Today was sunny and cool for a special working meeting held during the East Hartford Seniors Annual Veterans Picnic at the East Hartford Senior Center. Rotary Members were busy with food preparation but did perform the Rotary Welcome Song for the large, enthusiastic crowd.
Alex got the program going by introducing Mayor Michael Walsh, who led us singing “This is Rotary”. The mayor talked about our yearly coat drive and thanked us all for our contributions to the town. He also thanked all the Veterans present at the picnic who gave us our freedom. He specifically mentioned Jim, a Korean War Veteran, who walks with a sign “Freedom is not Free” in all the town’s parades. “Taps” was played. A patriotic video was shown which was accompanied by the song “Proud to be an American, God Bless the USA”. The crowd started singing along and continued with “God Bless America”.
Rotary served dinner at 12:15. Menu consisted of grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, coleslaw and beans. Cooks were Mo and Dan Larson, supervised by Laura’s grandson Macedon. Servers were Ceil, Sue, George, Ruth, Jack, Dan Firestone, Conner, Anwar, Laura, Bev Leone and Peter. Other helpers were Alex, Neal and Ray.
Once the Senior guests were fed, the Rotary crew sat down to dinner about 12:45. We received many compliments about dinner! Country music and dancing started at 1:15. Popular Sing-along Songs were “Your Cheating Heart” and “Help me Make it Through the Night.” Everyone was having a great time!
Rotary members continued with clean up. Grill was loaded by Alex, Dan Larson, Mo and Neal.
Meeting next week is on ZOOM.
Neal Cunningham