Category Archives: TRF – The Rotary Foundation

Please attend our Foundation Dinner on Nov 7th

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The Rotary District 7980 Foundation Dinner, which will be held at the Pine Orchard Yacht & Country Club in Branford on Nov 7th at 5:30 PM, is a major Rotary thank you event where we recognize clubs and individuals who by their contributions to The Rotary Foundation are making a difference in saving and changing lives.

A big part of the evening is our Key Note Speakers who will share their experiences and accomplishments that are direct result of our contributions to The Rotary Foundation.

For this evening the our speakers will be Courtney Matson, a Rotary Peace Fellow, and Natalia Svirschevsky, a Service Above Self Scholar.

Please check your schedule and consider being a part of this Do Good, Feel Good event.

Here is a link to the Registration Form

Questions? E-mail Doug: dklisk@aol.com or Chip Marsh: cmarsh14@aol.com

Branford Rotary turns 85 and recognizes Past President Alpha with Paul Harris +1

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It’s always a pleasure visiting the Branford Rotary Club. Today I had the dual honor of congratulating the Club on their 85th Birthday and recognizing Past President Alpha Coiro with a Paul Harris plus 1 sapphire.

Happy Birthday Branford

Alpha was just awarded her first Paul Harris recognition by the Club in late June at the Club’s annual installation dinner. In short time she contributed $1,000 to the Rotary Foundation and was honored once again with her Paul Harris plus 1.

Branford resident PDG Colin Gershon made a brief guest appearance at the Club this morning to show off his new yellow tie. Love that he is team player!!

Official Visit #38 – Bridgeport Rotary Club welcomes Valerie Koch into the Paul Harris Society

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Yesterday was a special day at the Bridgeport Rotary Club as Rotarian Valerie Koch was inducted into the Paul Harris Society  and recognized for her generous support of the Rotary Foundation. Valerie has been a Rotarian since 1999 and has been a long standing sustaining member of The Rotary Foundation.  Jim Satterwhite, Madison Rotarian and District Paul Harris Society Chair did the honors of pinning her.

Yesterday’s visit was extra special in that I was given the honor of inducting, Crystal, their newest member into the club. The club is on a bit of a membership roll in that they brought in 10 new quality members last year and have their sights set on bringing in another 10 this year. Assistant Governor Chris Johnson noted that the new members which the club has brought in are quality hardworking members of the community that truly reflect the diversity and heart of Bridgeport Connecticut.

The Bridgeport Connecticut Rotary Club  has played an important and historical role in the development of the Greater Bridgeport Community since 1919. Today, the 59 members of the Bridgeport Rotary Club are key players in supporting many community based initiatives including: The Connecticut Food Bank, Park City Prep, Student of the Month, Wilbur Cross School, Interact, Regional Youth Leadership Academy, The Dictionary Project, Weekly Reader and the Read Aloud Program. Internationally the club supports: PolioPlus, The Dengue Fever Project, St Mary Twinning Medical Team Haiti and The Pune India Smart Panel Project.

Besides the great works that this club is doing there are many interesting things going on in this club including their ‘Friends of Rotary‘ program, their unique club banner and their focus on Foundation Giving.

At 3, the Bridgeport Rotary Club has more Past District Governors (per square inch) as current members than other D7980 Club. Bridgeport Rotary is the home club of PDG Abe Gordon, PDG Bob Vossler and PDG John Annick. The Club is also the home club of two of my favorite Rotarian friends; Ed Davies and Rosa J. Correa.

The Bridgeport Rotary Club meets for lunch on Tuesdays at the Holiday Inn @ 1070 Main St, Bridgeport, CT. Stop in for lunch to see what a great job that President Anita is doing leading the club this year.

Foundation Area Reps and Assistant Governors meet to plan Club Foundation Program

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November is Rotary Foundation month and as a lead in to that the District has put together a Rotary Foundation program that we plan to deliver to all D7980 clubs as one of the weekly meetings during the last two weeks of October. The program will be delivered to all 61 clubs at one of the weekly meetings during the last two weeks of October. The program takes 15 – 20 minutes and is designed to create awareness about the The Rotary Foundation (TRF) in easy to understand terms.

