Newsletter 12-20-11: No meeting next week!!!

Posted by Jim Brown 
on Dec 20, 2011
 
 

Rotary Club of Needham

December 20, 2011

Newsletter

                       FLASH!!! No meeting next week December 27…Happy Holidays!!!

 

Bill led us in the pledge of allegiance, with Bob Cocks leading us through ‘I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas’ and Rev. Darrell led us in prayer.

 

Announcements:

·        Gift Cards: The Needham Community Council is still looking for local area gift cards with a value of $20 or more.  Very last call!!!

·        Our Democratic Process President put the Holiday party up for a vote. The winner is instead of a Holiday Party, and, instead of a Progressive Dinner, the club will hold a Valentine’s Day night dinner at the hotel for Rotarians, Guests, spouses etc. This is actually a 3 way birthday party: George Hoffmeister, Bob Cocks and our own Bill Rosenthal were all born on Valentine’s Day. So, save the date….

·        Ken let us know he has tickets for the Boston Bruins Rotary Night on Tuesday February 10th. Plus, he is hoping to get tickets for the Celtics. See Ken for details..

 

Next Years Officers: Pres. Bill announced the slate of officers for the 2012/2013 rotary Year provided by the Nominating Committee. They are:

 

President:  Charles Nelson
Vice President:  Glen Davis
Secretary:  Bob Cocks
Treasurer:  Ryan Damaso
Assistant Treasurer:  Erica Bond
Foundation Chair:  Ted Shaughnessy
Club Services Chair  Chris Teachout
Community Services Director:  Dan Tibma
International Chair;  Karen Wetmore

 

Members were given the opportunity to nominate candidates from the floor. Having heard none, the President called for a vote, and all above officers were unanimously elected! Congratulation to all!

 

Birthdays: 

 

Guests: Attorney Melissa Jacoby, a prospective Needham Rotarian; Stacey Nelson, Charles’s wife; Mike Nardoni, Needham’s ‘I want a dog park’ guy; Justin Berkley, a member of the Brookline Rotary Club..

 

Happy $$$:  Ron Sockol for 70 years or wedding bliss; George for having his 6 Grandchildren with him to share the Chestnuts on Christmas; Ted Shaughnessy for PDG Mike Razza being our guest speaker;  lot’s of appreciation and best wishes for the Holidays;

 

50:50: Gary with ticket with ticket #848. However, no luck with the card draw.

 

 Guest Speaker:  We were delighted to have PDG Mike Razza with us from the Westwood Rotary Club to tell us about the progress of the Nigerian Water Project.

  The history is that our club raised about $2700 for a different project in Africa which we could never get all the paperwork established on. With an interest in seeing the money go to good works in Africa, we donated the money to the Westwood rotary Club who was trying to raise a great amount to sponsor a clean water  project for a single well in Nigeria, which would serve 7 towns and some 2500 people.

 

With Rotary, if a club can get the paperwork authorized, a club can receive matching grants from both our district, as well as Rotary International. So, if we give a dollar, it can actually produce $4 for the project.

 

So, our $2700 coupled with other donations from Westwood and other clubs, produced $35,000 to be used in Nigeria for water wells. This was the easy part.

 

Part of the ‘matching Grants’ program is that the money which get’s raised must be sent to the sponsoring club, in this case in Africa. After that it is out of our control. In this case, the current President of the African club thought the money should be spent on a 2 well design. This after a U.S. architect had designed the whole thing.

 

To make a long story short, the money was raised and we can only hope and pray that the money get’s used appropriately. Stay tuned for more details…..