Yearbook of the President's Pages
for Mike Riegel's  term from 2007-2008

2007-2008 Installation Meeting of July 3rd, 2007

Frank Winkler turns the gavel over to Mike Riegel.

Dear Fellow Rotarians:
    This was my last day as your president. I want to thank all my fellow Rotarians for all their help during my year as your president. It has been an honor and privilege to serve you.
    I will include the invocation as part of this week’s final president’s message, since it gives thanks for our past year’s blessings and seeks guidance for the coming Rotary year:
    “Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We give thanks for your guidance during the past Rotary year. We ask you to give our new officers and Board members for the coming year, the energy, the inspiration, and the joy of leading their fellow Rotarians in service above self. Bless the men and women who are serving these United States of America around the world. We thank you for this food we are about to eat. May it strengthen our bodies, stimulate our minds and nourish our souls. Amen.”
After the invocation, I asked everyone to remain standing, while I rang the bell and recited the name of each member of our Rotary family who passed away in the past year. Those remembered were Ed Lorenz, Jaz Bindra, Walt Doolittle (simply “Doc” to everyone); and Beverly Letz, beloved wife of George Letz.
We officially installed your new leaders, including officers and members of the Board of Directors, during Tuesday’s regular meeting.
 

I administered the following Oath of Office:
I (individual’s name), do solemnly swear that I will uphold the By-Laws of the Groton-Ledyard Rotary Club, the By-laws of the Groton-Ledyard Rotary Club Foundation, and the rules and regulations of Rotary International, and will execute my duties as a Rotary Club official to the best of my ability, and furthermore, that I will serve my office in the spirit of service above self. So help me God.
After everyone answered with their official, “I do,” I declared them officially swore in as the Officers and Board of Directors for the Groton-Ledyard Rotary Club for the Rotary year 2007-2008. And offered them my congratulations.
Mike Riegel is our new president. His team includes Dan Boisvert, president-elect; John Silsby, vice president; Michelle Mencer, secretary; and Lori Jalbert, treasurer; Board members Lee Vincent, Bruno Giulini, Jim Cordock, Ted Colburn, Lian Obrey and myself as past president. And of course, Edward Kolar as Web Master.
I presented past two-term Rotary President Barbara Buchanan with a plaque from the club for her outstanding work as president from 2004-2006.
Mike Riegel presented the annual Scarano Award, given annually to a club member who contributes above and beyond the norm during the past Rotary year. This year’s winner is R. B. Kent, who distinguished himself by his outstanding work on the annual auction, working to help get lights on the submarine sign at the entrance to Groton, and contributing his time and energy wherever and whenever needed. The Scarano Award was founded and funded by our former fellow Rotarian Jerry Scarano.
Mike Riegel’s first official act as our new president was to present me with a plaque-for my service as president during 2006-07.
Some of our fellow Rotarians brought their wives or significant others as their guests for the installation luncheon. Tricia Rowland had an interesting guest of her own, her boss.
Our guest speaker for next Tuesday’s meeting will be Paul Nunes, who will discuss the importance of a will in estate planning.
Have a great Rotary week! And to our new officers and Board members, have a great Rotary year!
Past President Frank Winkler
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!

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Regular Meeting of July 10th, 2007

Greetings fellow Rotarians.
 

    Well, my first meeting as president went off fairly smoothly.
    We had no guests other than the guest speaker.
    Bo Bohannan delivered the weekly foundation thought by reading RI foundation chairman Bhichai’s goals for the year. They are:
                        Polio Eradication is realistic
                        Every Rotarian Every Year
    The Rotary Centers for International Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution
Reconnecting with the Rotary Foundation Alumni.
We celebrated Tricia Rowland’s birthday and Ted Colburn’s anniversary, although neither were in attendance so we did not get to serenade them.
Our speaker today, brought in by Cathy Lathrop, was Mr. Paul Nunes from Washington Trust. Paul gave a very interesting talk on the importance of having a will, why everyone needs a will and Rotarian Greg Thevenet provided an example account of the nightmare that can occur when someone dies intestate (without a will). Paul also presented some ideas for avoiding probate, described a Living Trust and told us all how that vehicle could be used to maintain control over one’s estate and protect it from probate.
    I look forward to serving as your president for the coming Rotary year with emphasis on the serving. If there is anything I/we can do better, that we should be doing and are not, or that we are doing and should not be doing, please let me know.
Let’s have a great Rotary year & let’s have some fun doing it.
Thanks,  Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!

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Regular Meeting of July 17th, 2007
Awaiting comments from Dan
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Regular Meeting of July 24th, 2007

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    We had a great program this week. Our speaker was former State Senator Cathy Cook, who is now Director of Community Affairs for the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs. Cathy provided a detailed presentation of all the benefits veterans are entitled to from the State, including burial, education, employment, motor vehicle registration, property tax exemption, and the CT Veteran’s Home. She showed pictures of the CT Veteran’s Home at Rocky Hill and discussed at length the plans for upgrading the home. It was very informative. For additional info, go to www.ct.gov/ctva or call the Veterans Info Line at 1 866 9CT-VETS.
    During the meeting we were treated to a slide show provided by Dave Stryker showing photos from the previous two meetings.
Birthdays celebrated this week were Lee Vincent(July 24) and Jim Cordock(July22).
Anniversaries announced were Stan & Diane Cardinal, July 29. Stan called Diane from the meeting and we all sang Happy Anniversary to her.
    Next week’s meeting will be a club assembly and our annual foundation meeting.
 Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of July 31st, 2007

 Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    This meeting was our regularly scheduled club assembly. The major item of discussion for assembly was the need to revise our club committee structure to coincide with what Rotary International is now using. We are currently organized around the four avenues of service, International, Community, Club, and Vocational. The new organization will be around the four pillars of Rotary plus public relations. So, the new committee structure will be Membership, Club Administration, Service Projects, Rotary Foundation and Club Public Relations. This committee structure change will require a change to the club bylaws. The Secretary will promulgate the proposed bylaws change at the next club meeting and the club will vote on the change at the next assembly meeting on 21 August.
    As a part of assembly, we held our annual foundation meeting which had been continued from our July 10 meeting. We reported that the foundation had given our $7,000 in scholarships and $1,793.20 in other grants for Rotary Year 2006-2007. We discussed the fact that we can do much better in the grant area and will work to publicize the availability of grant money during the year 2007-2008 so perhaps more organizations will be aware of and apply for grants. The 2007-2008 budget contains $7,000 for scholarships and $5,000 for other grants.
    We also had a lengthy discussion regarding a possible change to the foundation bylaws. The way the foundation is currently organized, foundation money may only be used for local community causes. Thus we are limited in our ability to fund international and other out of area projects. The foundation board will draft a proposed change to the foundation bylaws that would allow a portion of the money given out each year to go to out of area projects. That proposed change will be adjudicated at a future meeting.
Amber Alert For those of you interested in amber alert, there is a small sign up event this weekend (really short fused notice) at the Stonington High School track. The times are 10:00 am to 4:00 pm Saturday and 8:00 am to 11:00 am Sunday.
The Town of Groton Parks and Recreation Department is looking for volunteers to help install equipment for the Tercentennial Legacy Playground on August 18. Many of our club members have signed up to help. If you are interested, please contact me to sign up.
    Foundation Workshop   There will be a foundation workshop at the Congregational Church in Deep River on Saturday, September 15, 2007. We would like to have several of our club members attend. There is a $35 fee for the workshop that includes morning coffee and lunch. The club will pay the fee for the first 5 Rotarians that sign up to go.
Birthdays this week: Bill Johnston, July 31. There were no anniversaries.
    There were no years of service to celebrate. Mike Riegel completed 13 weeks of perfect attendance.
    Have a great Rotary week and we hope to see you all at our next meeting on August 7. Our speaker will be Rotarian Dave Stryker talking about Membership Development.
Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of August 7th, 2007

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    We had no guests and fairly low attendance this week. I guess it’s because of summer or whatever. Too bad, because we had a very interesting program this week. Fellow Rotarian Dave Stryker talked about membership development in a very eye opening presentation. He presented information he had gathered at the membership seminar he attended at Villanova in July. Among things discussed were the key issues, interests and priorities of various generations from the greatest generation through gen X’ers. All service clubs are seeing a decline in membership, not just Rotary. Dave pointed out that we need to find new ways to recruit members because the people (younger than the average age of our current membership) are interested in different things, have different priorities and different values in some cases than the “old guard”. The old guard is not bad, we just need to think differently to attract the younger members. Dave has already given his presentation to two Rotary clubs and is scheduled to give the presentation to the Mystic club next week for those of you that missed our meeting this week.
    There were no birthdays to celebrate this week.
We announced Jim and Marguerite Mitchell’s upcoming anniversary (August 10). Jim paid us two dollars not to sing.
    Some opportunities of service coming up are:
Saturday August 18, Volunteers are needed to help install/ assemble the Groton Tercentenary Legacy Park. If you are interested and available, please contact Michelle Mencer to sign up.
    A Rotary Foundation workshop will be held in Deep River on Saturday, September 15. Here is a great chance to learn more about the foundation. The club will pay the $35 fee for the first five Rotarians to sign up; we currently have three, so there’s room for more. That fee, by the way, includes morning coffee and lunch.
 
Have a great Rotary week, Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of August 14th, 2007

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    We had 21 Rotarians in attendance. Our attendance definitely is not what it used to be. Hopefully our new membership chairs, Dave Stryker and Ted Colburn, along with all the members of the membership committee can help us rev up our membership development efforts and inject some new blood into the club. Speaking of membership, starting next week, August 21, we are adding a Membership Minute to the club agenda.
    Group Study Exchange. We have two exciting GSE's coming up; one to the Philippines and one to Mexico. This is an opportunity for a non Rotarian young professional to spend four weeks in another culture at no expense to them. It is an opportunity for a Rotarian to have the same experience as a team leader. Applications for this year's Outbound GSE team leader are being accepted until August 31, 2007. Applications for GSE team members are being accepted until September 28, 2007.
There were no birthdays to celebrate this week. We did announce anniversaries upcoming for Dave and Louise Brown (August 16), and Bill and Judy Johnston (August 19).
    John Silsby and Ted Colburn are congratulated for completing 13 weeks perfect attendance.
    We announced the makeup of the foundation board following a run off election for the at large members. Foundation Board members for 2007 2008 are all club officers; Mike Riegel, Dan Boisvert, John Silsby, Michelle Mencer and Lori Jalbert, plus three at large members; Bob Perry, Cathy Lathrop and RB Kent.
Our speaker today was Mr. Bernard (Bernie) Sweeney, SBA District Director for the state of Connecticut. Bernie gave an excellent presentation on the mission of the SBA and all the programs available to help small businesses be successful. For more information, visit SBA on line at www.sba.gov/ct.
 
Have a great Rotary week, Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of August 21st, 2007

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    We had 27 of our own club members in attendance today, considerably better than the previous week. Additionally, we had a visiting Rotarian from the Mystic club and a prospective new member for our club. Sadly, we learned of the death of one, a long time friend and fellow Rotarian, Skip Krawczyk. Skip passed away Monday, August 20 at age 80 after a long battle with Leukemia. We observed a moment of silence prior to the invocation in Skip’s memory.
    On a happy note, Rotarian Gil Gunn returned after a long illness related absence. Barbara Buchanan also returned following a short illness. It was great to see both of these friends again.
    We announced wedding anniversaries for Gil Gunn (August 23) and Lori Jalbert (August 28).
    Bob Perry was congratulated for 39 years perfect attendance. Way to go Bob.
Our speakers today were Catherine and Peter Hughes who told us of their recent trip to Haiti and provided both in words and pictures vivid detail of the conditions they encountered there. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere with a 70 percent unemployment rate, and at the same time has the largest number of millionaires per capita. Catherine and Peter spent the bulk of their time in the Port au Prince vicinity and were not familiar with work being done by the Haitian Health Foundation in the Jeremy area.  They are looking for financial support and anyone wishing to become involved may contact Groton Ledyard Rotary for contact information.

