FARMINGTON ROTARY NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER
- November 3rd Meeting: November is Rotary Foundation month. As Foundation Chair, Cherilyn formally introduced our distinguished guest for the meeting, Prasad Menon, District 7890 Foundation Chair. Prasad updated the club on the mission of the Rotary Foundation: “The mission of the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, good will, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty.” For .60 a child can be protected from Polio, $50.00 can provide clean water to fight waterborne illnesses… Since the Foundation was founded over 100 years ago, the Foundation has spent more than $4 billion on life-changing sustainable projects. With your help we can make lives better in our community and around the world. Please be sure to make your donation this year! The club is asking for each Rotarian to contribute $100 toward the Foundation, and $33.00 toward the Polio Plus campaign. Thank you to those who have already contributed.
- November 10th Meeting: Elizabeth discussed the club’s service project of delivering Rotary bags filled with all kinds of goodies to local Veterans. In lieu of our annual Veteran’s luncheon that we canceled due to Covid restrictions, we were still able to honor and thank our Veterans by providing them with a bag full of assorted items such as socks, t-shirts, hats, cookies and candy. A special THANK YOU to Mary Lou for collecting all the items and preparing the bags with Mike Cheshire. Another special THANK YOU to Bette for the beautiful ‘Thank You’ card she designed to be included in each bag. And THANK YOU to our President Elizabeth and Paul, and Mike Cheshire and Wink for delivering the bags to 24 veterans on Veteran’s Day, 11/11. Mike’s grandsons added a special touch by helping Grandpa deliver the bags. Our club donated $1,500 to the Holiday Giving Program, a program under Farmington Community Services. They’ve been providing meals and gifts for over 250 families in town between Thanksgiving and Christmas for over 25 years. A special THANK YOU to Nancy Parent for all the work you do in our community, always putting Service Above Self!
- November 17th Meeting: We enjoyed a special presentation by Andy from the Stanley Whitman House. Andy brought us back in time talking about how Thanksgiving was honored back in Colonial times. Some of the common foods served were corn, beans, squash and deer, as turkeys were scarce. Andy was hoping to share a video of a colonial Thanksgiving filmed at the Stanley Whitman House, but it was not published in time for our meeting. So please enjoy the video called “A Colonial Thanksgiving”, by visiting Stanley Whitman’s website at: www.stanleywhitman.org. We concluded with a beautiful nostalgic video and song of “Over the River and Through the Woods”. We had a bit of fun to end our meeting by asking each Rotarian what their favorite Thanksgiving pie was…the top 2 were pecan pie and apple crumb pie! (Glad to know I’m not the only non-fan of minced meat pie).
- November 24th Meeting: We enjoyed a wonderful ‘Fireside Chat’ with special guest Harry Kraiza, who is a Charter Member of our club, and current Rotarian in Delaware. Harry did a walkthrough of how our club started, and the many changes & special memories over the years as our club evolved, most notable the admission of our first female Rotarian, Barbara LaRochelle, on September 1, 1987, against the wishes of some of the members. GO BARBARA! So happy to still have you as a member. Thank you to Mike Cheshire for arranging our special guest to join us.
- November 25th Service Project: Rotarians gathered at Highland Park Market on November 24th to pick up Rotary bags filled with a delicious Thanksgiving meal prepared by Highland Park, along with fruit and a pie donated by Gnazzo’s Food Center, and candy purchased by Elizabeth’s daughter Lauren as an extra special treat. Highland Park Market was kind enough to donate 10 of the 20 meals. A special THANK YOU to Brendan and Elizabeth’s Paul, for purchasing the additional 10 meals. Nancy Parent provided a list of individuals in our community most in need, and Rotarians were assigned names to deliver the meals to. THANK YOU to Elizabeth, Paul & Cherilyn for preparing the bags, and to Mike Cheshire, Brendan, Dave & Robin, Andy and Chris for heading out to deliver the meals. Mike Cheshire’s grandson joined to help deliver meals, learning firsthand at such a young age about Service Above Self from his Grandpa!
- November 30th Rotary Mentoring Session: Mike Cheshire, our Alt School liaison, worked with Margaret Mayr of the Alt School to coordinate a virtual mentoring session on interviewing & employment application skills for students of the Alt School. Mike Cheshire played a pre-recorded video with Brian Gibbons, Highland Park Market Manager. The video was a Q & A between Mike and Brian discussing interviewing skills and the job application process.
- Salvation Army ‘Help Rescue Christmas’ initiative: To help rescue those facing poverty, hunger, and job loss, the Salvation Army has created an alternative way to raise funds for Farmington in lieu of bell ringing this year. The Salvation Army created a link for donations, please visit:
- Our clubs fundraising goal is $5,000, currently we have raised $501, and have quite a way to go to meet our goal. Again, please share the link (also posted on our Farmington Rotary Facebook page) with local businesses, friends and family.
- Our next service project will be “Adopt a Senior” for the holidays! Please stay tuned for more information!!
- Be on the lookout for December's newsletter coming in the beginning of January.
Wishing you all a wonderful holiday!