Posted by Gayle Demko on Apr 20, 2019
 
Club Meeting April 16, 2019
 
Opening and Welcome:  President Dick Kisiel opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and the recitation of the Rotary Four-Way Test.  Scott Seabury provided the invocation and led the club singing of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”.
 
Members Present: Dale Baker, Joe Blake, Gayle Demko, Jed Dery, Gail Handley, Jackie Hemond, Richard Kisiel, Jon Kozloski, Luis Lee, Robert Lowell, Don Miner, Jack Muska, Paul Muska, Ken Pasco, Roger Pratt, Jay Presser, Scott Seabury, Gordon Stagg, Cat Thomas and Nancy Viggiano.  (20/31….65%).
 
Guests: Our speaker, Jim Turek and Ginny Bromage (prospective member of Don Miner).
 
Announcements: 
Dick welcomed our speaker and Ginny to the meeting.
 
Nancy requests Rotary members to donate toward the raffle prizes available for the event, please bring your donations to the next three meetings.  Also noted, we are still identifying the craft beer company which will join as a tasting.  We haven’t had a company accept our invitation as yet.  And Nancy encouraged members to sell their tickets!  We hope to fill the dining hall on May 17!
 
Dick reports the Opioid kickoff is scheduled for April 27; alternative methods of pill disposal are being researched in lieu of purchasing and disbursing the pouches discussed earlier.  CVS has a similar product available for purchase. 
 
Robert Lowell announced the Suffield High Robotics team scored first in Western New England finals and reached the semi-finals in New England before being eliminated.  Great job!!
 
May 7 is the 300th Anniversary Committee’s fundraiser – a golf and dinner event at Suffield Country Club.  We hope to have a Rotary team for this event.
 
Program:
Jim Turek of the Polish Heritage Committee talked a bit about the early Polish settlers to Suffield.  East Street was initially known as Feather Street and Mountain Road was called West Road in the early days.  The grey cement building found on the South Side of Mountain Road just before the left turn Sheldon St (to the high school) was used to house workers on the second floor and farm equipment on the first floor.  The bridge across CT River from Suffield to Enfield was the first bridge to cross the river and from 1832-1893 this became a toll bridge.  Jim has hours of history he could relate; it was great learning a bit about early Suffield!
 
Blue Ticket Winners: Blue ticket winner was Luis Lee with side winners Gail and Joe.
Queen of Hearts:  Jackie Hemond had the winning ticket and did not pull the Queen of Hearts.  Total winning pot now stands at $385.
 
Birthdays and Anniversaries: No birthdays were celebrated this evening.
Adjournment: Scott closed the meeting with a group singing of “My Country Tis of Thee”.
 
Next week’s meeting–April 23
Chris Nikolis - PMC Kids Ride.