Club assembly next week.
 Have a great Rotary week, Mike Riegel
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Regular Meeting of August 28th, 2007

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    This week was our regularly scheduled club assembly, so there was no speaker.
There were no birthdays or anniversaries to celebrate, but we did present Bill Miller with a 1 year perfect attendance pin. We also noted 13 weeks perfect attendance for Bill Miller and Frank Winkler.
    During assembly, the club discussed whether we would participate as a food vendor again this year in the Groton Fall Festival. We decided, yes we would participate again. We will do caramel apples again this year, not sure what else in addition. Fall Festival will be held on Saturday October 6. The Fall Festival committee will be co-chaired this year by Cathy Lathrop and Michelle Mencer. Members of the committee so far are Cathy, Michelle, Mike Riegel, Bill Anhalt and Greg Thevenet. Anyone else wanting to help out is welcome and should contact either Cathy or Michelle.

ERNIE’S FILTERS

    As you may know, a large part of our world does not have many of the bare necessities of life, including safe clean water to drink. A Canadian scientist has developed a Bio-sand water filter that is low cost and effective in the removal of dissolved particles and pathogens from contaminated water. The Bio-sand filter is a type of slow sand water filter specifically designed for removing disease causing organisms. The filters can be built on a small scale at low cost, require no electricity, no chemicals are used and there are no replaceable parts; therefore no ongoing costs for the user.
    Our District Governor, Ernie Luise, has taken up a challenge to supply 120,000 school children with clean water by installing water filters in all 411 schools in the Kolar District, India. We have been provided with a small well pump replica “water filter bank” in which to collect donations on a weekly basis to help purchase the filters. Each $100 we collect will provide FOUR Bio-sand filters to be placed in schools in India. I am happy to report that Groton Ledyard Rotary collected $312 on the first day our little bank was in use. That’s enough to buy 12 filters and we are well on our way towards the next four. THANKS ROTARIANS!
     Put October 23 on your calendars. That will be the 4th Tuesday in October and our regularly scheduled assembly day. We will be holding that meeting in the Bistro at Fairview Odd Fellows Home. I’m told the food there is really great!
Our speaker next week is Mr. Ken Hinrichs, Executive Director of United Way of Southeastern Connecticut.
    Also, please remember, our District Governor, Ernie Luise will be visiting the club on September 11th.

Have a great Rotary week, Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of September 4th, 2007

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    We had 20 club members in attendance, pretty slim pickings if you ask me, but it is what it is. Our guest speaker was also a visiting Rotarian rounding out our total attendance to 21.
    Bob Perry was recognized for 13 weeks perfect attendance.
    There were no birthdays or anniversaries to celebrate, so none of our bad singing for anyone to suffer through.
    John Silsby announced the next Groton Senior’s dinner. The dinner will be held on Saturday September 15 at the Groton Senior Center and Rotary Volunteers are needed. If you are available and would like to help out (it’s always lots of fun and the food is excellent) please contact either Dan Boisvert or Michelle Mencer.
    We also announced, again, that our October 23 meeting will be held at Fairview Oddfellows Home in the Bistro. So, put that date on your calendar.
    Our speaker this week was Mr. Ken Hinrichs, President of United Way of Southeastern Connecticut. Ken brought us up to date on United Way in a most interesting fashion. We played 20 questions. Actually, he gave us all a 20 question quiz to test our knowledge of United Way and by providing the correct answers after the quiz he filled in all the gaps in our knowledge. Among the many interesting facts we learned there are 1328 United Ways in the country, of which 28 receive the Charity Navigator four star rating. Our own local United Way of Southeastern Connecticut is one of those four star ratings and, in fact, is rated number 6 in the nation. We also learned that our United Way raised over $8 Million last year to help local people, and that over 50 percent of that comes from one large company and it’s employees. Rotarians who scored the highest on the quiz received prizes for their United Way Expert knowledge.
Anyone desiring more information about United Way may contact Ken at 860 464 7281, or visit their web site at http://www.uwsect.org
    Also for anyone interested, this year’s United Way campaign runs from September 5 through December 12.
    Don’t forget! Next week, September 11, our District Governor, Ernie Luise, will be visiting our club. Please be there.

Have a great Rotary week, Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of September 11th, 2007

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    This week’s meeting was perhaps the lowest attendance I can recall during my entire time as a member of Groton-Ledyard Rotary. And that was sad, because we were visited by our District Governor, Ernie Luise, and those that missed the meeting missed an opportunity to meet and hear a wonderfully dedicated Rotarian. Ernie was introduced to the club by Assistant Governor, Doretta Colburn, who is also spouse of our fellow Rotarian, Ted Colburn.
    Ernie encouraged the club by reminding us what Rotary is all about and highlighting some of the things the club is involved in. She brought us information about some interesting initiatives, including Project Amigo, a project to help poor children and their families in Mexico. Project Amigo provide, among other things, medical and dental care, a literacy initiative, donated school supplies and good used children’s clothing, Jr. and Sr. high school scholarships and a college endowment fund. Sponsorships are a way for individual donors to establish a relationship with a poor Mexican child. For more information visit the Project Amigo web site at www.projectamigo.org.
Ernie reminded us of the RI theme for 2007-2008 of Rotary Shares because Rotarians care. In support, the district theme for 2007-2008 is Listen with your Heart. As Rotarians, we listen with our hearts and act with our hands to bring together skills, funds and a desire to save and change lives. We hope that each Rotarian has a commitment to make a difference through support of the Rotary mission; to financially support the Rotary Foundation by becoming a sustaining member, by participating in a humanitarian program and by believing in and living by the Four Way Test.
    Upcoming opportunities for Service above Self for Groton-Ledyard Rotarians: Red Cross Blood Drive at Groton Regency Friday September 21, Senior dinner at Groton Senior Center Saturday September 22, Groton Fall Festival Saturday October 6. If you are interested in participating in any or all of these projects, contact me or any of the club officers and we will gladly sign you up.

