The Norman K. Parsell Award ceremony was held today at the Milford Yacht Club, hosted by the Milford Rotary Club. This year, Sharon Palumberi from Stratford Rotary received the award. Congratulations to Sharon!
Beth Stoller was our guest speaker today. Beth is a Trumbull Rotarian and she came to speak today about a children's book project she launched in 2023. Partnering with renowned author Tish Rabe, a bestselling author of over 200 books for Sesame Street, Disney, PBS Kids, Nickelodeon and many more. This initiative aims to teach young readers the values of kindness and friendship while empowering future generations through education and storytelling. The book is titled "Caring, Friendship is Sharing" with several Rotary Clubs in District 7980 helping to fund this project. The book is about half way finished and should be released early in 2026.
Sean Scanlon, CT Comptroller, and the husband of a Guilford, Ct Rotarian, was the featured speaker of Rotarian Joe Gresko at last weeks' Stratford Rotary. Sean was very informative about the current CT State Budgeting, and how the current legislation session, as well as the Federal funding uncertainty, will likely impact CT funding, particularly in VA, education, and social services. He welcomed our questions and found our shoreline charming.
SHARON PALUMBERI
NORMAN K. PARCELLS 2025 AWARD Honoree from Stratford ROTARY.
Sharon Palumberi has been a Realtor for over 30 years, working hard to make homeownership a reality for many. Her knowledge and compassion have brought many repeat clients back to her. She also works with a CT Debt negotiator on short sales. Sharon has also worked at Santa Energy for over 25 years in their marketing/sales department. She has also now stepped in as the primary caretaker for her mom.Sharon has been a proud member of the Stratford Rotary Club for 6 years and has held the positions of Vice President, President-Elect, and President.
NORMAN K. PARCELLS 2025 AWARD Honoree from Stratford ROTARY.
Sharon Palumberi has been a Realtor for over 30 years, working hard to make homeownership a reality for many. Her knowledge and compassion have brought many repeat clients back to her. She also works with a CT Debt negotiator on short sales. Sharon has also worked at Santa Energy for over 25 years in their marketing/sales department. She has also now stepped in as the primary caretaker for her mom.Sharon has been a proud member of the Stratford Rotary Club for 6 years and has held the positions of Vice President, President-Elect, and President.
Stratford Planning Director, Susmitha Attota, was Harold Watson's guest speaker at todays meeting. where she updated members about the initiatives to increase Greenway Main Street Complete Streets Phase One usage, as well as introducing Complete Streets Phase Two (From Barnum Ave to Paradise Green) and the NEXT section in the design stage: Phase Three (On Ferry Blvd.)
Stratford Rotary and students from Stratford and Bunnell H.S. participated in the Rotary 4-Way Test Essay Contest. Students were to complete an essay related to how the 4-Way Test has affected their lives. A group of Rotarians judged the essays and Zawadi O'Brien was deemed the winner. She will go on the compete with other finalists at the District level.
Zawadi was honored at the April Town Council Meeting. Councilman Alvin O'neal and Mayor Hoydick honored this young woman by having her lead the Invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance. Congratulations Zawadi.
This week Keri Sheridan was sworn in as our newest Rotarian. Congratulations Keri and welcome to the club.
Bill O'Brien, Director of the Stratford Community Fund, and a long-time Stratford Rotarian, presents Stratford Rotary Foundation with a $44K+ donation so that Stratford Rotary may continue the mutual tradition of good, community-based work done by the Community Fund over the decades. The Community Fund was originally started by Stratford Rotary many years ago.
This weeks speaker was 15 year old DeMarko Avant, who is a sophomore at Bunnell High School in Stratford, and dual enrolled in CT State Community College with over 24 college credits earned.
In August 2024, he published his first book titled “The Teenage Boss: How to save, budget, and invest as a teen”.
He is the Vice President and Founder of Youth Money Management, a nonprofit 501 c3 that services the State of Connecticut. Just recently, YMM launched a new activity workbook for project based and collaborative learning to accompany the book.
Youth Money Management aims to empower young people in financial literacy, teaching them how to save, budget and invest in their future with the hope to avoid adult debt accumulation.
His remarkable work is already embedded in schools, juvenile detention centers and community-based youth organizations. For more information regarding programming,
The Lunch today was a great success thanks to Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus. They were quite a hit. 20 children from several Stratford schools were treated to a lunch of chicken tenders and French fries. Always a hit with the kids. Each student received a gift from Santa. Photo's were taken of the children with Santa as they received their gift. Thank you all for making this a great success again this year.
More photos in the Photo Albums.
Today we had our Rotary Shredding Event at the Baldwin Center. It was an absolutely beautiful day weather wise. We had a steady stream of residents bringing their old files for shredding, Stratford's Rotary Paper Shredding event offers a secure and efficient way to dispose of documents while preventing personal information from getting into the wrong hands. Items such as medical records, credit card statements, checks, and bills can pose a serious security threat if handled improperly. Rotary uses Meyers's professional "onsite service" to ensure that they are securely and effectively destroyed. You can even watch and see your documents destroyed.
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Service Above Self
Stratford, CT 06614
United States of America