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September 2021

One of the things which makes our club so unique is that we are made up of members from diverse backgrounds. We will continue to introduce you to each of our club members as we focus our Member Spotlight on Benjamin Ross Kurtis, who has been an influential member since 2017 and holds the un-official award of being the best dressed member of our club. Ben throws on his best suit and tie as he goes under our Member Spotlight, below. 
 
Rotary is all about supporting the local community, and sometimes that local community has four legs and a fur coat. Our club has been directly supporting the Voorhees Animal Orphanage with a fruit fundraising program which takes locally grown fruit from family run farms and sells it to the surrounding communities. Learn about how the VAO and Voorhees Breakfast Rotary Club have been supporting our furry neighbors in our Community Engagement segment, below. 
 
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Member Spotlight
Benjamin Ross Kurtis was born in Nashua, New Hampshire and moved to Montgomery County, Maryland when he was 3 years old. Ben lived in Maryland until graduating high school and moved to New England where he graduated from Boston University. After graduating from BU, Ben attended law school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Ben currently works as a litigator and lives in Cherry Hill, NJ with his wife, Faye, and daughter, Sarina.
We test Ben's nerves as he goes under our Member Spotlight, below.
 
Q: If your life had a highlight reel, what would be one of the top highlights?
Ben: I recently came back from a Disney vacation and one of the top highlights of my life was seeing Sarina's face when she saw all her favorite Lion King animals. 
 
Q: If you had a full extra hour added to your day, how would you spend it?
Ben: If I had a full extra hour in my day I would try to squeeze in a run. I always enjoyed running, even completed a marathon in 2011, but sadly haven't ran much since.
 
Q: If you could only eat out at one restaurant for the rest of your life, which restaurant and why?
Ben: I would choose Zahav, in Philadelphia. Not only the best Israeli food but maybe the best food I've ever eaten, period.
 
Q: What is something that you can do better than most people?
Ben: I have retained a vast amount of useless sports facts at the expense of everything else that might be of importance. 
 
Q: What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Ben: The best advice I've ever heard came from my dad and was very simple, he always told me "just do your best" so I've always tried to do that, and more. 
 
Q: What made you join Rotary?
Ben: I've always been involved with public service; at Boston University I volunteered with the mental illness helpline on campus and while at Case University I was the president of the school's Big Brother, Big Sister program. When I was looking for service organizations to join, the time of day which Voorhees Breakfast Rotary held their meetings worked perfectly for my schedule. 
 
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Community Engagement

The Voorhees Animal Orphanage has been in our community and saving lives of dogs and cats since 1988. Since their inception, the orphanage has saved the lives of over 35,000 pets, while serving 26 municipalities in southern New Jersey. The shelter does not receive any operational or financial support from the county it serves, they rely very heavily upon the generosity of charitable donations and fundraising events. 
 
The VAO's biggest fundraising event is their Annual Woofstock Festival which is a day-long, outdoor festival that celebrates community and pets. It is a fun-filled, family friendly day complete with many different vendors, food trucks, animal rescue groups, and a gigantic gift basket raffle.
 
Our club was lucky enough to be part of this year's 25th Annual Woofstock Festival, where club members had a chance to interact with the community and answer questions about who we are and what we do. It was great to be outside on a beautiful day, surrounded by all those well-behaved pets, and watching the ever-popular VAO Alumni Parade. 
 
For the past 4 years our club has been running a fundraiser selling locally grown fruit from family run farms with all the proceeds going directly to the VAO. This week, past club president, Chad Puschel, dropped off the proceeds from our fruit fundraising programs in the amount of $1,287.75. 
 
If you would like to personally support the VAO you can connect with them on their website.
Club member, Jordan Snyder with his dog Chulo at VAO's Woofstock Festival.
Club members Jacqui Canter, Doreen Goldberg, and Ilean Stein man the table at Woofstock. 
Past club president, Chad Puschel, giving proceeds to the VAO.
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On the first and third Thursday of each month we meet in person (and on Zoom) at Palace Diner in Berlin, 7:30am to 8:30. For more information contact Chad Puschel, Editor at puschel.chad@gmail.com