Have a great Rotary week. Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of September 18th, 2007

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    Attendance was up this week. We had 26 Rotarians and guests present. Martha Laurie presented the Foundation Thought for the week and Moshe delivered the invocation. On a sad note, the Lauries will be leaving the club and transferring their Rotary membership to their new home in Marion Illinois. We shall miss them both. They did say they would be able to visit probably four or five times a year.
    We announced a birthday this week for Nolan Nixon and anniversary for Michelle Mencer. We sang beautifully for Michelle. Nolan was not there.
    Bruno Giulini and Michelle Mencer completed 13 weeks perfect attendance. There were no years of perfect attendance to celebrate.
    Bruno Giulini introduced our speaker this week. The speaker was Kathy Ruane, Long Term Care Insurance Representative with Genworth Financial.
    Kathy provided some very useful information about the sometimes confusing topic of long term care. Specifically, what exactly is long term care? Well, it primarily address custodial care but can include nursing and some medical care. It can include  assistance with the activities of daily living, whether at home or in a facility; it’s not just for the elderly. Disabling accidents and illnesses can happen to anyone and they are often without warning. Who provides long term care? According to Rosalynn Carter, wife of former president Jimmy Carter, there are four kinds of people in the world: those who have been caregivers, those who are currently care givers, those who will be caregivers and those who will need caregivers.
    What does it cost? The 2004 average cost for a private nursing home room (single occupancy) in the state of Connecticut was $284.24 per day or $103,700 per year! Assuming a 5% annual increase, that annual cost will be $160,873 by the year 2015. So, the message is if you have assets to protect, if you have plans for your assets, if you might someday need care, then how are you going to pay for the care? Long Term Care Insurance may be something you want to consider.
    Kathy did provide a copy of “A Shopper’s Guide to Long Term Care Insurance” produced by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to all in attendance at the meeting. Anyone desiring more information regarding today’s topic may contact Kathy at KKRUANE@sbcglobal.net or the National Association of Insurance Commissioners at www.naic.org.

Have a great Rotary week. Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of September 25th, 2007

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    We had 26 Rotarians and guests in attendance today for our regularly scheduled club assembly meeting. Major items of discussion for assembly were Groton Fall Festival on 6 October and Club Officer Rotation.
    Regarding the Fall Festival, we will have two booths; one food booth at which  we will be offering Caramel Apples, Apple Muffins, Apple juice and seasonal flavored coffee. Anyone who participated in last year’s event will recall what fun it was especially making the caramel apples. There is still opportunity to participate should anyone desire to do so; just contact Michelle Mencer or Cathy Lathrop and let them know you are interested.
    The second booth will be an Amber Alert registration booth. This will provide an opportunity for anyone interested to get Amber Alert ID’s for their children free of charge. We have several club members who have participated in numerous amber alert registrations in the past and have always found it to be fun and rewarding. Again, if you are interested, contact Michelle or Cathy.
    Club Officer Rotation Our current President Elect, Dan Boisvert, has taken a new job that will prevent him from being able to serve as club president during 2008-2009. The good news is that Dan will be able to remain in the club and be active in club activities. As a result of having to move Dan out of the rotation, I have asked the nomination committee to put together come proposals for how we might proceed. There will be more to follow on this topic.
    We installed a new member this week, Gina Kolodnicki. Gina is Branch Manager at Putnam Savings Bank in Gales Ferry, CT. We welcome Gina to our club.
In the area of birthdays and anniversaries, we announced Mark Ginda’s birthday (September 24), however Mark was not at the meeting, so no singing. There were no anniversaries.
    George Letz hit the jackpot this week; he was honored for completing both 13 weeks and 1 year perfect attendance.
    Last week’s blood drive brought in 60 units of blood. Way to go Rotarians!
Our speaker next week will be RDML Cecil Haney, Commander Submarine Group II, or his Chief of Staff, CAPT Swan. Right now, REML Haney is scheduled, but he has a potential conflict and if he is not able to speak, CAPT Swan will fill in for him. This should be a great presentation. You don’t want to miss it. Come and bring a friend or co worker as a potential member.
    We have open slots for speakers in November and December. If you can help in this area, contact program chair Bruno Giulini.

Have a great Rotary week. Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of October 2nd, 2007

Greetings Rotarians.
    We had 26 Rotarians and guests at our meeting this week, including one potential new member.
    We announced John & Robin Silsby’s anniversary and we sang beautifully.
    Walt Brown was honored for completing 46 years perfect attendance. What an accomplishment! We didn’t even have a 46 year pendant to give Walt for his pin however that will be remedied very soon.
    We announced that we were doing a collection of canned soup, vegetables, and tuna as part of the Rotary Zone Institute meeting this week. Once all the collections are in they will be delivered to the food pantry in New London. Based upon the short notice, the club decided the easiest way to participate would be to take up a collection and then go buy the canned goods. I am happy to report we contributed $100 worth of canned goods to the effort. Thanks Rotarians!
    Our Speaker this week was Rear Admiral Mark Kenny. Admiral Kenny, whom most of you may remember, is a former Commander Submarine Group II. He is currently assigned as Commander, Center for Submarine Counter-terrorism Operations. Admiral Kenny provided us with an extensive overview of his organization and what it is doing. It is gratifying to know, at the unclassified level, some of what is being done to find and neutralize the bad guys and to keep the bad guys off our turf. God bless the Submarine Force, the United States Navy and this great country.
    Don’t forget Groton Fall Festival this weekend. Weather should be great so please come out and join us.

