Salem Rotary - The Spoke - Archive (Dec 8, 2009)

Dick Lutts is selling up a storm. Please make sure you sell as many as possible. Dick has provided a tip for selling. Are you from Salem and have families that moved away? Why of course they would love a Christmas gift of pictures and images of their home town to show their friends and neighbors.

VISITING ROTARIANS AND GUESTS

Hazel Stirgwolt - Jane Stirgwolt

Tom Dexter - Anita Blackaby. Tom is the new member of Gloucester Rotary as well.

Sean Stellato - Ken Rothwell

Theresa Eisner - Rich Eisner

Barbara McFall - Betsye Sargent

John Gagnon - Betsye Sargent

Rodney Bedell - Betsye Sargent

FINES & RECOGNITIONS

DEB AMARAL

They caught the person who broke into her house and she was able to recover 90% of her belongings. On a better note, she recently got permanent custody of child. Congratulations Deb.

ROBERTA CANTOR

Happy to be back to Rotary. Welcome back Roberta.

DICK MOORE

Just got back from trips to Las Vegas and Ft. Lauderdale.

JANE STIRGWOLT

She is now the house Mother of Julie Ripol our exchange student. She wants to thank the Rotarian's and their families who previously watched over her.

JOHN FISHER

Traveled to Baltimore, Florida for Thanksgiving and Palm Springs.

VIKTORIA TALEBIEN

Please say a prayer for her 38 year old sister who is having open heart surgery on Thursday. Our thoughts and prayers go out to you and your family.

MARY ANN LYONS

Her son and law is having surgery today. Our thoughts and prayers go out to you and your family on a quick recovery. Please also say a prayer for Mary Ann and her family as well.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

ON BEHALF OF THE MEMBERSHIP, I WANT TO THANK PRESIDENT JOHN HALL FOR HIS DEDICATION AND HARD WORK DURING HIS TERM AS PRESIDENT. THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU DO!

New member Anna Kulakowski was introduced by John Walsh. Anna is the Branch Manager for Danvers Bank. Welcome to the club.

Rev. Steve Bascomb was also introduced by John Walsh and provided his permanent badge at today's meeting. A number of Rotarian's were fined for not signing his book. Congratulations Rev. Steve.

We had another successful Salem Mission dinner last Thursday, thanks to Rich Eisner the team leader and donor of the food. He had a team of Denise Flynn with her daughter Kelsey and son Connor, Jim Robinson, Tim Clarke, John Steuve, and Rinus Oostheok.

A special thanks to those that volunteered at the DCF Christmas Party last Saturday. We even had two volunteers from the Salem High School Interact Club, Nick O'Brien and Maria Christina.

Please make sure to sell your calendars as the new year approaches. If anyone is interested in selling them at your business please see someone from the committee and they will provide you with additional calendars.

We had another collection of the Change to Change lives initiative at today's meeting. Stay tuned for the amount collected. Remember, this donation will help feed the hungry this Christmas. A special thanks to our Royal Order of Turkey's Jeff Halloran, Bruce Whear and Dave Wescott. They did a great job collecting the change.

Scott McNeil and the Salvation Army are asking for people assist with the Angel Program. This program will help kids this Christmas who are underprivileged get gifts they need. Please see Scott for additional information.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SALEM ROTARIANS

Nick Helides - December 17th

Bruce Whear - December 17th

Ray Hodge - December 18th

SPEAKER/PRESENTER OF THE WEEK

State of the Club Message, President John Hall

As the first half of my year as President closes, I have to extend thank you to all of the members for giving me the opportunity to serve in this role. I knew it would be a lost of work but I truly did not expect that I would be standing here telling you that it has been a truly regarding experience and a source of great personal pride. The pride stems from being a member of a group of people who genuinely want to make a difference and are willing to commit time, talent and financial support to the community. We as a group have achieved the following projects and goals within the first half of my term:

*Two successful DSS events.

*5 Salem Mission dinners that have generated approximately 450 meals.

*A poker event that raised $6,000.00 thanks to Ken Rothwell and Rob Lutts.

*Two collections for the Change to Change Lives initiative. The first collection fed 30 entire families a holiday meal.

*Excellent array of speakers thanks to Trip Mason and Bob Conley.

Although we have done a lot of tremendous things over the past 5 months, we still have some key areas we need to work on. The two key areas are the Rotary Foundation and memberships. John Neely spoke briefly on the state of the Rotary Foundation. It is very important that we expand our membership with quality potential Rotarian's. If anyone knows of potential new members, please bring them to a meeting and speak to someone on the membership committee. Rob Lutts also spoke briefly on the state of the scholarship foundation funds. Hopefully with the help of the economy we can get the balance up to $400,000.00 and eventually reach our goal of $500,000.00 in a few years.

FUTURE SPEAKERS/PRESENTERS

December 15th - Classification Speeches, Bob Dionne & Joanne Scott

December 22nd - Salem High Band, Christmas Music

December 29th - Jeff Kingman, Social Networking

UPCOMING EVENTS - SAVE THE DATE

Please visit the calendar section of our web site

for additional important dates.

Salem Rotary Poker Tournament

To Benefit the Salem Boys & Girls Club

Thursday January 7th, 2010 @ 6:00pm

Ward 2 Social Club, 1 East Collins Street, Salem

$100.00 Buy-In

"QUOTE OF THE WEEK"

Ignorance is a menace to peace

-Paul Harris, Founder Rotary Interational

STUMPER OF THE WEEK

How many Board of Director's does Rotary International have?

LAST WEEKS STUMPER

What is the mission of the Rotary International Foundation?

ANSWER TO LAST WEEKS STUMPER

The mission of The Rotary Foundation is to enable Rotarian's to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty. The Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotarian's and friends of the Foundation who share its vision of a better world.

Please email all announcements to be added to the Spoke and/or feedback to salem_rotary@yahoo.com by Noon on Wednesday. Also, feel free to contact any of the committee members listed below.

Committee Chairman: Brenda Smith

Acting Newsletter Editor: Bob Dionne

Photographer: John Quinn & Juli Lederhaus

Graphics and Photo Editing: Rich Eisner

Committee Members: Denise Flynn, Jim Haskell and Sandy Heaphy

Salem Rotary Club

PO Box 608

Salem, MA 01970

(978) 744-9070