FW:

At 12:10 on Thursday after Christmas at the Roger Sherman Bob Cocks, Frank McBrearity, a guest, our speaker and her dad were schmoozing while the rest of the club was somewhere else. In the ensuing five minutes the odd Rotarian wandered in and, by 12:15 there was an additional visitor [left standing by herself for an embarrassing few minutes], President Amy and about ten club members. By the time everyone had pledged and been blessed by Chaplain John, traversed the chow line and found a seat we were two tables strong. The food was delicious and was not [at least obviously] left over from the Christmas dinner and the comradery, though restrained, was appropriate for the season.

The guest who was left by herself was a lovely lady, Kitte Noble, who is the paid executive secretary of the Des Moines, Iowa 400 member strong Rotary Club. She was forgiving of our having ignored her, but we musn’t let things like that happen. For everyone who has made up, you know the difference in feeling between the club that makes you feel like an intruder and the one which is openly welcoming. No way we want to be in the first group. If you see a visitor standing alone, introduce yourself, welcome him/her to our club and inquire where they are from and what brings them to New Canaan. Given the quality of the people in our club, the chances that you will meet someone more interesting than you are is very high.

President Amy reported that the Roger Sherman Christmas dinner fund raiser was very successful and thanked those who worked. The good news was that kitchen captain John Kerchoff had managed to collar and chain Ben Bilus to a column in the kitchen before he could get loose in the bar and even the score from a year ago by attacking long suffering, overworked bartender David Bryant. We may have to have a post mortem regarding how many Rotarians can work next year. Tom has serious exposure and the work crew this year, though exceptionally hard working and capable, was a little thin.

Gentle Ben, barely concealing a furious anger, “requested” [if youse get my drift] that the 80% of NC Rotarians who have not yet delivered to him their $100 [minimum] contribution to the Rotary International Foundation do so prior to the impending year’s end. Otherwise, he implied, things could get ugly.

Long tall Steve, to be known henceforth as No-Schtick Steve, made a quiet collection and returned, thoroughly shamed, to his seat.

Frank McBrearity, speaking on behalf of Phil McClain, Jack Pugliese and himself, introduced our outgoing Ambassadorial Scholar, Lizzie Dahill. Having met the aforementioned interviewing trio, Lizzie’s dad thought it prudent to accompany his daughter, so he did. Lizzie, who is an NCHS graduate and a student at the University of Southern California, spoke about the application process and the strong competition for the scholarship. She seemed particularly proud to have been selected over a couple of Yalies. She will spend a year in Ghana studying toward a master’s degree in politics which she hopes to eventually use to work in some capacity to aid African development. For those of you who missed her, she is an extremely attractive, articulate, accomplished, and well informed young lady who will do us proud. For those worried about “young people these days” Lizzie is a powerful antidote. It was remarked that should she require assistance during her stay in Africa, we had tried sending Frank once, but he had returned; but that we could try sending him again. One way tickets aren’t that expensive. It was a terrific program with which to end what has been a very interesting year. Happy New Year to all.

Dick Clark