Have a great Rotary week. Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of October 9th, 2007

Greetings Rotarians.
    We had 26 Rotarians in attendance. Our only guest was the guest speaker. Rotarians, this is an area where we all can help. Please invite a prospective member to join us for lunch. Remember the club pays for the first visit!
    We serenaded Doug Crandall in recognition of his October 7 Birthday.
There were no years of service to announce, but we did present Lee Vincent with a four way test ball point pen for 13 weeks perfect attendance.
    Lori briefed us all on the annual Liberty Bank/Rotary Club Thanksgiving Dinner Drive for 2007. Groton Ledyard Rotary will be participating again this year and we will be doing gift baskets again similar to last year. We are a little behind the power curve in getting started due to late notification on the drive, but we will press on and have fun. The start of the drive was actually delayed by one week to October 15, again due to the late notice. Lian Obrey graciously agreed to donate the first gift basket to help us get up and running. Now, we need Rotarians to volunteer to provide additional gift baskets for subsequent weeks and, very importantly, to man the table at the local Liberty Bank. More details will follow.
    I am happy to tell you all that everyone who participated in either of the two booths at Groton Fall Festival had a great time. We registered, I believe, 114 kids for Amber Alert ID cards. A final report on the food booth will be provided after we finish paying the bills.
    Our speaker this week was Ms. Jan Rinaldi, Health Service Coordinator for Life Line Screening. As you may be aware, Life Line Screening performs diagnostic ultrasound testing for carotid artery blockage, abdominal aortic aneurysm, peripheral artery disease, and Osteoporosis. According to Lifeline, carotid artery blockage is the number one cause of stroke; stroke is the third leading killer in the US and the number one cause of nursing home admissions.
    Jan went through each of the risk factors for stroke and the major warning signs that someone might be having a stroke. She also provided each person in attendance with a book marker containing the risk factors and warning signs. For those that missed the meeting, the risk factors are: high blood pressure, heart disease (especially an irregular heart beat), smoking, diabetes, high cholesterol and obesity/poor diet. The warning signs are: numbness or weakness in the face, arm, or leg; difficulty speaking; severe dizziness, loss of balance or coordination; sudden dimness or loss of vision; sudden intense headache, brief loss of consciousness. She warned that anyone experiencing any of those warning signs, even briefly, should call 911.
    Anyone desiring more information on preventive health screenings may contact lifeline at www.lifelinescreening.com
 
Have a great Rotary week. Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of October 16th, 2007

Greetings Fellow Rotarians.
    We had 26 Rotarians and guests in attendance. There were no birthdays or anniversaries to celebrate, so no off key singing either. RB Kent was presented with a 2 year perfect attendance pin. Well done RB!
    Our speaker this week was Mr. William (Bill) Sydenham, a retired police Lieutenant and currently Managing Director of the 100 Club of Connecticut. For those of you who have never heard of the 100 Club, they are a non profit organization dedicated to helping relieve financial burden on widows and children or police officers, corrections officers and firefighters, who have lost their lives in the line of duty. The Connecticut chapter was formed in Hartford in 1967. They are a benevolent organization. They seek no publicity, do no fundraising, and do not accept government funds. Their sole support comes from member dues (approximately 2400 members in the Connecticut Chapter). Some programs of the 100 club include: camp programs for younger kids, annual $200 savings bonds until the children reach college age, Holiday baskets, financial support for holiday shopping, computer systems for kids at age 7 and ..Get This.. a $25,000 per year per student college scholarship! Wow, what a support organization.
    Two new members have been proposed. They are Sharon Fortune and Diane Thomas. Letters were provided to all members in attendance at the meeting.
Remember, our meeting next week, October 23, will be at Fairview Odd Fellows Home. Hope to see you all there.

Have a great Rotary week. Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of October 23rd, 2007

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    We had 24 Rotarians in attendance at our meeting this week. If you are one of those that missed the meeting, you missed a special treat. We met this week at Fairview Odd Fellows Home in the Bistro. The folks at Fairview were wonderful hosts, the meal was fantastic and we hope to return for another visit at the appropriate time in the future.
    We announce birthdays for Bo Bohannan and Lori Jalbert. Michelle sang a special request solo Happy Birthday serenade.
    Similarly, we announced anniversaries for Bo Bohannan, Bill Miller, and Dave Stryker. Again, Michelle sang a special request solo Happy Anniversary serenade.
    Cathy Lathrop was congratulated and presented with a gift pen for completing 13 weeks perfect attendance.
    The meeting was our regularly scheduled club assembly, so no speaker this week. Items discussed during assembly included the Liberty Bank Thanksgiving Dinner Drive (sign up now to help out), an Amber Alert signup event scheduled for 17 November at Mohegan Sun (sign up now to help out), and an upcoming Rotary Four Way Speech Contest for high school students (more information to follow).
    Next week we will be back at our regular location, Groton Inn & Suites and we will be placing stickers in dictionaries for presentation to Groton Third Grade Students; please come. We will have several guests as six of the Fitch Interact members will be attending the meeting to help with the dictionary project.
    We will also be inducting two new club members next week.

