THE PAUL HARRIS BANQUET
The culmination of months of effort finally came to fruition with an evening banquet at our home away from home, The Gallery in Glastonbury, to honor four inductees as Paul Harris Fellows. This year’s class was made up of two Club members, Nick Cecere and Susan Hansen, and two folks from the community, Chickie Amberg and Robert McClellan.
About 70 Rotarians and guests came together for the night. Also in attendance were District Governor Kyong Wilson and Assistant District Governor Marty Fins. The happy event was taped by local cable access television Channel 5.
Many thanks go out to the hard-working Rotarians who put the night together (and here’s hoping I don’t forget someone!): Jim Watts for shepherding us through the selection process, Bob Buettner and Ceil Collins for organizing the multiple meal and appetizers selection with The Gallery, George and his better half Peggy for creating the programs, and Larry Hangland for printing them.
Mary and Jack Martin distributed Duck Race tickets to attendees during the cocktail hour. The kick-off of sales has now officially started! Contact Mary at
marygmartin4@gmail.com if you need to arrange to get yours. The Duck Race is Sunday, June 12 at 2 pm at the Hockanum River at Labor Field.
Printer extraordinaire, Larry Hangland, gave the night’s Invocation. His thoughts centered around the supreme work of volunteers throughout the world; an idea touched upon by our guest speaker last week, Congressman John B. Larson.
We had so many distinguished guests, family and friends joining us that President Marc finally called a halt to individual introductions and asked Art Bradbury and Dan Larson to lead us in the Welcome Song.
Before the pre-scheduled activities got started, President Marc announced that a $1,000 donation to the Rotary Foundation from Larry Frazier had been made in our Club’s name. There being no official way of recognizing that, the Board will determine how to proceed with the Paul Harris-worthy generosity of Larry. We will miss seeing him every week now that he has made the move to Maine to be closer to family.
The official part of the program began with Jim Watts explaining his duties as Chairman of our Paul Harris Committee. In a nutshell, anyone can nominate someone from the Club or the community at large who exemplifies our motto of “Service Above Self”. Only Paul Harris Fellows may vote on the nominees.
Between reading the biographies of recipients, and hearing of their service accomplishments from their presenters, there is no question that this year’s class of inductees was a strong one.
Peggy Schoen did the honors of describing Chickie Amberg’s community and church-related service work. Chickie took to the microphone to say a very classy
thank you to the Club and to recognize that we are part of her larger group of supporters she considers to be the ‘wind beneath her wings’.
Mo Moshovos gave a sometimes funny (sorry Mo, only “sometimes”) run down of Nick Cecere’s steady volunteerism. As Mo said, Nick is an “ATTH” member - - always there to help.
The race track trumpet (‘and they’re off’) played twice from someone’s cell phone during this presentation. OK, maybe it was a social faux pas, but it sure got a laugh out of the crowd.
Dan Larson surprised us (go figure!) with a life size cardboard cut-out of the actually present recipient, Bob McClellan. The cut-out featured Bob in his signature Scottish kilt. Bob’s thanks to the Club included the admonition to “Drink Beer!”. Can’t refuse a directive like that, can we?
And Mary Martin presented Susan Hansen, regretfully “in absentia”, due to the health concerns of her son Brendan at home after receiving treatment for his cancer. Susan sent the message that she is honored and surprised at this recognition. We are sorry she could not join us.
Congratulations to Chickie, Nick, Bob and Susan. You join a prestigious group of people known for their volunteerism over many years.
-Empress of the World and Duck Ticket Giver Outer
