Due to the spike in local coronavirus cases, the Board has decided to suspend in-person meetings through the end of March. We will be meeting Thursday 7:30AM on Zoom and an email will go out to members with the link prior to the meeting. Our speaker this week will be Mike Kambourakis from Dominican Republic Relief Organization. To see a video about his organization, click HERE.
In conjunction with our High School Interact students our Rotarians are welcome to create a letter, note, poem, or artistic work that will be given to a senior citizen living in our community. Each should be in an individual envelope. These letters will be collected by Sharon Prosinksi on Feb 19 and 26 at your home if you request a pick up. They will then go out to our seniors through the Senior Center along with their pick up of lunches and delivered to Stonebridge residents. A list of other seniors that could use a positive connection is being searched out.
In addition you are welcome to include a return addressed envelope with a stamp as well if you wish to offer a potential return communication. This step is not required. This project could continue into March based on response. Hope your winter joys can be shared through a note of support.
Maria Kauzmann is heading up this year's project to deliver 120 complete bag lunches to SHIP that will help feed the homeless in the Somerville area. Since we aren't currently having in-person meetings, the sandwiches and other items need to be dropped off at Maria's house by February 22nd. For a checklist of items still needed, click HERE.
District 7475 Rotary Business Network will be hosting a zone-wide forum on Wednesday 2/17 at 7PM via Zoom. The conversation will be focused on "How to Empower Women to Move Forward in Rotary Leadership Roles". The featured speaker will be RI Director Valarie Wafer. All Rotarians (men or women) are invited to attend. To register, click HERE.
Project chair, Josh Turner, announces the kickoff of the Flags For Heroes Committee Planning Meeting for this Thursday 2/18 at 7PM via Zoom. To sign up for the committee, please click HERE. To get the Zoom link for the meeting, please click HERE.
All Rotarians should have received an email from Zoltan Nagy asking how they want their 50/50 tickets distributed. If you haven't already responded, please respond ASAP. Paul Blodgett will be providing additional information in the not too distant future.
As part of Black History Month, Rotary International will be holding a webinar on February 25th at 4PM EST to focus on the black experience in Rotary. For more information and to register, click HERE.
For all those who have said "How is it possible that we've sent a man to the moon last century but still can't advertise our businesses on our Rotary club's website?", your long wait is over. For information on rates and procedure, go the home page of our website and download the website sponsorship guide found on the right hand side of the page. There will be a limited number of rotating ads and club members will get first crack at the opportunity before it is opened to the general public. Proceeds from ad sales will be used to offset the club's website and communications expenses. Any questions, ask the webmaster Matt Romanoski.
This actually happened during last week's meeting. Our guest speaker was talking about a Woman in Rotary Leadership forum which begged the question - hey, when was the last time our club had a woman President? Rather than shrug his shoulders wallowing in ignorance, our current President with a couple of pecks of the keyboard and a few well timed mouse clicks quickly found the answer on the website. Go to the homepage and click About Us and then click on Past Presidents... and there it is. The answer is...... Anne Marie Weber back in 2002-03. Wow, it's been a while.