Have a great Rotary week, Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of October 30th, 2007

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    We had 31 Rotarians and guests in attendance this week. Guests included three Interact members from the Fitch High School Interact club, their faculty advisor Mr. Clark and Mr Ken Medve the School to Career Coordinator. We were also honored by the presence of one spouse; Rotarian Bill Johnston brought his wife, Judy.
    We announced Randy Tupas’ birthday (24 October). Randy was not able to make the meeting, but Michelle & I sang happy birthday to him before we left the office and he paid his dollar.
    There were no anniversaries or years of service to announce. We did however present Walt Brown with his 46 year pin. You will recall, Walt hit the 46 year mark a few weeks back and we didn’t have the pin at that time.
    We also presented Walt with a four way test ball point pen for completing 13 weeks perfect attendance.
    We had some sad news this week. We received word from his daughter that Ira Schwartz had passed away.
    Also on a sad note, we bid farewell to Barbara Buchanan this week. She has resigned from Rotary effective 1 November. We shall miss her.
    We announced the Rotary four way speech contest and presented contest materials to the Fitch High School representatives. We will also be extending an invitation to students at Grasso Tech to join in the contest. The club will hold local speech contests in December and then send the winner to a district “speak off” in January. More information about the four way test contest is available on the District 7980 web site.
    Jim Mitchell’s guest, Mr. Ken Medve gave us a short update on the mentor program.
The big event for the day was preparation of the dictionaries. The club put stickers and name labels on some 400 dictionaries to be presented to Groton Public School Third Grade students. I believe this is the fifth (or possibly sixth) year Groton Ledyard Rotary has done the dictionary project. It’s always a lot of fun to prepare the dictionaries and they are always appreciated by the students who receive them.
    Remember, November is Foundation month and the goal is to have every Rotarian give to the foundation this year.

Have a great Rotary week. Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of November 6th, 2007

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    We have two new Groton Ledyard Rotarians. They are Sharon Fortune, who you all know as our host at Groton Inn & Suites, and Diane Thomas, Administrator at Groton Regency Home. Sharon was actually inducted last week & I neglected to put it in my remarks last week. We welcome both Sharon and Diane to Rotary.
    There were no birthdays, anniversaries or years of service to celebrate this week. Mike Riegel received a Rotary four way test ball point pen for completing 13 weeks perfect attendance.
    Our speaker this week, Ms Lea Doran, was introduced by Rotarian Cathy Lathrop. Diane is a certified hypno-therapist whose main interests are in the areas of stress and pain management. She described hypnosis as “the brain slowing down” and stated that “all hypnosis is self hypnosis”, who would have thought that? She described the various states starting with alpha which is the lightest and most common state, progressing through theta which is used most commonly for stage performance to the deepest state of delta which is basically comatose and can even be used in place of anesthetic for surgery, so she claims. She stated that hypnosis is useful in dealing with chronic pain, that you can basically rewire it. It was a very interesting topic.
    By way of reminder, November is Foundation Month and we will be promoting Every Rotarian Every Year throughout the month. The goal is to have all Rotarians contribute something to the foundation each year.  We would like to see everyone qualify as a sustaining member, which requires a minimum donation of $100 to the foundation.  But we will accept any size donation.  Remember, $100 per year is only $8.33 per month; less than $2 per week.  Surely we can all do that!

Have a great Rotary week. Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of November 13th, 2007

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    Mike was away on business so any comments here will have to come from the person that took his place.
Ed out//
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Regular Meeting of November 20th, 2007

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    I want to start by wishing you all a very safe and happy Thanksgiving. I hope you all are able to spend the holiday with family and friends you love.
    We had 21 Rotarians and guests in attendance this week. We all observed a moment of silence prior to the invocation in memory of fellow Rotarian and Past District Governor Gil Gunn who passed away on November 12.
    We also learned this week that fellow Rotarian George Letz is in the hospital; not sure which hospital he is in, when we have more information we will pass it along.
There were no birthdays to celebrate this week. Bob and Sue Ellen Perry will be celebrating their wedding anniversary on November 22; we did sing to Bob.
    We welcomed Ed Kolar back from his summer sabbatical this week.

    RB Kent and Pete Lampasona were both congratulated for completing 13 weeks perfect attendance. Both received a Rotary Four Way Test ball-point pen.
    The Liberty Bank Thanksgiving Dinner Drive has been completed. I am happy to report that Groton Ledyard Rotary in partnership with Groton Lyons contributed over $10,215 to the drive including the match (50 cents on the dollar) from Liberty Bank. So, thank you to Groton Lyons and all Rotarians who worked to make this drive a success this year.
    There was no speaker or program this week.
    The club has asked to see completed minutes from the board meetings. We will start putting those minutes on the website as they are approved.

Have a great Rotary week and a Happy Thanksgiving. Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of November 27th, 2007

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    We had 23 Rotarians and guests present this week, a low turnout given the total number of members in the club, but unfortunately fairly typical of our meeting attendance as of late.
    Update on George Letz: George is currently at Fairview Odd Fellows Home in Groton. He is in room 105, his spirits are good and I’m sure he would love to have visitors. So, please stop by and say hi to George.
    We turned in money for the sixth water drop for our bio-sand filter bank this week. The club has now contributed $600, or enough to purchase 24 bio-sand water filter systems for the school kids in India. Thanks Rotarians.
    There were no birthdays, anniversaries or years of service to celebrate this week.
    We did congratulate Ted Colburn, Bill Miller and Frank Winkler for completing 13 weeks perfect attendance.
    Our speakers this week were Sharon Mazzochi and Robert Scata from the Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security. They managed to scrunch their normally one and one half hour presentation into one half hour for us. And it was a most interesting presentation. They provided a graphic demonstration of devastation experienced in the south from hurricane Katrina, discussed what would likely happen if a similar intensity storm were to hit southern New England and the need to have an effective emergency plan.
    Everyone at the meeting was provided with an Emergency Financial First Aid Kit (EFFAK). EFFAK is a tool to help one to prepare in advance for financial recovery following a major disaster such as 9/11 or hurricane Katrina. Hopefully, all will complete the EFFAK and follow all the guidelines for emergency preparation contained therein.
    I have great news! The Gates Foundation has awarded The Rotary Foundation a $100 million challenge grant in support of our goal for a polio free world. I’m told it is the largest single grant to a volunteer organization.

