Rotarians,
At last week´s meeting, I passed the gavel of the club to the new President for the 2020-2021 term, Stefanie Joy Muscat. Thank you to everyone who joined us. We had a delightful time with final remarks of my year (see below) and welcoming words from Stefanie.
Again, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the club to serve you as President for this year. It was an honor.
Recognition of this year for going Above and Beyond went to:
Aurora Hilton
Colleen Maynard
Mike Madell
Paul Harris Award:
Past President Carrie Jones
Remember that Rotary can only be as great as it members and those willing to be involved.
President Susy
Outgoing Speech by President Susy Del Cid-Papadopoli:
“Friends and fellow Rotarians, I would like to thank you for joining us this evening to celebrate.
I am proud to have been given the opportunity to serve as President of the club for the 2019-2020 term.
I would like to thank:
- Our board for their commitment to our club and for all their hard work to ensure we had a successful year.
- Our club members for doing what you do so well, which is rise to the occasion when called upon to make our community and the world a better place for all.
- Our District Governor Suzanne Uhl-Melanson and Assistant Governor David Wells for their guidance, positive attitude and encouragement.
- And last, but not least, to my husband Corey for his support throughout the year.
You should all be pleased with what we, as a club, accomplished this year. Almost all of what we set out to do was completed. The unprecedented situation of Covid-19 limited the club the past few months, preventing us from doing some of our end of the year projects and fundraisers, but we are still here, hopeful, and ready for another successful year.
Our theme this year was “Rotary Connects the World.” How did we measure up?
- Our weekly meetings were well attended, including Zoom meetings.
- The Admin committee did a great job and brought us interesting and inspiring speakers from different fields such as health, science and non-profit organizations to name a few.
- Another remarkable year for our Foundation in which we exceeded our goal by 25% with a successful fundraiser with Polio Plus.
- In membership, we welcomed four new Rotarians this year.
- PR did a great job participating in the bed races and updating our social media platforms incorporating a few interesting articles about all that we do in the club.
- We had a Successful Seafood Festival last July, thanks to lots of hard work from Ron Wrobel, Robert Recholtz and all the members and volunteers. It was a lot of fun and we raised around $21,000.
- In Service this year, we had volunteers who participated in:
- Town Hill Playground clean up
- Back Pack Program
- Comfort Cases
- MDI Marathon
- Little Free Library and during Covid Little Free Pantry
- Polio Day and the Purple Pinkie Project
- The Bed Races
- Ellsworth Rotary Annual Pancake Breakfast
- The Scholarship Committee worked hard and granted four scholarships to students from MDI High School.
- The Golden Apple was given to the MDI Regional School System for the effort they made to finish the school year despite all the challenges presented by the Pandemic.
- Three participants, including two members of the club, were sent to RYLA.
- We collaborated with DG Suzanne Uhl-Melanson and donated $2,250.00 for her District Project in Guatemala.
- The Charitable Committee donated $12,000 to well-deserved non-profit organizations on the island and beyond.
- In International activities, we collaborated with the Ellsworth Club and Bangor Breakfast Club to send 115 wheelchairs to Panama. The chairs will hopefully be distributed in the month of December.
- We have two Paul Harris Recipients: Art Blank and Jane Adams for their generous contributions to the Rotary Foundation.
- We had four Sargeant of Arms this year. Thanks to Steve Boucher, Lisa Horsch Clarke, Scott Hammond and Stefanie Muscat for volunteering to do this task.
Unfortunately, this year we lost one of our long time Rotarians, Benni McMullen. Benni belonged to the club for 19 years and was a Paul Harris Fellow. She was an honorary Rotarian for the last few years. We will remember and cherish her memory always.
Again, thanks to my board: Martha, Ron, Steve, Stefanie, Colleen, Josh, Aurora, Chris, Carrie and Liz for all your help. From the bottom of my heart, thank you, and I hope you liked my gifts to you.
To Stephanie and her incoming board: I wish you well in the year ahead. Stephanie, I know at this point it looks like a large mountain to climb, but it will be a fun journey, and you will have the support of all our members as you move forward. It all starts with the first step, which you take tonight.
In closing, I thank you again for giving me this opportunity. One of my personal goals for the year was for all of us to have fun, and I hope that you did. Thanks for bearing with me and my funny accent, and I hope it wasn’t too hard to understand me.
It is now my final duty to pass on the club gavel to your new President, Stefanie Joy Muscat.
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