Andy Bodner accepting the Hermann Award
Andy Bodner and his wife Nina were both recognized by the Ridgefield Rotary Club this morning for their support in throwing the Ridgefield fall family picnic at their home in September.
Hermann’s are presented to Ridgefield Rotarians who make an outstanding effort on behalf of the Club.
The coveted award is named after Hermann Cortez-Barrios, Past President 2000-2001.
Andy was nearly speechless upon learning of this news.
Donald “Bud” Priest
Donald “Bud” Priest from the Woodbridge Rotary passed away last Tuesday. Bud came into Rotary in 1971 when the Woodbridge Rotary Club was chartered; he was a charter member, their first president and a Paul Harris Fellow.
At 83 years young, Bud was still an active and participating member of the Club despite being slowed down by illness this past year.
Bud was a kind, giving man that cared greatly about Rotary, his community and young people. He was the driving force behind getting Ring One Boxing in New Haven established, which was one of his many passions.
His wife, children and grandchildren all commented on how important Rotary was to Bud. He would always have his kids and grandkids on the lookout for ‘Rotary Meets Here’ signs when traveling and did his best to be a visiting Rotarian wherever he went.
Bud was an ‘Old School Rotarian’ in that he flew under the radar doing a tremendous amount of good in his community without ever seeking attention or credit for it. He lived the motto Service Above Self everyday of his life.
Getting to know Bud over the past 5 years was one of the many positive life experiences that being a Rotarian has afforded me. The last time that I saw Bud was in May when we inducted two new Rotarians into the Woodbridge Rotary Club. He was very happy and excited about the membership growth in his Club and about the positive direction that the Club was heading in.
Bud’s Obituary can be viewed by Clicking Here
Please keep Bud and his family in your thoughts.
Memorial donations in Bud’s honor may be made to the Woodbridge Rotary Club, P.O. Box 4096, Woodbridge, CT 06525, or the Rocky Mountain MS Center, 8845 Wagner St., Westminster, CO, 80031 (specify ” For Research”)
A dual new member abduction took place this morning at the Breakfastnook in North Haven as the North Haven Rotary Club converted two mildly interested prospects into fully engaged Rotarians.
The North Haven Rotary Club is happy to induct their two newest members: Al Centone and Deana Morin. Al & Deana have been diligently attending meetings for months and were hardworking participants at the Club’s most recent fundraiser; Wine & Roses. They are both very nice outgoing people that are a pleasure to be around. Deana was sponsored by LuAnn Buono and Al was sponsored by President Debbie Volain.
Abduction you ask? Deana’s nine year old niece called her last night to congratulate her on her upcoming abduction into our Club, we are going with that.
The Club now has 47 actively engaged Rotarians, up from a low of about 17 in the dark days of the late 1990’s, thanks to the efforts of Membership Chair Ralph Cooke. Ralph’s job is to bring in quality members while it’s everyone else’s job to keep them. To quote Ralph “People only leave our Club horizontally”. It’s a formula that has worked out pretty well for over a decade.
The ‘Bumper Crop’ of newer Rotarians (Nick, LuAnn, Donna Mae, Erik and Ian) has helped to propel the Club into new and exciting directions as their collective energy and interests has moved the Club to think and act in ways that hasn’t been done before. Al and Deana bring in a whole new level of positive energy to the mix and we are looking forward to them lifting us even further.
Photos courtesy of Dave Marchesseault
Ledyard Club Meet & Greet shot by Mark Patnode
So what happens when you put 20-25 Rotarians, plus their spouses and partners with 15 prospective Rotarians in an eclectic shop in Gales Ferry with some interesting conversation, good wine and delicious food? Well if you are the Ledyard Rotary Club then you are looking at 7 solid leads for new members.
The Ledyard Rotary Club hosted a ‘Meet & Greet’ event last night that was designed to attract new members into their Rotary Club as well as to create awareness for all of the important things that they do in their community.
The event, which was held at the Seasonal Home of Gales Ferry was very well attended by Rotarians, spouses, partners and about 15 prospective members and when the night was over 7 of the invitees expressed strong interest in becoming Rotarians.
As you can imagine President Carol Christiansen and the other members of the Ledyard Connecticut Rotary Club are extremely pleased with how well the night went and are looking forward to having the new class of 2013 begin attending their weekly breakfast meetings as guests.
The 7 interested prospective members aren’t just warm bodies; they are past Rotarians, Friends of Ledyard Rotarians or Business Associates of Ledyard Rotarians that were invited.
I am honored to have been invited to this evening and am looking forward to doing an induction or two in the near future.
The Ledyard Rotary Club meets on Thursday mornings at Groton Inn & Suites – 99 Goldstar Highway (Route 184) – Groton, CT. Always a great way to start a Thursday.
We held the Annual Council of Presidents (CoP) at the Oronoque Country Club in Stratford CT this past Thursday in front of a crowd of about 65 people. The Council of Presidents program is designed for Rotary Club Presidents to interact with District Leaders and other Club Presidents on issues which may affect their clubs and to get exposed to creative ideas that are being deployed in other Rotary Clubs.
The CoP event, which has historically been run as an all day Saturday event, was held for 3 hours on a weeknight last week. Our continuing shift away Saturday events was well received by sitting President’s and Assistant Governors.
We covered the following topics:
We were incredibly fortunate to have Brad Howard come in from California to address our crowd on the importance of Membership Retention through Engagement. It was also a special treat to have Rev. Mark Kiyimba, Unitarian Universalist minister from Kampala, Uganda join us as a visiting Rotarian.
With 3 months under our Leadership belts we will still have a lot to do in our Clubs and the District over the next 9 months so that we can hand them off to our successors in better condition than when we arrived.
Photos: Thank you to Laima Nori for contributing many of the photos above.
Tamra Evans and Tony Anastasio get inducted
On Tuesday Oct 2, 2013 The Ridgefield Rotary Club inducted Tamra Evans as their newest member. Tarma is an attorney who practices in Fairfield and lives in Weston. She comes to the Ridgefield Rotary Club with a strong recommendation from iPDG Brian Amey as she was a member of the Newtown and the Norwalk Clubs previously. Tamra was sponsored by Bill Iannuccelli.
On Friday Oct 4, 2013 The Woodbridge Rotary Club inducted Anthony “Tony” Anastasio as the newest member of the Club. Tony has attended several breakfast and lunch meetings and volunteered with his family to work on the Amber Alert project at the BIG E. Tony lives in Woodbridge with his wife and 2 sons. He is on the Board of Selectmen in Woodbridge and is self-employed as a retailer of sporting memorabilia. His classification is Sporting Goods – Retailing. Tony was sponsored by Immediate Past President Anna Dickerson.
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