Have a great Rotary week, Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of December 4th, 2007

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    We had 30 Rotarians and guests in attendance this week, a vast improvement over last week. Guests included Mr. Bob Taylor, a former charter member of Groton Ledyard Rotary and Mr. Harry Holt who is Bo Bohannan’s son in law.
    Frank Winkler delivered the weekly Foundation thought and RB Kent delivered the membership minute. RB has a great idea for promoting club membership that includes posters with Rotary club member’s pictures which would be placed in various locations inviting folks to join Rotary; more details on this idea to follow.
    There were no birthdays or anniversaries to celebrate this week. However, we did do a special song for Fred Keith whose birthday was announced last week when Fred was not in attendance.
    We announced the annual Christmas for Kids effort we do each year in conjunction with Groton Inn & Suites. Members or anyone for that matter, wishing to donate a gift may simply take a tag off the “tree” and purchase the appropriate gift. Gifts may then be brought to Groton Inn & Suites where they will be held by the staff until time to deliver to Social Services. Last day to drop off gifts at GIS will be December 18.
The club will also be providing a gift pickup service for Pfizer PGM employees after their XMAS party on 15 December. We will basically be picking up the gifts at Mystic Marriott Saturday evening and delivering them to Town of Groton Social Services on Monday December 17. If anyone wants to help out in this effort, please contact me.
Our speaker today was Dr. David Shultz. He gave a most informative presentation on what it takes to get a drug to market starting with the initial idea through to obtaining FDA approval; very interesting. By the way, the new video presentation system at GIS is wonderful.
    Remember December is Family of Rotary month.

I hope you all have a wonderful Rotary week,  Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of December 11th, 2007

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    We sang happy birthday to Dave Brown, Pete Lampasona & Lian Obrey (Dave wasn’t at the meeting but we sang to him anyway).
    Bob Perry received a Rotary Four Way Test ball-point pen for completing 13 weeks perfect attendance.
    There were no anniversaries to celebrate or years of perfect attendance to announce.
In the weekly membership minute, Dave Stryker challenged us all to bring a guest (read potential club member) to lunch. Remember, the club picks up the tab for a guest/potential member on their first visit. So, please, let’s us all take up Dave’s challenge and bring in the new members.
    Dave also provided some more information on the Rotary member poster project. If you would like to have your picture on a poster promoting membership in Groton Ledyard Rotary, then let the honorable web master (who is also the honorable photographer) know & he will take your picture for the poster.
    Please support the Christmas for Kids drive and buy some presents for needy children in the Groton area! It’s easy, just pick a tag from the poster next to the Christmas tree in the GIS lobby, buy the appropriate present of your choice, wrap it and drop it off at the GIS lobby. It’s that easy. FYI, the last day to drop off presents will be December 18.
    Our speaker this week was John Markowicz, introduced by Dave Stryker. John is a CAPT USNR (Ret) and is currently serving as Executive Director of the Southeastern Connecticut Enterprise Region (aka SeCTER). John brought us all up to date on three important subjects; the BRAC process, Route 11, and Southeast CT. multimodal transportation. Btw, John is a potential member of our club.
    Hey everybody! Remember, next week, 18 December, is military day and we will have 15 active duty military members from the Submarine Base as our guests at Rotary. So, please come and, if possible, bring your spouse.

Have a great Rotary week.  Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of December 18th, 2007

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    We had 45 Rotarians and guests present for our final meeting of the year 2007. It was really great to see a full room. We had 15 active duty Navy guests from the Submarine Base and several Rotarians brought their spouses so it was a good crowd.
    The military members were all special guests at our traditional meeting before Christmas military guest day. They were introduced by CAPT Mark Ginda and each one told a little about herself/himself, where they were from, what their current duty assignment consisted of etc. All enjoyed the traditional turkey dinner put on by GIS.
    We also had as a guest Chris Kennedy from Fitch High School. Chris is an entrant in the Four Way Test Speech Contest. He presented his speech to the club and will be going on to the “speak off” in Fairfield on January 13.
    The club presented Sharon with a card thanking her for her faithful service throughout the year. Included with the card was a cash donation.
    Ted Colburn received his 12 year pin and Michelle Mencer received her 1 year pin for perfect attendance. Congratulations to both.
    Please note, the Televised Charity Auction will be held on April 5th 2008. This is a change from previous dates that had been promulgated, so please mark your calendars accordingly.
    As I stated earlier, this was our last meeting of the year. We will not have a meeting next week, Christmas Day, or the following week, New Years Day.
So, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Be safe and enjoy this special time of year.

See you all next year!!  Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of January 8th, 2008

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    President Mike was out of town so the meeting was run by Michelle Mencer (our club secretary). She did an honorable job of the task and should be commended for it when you see her.
    There were about 20-25 Rotarians present at the meeting. No unusual guests , no birthdays, no anniversaries, no 13 weekers, but...  RB Kent received his 3 year attendance pin.
    Through generous contributions we filled the sand filter donation box to the hundred dollar mark giving us a total of 9 water drops.
    Our speaker for the day was Kathy Poole, a local area Acupuncturist, and she showed us many interesting slides of her recent trip to China to further her knowledge of Chinese Herbal Medicine.

Have a great Rotary week.  Michelle Mencer
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of January 15th, 2008

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    It seems like forever since I have written an update for the web, what with two weeks off with the holidays and then missing last weeks meeting. But, I’m back and I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Years holiday and are now looking forward to a great 2008 and the second half of this Rotary year. My, time does fly when one is having fun.
    We had 25 Rotarians and guests at our meeting this week and all enjoyed the baked fish dinner.
    There were no birthdays or anniversaries to celebrate, so no extraneous singing this week.
    There were no years of perfect attendance to acknowledge, but we congratulated Doug Crandall, Ed Kolar and Lee Vincent for completing thirteen weeks of perfect attendance and presented each with a Rotary Four Way Test ball-point pen.
Our speakers today were Drew Serrano and Danielle Silva from East Coast Training Systems. ECTS is based in Waterbury CT and specializes in on-location training in the areas of Personal Safety, Fitness and Martial Arts. Drew and Danielle provided a flip chart presentation of common pitfalls one may get into that result in potentially dangerous situations, some useful techniques for increasing one’s awareness of surroundings and ways of improving/enhancing self protection. They culminated the presentation with a demonstration of some easy to use techniques and offered all in attendance an opportunity to try one of the self defense techniques. All in all it was a very informative presentation. Anyone wanting more information on ECTS may visit their web site at www.EastCoastTrainingSystems.com.  

