November 16 TRI-GEAR REPORT
Flag Salute: President Joeen Ciannella
Invocation: Peter Wells
Members Present: B. Balentine, B. Bustard, I. Chazotte, J. Ciannella, B. Cohen, P. DiRosa, J. Doornbosch, S. Fox, S. Gold, R. Guller, S. Hopper, A. Kilmartin, P. Little, F. Logan, R. Padovano, C. Rose, G. Sherman, N. Swales, Peter Wells, Phil Wells.
Visiting Rotarians and Guests: Rotarian Fred Hutter (Paramus A.M.); Brittany Vozza (grand-daughter of a former Park Ridge Rotarian and guest of Phil Wells).
Late Fines: Cindy, Jan, Bob Balentine, Fay, Irma, Steve Fox, Bob Guller.
Photo Fines: None
Birthdays and Anniversaries: Members enthusiastically sang "Happy Birthday" to Ralph Padovano.
Sunshine - Our thoughts and prayers go out to all who are currently contending with adversity of one type or another:
Stuart Gold reported that Harriet Kallet's husband Steve was in need of a second hip replacement as a result of having a faulty device implanted during the first operation.
Lisa Peck and Vlad Zherenovsky suffered some bad storm damage.
Nancy Swales' son was recently diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and is currently undergoing treatment.
Happiness:
by George Sherman
There were two major sources of Happy Dollars today. One was in recognition of the tremendous work being done by Peter Wells in his role as Chairman of District 7490 Disaster Relief. The other was the return of Ralph Padovano to our midst.
Cindy Rose was happy to announce that Dr. David Butler has been nominated for an award for his work in Haiti.
Nancy Swales was happy to be going to her daughter's for Thanksgiving.
Bob Balentine was happy that electricity had been restored to those for whom he was refrigerating food. He was also especially appreciative of the efforts of the Park Ridge Fire Department for helping him at his house during the height of the storm.
Irma Chazotte was happy to be leaving on a road trip soon.
Ralph Padovano was happy to be back with us.
Bob Bustard was happy to have been reunited with his I-Phone thanks to some amazing technology.
Phil Wells was happy to have Brittany Vozza here as his guest today.
Ann Kilmartin was happy to have her "favorite" son (according to Nancy) coming to visit for Thanksgiving.
Steve Hopper was happy to report that most Park Ridge residents had their power restored within 48 hours.
Peter Wells was guardedly happy to be having 48 family members coming to his house for Thanksgiving dinner.
Nancy Kilmartin was happy that club members had made it safely through Sandy.
Bob Guller was happy for Steve Hopper's re-election to the Council and to be rid of the campaign signs.
Announcements:
by George Sherman
Thanks to the efforts of several Rotarians, bookplates have been applied to the dictionaries that were delivered to Jan's warehouse and "What's Rotary" tri-folds have been inserted. We hope to complete distribution by the end of the month. The tentative plan is for Michelle Albergo and Vlad Zherenovsky to make arrangements to deliver dictionaries in Woodcliff Lake, Steve Fox to deliver them to Memorial School in Montvale, your editor and Dick Beattie to deliver to OLM while Stuart Gold and Steve Hopper will be taking care of East Brook and West Ridge in Park Ridge. If you want to be part of the process, please e-mail glsjr2@optonline.net or call 201-664-7924.
Fay Logan has announced that plans are in place for our 2nd annual St.Paddy's Day celebration to be held on Friday, March 15 at the Park Ridge Elks Club. Nightingale Catering will be providing the food once again.
Bernie Cohen has prepared a flyer for this year's Fruit Sale. It has been sent as an e-mail attachment to all club members and District Presidents as well as to friends of the club. Additional flyers may be downloaded from the Download section on the left sidebar of our website. Members are encouraged to forward flyers to friends, relatives and business contacts. Orders will be accepted until November 24. Delivery is scheduled for Saturday, December 1 between 10:00 and noon at the Merrill Lynch parking lot, 50 Chestnut Ridge Road, Montvale. Call 201-391-4249 for additional information. TO DATE, FEWER THAN 150 CASES HAVE BEEN ORDERED. THIS IS TRADITIONALLY ONE OF OUR MAJOR FUND RAISERS OF THE ROTARY YEAR. WE DESPERATELY NEED YOUR HELP IN MAKING THIS EVENT A SUCCESS.
Mark Your Calendar with these UPCOMING EVENTS:
by George Sherman
Mon., Nov. 19 - Happy Birthday Park Ridge Rotary Club - Our club first received its Charter on November 19, 1928.
Tues., Nov. 20 - Board Meeting - Pascack Historical Society - 19 Ridge Ave., Park Ridge - 6:00 dinner;6:30 meeting.
Th., Nov. 22 - Happy Thanksgiving!!
Fri., Nov. 23 - NO CLUB MEETING THIS WEEK. ENJOY THE THANKSGIVING WEEKEND!
Fri., Nov. 30 - District Governor Bonnie Sirower will be visiting our club. This will be the Governor's Official Visit for Rotary Year 2012-13. All Officers and members of the Board of Directors are asked to arrive at The Courtyard at 11:00 that day for a preliminary meeting with the Governor.
Sun., Dec. 16 - Annual Club Holiday Party at Old '76 House in Tappan, NY.
District 7490 Relief Efforts:
by George Sherman
Peter Wells gave club members a first-hand account of the latest relief efforts being carried out by the District on behalf of the victims of Hurricane Sandy.
To date, Peter and 145 volunteers have taken in 32 truck or car loads and have delivered 14 very full van or SUV loads to our area, to the Jersey Shoreline and to the east coast of New York. They have filled, and then emptied the 4,000 square foot warehouse/sorting center in Paramus 3 times! Using 10 vans and 2 trucks, they have even passed along 20 TONS of used clothing to Goodwill, the Salvation Army and the Vietnam Vets Association. In addition, over $40,000 has come into the District in monetary donations.
At this point, the first phase of the relief effort has been completed. Any further shipments will be re-routed to Eatontown or to Far Rockaway. Our District will begin Phase II under the direction of Ridgewood AM Rotarian Jay Fowler. That effort will involve the restoration and rebuilding of sites that were damaged and is expected to begin sometime after Thanksgiving.
Still needed are cash donations and gift cards for stores such as Lowe's, Home Depot, Walmart and Target, so that displaced residents can buy food, supplies, etc. to rebuild. You are asked to send donations to the Rotary District 7490 Walter D. Head Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, c/o Calisto Bertin, Bertin Engineering, 66 Glen Avenue, Glen Rock, NJ 07452, USA.
Peter thanked everyone for their cooperation, donations and support through this first phase.
President Joeen expressed the pride we all feel in Peter's indefatigable efforts and thanked him for a job well done.