Newark Rotary presented scholarships to Rachel George and Michaela Colacino at our last meeting.INSPIRATION
Doug Forgue shared some inspiration on the topic of “Don’t Quit”.
Success is failure turned inside out
The silver tent of the clouds of doubt
You never can tell how close you are
It may be near when it seems so far
It’s when things seem worse
That you must not quit!
VISITORS
Rachel George is the granddaughter and guest of Ken George. Sue’s son, Michael Colacino brought his daughter Michaela.
WELLNESS REPORT
We were pleased to have Marge Gile back to a Rotary meeting. Doug Doebler reported that Lee Prong, minister at the Baptist Church, has Covid.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Gary Reilly asked the committee chairs to turn in the insert they would like in the new brochure by January 6th. The PI committee will review them on the 18th and present them in February.
FOUNDATION WEEKLY MINUTEScott Healy reported that the 70+ initiative is a tax efficient way for Rotarians to support the Rotary Foundation. You can make a difference today and save on taxes when you support the Rotary Foundation through your IRA. Seek the advice of your financial advisor to determine if this is the best strategy for you.
BIRTHDAYS
Thursday, Dec 16th was Pat Albrecht’s birthday. Sue Colacino was December 16th and Karen Vanderbrook’s was on December 20th.
ROTARIAN BRIEF BIO - JOSH MCCROSSEN
Josh was born in Rochester and grew up in Rush(1-5) and Irondequoit(6-18). He attended college at Columbia and went to Syracuse for Grad school.
Beginning his work history with a D&C paper route he moved up to Director of the Catholic Family Center and finally as the Commissioner of Wayne County’s Department of Social Services.
He and his wife Deb have a Brady Bunch family with his 3 sons and her 3 daughters. In June they will have grandchild #11.
Josh is a talented public speaker, actor and singer. He lives a QUIET life on 80 acres in the East Palmyra area where Internet and phone reception is poor to non-existent.
HAPPY MOMENTS
Dave Johnson was happy to attend his oldest grandson’s birthday and learn that he has a new granddaughter on the way.Hannelora is especially happy every December. 70 years ago on December 12th she came to the United States. On December 25th she landed on the NY harbor. Our own Sharon SanAngelo has written a book about Hannelora’s experiences as a novel using different names.
Scott Healy was proud to be wearing a tie - a rare occasion - maybe twice a year.
Lucina was feeling the Christmas spirit receiving a Joyful e-mail and enjoying her free lunch.
Melissa is happy that her kids will be home for the holidays.
Josh enjoyed a trip to the west coast where he met up with 5 High School buddies. Now he is happy that he and his wife have survived Covid!
President Melissa suggested we all donate a happy dollar for our spring like weather.
SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS
Bob Bendix presented 2 Newark Seniors with the Rotary Service Award in the memory of Charles Baldwin who provided over 50 years of service to Newark Rotary.RACHEL GEORGE has a GPA of 98.4. She will be attending Nazareth working towards a bachelors degree in both Music Therapy and French Horn Performance.
MICHAELA COLACINO has a GPA of 95.5. She is attending Nazareth College with a long term goal of attending medical school to become an anesthesiologist. She is majoring in biochemistry.
AYUSHI’S WEDDING
Holly Kreuser presented the wedding video of our previous exchange student from India. It was fun to see the customs of another country and be brought up to date on Ayushi’s life.COMMITTEE REPORTS
Community Service - Kevin Mooney.
We will be participating in the project “Adopt a trail”. Please sign up if you can help in liter pickup, planting etc.along the canal from Murray Street to O’Brien Road. This is a 2 year commitment.
Fundraising - Jan Hence
Jan thanked all who helped to make this a successful year with our many dinners. 20 veterans were very pleased to receive a Chicken Dinner. Jan also hopes to bring back our Pancake Breakfast this Spring.
DEI - Karen Quartaro
Karen is proud of our club for being the only club in our District to have a Diversity committee with the goal of raising awareness and working toward equality and inclusion.
Foundation - Fred Hicks
Fred reminded members that are planning to contribute to the foundation that they only have until June.
Membership - Mitch Ruffalo
Mitch requested that we all reach out to members who don’t come to our weekly meetings as well as looking for new members.
Public Image - Josh McCrossen
Josh thanked Gary and Norma for standing in for him when he had Covid. We are in the process of reviewing our committee’s accomplishments.
Youth - Michele McManus
Michele hopes we can have an exchange student next year. Holly reported that the Interact is up and running with 12 students from the High School participating. With the help of Chrissy Kent the kids want to have a “Trash Plate” dinner on February 10th.
MEXICO UPDATE - LINDA WERTS
Newark Rotary’s project to bring clean water, sanitation and economic development to the rural community of Tabi in the state of Quintana Roe, Mexico is progressing well with a planned system installation and dedication of this new Living Waters for the World water plant in February 2022. Linda and Donna Johnson will be attending.
The “ask” now is for you to send an inspirational quotation or favorite Bible verse to team member Randy Kennard - randykennard14@gmail.com, who is making very special bookmarks which will be our gifts to families and individuals in Tabi.
Our next meeting will be January 6th with Greeter Marc Kreuser, cashier Holly Kreuser and words of inspiration from Fred Hicks