Stories

Lynn Rotary Partners with Lynn Police and GLSS to distribute food

The Greater Lynn Senior Services (GLSS) monthly Brown Bag/Mobile Market Program continues to be a wonderful example of what can happen when community organizations work together.

For several years, members of the Rotary Club of Lynn have joined the Lynn Police Department’s CBD Bike Patrol Team and GLSS staff to help distribute fresh food and groceries to local seniors and community members. The program has become an important part of our ongoing commitment to addressing food insecurity in Lynn, and an opportunity for Rotarians to work side by side with some terrific community partners.

We would especially like to recognize Officer Tom Morley, who has been a dedicated part of this partnership and a familiar face at our GLSS distributions. As Officer Morley prepares for retirement, the Rotary Club of Lynn wishes him all the best in this next chapter.

Of course, retirement from the Lynn Police Department doesn’t have to mean retirement from mornings at GLSS! We hope we will continue to see Tom at future distributions, perhaps just without the uniform. And Tom, there is always a seat waiting for you at the Rotary Club of Lynn!

Pictured: Rotarian Ann McCarthy and GLSS Nutrition Coordinator Kathie Ho; Officers Michael McEachern, Chris Kelly and Tom Morley; Rotarian Steve Upton; Mackie Bastarache; Ray Bastarache; John McCarthy; Cindy McCarthy; and GLSS Chief Executive Officer and Lynn Rotarian Kathryn C. Burns.

See more pictures here:

For the past 10 years, the North Shore Juneteenth Association has brought our community together to celebrate liberation, faith, culture and community, and the Rotary Club of Lynn is proud to recognize our own Rotarian Nicole McClain for her extraordinary leadership as founder of the organization. What began with a commitment to educate and unite has grown into an annual Lynn tradition filled with music, dance, spoken word, local vendors, food and fellowship; all offered freely to the community. This year's celebration at Lynn Common once again demonstrated the power of bringing people together.

Behind a decade of successful celebrations is a dedicated team of volunteers and supporters. We also pause to remember Nicole's mother, Larnell Lane, one of the Association's steadfast supporters who generously gave her time, encouragement and helping hands throughout the years. Her quiet service helped strengthen the organization, and her legacy of resilience, generosity and love continues through the work she helped make possible.

Congratulations to Nicole, the North Shore Juneteenth Association team, and the many performers, volunteers, vendors, faith leaders and community partners who have contributed to 10 remarkable years. Nicole's leadership and commitment to service embody the Rotary spirit, and we are proud to have her as a member of the Rotary Club of Lynn. Here's to continuing the work of educating, celebrating and uniting our Lynn community for many years to come.

A great turnout at Camp Rotary in Boxford this week as 20 Lynn Rotary members attended a luncheon there to spend time with campers and see them in action during various camp activities. The members enjoyed several hours seeing the grounds, talking with staff and camp counselors, and hanging out with campers in their beautiful element. 

Lynn Rotary sponsored 50 campers this summer but the camp services well over 1000 campers that come from all over the North Shore, Metro Boston area and even visitors from outside the country.  See some pictures from the day:

The September Book Club meeting is scheduled for Monday, September 14, 2026 at 5:30.  We will be meeting in the small room at the Old Tyme Italian Restaurant, and dinner afterward is optional, from the menu.  The book chosen to be discussed at this meeting is Daughter of Egypt, by Marie Benedict.  The protagonists of the Marie Benedict’s  books are usually strong and accomplished women and this book will offer the same.  Additionally,  while this book will not be as intensive technologically as in our August book choice, Project Hail Mary, the book will provide exciting historical fiction story centered around the world of archeology and Egyptian history.  Registration is already open for the meeting so if you plan to attend, please register now by clicking the registration button below.  Here is what Amazon has to say about the book:

Lynn Rotary has always tracked the volunteer hours donated by Rotarians to organizations within the city such as the Salvation Army, Greater Lynn Senior Services, and My Brothers Table.  Those hours are reported to Rotary International for the purpose of identifying Rotary charitable work around the world.   This tracking in Lynn has been done by hand in the past and only included the time spent at these places.  We are now using a portion of Clubrunner to help us in this effort and are now trying to track members wider involvement in various committees, or all of our local charitable efforts.  

At the end of this newsletter we have tried to identify the charitable efforts undertaken by members.  Please review your involvement in any of the committees or efforts identified in 2025-2026.  Involvement could mean planning, donating, volunteering, or just showing up to support people.

