“Beautiful sunshine today, high in the mid-seventies.” Wonderful words to hear as I left the seashore to drive up to East Hartford for our weekly meeting. We had five full tables today, which would suggest around 40 Rotarians and guests in attendance.
With our leadership team temporarily off at the District Training Session, we were left in the good hands of
Multiple Past President and Empress in Residence, Mary Goode Martin. Mary could rightfully claim that she is very much the “good Martin” in the club as opposed to the other one, but she is too much a lady to do so.
Bob Wood gave a Rotary projects centered invocation, and Sonny Waldo and his late arriving son in law, President Marc Glass, led the Welcome Song for our guests: Jennifer Odorcyk, Senior Program Director at the YMCA and our speaker today; old friend from the South Windsor Rotary, John Mitchell; Pastor John Crandall with Gil Wishart; and Izabela Olechawska from First Niagara Bank and guest of George Agnelli.
Bob was disappointed that his invocation duties put him closest to the buffet (which is why he volunteered to do it), only to have Mary announce that we would be served at our tables today. It was a salad sans dressing (available after a brief walk), a generous portion of lasagna, carrots and a roll. Again a garnishment such as butter required getting up and walking to the front table. Dessert was some kind of cake but I can’t tell you how good it was because there were no plates available by the time I arrived to partake.
Dan Larson showed up today to perform his Sergeant at Arms duties and, as usual, he was successful in emptying several pockets in the room. Jim Watts had a non-singing birthday and someone’s Mother in Law
celebrated her 91
st. Sonny Waldo, Ted Mosebach and even Anwar Hossein paid for no pins or badges, although Anwar paid two dollars for his infractions and proceeded to pick up his pin and badge from the tray and put them on. Danny gave him back a buck. Dick McCarthy paid for an enjoyable Mystery Ride and to welcome Art Bradbury back from the sick list. Alex Wicz paid for the early spring success of the Red Sox, fooling himself and his fellow fans into assuming it is all sustainable over the summer. (It helps for Sox fans to have short memories). Mentioning a few late arrivals and early leavers, Dan stepped away from the podium with a satisfied smirk on his face.
Sue Klock, another who arrived late from the District Meeting, noted the success of the Mystery Ride last Saturday. The nearly full bus left the Ridge and proceeded on a serpentine path along the Connecticut River until it arrived at the Mill on The River in nearby South Windsor. The showmanship of Jimmy Mazz was the highlight of another very enjoyable evening. Sue thanked Ceil Collins and husband, Peter, for assisting her in putting it all together.
Duck Race sales are going “okay”, according to Mary, and, as usual, George Agnelli is outselling the rest of the Club combined by about a 3 to 1 margin. Mary noted we have only three weeks left to sell and Alex noted the importance of Rotarians signing up for the sales
sites even if it is just an hour or two. If you are sufficiently extroverted, you can sell both your own two books and several others as well. It is getting to crunch time on this fund raiser so look in the mirror. Are you doing your fair share to make this a success?
Sonny Waldo has volunteered to head our Memorial Day Float committee and he needs help with both decorating the Float before the parade and in filling out the Rotary contingent in the parade itself. It all
happens on Monday, May 30 and you can get makeups for participating. See Sunny if you can participate.
The Area 6 Social is still May 19th and it’s not too late to sign up for the New Britain Bees Rotary baseball outing. Guest John Crandall won the raffle, which is always nice.
In the Transitions department, long time Club Member Larry Frazier has relocated to 211 Poland Corner, Poland, ME 04274. His phone number is the same – 860-263-0076. He says his move has gone smoothly and his duck race tickets are paid up! Drop him a card if you get a chance. Also relocating, although to not as great a distance is our venerable Jay Stewart. She is moving from her longtime home on Country Lane next to the Bradbury’s to the Arbors in Manchester in the next few weeks. No interruption in Rotary attendance is expected here. And, while it is not final, our buddy Gil Wishart is making plans to relocate to Florida on a permanent basis to be near his son and to enjoy year round sun. (Or is that to be near the sun and to enjoy his son?)
Michael Kerrigan introduced our speaker today, Jennifer Odorcyk, the Senior Program Director at the East Hartford YMCA. Jennifer filled us in on several Y programs and reviewed the sources of their funding. The local Y serves hundreds of kids in our town each day. The annual campaign and other funding sources allow them to offer programs to kids regardless of their ability to pay. Strong partnerships the Y enjoys includes the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving who are critical to the Y’s offering of Water Safety and Swimming
classes each summer and the Walmart Foundation which works with the YMCA on a national basis to ensure that fresh fruit and vegetables are available at all YMCA served meals. Locally Pratt & Whitney and Goodwin College are supportive of Y initiatives. Our Rotary Club is currently working with the Y and applying for a District Grant to support a Literacy and Swimming program. This will be a hands on program for Rotarians who will have the opportunity to interact with the kids and promote literacy. More to come on this. Thanks for the program, Jennifer, and we hope we have sparked your interest in joining the Club.
Finally President Marc reviewed some changes made by Rotary International at a recent business meeting. The one that potentially affects us most directly is a decision that the minimum number of Club meetings will change from weekly to twice a month. We will have to decide as a club whether we want to continue to meet weekly or to fall back to this lesser standard. Another change is that all Minutes of Club Board meetings must be posted on the Club website going forward. There are other changes but those two are the ones that most directly affect our Club. At the same meeting, Rotary International overwhelmingly supported a strong resolution condemning Human Trafficing, a significant change from their position a few years ago. That is a very good thing.
At this point Mary closed with “Enjoy the Day.” We walked out of the building determined to do exactly that. Until next week.
