Meeting Date: April 10th, 2026
Presiding: President Dick Swett
Greeter: Ryan Anastasi
President Dick opened the meeting at 07:30 and Ryan shared a poem he had written.
Attendance:
| 31 |
Live |
| 4 |
Zoom |
| 0 |
Visiting Rotarians |
| 1 |
Guests |
| 0 |
Guest Speakers |
| 36 |
Total |
Guests: Finn Frost
Correspondence
- Thank you card from the Interact Club for our contributions to Waypoint.
- They raised $1685.
- Thank you from Rebecca Orca at Bow Elementary School for the speaker books.
- Postcard about 40 years of Rotary and Friends Forever International (FFI).
- Letter regarding Blood Cancer United fundraising campaign, "Visionaries of the Year." Team "Say Cheese for Olivia" is trying to raise $50,000 by June 4th. Emily from Interact brought the letter. The letter will be put on the tables for people to review.
Announcements:
- Cornhole tournament on May 19th, 6pm to 8:30pm at Allen's Restaurant in Boston.
- Roadside cleanup on April 18th at 8am. The group is full.
- First grade book reading and presentations on May 15th (day before the car show) at Bow and Dunbarton Elementary Schools. Sign-up sheet next week.
- Car show on May 16th. 25 pre-registered vehicles so far. Trophy sponsors are coming in and major sponsors have paid. Just need good weather.
- Interact: Can members volunteer at the car show? They had a meeting and want to know if members can volunteer. Suggestion to sign up with someone to coordinate shifts.
- April 22nd: Work project day for Bow High School kids at Turkey Pond boat ramp cleanup project. We need trash bags and a truck to take the trash to the dump.
- Summer Concerts - Thursday nights from July 9th to August 6th. Five shows. Sign up and attend.
- Invitation letters to friends, neighbors, and family will be sent out after April 15th.
- Next club board meeting is on the 20th at Tanya's house.
- Card going around for Evelyn, who is having a cardiac procedure.
- Cars and Coffee starts on Sundays downtown on April 12th to promote the car show.
- Mike Gula - Scholarship committee meets on Monday at 5:30 at Melissa's house. We received 9 applications.
Sergeant at Arms: David Farr
Birthdays: Steve DeStefano turned 70 while he was in Florida.
Health update on Ellen: health is rough, legs bend the wrong way, wearing braces.
Casey is doing well, hotel closed, still doing real estate, works for the Friendly Kitchen.
Allison is a clinician, getting her doctorate, adjunct professor at NHTI.
Kimberly has a master's degree from BU and works in social services.
David is still doing real estate.
Fines:
Happy Bucks:
- Jerry Kingwill - Thank you to Chris for the program.
- Durwood Sargent - Happy buck for a childhood friend who served on the USS Cutlass submarine. Longest commissioned submarine. It’s maiden voyage was from Portsmouth to Pearl Harbor.
- Tanya Frost - Counterproductive buck because someone is blowing the budget out of the water.
- Bill Ames - $5 for the hell of it.
- Tom Ives - Wild New Hampshire's on the 18th of this month. Kids fishing event at Merrill Park. Thank you to Judy for bringing fruit.
- Matt Gatzke - Project 1 is done, windows are in.
- Judy Goodnow - Happy buck for 5-year-old grandson Wesley being taught how to belch by his father.
- Mike Griffin - Easter was memorable because daughter Caitlin announced she's pregnant again (number three), and Andrew's wife is pregnant too. Caitlin is due the last week of October, Hannah is due the first week of November.
- Mike Gula - Warm weather is coming. Son hunted a coyote. Tax day is this Wednesday. Team in the office is going to get ice cream after work on Thursday.
Program: PDG Chris Parkinson was introduced
As CFO at Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Hampshire, Chris wanted to meet other professionals and get more involved in the community, so in 1988 he joined Rotary.
Rotary was busy with Winterfest and many other events and fund raisers.
Chris asked Alison Boyd, Bow’s ambassadorial scholar, how she was able to do so many things, said she never said no to opportunities.
Al Lindquist's presentation about an eye care mission to Tobago he had been on, which inspired Chris to go the following year. He went with Jeannie Richards and Linda Bliss.
He became an optician when he put glasses on an old woman who said, "God bless you."
Terry Shoemaker, ambassador to Trinidad Tobago, welcomed the Rotary Club to Tobago.
Hurricane Mitch hit Honduras in 1999 and Chris led the first mission to Honduras in 2001.
Became head of Amigos de Honduras.
Built 11 new schools, 6 additions, and repaired/painted 17 schools over 26 years.
Three schools named after members: John Sheridan School, Bob Couch School, and Chris Parkinson School. Got to know the people of Honduras. You don't have to be Rotarian to go. Mary Crooker went on every mission until she died of ALS.
Got to be DG by a "very circuitous route."
Australia GSE team came to this club. Dave Cook was the leader.
Katrina happened so 30 clubs pooled their money and raised $140,000 to refurnish a hospital and library.
Chris went to 90 different events with the clubs that invited him as DG.
His District Conference was in Lake Placid and 350 people attended. Bob was the chair of the conference. Chris Made Paul Harris fellows of all his family members.
Chris was the GSE team leader to Turkey.
Did a National Immunization Day in 2012 in India. 175 million children were vaccinated.
Donna is his favorite governor.
Chris sang a song he wrote and translated into Spanish and Turkish verses.
President Dick closed the meeting with a toast to Rotary the world over.
Respectfully Submitted,
Bob Couch
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