President Gerry opened the meeting at 07:30 and greeter Ryan shared some inspiration.
Attendance:
25
Live
6
Zoom
0
Visiting Rotarians
5
Guests
0
Guest Speakers
36
Total
Guests were our Four-Way Test Competitors: Joseph Albushies (also Joseph’s mother and grandmother), Matthew Kropp and Emily Fauteux.
Program: Four Way Test Speech Winner's Speeches
Committee Chair Katie Minihan introduced each of our Four Way Test top three place winners’ speeches, followed by their award presentations.
Emily Fauteux came in third place and spoke about family hardship when her aunt had cancer and how it took a village to step in to help raise the children when her aunt was in the hospital.
Matthew Kropp who talked about homelessness and how kindness and volunteering could build more goodwill to those less fortunate.
Joseph Albushies, who won first place, spoke about the need for a community center in Bow and how it would create a hub and a place for community and build more meaningful relationships.
Sergeant at Arms: Joya Dennehy filled in for Tanya Frost
Birthdays: none
Fines: 1-Late Fine
Happy Bucks:
Ryan Anastasi enjoyed a week on the island of Turks and Caicos with Kendra (that must have been difficult).
Bob Couch recognized Katie’s great efforts to put forth a successful Four-Way Speech Contest.
Katie Minihan thanked all those that assisted in making the Four-Way Speech Contest a great success!
Mike Gula was also happy about how well the Four-Way Speech Contest went, and he was equally excited about completing a twenty-mile running event, his furthest to date! Way to go Mike!
Matt Gatzke ran into past Bow Rotarians, Noreen Christensen and Jeff Kipperman, and reported that they are doing well and hopes they will come to future meetings.
Linda Bliss had a great time with her grandson, who visited her for a week.
Durwood’s grandson was traveling to Bangkok to visit his dad, however, there was an issue with his Visa so he was not able to stay. His grandson took this in stride and reported how nice the people were to him and how he had curry dish(?) for breakfast at a popular food chain.
Eric Anderson ran into a past Bow Rotarian, George Sichelstiel.
Jon Ruggles reported that he and his wife, Jacqueline, made the choice to raise their granddaughter, Jackie, twenty years ago and was happy to report that Jackie just celebrated her 20th birthday.
Dave Farr and his wife took their daughter to the Siena College in New York, where they were treated like royalty by all. The family moved forward with placing the deposit on their daughter attending the school, specifically the Criminal Justice Studies Program.
Steve DeStefano was pleased to state that the Main Hockey team is winning, and predicts they will continue to win.
Dick Swett was please to tell us that one of his numerous grandsons participated in the Hopkinton Rotary Four-Way Speech Contest, he placed 2nd!
Tamar Roberts was sorry that she missed the Four-Way Speech Contest, but not too sad as she replaced it with celebrating her son’s 30th birthday via a facetime meeting with him from Australia.
Chris Parkinson may have been the most pleased of all, as his water line is no longer frozen!!! Also, he took his wife, Janine, and daughters to a show at the Palace Theatre titled “Escape to Margaritaville” (sounds great to me).
Ben Kiniry was most pleased to announce the receipt of a $2,500 gift from the Rotary Club of Concord, thereby completing the funding needed to move forward with the Thrive Pad Pilot Project, taking place in Nigeria, Africa.
Announcements:
The club received a thank you note from Rebecca Orcutt, of the Bow Elementary School library, thanking us for providing books on an ongoing basis.
The club has raised a sum of funds greater than $1,000 to be gifted to the family of the recently, and tragically, deceased, Christopher Girard, husband, father and Firefighter. The board of directors will consider adding an additional sum of funds to this donation.
Linda Bliss informed the membership to look at the two forms the committee sent out and consider whom they would like to nominate for awards to be presented on Recognition Night, which is scheduled for June 12, 2025. Please give this some consideration and provide your nominations.
Board meeting Monday night, via zoom.
22 Rotarians were in attendance at the Four Way Speech Contest, a very positive turnout.
Tanya Frost and Dick Swett will be attending the PETS training this weekend.
Pres Gerry: The town of Bow Highway Department has helped us located a very large granite stone which will be modified and utilized as a new marker for Rotary Park. The stone is being transported to Peterborough NH for shaping and machining changes to make it into a suitable marker.
.jpg)
.png)
