We enjoyed a fun evening at the Redwood as Frank greeted 25 Naples Rotarians and 3 guests. Our program tonight was presented by Rotary Exchange Student Anna Yang. Her current host mom, Maura Sullivan and her classmate, Carly Waltman joined the gathering!

 

Jack started with the bell followed by the Pledge. Our song was America the Beautiful. Wonderful Words of Inspiration were provided by Sherry and Patrice. They collaborated on a poster for the District 7120 Conference coming up May 2nd-4th in Corning. Patrice described in poem the ways we "Expand Our Reach" to youth around the world. Sherry illustrated the poem in pictures and photos of our Club in action. The poster will definitely shine at the Conference. Thanks to Patrice and Sherry for a great job!

 

Announcements:

We need a volunteer to coordinate our programs each week. Please speak to Jack if you can take on this role.

 

We received notes of "Thanks" from the Clifton Springs Rotary for the gift basket we gave to the District  Learning Assembly and for our donation to Hospeace House's Monte Carlo Night in May.

 

Sadly, Alex (Mama) Leto, a longtime Rotary member, has passed away at Thompson Hospital. She will be missed for her warmth, sense of humor and great cooking. Calling hours are on Friday, 4/18, 4-7pm at Baird in Naples. A Celebration of Life will be planned this summer.

 

Liz and Clyde are leaving early for Hawaii as Clyde's mom isn't doing well. 

 

The Trout Derby 2025 was one of the most profitable yet! 402 Anglers registered and 118 fish were recorded. Income ($6550) minus expenses ($1373) netted a profit of $5177. 

 

Great Grape Derby tickets have been distributed to all members. Jill and Marty will need ticket stubs, money and unsold tickets by May 5th. Race is on May 10th.

Payments can be made on Zeffy.

 

Skip is taking reservations for our Spring Dinner at Engine 14 on 4/28. Catering is from Barton Hospitality, cost is $30.

 

April is Maternal/Child Health Month and Environment Month. We will be packaging 500 trees on April 21st after our meeting, for distribution to schools for Arbor Day. Location is Mike Joseph's garage on Harwood Lane. 6-10 people are needed to do this job in about an hour.

 

Anna Yang gave her presentation on her homeland and Rotary experiences this year. Anna is 16 years old and lives with Dad, Mom and older brother who is also an exchange student this year in Washington state. Dad owns a restaurant and mom is a housewife. Anna's city is Taoyuan in the northern part of Taiwan. The population is about 2.3 million. It is hot and humid, subject to typhoons and the "Ring of Fire" earthquakes.

Her high school Ta Hwa is a boarding school 30 minutes from home. She goes home on weekends and will have 2 more years there after she returns home. Her favorite hobbies are dancing and badminton.

She had 3 flights to get to Naples and was nervous on her first day here. She spent about 3 months with the Lester family, then the Hall family and now is with the Sullivan family. In the fall, she was the manager for the soccer team, in winter she was the top bowler on the bowling team. Naples provided a number of firsts for her: grape pie, pumpkin carving, Thanksgiving dinner and frosting cookies, Christmas early morning and piles of presents, skiing and a snow day of sledding and snow angels! She has travelled to NYC (where she thought she would be instead of Naples) and to Hawaii with a group of Rotary students.

In Taiwan she is part of District 3501. The group does several activities each year: bicycling around Taiwan, swimming in Sun Moon Lake and a performing arts festival. The capital of Taiwan is Taipei, not far from her home city. They speak Mandarin Chinese. Anna shared pictures of some of their favorite foods including Bubble Milk Tea. Taipei 101 is the tallest building where fireworks are celebrated on New Years Eve. Other landmarks are the Palace Museum, the Shilin Market and the Jade and Xue mountains. After high school, Anna plans to go to college. She gave everyone a gift as she finished her talk. It's been a pleasure to have you here Anna!

 

Next, John entertained us with Trout Derby Trivia! We got most answers but the toughest one was for oldsters and David, who remembered Don Knotts and 1964's The Incredible Mr. Limpet! 

 

The Ace of Hearts was $323 with 10 cards to choose from. Skip had ticket #5260 and picked the Ace of Diamonds instead.

Happy Bills were for Anna's wonderful presentation, Sherry and Patrice's poster, Rotex Polar Plunge success ($30K), Rose Ridge cemetery clean up (less each year),

Trout Derby success, Skip and Judy's trip to Clarkson to see Charlie receive an award, Cindy's trip to visit her granddaughters in NC, John's trivia, Jo Anne's thanks to John and Kevin for NCS help for the Grape Fest and thanks to Carly for Interact and Open Cupboard work.

The Rotary Moment was the crew who gathered several bags of debris at Rose Ridge. It sparked discussion of how to light up the cross ahead of the sunrise Easter service this Sunday at 7am. Judy said that her dad, Bruce Clawson, would be proud of Rotary's dedication there.

 

Jack closed the gathering with the Four Way Test and rang the bell to adjourn.