The Ken 6/13/2022
Table Attendance/Split Club: Phil Michalowski
Fine Master: Dick Hanaburgh
Invocation: Steve Blass
The Ken: Donna DiFrancesco
The meeting was opened at 12:15 p.m. with the pledge and a prayer from Steve Blass. President Dick asked for announcements.
Gary confirmed that there will be a 4th of July celebration at Elmlawn. It will be on Friday July 1st and he’ll take care of the food with the cost kept at $20 per person. Everyone is asked to bring their own chairs/drinks/snacks. This is always a wonderful event!
Brandon reminded everyone of the Installation dinner, to be held on Monday June 20 at 6 p.m. at Webster’s Bistro and Bar. There will be NO regular meeting that day. There will be a board meeting this Friday June 17 at the Ken-Ton Chamber office at 8 a.m. The board has a lot to cover. Current slate of officers below.
Cameron updated on a very productive Kentoberfest meeting held last Thursday. If anyone has any suggestions on family fun activities or anything else that would be helpful, please reach out to him.
Ed Markarian asks that we remember the McBride’s, whose family will be holding a Celebration of Lives on Wednesday, June 15 from 4-6:30 p.m. at Perna, Dengler, Roberts Funeral Home, 1671 Maple Road. This date marks what would have been their 71st wedding anniversary. Thoughts and prayers go out to the entire McBride family.
Phil announced our guests: Speaker Joe Lavey from The Riviera Theatre and Fiona and Anthony Desouza. Anthony was a recent Kenmore Rotary High School Award winner. Congratulations again, Anthony!
Cameron announced our speaker, Joe, who updated on the beautiful historic Riviera Theatre. A few years ago, they were on the brink of bankruptcy. Jump ahead 5 years and with a change of staff, they are now thriving and ready to break ground on Phase 1 of their expansion. They purchased several businesses to the left and will be adding bathrooms, bar and concessions. Bathrooms being the major update. The theatre was built in 1926 and because it is an historic landmark, any “cuts” put into the building have to be witnessed by several people in order to preserve the historical value and status. There are 1,138 seats and before the theatre was revamped, they had about 20 shows per year. Now, they have around 125. They will rent the theatre out for anything within reason and love doing so. They really want to branch out more into the community and bring kids in, through schools or clubs, to learn about state-of-the-art technology and behind the scenes workings. Joe was very informative and it was very interesting to learn about such a wonderful venue. If you’d like more information or are interested in renting it out, you can email Joe at jlaveyjr@gmail.com and you can visit the website at www.rivieratheatre.org
The $13 split club was won by Pat, who was super happy because it paid for his lunch and Cam picked for the Ace but pulled the 8 of hearts. The Ace is definitely still in there, so there’s still a chance. Dick asked for confessions. Cam is happy that his tenant in his new home paid part of his mortgage; Donna put in happy dollars for her grandson Hudson graduating pre-K; Steve put in happy dollars also for his son graduating kindergarten and his daughter graduating pre-k3; Dick’s son also graduated kindergarten!
Dick quizzed us on summer trivia and raised a few bucks. Meeting was adjourned and lunch enjoyed.
The Slate of Officers for the 2022-2023 Rotary year are as follows:
President: Brandon Blatz
President Elect: Cathy Piciulo
Secretary: Pat Griffin
Treasurer: Steve Blass
Past President: Dick Hanaburgh
Directors: Joe Arcara, Donna DiFrancesco, Ed Hacherl, Susan Jandzinski, Holly Nowak, Linda Sroka