The Foundation Area Reps (FARs) and the Assistant Governors (AGs) gathered on Sept 24th at the Graduate Club in New Haven to review a draft of the program that will be presented to the clubs.  PDG Rick Benson walked the attendees through the draft program during an interactive brainstorming session. The program is shaping up nicely and should be ready to go in time.  Sheryl Shaughnessey, Program Chair, will be contacting clubs for final arrangements soon.

There is no cost for the club program. Contact Foundation Chair Rick Benson for more information.

As of 9/30 the following clubs have signed up for the program:

Beacon Falls
Black Rock
Branford
Bridgeport
Cheshire
Chester
Clinton
Colchester
Danbury
Derby-Shelton
Devon
East Haddam
Fairfield
Guilford
Housatonic Valley-Greater Danbury
Ledyard
Madison
Meriden
Middletown
Milford
Monroe
Montville
Mystic
Naugatuck
New Canaan
New Haven
New London
Newtown
Niantic
North Branford
North Haven
Norwich
Norwich Sunrise
Old Saybrook
Orange
Ridgefield
Ridgefield Sunrise
Seymour-Oxford
Stamford
Stoningtons
Trumbull
Waterbury
West Haven
Westport
Westport Sunrise
Wilton
Woodbridge
Woodbury-Southbury-Middlebury

Official Visit #32 – Meriden Rotary Club – 5 Paul Harris Fellows awarded

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Cliff Carlson is the President of the Meriden Rotary Club this year; this is his second time leading this very active the club in the past 3 years. The club currently has 38 members and is looking to grow by Net 5 this year.

Throughout the past several years the Meriden Rotary Club has been able to support many worthwhile causes in their community and throughout world including:

  • Meriden Fire Department
  • Brian Davis Ash Memorial Fund
  • NAACP Awards
  • ARC of Meriden/Wallingford
  • EMS Explorer Post, First Aid Camporee
  • Young Business Leaders Strike Out Hunger
  • Meriden YMCA- Thanksgiving Day Dinner
  • My City Kitchen- Thanksgiving Day Dinner
  • Beat the Street Community Center
  • United Way of Meriden/Wallingford
  • Spirit of Giving
  • Salvation Army Bell Ringing
  • Women’s and Families Center
  • Martin Luther King Breakfast
  • Greater Meriden Chamber of Commerce Leadership Summit
  • Survive the Drive
  • Jack Barry Little League
  • Literacy Volunteers Scrabble Tournament
  • Liberty Tree Memorial at Dunn Field
  • South Meriden Baseball League
  • Soap Box Derby
  • Project Graduation
  • Meriden Children’s Zone
  • Polio Plus
  • La Romana Dominican Republic Project
  • Haitian Health Foundation
  • Water Filter Project
  • Group Study Exchange
  • Amber Alert

The Meriden Rotary Club is able to support these causes through their fundraising initiatives such as:

and more….

Today the Meriden Rotary Club honored 5 of it’s members by awarding them Paul Harris Recognitions, the recipients were:

Meriden Rotary is the home club of Assistant Governor Tari Marshall-Day

The Meriden Rotary Club recently changed their meeting location to the Four Points by Sheraton 275 Research Parkway, Meriden, CT. They meet at Noon on Tuesdays.

Multi-district Success Seminar was held in Cromwell Connecticut today

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The Multi-district Success Seminar was held in Cromwell Connecticut today and was attended by just over 100 attendees from 11 districts as far away as New Jersey. The seminar is sponsored by Zone 32 and was organized by PDG Alan Hurst (Rotary Coordinator) , his Assistant Rotary Coordinators and Delores Morgano from the East Hampton Rotary Club.

The Success Seminar featured informative sessions on:

Public Image
The Rotary Foundation
Membership
The New Rotary Website
Rotary Club Central
Youth Services

The seminar was kicked off by our very own PDG Ernie Luise introducing Incoming Rotary Directory Julie Phelps.

Geographically Cromwell CT is still part of District 7980 although we don’t currently have a club there. We are looking to establish a new club in Cromwell if anyone is interested in helping us getting one off the ground.