This Week at Rotary
Mary Ellen Leahy and Salem Film Fest
Mel shared a incredible photos that gave us a glimpse into her life full of adventure and exciting encounters. She is a model, a music publicist, a singer, songwriter, brewery owner, world traveler, and so much more!
Born in Andover, Mel is the eldest of two sisters, of Irish decent, and spent summers in Amesbury and Ireland. She attended St Mary’s High School in Lawrence (now Central Catholic). In college, she pursued an internship in the music industry and began her career in music at the Middle East before becoming a publicist at a punk rock record label joining two other women leaders in the industry, something less heard of at that time.
During her music career, she toured with played guitar and sang in the band TRONA, winning the WBCN Rumble event. She also had two songs written about her, one by Letters to Cleo and one by Morphine, with whom she toured.
Her first entree into politics happened in 2009, and she co-founded NOTCH Brewery 10 years ago, where she is still an owner. Mel’s new passion is travel. She highlighted trips to Athens, Bali, Hong Kong and Tokyo.
Pictures are worth a 1,000 words, and the stories Mel shared were too interesting to be recorded in notes. If you missed this meeting, join us at lunch and ask Mel more about her story. It is definitely worth a listen!!!
Then at our evening meeting, we were visited by Michelle Bakrevski of Salem Film Fest. She gave us a preview of what to expect at this week's festivities. There are plenty of amazing events, including Thursday evening's opening night at Old Town Hall which is completely free and open to the public. Speaking of free, did you know that we have limited FREE tickets to the event? On top of that, Michelle has provided a discount code for all films.
This is the Salem Rotary Club's first year sponsoring the event. This gives us the discounts mentioned above, as well as film sponsorships (including on opening night, which is likely sold out). We will also be featured in the opening credits for all films. For more information, check out their events page.
