Incoming Orange Rotary Club President Rich Pittala ran the Auction Fundraiser this past Friday night at the Racebrook Country Club with just about 100 people in attendance. The 20th Annual event featured many silent auction items, several dozen live auction items, prizes, a nice buffet, good fellowship and more than a few laughs.
Immediate Past District Governor (iPDG) Brian Amey presented a check to the President of the St. Martin de Porres Interact Club today for $4,000 during a meeting with the Orange Rotary Club.
iPDG Brian and many people worked very hard to raise $20,000 in funds to help break the cycle of poverty by providing life changing opportunities for the young people helped by St. Martin de Porres Academy (SMPA). Financial support for Brian’s DG Project came in; the form of direct donations to the project, as proceeds from the raffle tickets and from the ‘Quilt Friends of the Governor’ auction.
The mission of SMPA is to break the cycle of poverty through education by addressing educational disparity by increasing quality education opportunities for at risk children from Connecticut’s lowest income families, thus making them competitive for admission to college and universities.
The Academy’s school model is based upon small class size, an 10-hour extended school day, an 11-month extended school year, 90 minutes of reading per day, 2 meals a day, compulsory instrumental music, and mandatory parental commitment. Students are in school approximately 850 more hours per year than their public school peers and their attendance is 97%.
The Fairfield Rotary Club hosted the 26th Annual Norman K. Parsells Award Luncheon today at the Gaelic-American Club.
The Norman K. Parsells Award, is presented annually to honor the memory and spirit of Norm Parsells. He was a dedicated Rotarian who served his community and Rotary, demonstrating Rotary’s ideal of “Service Above Self”. The recipients of the Award are being recognized as Rotarians who personifies the same spirit and dedication to their community and Rotary that Norm represented during his lifetime.
Because of their outstanding service to their Rotary Clubs, their communities and to Rotary International, the 2013 recipients of the Norman King Parsells Award are:
Norm was an attorney, a majority leader in the House of Representative and a very active member of his community.
Areas four and five of District 7980 honor the memory and spirit of Norm Parsells, a dedicated Rotarian who served his community well. Norm’s dedicated service to the community demonstrated Rotary’s ideal of “service above self”.
There 10 Rotary Clubs in Areas four and five are: Milford, Devon, Stratford, Bridgeport, Black Rock, Fairfield, Orange, Derby-Shelton, Monroe and Trumbull.
Although Fairfield was his “home” club, he visited and worked with other clubs where many lasting friendships have been made. It is, then, quite fitting that each club in these areas join to honor him by issuing the Norman King Parsells Award.
Read more about Norm Parsells and the previous recipients: Norm Parsells Luncheon Program
Congratulations to these outstanding Rotarians!!
Here are many photos from today’s luncheon
Runners turned out in big numbers for the 1st Annual Orange Rotary Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. Orange Rotary President Carl Russell called the event a sellout with 340 registrants just before the race kicked off.
Temperatures were hovering in the mid 20’s when registration opened up at 6:30 and eventually climbed to a balmy 28 degrees by race time at 8 AM when the runners took off.
It was a quick and colorful field of runners who were no doubt motivated by the climate.
Congratulations to President Carl, all of the Orange Rotarians, the volunteers and all of the participants for ‘running’ such a successful event.
Two Turkey Trots on Thanksgiving
Both the Branford Rotary Club and the Orange Rotary Club will be putting on separate 5k runs on Thanksgiving morning this year.
Not up to running? Then please plan on attending one of these events as they both offer fun walks. It’s a perfect way to burn off calories before the big consumption event later that day.
I hope to see you there!
The Rotary Club of Orange Connecticut was chartered just before the Apollo 11 landed on the moon (or were they?). Despite being a relative newcomer amongst Rotary Clubs, this Club has a rich track record of being an important community and global partner.
They give out scholarships, actively run an Amber Alert ID program, recognize outstanding community leaders, generously support the Rotary Foundation, give out dictionaries to all of the 3rd graders in town, participate in Operation Warm (coats for kids), support Oklahoma Tornado Relief, sponsor an Interact Club and they recently donated a Van to the Town of Orange for the Senior Center.
Besides being excellent Stewards of their community, a good number of the Orange Rotarians are actively engaged in district and international roles. This is a group of Rotarians that knows how to give back. For instance:
The Orange Rotary Club supports their charitable giving through member contributions and their fundraisers. They typically run 3 annual fundraisers:
Plus they added a new event to their line-up this year; The Thanksgiving Turkey Trot
The Club is always looking to add quality Rotarians to their membership ranks and is looking to create more awareness for the important role which they play in their community.
Orange Rotary is a Friday lunch Club that meets at The Racebrook Country Club, which affords very nice views of the golf course, friendly Rotarians and a pretty decent lunch. I’ve visited this Club 4 times in the past several months so there must something to it, come and see for yourself.
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