"Thank you, Allie," for sharing the inspiring work of The Salem Pantry and its innovative approach to addressing food insecurity in our communities. We appreciate your dedication to ensuring that fresh, healthy food is accessible to all, regardless of income or circumstance. The Lynn Rotary Club encourages our members to learn more about The Salem Pantry's mission and consider volunteering, donating, or partnering with this remarkable organization as we continue our shared commitment to service and helping our neighbors in need.

At our most recent Lynn Rotary meeting, we were proud to celebrate our newest Rotarians with the presentation of their membership certificates and a Lynn Rotary ball cap as a small token of welcome and appreciation. We are excited to have these dedicated individuals join our Rotary family and become part of our commitment to service, fellowship, and community impact.

As we begin a new Rotary year in July, we look forward to building upon this momentum by increasing member engagement, strengthening relationships, and welcoming even more new members into our club. Together, we will continue to grow our ability to serve the Lynn community and live Rotary's motto of "Service Above Self."

 

Since 1996, the Rotary Club of Lynn has carried forward Joe’s vision through its Eighth Grade Recognition Program, the Club’s signature event. To date, hundreds of students from Lynn’s middle schools have been honored for their resilience and perseverance.

The May 2026 program, coordinated by Rotarian Irene Cowdell, recognized one student from each of eight local schools. Students and their families gathered for a celebratory luncheon, generously sponsored by RiverWorks Credit Union—a meaningful reminder of the power of encouragement at just the right moment.

adapted from January2026 bulletin 

Dear Marnie and Lynn Rotary Club Members,

Thank you so very much for your concern, care, kindness and amazingly generous financial support during this challenging time for me. Please know how very much that I appreciate this and how very grateful I am for it as well!

Sincerely, Frank

Welcome March and welcome Spring! 

While this has been a cold and snowy winter, Lynn Rotary is on FIRE! We welcomed 3 new corporate members, 

• Adiel Lopez - Rockland Trust in January

• Kerry Ranieri- Reading Cooperative Bank in February

• Santiago Aguilar - King Movers & Storage in February

Please reach out to them and give them a warm welcome either in person or over the phone. You can find contact information for them and for all our Lynn Rotary members in Club Runner either on your computer or in the app on your mobile device.

As we grow our membership we are going to increase our in-person events. We are receiving more requests from outside organizations who want to come and speak to our members as word is getting out that our monthly Lynn Rotary meetings are filled with great energy and good people.

Beginning this month we will meet for dinner at Old Tyme on the 3rd Thursday of each month, from 5:30-7pm, even in the months when we host our 8th grade luncheons. 

Beginning in April, on the 1st Thursday evening of each month Lynn Rotary members will be making a “Lynn Rotary Tour” of various non-profits and service centers across Lynn. These will be opportunities for Lynn Rotarians to learn more about the good work that is being done across the city by the many different groups that call Lynn home.

Frank Grealish and Kim Lee are doing a great job reaching out to Lynn organizations to make these tours possible.

Please invite your friends, family and co-workers to our monthly dinners and Rotary Tours to share how we do “Service Above Self” a little bit differently here at Lynn Rotary. We are always open to inviting more to join us in our mission. 

Yours in Service Above Self,

Jean-Marie Minton

President 2024-2025 

LEAP for Education (LEAP) runs free, after-school and summer programs designed to bridge the opportunity gap for students from underserved communities across Essex County, Massachusetts. These programs offer students the ability to explore and engage in their communities in a way that will lead them to careers that align with their strengths and interests.

Wishing our Rotarian Community Hero a

 Happy 100th!

 Reverend Bill Simpson, will soon be 100 years old. He was a Pastor of Bethany United Church of Christ of Lynn for 40 years.  After officially retiring from active ministering, he was a volunteer pastor at the First Church Congregational in Swampscott. He was an ordained minister for over 60 years.  He has been married for 41years to Margaret, better known as Peg. He was born in Maryland in the mid 1920’s and raised on a farm.  He has a son Timothy as well as three grandchildren. In 1995, the Rotary Club of Lynn honored one of their own members, the Reverend William Simpson, for his contributions to the community and for his support for Rotary causes over many years. 

