Rotary Club of New Canaan Oct 30

Rotary Club of New Canaan

October 30, 2008

 

 

President David Rucci opened the meeting right on time, to the second, in a tribute to precision and accuracy that has seldom been seen in this organization.

President Dave is urging everyone to make a contribution of $100 to Rotary International. Checks will happily be accepted by Jim Kreitler, David Rucci and the RNC. Mike Hobbs brought up the incredibly generous donation of $100 million from the Melissa and Bill Gates Foundation which requires a matching sum from Rotary International to continue our mission to eradicate polio. If each member donated $1,300.13 we will have met this goal, please keep that in mind when your tax cuts come through.

No final total as yet on LobsterFest 2008 but we are at $23,000. PLEASE BE WARNED. If you are among the handful of people who have not paid up names will be named at Thursday’s meeting. So it is time to ante up which will allow us to be even more generous this spring at our Allocations Luncheon.

The kids bin at the Library is a drop off point for gently used shoes to send to Afghanistan. Sizes up to 14. Already 160 pairs of shoes have been shipped.

As we look forward to the celebration of our 50^th anniversary we received a communication from Joe Doricco, a past member. We expect to welcome him at a meeting as a returning Rotarian, at the age of 89. His daughter spoke of setting up a grant in his name. Ad Tomaselli was pleased that there was someone older but it is still to be decided if he will relinquish his place in the chow line. It was suggested that we issue an immediate invitation to Joe D.

Ad once again was in the spotlight with the happy announcement that he and the lovely Helen celebrated their 57^th anniversary and that October 30^th marked his 83^rd birthday.

Bill Walbert was wearing a red hat with the letter “P” which we all assumed marked his support for Palin, but we were told that instead it signified the Series winning Philadelphia Phillies, a team that few of us have ever heard of.

Scott Hobbs continued to encourage everyone to get out there this week and vote for Obama or someone else.

Carolyn Clark introduced our speaker State Rep. Toni Boucher who is running for the State senate.

Toni, who is even shorter than Ad, and a lot younger, introduced her husband Bud, a member of the Wilton Rotary Club and made us all proud that she had been a recipient of a Rotary scholarship which allowed her to spend her senior year of high school in Argentina, perfecting her Spanish, which is currently reaping untold benefits.

Toni spoke of her position as an opportunity to help people on a daily basis. She reported that the largest employer in the state is the government. In a move to cut expenses the government has offered retirement packages to 11,000 employees which has been accepted by 4,000 but appears to be opposed by the union as a result of resulting decrease in dues. We also received the happy news that Connecticut residents are the 2^nd highest taxed in the country and it is driving people out of the state. The constitution is up for renewal and is question 1 on the ballot.

Be sure and vote

 

Keith Olbermann