Welcome new members

Dave introduced Tony Orecchio as a past member of Rotary - 4 years in Penetang, serving there as President and 3 in Lindsay - but new to our Club.  He grew up in Whitby, one of 7 children and may have played rugby against Jamie Tripp.  He went to Laurentian and then spent 17 years with TD, moving around a bit.  He took a break from banking and worked in real estate for a while but missed the Georgian Bay and joined the BMO and is now commercial account manager.  He and Nancy have 2 children and 3 grandchildren.

Arnie declared this a joyous occasion, introducing his oldest son to the Rotary family.  John grew up here, went to St. Andrews and spent quite some time at Western but when he came back to Midland he had decided to start a construction company and though his father expressed reservations John said just watch and he did it on his own.  John is the third generation Rotarian - his grandfather was a member in Toronto and a President.  John is married to Natalie and they have one son.

Fred Hacker said it is a special occasion for John and Tony to be admitted to an effective association that promotes and exhibits the qualities of leadership in head and heart.  It is special for the rest of the Club as well as it gives us the opportunity to refresh our understanding of what it means and to renew our commitment to the organization and to our duty to encourage, support and inspire new members.  We extend the spirit of community to Tony and John.

Ours is not a political organization - it promotes citizenship.  It is not a charity - it assumes a responsibility to help others.  It is not religious - but it professes eternal principles and moral standards.  It is a group of business people uniting under the banner of service.  The life of the organization comes from its members and new life comes from the introduction of new members.

The motto of Service Above Self encourages and fosters the idea of service, it promotes ethical standards and it embraces the worthiness of all occupations as providing an opportunity to serve and to advance international understanding and world fellowship.  In all things we apply the 4 way test because members of Rotary are judged by their behaviour and members act as ambassadors of Rotary in the world with the 1.2 million other members of the 34,000 clubs in the 530 Districts around the world.  The Midland Club welcomes Tony and John to the fellowship of Rotary and encourages them to use their enthusiasm and abilities to help make the world a better place.  We invite them to join but it is each member who makes themselves a Rotarian.

The obligations of Rotary are to attend, to pay the dues and to take part by joining in projects and serving on Committees.  Only busy people are eligible and although there is much to give, much is received as we commit to make John and Tony feel welcome.  We know our principles are safe in the hands of these newest members of Rotary and we extend the hand of fellowship to Rotary's newest members.

John thanked his father and his Uncle Fred and said that his joining is not a revolutionary event, he feels he's been part of Rotary all his life and has observed the rewards of membershiop.  He felt the room  was full of large shadows - a room of success and commitment and charity and he hopes to get to know all the members better and to grow with the Club.  Tony said the welcome he'd received here was overwhelming and that meant a lot to him.  He suggested a good way to realize what a great community we have here is to live somewhere else for a while so he is glad to be here and to be a new part of Rotary and he looks forward to contributing.