President Gale opened the meeting.
Tom Ives was our greeter and did a fabulous job.
Stats:
Bow: 39
Visiting Rotarians: 3 DGN Venu Rao, PDG Tony Gilmore and Concord Member Dickie Bean
Visitors/Guests: 0
Speaker: PDG Chris Parkinson
Total: 41
Announcements:
Paul Rizzi gave us an update on the 4-Way Test Speech Contest. We had 3 speakers, all seniors, 2 were former first place winners. It went very well. We do need to find a way to interest more contestants moving forward.
Gale mentioned the Library event on April 8th from 4-6pm. She asked for a show of hands on those planning to attend. I captured Rick Minard, Ben Kiniry, Tom Ives, Bryant Stevener, Matt Gatzke, Eric Anderson, Judy Goodnow, Karen Wadsworth, Dick Swett and Michelle Fortin. There could have been more that I missed.
Gale also mentioned that District Assembly scheduled for tomorrow in Keene was cancelled due to the impending snow storm. It will not be rescheduled as there are too many moving parts that go into scheduling this event.
Mike Griffin reminded us all about Roadside Pick up on April 15th.
Gale mentioned the Board Meeting this coming Monday night at 6pm at the Library. All are welcome.
Steve DeStefano updated us on the Annual “Q Classic” Golf Tournament, which will be the last one. It will be held at Canterbury Woods until 6pm and then move to The Barley House from 7 – 11pm for those who wish to attend. It will be held the Friday before Columbus Day.
Gerry Carrier updated us on the Car Show May 20th. Trophy Sponsors, please get your checks in. There is a Tee-shirt sign up form going around. Shirts are $12 in advance, more at the event. Dave Gazaway updated us that there are now 22 pre-registered folks, many of who have pre-ordered tee shirts as well.
Fines
Jon Ruggles for R&T and he paid a happy buck for granddaughter Jackie turning 12 on Tuesday.
Birthdays
We surprisingly had 2 that Gerry Carrier was unaware of!
First up was Dean Cascadden yesterday. He turned 56 and paid $11 for that. He was in FL for his mother-in-laws 80th birthday and had the pleasure of being bar tender (a role we’ve seen him in before!) He golfed an Eagle while down there, told us some more stories of great fortune that were summed up by “Life is Freakin’ Awesome!” His job is very fulfilling and he loves being part of our Rotary Club.
The other birthday is Steve DeStefano’s which is/was today (March 31st)!!! He is 61. His parents are 85 so he could relate to Dean’s stories. Ellen is at Child and Family Services. Bow Schools are terrific! His grandson is there. All 3 daughters are doing well. Ally’s baby is doing well too. They are going to visit Kim in San Jose soon. Work is also great, he’s had the best year ever.
Happy Bucks
PDG Tony went to India with Chris & Venu and went to visit a boy’s school there that he presented a $10k check to as DG.
Alan Kanegsberg was $10 happy for his trip to Tuscon, AZ then on to Reno, NV to get their Grandson who they then went to Washington DC with and had a fabulous time.
Dickie Bean was happy for his 36 anniversary in Rotary. He started out in our club. His Dad was a charter member (with my Dad & Tamar’s!) He went to the Concord club in 1999.
Venu was happy that the Rotary License Plates have made it all the way to the Governor’s desk for signature.
Karen Wadsworth was happy that her daughter Jennifer is visiting.
Ben Kiniry was happy to have survived career day with the 8th graders. (According to Dean it was because he scared them all away from ever wanting to be a lawyer!)
Tamar Roberts was happy to have run a ½ marathon last week and survived it.
Dave Gazaway attended an event on Wednesday and was mistaken to be Peter Imse for all of about 15 seconds before being found out.
Raffle: Peter I picked his own ticket #325! He then picked the 2 of Hearts.
Program:
Chris Parkinson presented on “The Three Amigo’s Trip to India”
They attended a National Immunization Day (NID), a District Conference in Bangalore, visited Mumbai, a project in Bangalore and also went to Mysore and Mandanpalle.
Venu has an apartment in Bangalor. They stayed there for a bit. Every host was very gracious Chris said.
There are 25 languages in India (each state has its own). English and Hindi are the “official” languages.
Chris gave us some great stats on Polio over the past 30 years between 1985 when Rotary began our mission to eradicate it until 2015. Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan are the 3 countries who still show cases.
On Day 2 of the trip they did the NID in Madanpalle. There were pictures taken, they were on local TV, NID’s are a very big deal. They were all able to give immunizations.
Day 3 was to Mysore (pronounced more like “Miss or rue”), which is like a “Kingdome” palace.
They went to the Kabini River Wildlife Reserve. Tony had some great pics of the Tigress who knew how to work it and lots of Deer, Monkeys and Peacocks.
On Days 7 & 8 they attended the Bangalore District Conference, which had 1,500 people and excellent speakers.
Day 9 Chris went to Mumbai to meet with Rajul (Poorna’s Mom – for those who don’t know, Poorna was an incoming Exchange Student that our club hosted many years ago.) about our joint global grant on an e-learning project that we are working with her club on, the Bombay West Rotary Club. This is a $54,000 Global Grant project. During this trip they visited schools where the program is in place already.
Chris noted that Rotary Clubs have many things that they run that other Not for profits would run in our country. They have a school for the Hearing Impaired, a 74 bed Hospice facility and a blood bank to name a few.
Chris was also able to see Poorna and, of course, he had a song for us! He ended the program with his song “I Believe in Miracles, Dreams Do Come True”.
Pres Gale closed the meeting with “A Toast to Rotary the World Over.”
Respectfully submitted,
Donna Deos
P.S. The other cookie maker that I neglected to catch the name of last week was Michelle! She makes a delicious snickerdoodle! ;D
