With our 2025 Naples Grape Festival in the books, we gathered at The Redwood, tired but enthusiastic to share our success and fun. The weekend weather couldn't have been better and we received many kudos for a great event!
President Jack led us in the Pledge and God Bless America. The inspiration was appropriately all about the potential of the grape seed. Often discarded, it contains the power to produce great things.
Our guests today were Mark Poppleton and our speaker Melissa Farrell representing Family Promise of Ontario County.
September gave us reasons for a standing ovation for ourselves: the District Golf Tournament, three new members and the successful Grape Festival. We had three of the District 7120 officials attend the Festival and they were impressed!
JoAnne gave her thanks to all of the group, in particular, Skip, Judy, Carrie, Bill, Sherry, Nancy, Mike, Naples Historical Society, NY State Police, Sheriff's Dept., and especially John. The crowd may have been less than expected but the vendors seemed happy, saying it was better than ever and many reapplied already for next year!
Announcements: The Camp Onseyawa Annual Fall Dinner, is a benefit for camp and an opportunity to honor the dedicated staff. It happens Friday, October 24th at Club 86 in Geneva, 5:30 until... Raffle basket drop-off at 5:30, apps and cash bar from 6-6:40 and buffet dinner starting at 6:45pm. RSVP by October 17th. $50 per person. See Frank for more info.
The first organizing meeting for Light Up Naples will be
next Wednesday, 10/8 at 6:30pm. We will meet at the "Little Bunch" white building between the churches on Main St. All are welcome! This is a great Naples event with many facets and opportunities for service and fun! LUN will be Saturday, December 13th and will be here before we know it! Hope to see lots of you there! If you can't make this time, we welcome you to join in next time.
Melissa Farrell has been with Family Promise since 2022. She has worked with many families who are facing hard times and need support for emergency shelter, eviction prevention, shelter diversion (preventing homelessness) and stabilization (case management and community resources). They are supported by donations, grants, foundations and fund raising events. They are currently nearing completion of a permanent shelter that can house 7 families/ 30 individuals in Canandaigua. They hope to open late this year or early 2026. The current capacity is 4 apartments in Ontario county that are full. The goal of Family Promise is to provide assistance to enable families to re-establish themselves with employment, housing, transportation and to graduate to independence. They work with Ontario County DSS who provides funding for temporary motel stays. It is a national organization, dedicated to giving a hand up, not a hand out. Fundraising events include a bed race in July, a golf tournament, bowling, and soon a Monte Carlo night in Canandaigua and the Cruise for a Cause on the lake this Friday. More info is available at: familypromise.org.
The Ace of Hearts today was $177. Blanche had lucky ticket #9343 but picked the Jack of Diamonds.
Many Happy Bills were given today for Melissa's informative program and the work of Family Promise, the great Grape Fest weekend, 17 college students home for the fest, John and Jo Anne, the merch tent sold all the t-shirts, welcome back Patrice from their RV Fellowship trips, 3 and 7 balloons for Nancy's 37 years on the porch for Grape Fest and a great weekend for Artizanns, who will pay off their mortgage soon after only 5 years in business!
Cindy's Rotary Moment was the variety of arms that she put wrist bands on in the Beverage Garden. There were very colorful tattoos, black and white scary tattoos, thin and wide wrists, young women with beautiful skin (not spotted and wrinkled like hers!) and one guy who was concerned with his arm hair getting caught in the adhesive. Overall, everyone was so polite and thanked Cindy for the wrist bands. It was a grape day in Naples!
Jack closed the gathering with the Four Way Test.
