Announcements:

 

Rotary Anniversaries –
Frank Collins, since 1970, and Lionel Lessard, since 1988

 

Birthdays –
Bill Saunders (August 1^st), Ceil Collins (August 4^th), and Nate Quesnel

 

Rotarians and spouses on the move –

Bill and Bev Saunders, 900 Hemlock, Apt. 317, South Windsor, CT 06074, as of September 1.

Jack and Jan Sayre, 900 Hemlock, Apt. 340, South Windsor, CT 06074, as of September 3.

Bob and Debby Wood, The Village at Buckland Court, Apt. 230, 432 Buckland Road, South Windsor, CT 06074, as of August 11^th.

 

Total donations for Covid-19 Relief Projects -- $2,145 (This is a combination of money from The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International, via District 7890, and members’ contributions.)

Program: (thanks to Alex and Anwar for arranging this)

[ed. note:  Wes recorded this portion of our meeting; so, hopefully, he will supply us with a link to the recording.  There is no way to relay all the information provided by today’s speaker in one edition of High Gear.]

 

Ted Fravel, Director of East Hartford Parks and Recreation Department.

 

Ted has served as director since March 2012.  Speaking to us today, Ted focused on two main concerns of his department right now:  first, how to continue moving forward during the pandemic and, second, progress on the town’s new senior citizens center located at the former Blessed Sacrament Church. 

 

Ted described how his department benefitted from communicating with other towns about best practices during Covid-19 challenges, with goal of being able to open town camps and pools.  They were successful, just winding up six weeks of camp, for 109 families.  The town’s pools will remain open, through rest of this month, though decreasing from five, to four, then, three, and finally two.  Pools operate at half capacity in order to follow state protocols.  He mentioned that one big improvement for families involved with camp was online registration.  He said that in late summer and early fall, he hopes to be able to provide some activities in town’s parks after school hours.

 

Ted’s update on progress renovating the interior of the Blessed Sacrament Church was very welcome, since our club has been a supporter of this and has members who have been involved.

Here is a link to the virtual tour of the Senior Center

 

The plan is to open the center in December.

There were quite a few questions, and hopefully everyone can see those in the recording of the program.

 

After the program, Laura Floyd told us that the Y’s food distribution program wound up after eight weeks.  She and her staff were able to help 843 families, distributing bags of food on Fridays.  Basically, they ran out of funding for the program.  She is hoping to do something along these lines again in the fall.

 

In caring moments, we learned of the passing of Jeannette Campbell, spouse of our deceased former member, Fred Campbell.

 

 

Submitted by Sue Klock, taking notes for our August 2020 club meetings