We braved the buffeting winds of January to attend a buffet lunch at The Ridge. The enticing smell of baked stuffed tilapia wafted out the kitchen door. Chocolate mousse cake screamed, “forget those New Year’s resolutions!”. These luncheons are murderizing my diet.
It was so nice to see Dave Amberg back with us and delivering our Invocation. Dave added a personal note of thanks for the support his family received from us during the health crisis of his son. Although he is by no means out of the woods, there have been some positive signs. It’s been quite an emotional roller coaster ride for the Amberg family.
Kevin Kickery was all juiced up because he had just attended his first Jim Fallon-led Scholarship Committee Meeting. Nice to see that level of enthusiasm for one of our most important charitable projects. We typically give out $12,000 in scholarships annually to East Hartford residents graduating from local high schools.
The meeting got down to business just as the last remnants of my cake were being digested. Sergeant-at-Arms Jim Watts reported a busy and lucrative day: Dan Firestone celebrating 40 years in Rotary; Jack “Cheapo” Sayre had a birthday but said he will pay next week. Nonetheless, he requested and received a serenade from the female Club members of a very poorly executed “Happy Birthday” song. As the Sarge pointed out, “you get what you pay for”. Funds were received in
honor of Dave Amberg’s return; Ned Lynch as a tribute to the Patriots (anybody figure out what really happened to Bellichek’s eye?); Most Righteous Retired Reverend Ted Mosebach recognized the solid leadership of our Club with his contribution; Happy Jack gave his monetary farewell to friends as he anticipates riding off into the sunset as the next big winner of Power Ball; and Sheryl O’Connor celebrated her 9
th Club anniversary.
Sheryl also made an announcement that the annual Rotary-sponsored concert at the Wood Library as part of the South Windsor Cultural Series is scheduled for Sunday, January 31 at 2 p.m.. Call Sheryl should you like her to reserve seats for you.
Jim Watts was called up to the podium and given his “Paul Harris Plus Seven Pin”. As President Marc noted, “never saw one of those before!” Thanks, Jim, for supporting the good works of the Rotary International Foundation.
Michael Kerrigan passed around a sign-up sheet so folks could join some up-coming work parties being scheduled at the East Hartford Homeless Shelter at 385 Main Street (it’s across the street from the big smoke stacks at Pratt and Whitney).
Michael has divided up the schedule into 2-hour increments spread across 3 Saturdays beginning at the end of January. Please give him a call at his work number (860-289-6612) if you missed a chance to sign up. This is our big “hands on” project for 2015-16, partially funded by a District Grant. We are doing minor renovations to help out the families using the Shelter.
We got word that Bob Wood is recovering per the anticipated schedule from his recent hip replacement surgery. Good news although it probably still doesn’t feel fast enough.
Mary Martin shared very sad news regarding the cancer diagnosis unexpectedly received by Susan Hansen regarding her son, Brendan. Brendan will be undergoing surgery for removal of his lymph nodes this Friday to be followed by another surgery later the following week to implant a chemo port catheter. Your thoughts and prayers are needed now. If you would like to send “thinking of you” cards to the family (Susan, her husband Matt, and Brendan) their home address is 86 Ledgewood Road, West Hartford, CT 06107. You may remember Susan’s daughter, Stephanie, is a human rights attorney in Mexico and was one of our recent guest speakers.
Prior to our speaker taking the microphone, Happy Jack saw to it that Jay Stewart won the Raffle. Again. Wonder if she bought a Power Ball ticket?
Program Committee Chair Dan Firestone did a great job in bringing in today’s speaker, Sal Lilienthal. Mr. Lilienthal is a Director of The Bicycle Tour Company in Kent and has written a book regarding Revolutionary War Sites from Quebec to Savannah. He took us on a “virtual” whirlwind tour of 25 battle sites during the period 1771-1783. Most interesting were his map depictions of the Washington Rochambeau Revolutionary Route historic trail through Connecticut. If you weren’t
absent from school that day, you know that the French, led by the Counte de Rochambeau, joined with American forces led by General George Washington, on a 2-way march of 6,000 troops from Rhode Island to York Town, Virginia and back. That march came right down East Hartford’s Silver Lane! There were many slides of the paintings and etchings documenting principal players in this drama as well as numerous pictures of actual surviving sites where the action took place. Contact Mr. Lilienthal at
explore@revolutionarybattles.com for more information on his presentation.
Before I sign off I have to ask, didja see the cute little cartoon Doug Willett managed to insert into the upper left corner of the web version of last week’s High Gear? It was me, or supposed to be me anyway, riding my pony. How cool was that?! And we thought Wes Willett was the only real I.T. guy in the family!
Stay warm and see you next week,
Mary (Empress of the World) Martin