Reverend Simpson was also an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Edinburgh, Scotland in 1952-53, and joined the Lynn Rotary Club in 1983. In his nearly 40 years of membership, Reverend Simpson was known as a true Rotarian who lived the principal of “Service Above Self”.  He was the Program Committee Chairman, and participated in many Rotary activities over the years.  He has been a strong supporter of Camp Rotary, a member of its Board, and helped each year in helping to identify local youths as camp participants in need of scholarship help. He was a youth counsellor in public schools in Lynn and Lynnfield for several years. 

Reverend Bill consistently volunteered to serve at My Brother’s Table well into his 90’s. He worked shoulder to shoulder with members 30 and 40 years younger than him. Bill was a regular volunteer at the monthly Catholic Charities food distribution. Unfortunately, Covid put a temporary stop to both of those activities. During the period when My Brother’s Table could not have volunteers inside, Bill and Peg made hundreds of PB&J’s at home for delivery to the “Table” numerous times. 

In the summer of 2021 he provided personal funds to a woman so she could have an old RV towed from NH to Lynn for a place to call home for several months.

In September 2022, he reached out to a member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society to assist a woman with an urgent food need and in need of emergency funds for a dental procedure. 

Those are only a couple examples of people reaching out to the “Reverend” for assistance.  They knew that he was a person one could reach out to for help.

A blessing to our Lynn Community and rotary club.

Ted Dillard has a reputation for getting a whole lot of people together in a very small room, supplying them with all manner of interesting devices, and watching what happens. He can most generously be called an “enabler”.

The Founder and now Co-Director of The Brickyard Collaborative, he credits The Brickyard Collaborative as an idea that was perfect for a city that was ripe for opportunity a makerspace could afford, and didn’t know enough about him to run him out of town at the outset.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be your Club President for this second year.

We decided to bring back the Lynn Rotary newsletter to highlight all the good work done every month by our Lynn Rotarians.

As of October 1, we have 61 active members and 8 honorary members. Other clubs want to know our secret sauce. We tell them folks join Lynn Rotary because “we do stuff.” While we surely love to get together over a meal at Old Tyme on the third Thursdays or at The Tiger’s Den in Lynn Tech on any Friday during the school year, truth be told, we’d rather fill a need than fill our belly. Every month our members show up at Greater Lynn Senior Services, Salvation Army and My Brother’s Table to help distribute groceries and meals. At other times we’re making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for MTB in the church basement at St. Pius V.

For more than 100 years Lynn Rotary has organized the Lynn All City Thanksgiving Luncheon for the high school football teams, cheerleaders and band. In January we distribute dictionaries to the 3rd graders in all the Lynn public schools. Three times a year we celebrate students who have overcome great challenges at our 8th Grade Recognition Luncheons. In May we co-sponsor the Special Games at Manning Field.

The list goes on! Who do you know who would love to be part of this? Who do you know who understands “Service Above Self?” Bring them to one of our events or a service project. And thank you for all you do for Lynn Rotary and in turn for Lynn.

For the first time in 14 months, the Rotary Club of Lynn met in person Thursday night, May 20, 2021, for the purpose of awarding scholarships to five students. 

The Rotary Club of Lynn's Scholarship Committee had a very difficult time, after reviewing some 29 applications from nine area high schools where Lynn seniors attend, before finally reaching consensus on four truly outstanding students to be recipients of the Richard Maloney and Robert Hastings Memorial Scholarships. Valerie Von and Olga Hernandez of Lynn English, Sara Melara of Lynn Vocational Technical Institute and Rebecca Smalley of Essex Technical High School were announced by Committee chairman Dr. Ray Bastarache as the “best of the best” at Thursday's luncheon meeting at the Porthole Restaurant.

Thank you Tom McGee - Mayor of Lynn for speaking at yesterday’s luncheon meeting. We all enjoyed your presentation and update on what’s going on in the city of Lynn. 

We wish you all a happy and safe Happy Memorial Day weekend!

The Rotary Club of Lynn, MA would like to thank all those who attended our 100th Year Celebration Wednesday evening. We had a great time and enjoyed catching up with Rotarians from all around, District leadership, city officials, community members and Rotary International President Ian Riseley. 

It was our pleasure to present Rotarian Obie Barker with a very well deserved Paul Harris Award. 

Thank you to the Lynn Item for this great article. 

https://www.itemlive.com/2018/05/02/rotary-club-lynn-celebrates-100-years-service/