Tonight we gathered at the Redwood for our second Club Assembly of the Rotary year. We numbered 21 members and two guests, our Youth Exchange Students Romane Dehan and Hikaru Karasawa. Frank greeted us warmly on this cold evening!
Jack began the meeting with the Pledge. "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" was our song. Google tells us it was written by Samuel Francis Smith in 1831 and served as our national anthem until the Star Spangled Banner was official in 1931. The tune is the same as "God Save the King (or Queen)". The words of inspiration (?) were "Being a Bills fan isn't stressful at all" accompanied by a photo of "Cody, age 33", looking like a man in his 80s at least! LOL!
Romane and Hikaru spoke briefly about how school is going. Romane invited anyone interested to order a holiday wreath or plant to support the senior trip to Boston in the spring.
Announcements: The Hospeace House fundraiser Masquerade Gala was cancelled. * David's Movember fundraiser has earned over $700 so far.* Next Saturday 11/15, will be "clean out the ornaments" at Town Hall at 9 am. The following Saturday, 11/22, we will decorate Town Hall for the Light Up Naples season at 9 am. We hope that many hands will help out then! * The Rotary Holiday Party on December 8th will be at the Naples Hotel! Skip will start taking reservations next week. Dinner is $35 per person. We will have a $15 voluntary gift exchange - if you bring one, you can choose one! Donations will also be accepted for Naples Open Cupboard: non-perishable food or financial gifts are much appreciated. * Laurie showed the beautiful books that we will donate to Naples Elementary classrooms this holiday season.
The Board meeting this afternoon discussed the Election of Officers for Rotary year July 2026 - June 2027. We will have an open position for Vice President. Please let Jack know if you are interested in Club leadership! The election will be at the annual meeting on 12/1. * The Redwood meals are increasing by $1 each to $15 and $18. * We are considering sponsorship of a Girl Scout Troop that has recently grown from 7 to 18 girls. * We have several new applicants for membership in our Club. Chloe Shearing (Jo Anne and Albie's granddaughter) has attended meetings and is very helpful on the LUN committee. She was approved by the Board and an email will go to members soon. Four other applicants will be invited to attend a regular meeting prior to moving forward with their applications. * The Youth Exchange program in Naples will take a hiatus next year due to lack of host families. It will hopefully be back in the future. If anyone knows of possible hosts, please let Jill know. * We received a letter from Operation Santa - we will donate and help again this year. * The final payment from the proceeds of the Naples Grape Festival was given out today. It was a great year for NGF!
John spoke today about the Rotary International Foundation. It was funded in 1917 by Arch Klumph with a donation of $26.50. The motto is "Doing Good in the World". The funds have now distributed over $4 Billion. The Foundation decides where to spend funds through global grants, district grants and disaster grants. There are three funds: annual (grant projects), polio (matched 2-1 by Gates Foundation) and endowment (from wills and estates). Districts can receive funds back three years after donation. We received a District grant this year that went toward building a wash station at Camp Onseyawa. The Global grants go for sustainable projects such as the Uganda Water Project that we contribute to. Key areas are peace, disease prevention, sanitation, moms and babies, education, economies and environment. You can make a donation at: MyRotary.org.
Here in Naples our Rotary Foundation was started by a bequest in 1998 from Llewellyn Bassett of $146000, to be shared equally between the Club and Camp O. Our Foundation has since paid out $271000. We have donated to local and global causes, Doing Great Things!
The Ace of Hearts was up to $282 tonight with 9 cards left. Brenda had lucky ticket #9676 and drew the Ace of Hearts! Congratulations!
Happy Bills went to Brenda's win, Rotary Foundation's work, the Grape Fest, 5 new member applications, the volunteers at Naples Open Cupboard, John's informative program, a great Board meeting, the successful cross-country team, the Veteran's day rally at NCS, Skip's successful surgery, Denise and Kevin's first year in Naples, a talk about the lakes at Fort Hill in Canandaigua and flowers for Nancy's birthday today!
Tony shared a Rotary Moment about all the Rotary efforts he saw during the travels he and Holly have made around the world. They were made aware of Rotary in Southeast Asia and Africa. He was especially moved by the continuing support of the US military by those visiting at Normandy Beach.
Jo came across a newspaper article from 1983 that was shared. It pictured Frank in front of the Old Country Store in N. Cohocton! Surprisingly, Frank was speechless!
We wrapped the meeting with the Four Way Test and adjourned at 7:09 pm.
