball Outing is set for Monday, July 27 at the Elks Club in Glastonbury. Sentient Beings with gloves are needed. No Wednesday meeting that week. Neal added that for those wanting to set up a jewelry table on the sidewalk, the Greater Hartford Marathon and our Water Station will be operative on October 10th.
At this point, President Marc called Rick Lawrence to the podium to report on his ongoing Guatemala Water Projects. Rick began by thanking the Club for being a strong supporter of his efforts with another generous donation to this year’s fundraising. Rick reported that 26 Clubs in the District along with Clubs from five other Districts and the Interact Students at CIBA in East Hartford helped him raise $95,828 for the effort. Over the years since this Rotary project was initiated, Rick has raised $409,938 for clean water initiatives in Guatemala and hundreds if not thousands of people have benefited. One of the effort’s biggest supporters, both as District Governor and as District Foundation Chairwoman, has been our own
Sue Klock. In recognition of her contributions, Rick presented her with a photo collage of some of the kids who have been impacted. This entire project reminds us why we are Rotarians and is a small example of the Rotarians “being a gift to the world.”
At the conclusion of the presentation,
Sheryl O’Connor rose to present our weekly Foundation Minute. She spoke of other examples of local clubs using Foundation support to further local projects. She also solicited volunteers who are willing to speak on what the Foundation means to them at future meetings.
With that President Marc wandered back to complete the announcements:
Jack Sayre is still collecting school supplies and money for the Back to School effort and will be closing this effort out on August 5th.
George Schoen made his initial plea for support of the annual Golf Tournament on September 21. His committee will be meeting again on July 22 with much, much more to follow.
Confused between left and right, our raffle master awarded the money to Neal Cunningham sitting on his left instead of the deserving scribe sitting to his right. Isn’t it ever thus.
As the optimistic Sox fan might say, “there is always next week.” Until then, “See ya..”
