It was another beautiful summer day at the Ridge. Attendees were greeted by the hustle and bustle of two of our committees holding pre-meeting planning sessions. The Golf Tournament planning is officially underway and the Foundation Committee was brainstorming ways to separate us from our money in support of the children of the world. Today’s special guest speaker had some eloquent words to support this endeavor.
Art Bradbury started the meeting off with a thoughtful invocation, giving thanks for the service of our retread President Bill, for the many years of friendship shared with Gil Wishart who is relocating to Florida, and for the leadership of another retread, District Governor Frank Wargo, who stepped in for the recently deceased District Governor Elect Don Chandler.
Guests today included Pastor John Caldwell, scholarship winner Nicholas Serrambana from the Classical Magnet School and Langford Lane who is headed to Yale in the fall and his mom, Lisa Matias. They were treated to both the Welcome song and a pedestrian buffet featuring chicken parts, broccoli, potato salad, garden salad and rolls. A choice of carrot cake and pecan pie was available for dessert.
Sergeant At Arms Report
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Sergeant At Arms Dave Amberg had a good day. Art Bradbury paid for 48 years in Rotary. Frank Collins forked out for his 46 years in the Club. Ceil Collins, Bill Saunders, and Gil Wishart paid for birthdays, Marc Glass paid for an announcement, Peter Klock paid to recognize the birth of he and Sue’s first grandson, Logan Xavier Klock ten days ago! And finally Anwar Hossain paid to recognize the Amberg’s hospitality at last week’s picnic.
News and Announcements
President Bill opened the announcements section of the meeting by noting the turnout of Rotarians for both Fred Campbell’s remembrance and the funeral of Mike Derr’s mother, Heloise. He also noted that a memorial service will be held for Tony Picano on August 26 at 10:30 at Our Lady of Peace Church. He also asked us to keep the Chuck Clarke family, specifically son, Doug, in our prayers as well as PDG Dick Borden whose son was in a bad accident in China and is facing a daunting recovery.
East Hartford Rotary had two foursomes in the District Golf Tournament on Monday. The foursome of Jim Watts, Marc Glass, Dan Larson and Bob Richmond nipped the foursome of Dave Amberg, Bob Wood, Doug Willett and Bill Saunders by a single stroke. We decided a golf course should be about 13 holes since we run out of gas about that point in the round.
Sue Klock and Marc Glass gave a brief outline of our plans for a satellite club that will meet in the evening a couple of times a month at a local restaurant. More to follow.
Mike Cavanaugh, the head coach of the UConn Men’s Hockey Team will be our guest on September 14th. We are inviting other area clubs to join us by calling ahead.
Neal Cunningham passed the envelope for contributions for the annual Back to School Supplies program we participate in each year and will do so again next week. Checks can be made out to “Special Programs.”
Pat Gately presented the club with a Club Flag from the Clinton, CT club where she recently made up.
Both the Program Committee and the Golf Committee will be meeting at 11:30 a.m. at the Ridge next Wednesday.
Sonny Waldo was our raffle winner this week.
Today's week's speaker
This scribe has been a member of the Club on and off since 1980. In those 36 years, we have had many distinguished leaders join us for a District Governor’s Visit each year. In my opinion none of them have been as representative of the power of Rotary as current District Governor Frank Wargo who visited us today.
Frank was also District Governor in 2000-01 and has stepped in to fill the role once again due to the untimely passing of Don Chandler. Frank presented the Club with the year’s theme banner “Rotary Saving Humanity” and presented each of us a copy of his book “The Frank Wargo Story, A Rotarian’s Ventures and Adventures,” which outlines the years of service he and his wife, Priscilla, have offered on behalf of the children of the world.
His talk today touched on several of his experiences in some of the most destitute places on earth, including a leper colony where he and fellow Rotarians installed private bathrooms. Not only did this provide privacy for the first time, but it meant that girls could use the facilities in the daylight rather than using the surrounding fields where all could see, leading to more children staying in school and future generations being impacted as well. Frank stressed that we often don’t see the downstream consequences of the Rotary Foundation charities.
Frank also stressed the need to “sell” Rotary to our friends and associates who would benefit from membership and the importance of getting new members “out of the bleachers” and “into the game.” If we don’t do this, new members won’t stay, a fact our Club too frequently experiences.
All in all, this was an inspiring presentation.
That’s it for this week,
Doug Willett
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were treated to both the Welcome song and a pedestrian buffet featuring chicken parts, broccoli, potato salad, garden salad and rolls. A choice of carrot cake and pecan pie was available for dessert.