Have a great Rotary week,  Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as your guest to our next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of January 22nd, 2008

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    We had 25 Rotarians and guests in attendance this week and all enjoyed a chicken parmesan lunch served up by the folks at Groton Inn & Suites.
    Mike Falk celebrated his birthday on January 16. Mike paid $2.00 so we would not sing to him; guess he doesn’t appreciate fine vocal talent.
    There were no anniversaries, years of perfect attendance or 13 weeks of perfect attendance to celebrate, so no more singing today.
    We now have nine water drops on the water filter bank and have just sent in the money for the tenth, so that project is going just fine. Thanks Rotarians.
    On Saturday, January 19, eight of our Rotarians along with about double that number of high school students all gathered at the Groton Schools administration building and loaded about 20,000 pounds of donated books into a semi-trailer truck. The books are bound initially for Maryland and thence to a school or schools in Kenya, Tanzania, or Zambia. We anticipate at least one more shipment taking place in the near future. Look for the pictures on the website.
    Hey! Auction time is rapidly approaching and we are off to a start in gathering product. We need the help of all Rotarians to bring in product donations from local businesses for this, our major fundraising event of the year. This year’s auction will be held on Saturday, April 5; mark that date on your calendars!
    Our speaker this week was Mr. David Jones of Bio-Tech Pest Control. He gave a fascinating presentation about environmentally friendly treatments and also talked about some really toxic treatments that are obviously not environmentally friendly.
In the environmentally friendly arena, there is something called Diatomaceous Earth which is non-toxic but it kills all insects! So a logical question is why doesn’t everybody use it? I still don’t know the answer to that one.
    David also talked about various treatments for termites, carpenter bees, lady bugs, powder post beetles, ants, etc. You name it and they’ve got an environmentally friendly way to get rid of them.
    Have a great Rotary week and please continue to think about and support the Rotary Foundation Annual Fund. Groton Ledyard Rotary is currently at $3900 donated this year which is about 60 percent of our goal for the year. So please, if you have not yet had a chance to participate in the Every Rotarian Every Year program, send in your contribution as soon as possible. We want to see every Rotarian contribute at least something.

Have a great Rotary week,  Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as our guest to the next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of January 29th, 2008

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    We had 27 Rotarians and guests in attendance this week. Guests included Mystic Rotary President Elect, John Bradshaw and 2008-2008 AG Catherine Foley (Catherine is from the New London club).
    John is area rep for the incoming GSE teams this year and brought us up to date on the team schedules. A team of 5 (four GSE participants and one Rotarian) from the Philippines will be in our area from April 20 through April 26. On Tuesday April 22, Groton Ledyard Rotary club will host the team. We will provide them with a schedule of activities for the day (to be promulgated later) included in which they will be our guests for lunch at our regular meeting that day. Anyone wanting to help out with the hosting activities should contact me asap.
    We received a CD from former member Barbara Buchanan of songs she recorded a number of years ago (1964 to be exact). We auctioned the CD off for $30 with the funds going to benefit the club. Thanks Barbara.
    Groton Inn & Suites informed us the meal prices will be going up to $11.00 effective March 1. The board will discuss at its next meeting and present a new weekly dues amount to the club.
    This week was assembly, so no speaker. Our principal discussion at assembly was the upcoming auction. We concentrated on getting  members to take up the “orphaned” auction item sheets. These are sheets for previous auction items/donors for which there is no Rotarian assigned responsibility for getting new product donations. We were able to find a home for most of them, but there are still several remaining.
    Remember, the auction is coming up April 5, and that’s closer than you think. We need everyone’s commitment and help now to make the auction a success.

Have a great Rotary week,  Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as our guest to the next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of February 5th, 2008

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    We had 27 Rotarians and guests in attendance this week. Guests included Sharon Stryker, wife of Rotarian Dave Stryker, and Lea Doran, guest of Lian Obrey and a prospective member of GL Rotary.
    Birthdays were celebrated this week by RB Kent, and Mike Riegel, both born on February 1st.
    There were no anniversaries to celebrate.
    There were no years of perfect attendance to acknowledge. Bruno Giulini was presented with a Rotary Four Way Test ball-point pen in recognition of 13 weeks of perfect attendance.
    Our speaker this week was Kristina Powell, handwriting analyst, with Personality Profiling Center of New England. Kristina showed several different types/styles of handwriting and demonstrated how handwriting could be used for all manner of things including employment screening, identification of criminal suspects, determination of personality compatibility etc. It was a very interesting presentation. For more information on the subject, go to www.analyzemywriting.com.  
    The next senior dinner at Groton Senior Center will be held on Saturday, April 19. More information to follow.
    Think AUCTION!!! April 5th is the annual auction and that is coming up fast. Approximately 350 letters to potential product donors will be mailed within the next week. We will need to follow up on these letters with calls on the various businesses to bring in the product for the auction and we will need everyone’s help in this effort.

Have a great Rotary week, Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as our guest to the next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of February 12th, 2008

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    We had 26 Rotarians and guests in attendance this week, which seems to be about average for our club these days. It’s a far cry from numbers in the 50’s that I recall when I first joined Rotary in 1992. Well, we may one day return to those attendance numbers. I am very optimistic regarding our membership development efforts. We have sent out over 200 letters to prospective members; business people that have supported our auction efforts in the past and thus are supportive of Rotary. I am seeing some emails with information about individuals interested in joining Rotary. We have an engaged enthusiastic membership development committee and they are all working hard to make membership growth a success. Let’s all pitch in & do our part to grow Groton Ledyard Rotary.
    Guests this week included prospective member Lea Doran and New London Club member Bruce Barrett.
    Bob Perry had a birthday on February 6.
Years of service: Frank Winkler was presented his 10 year pin and Pete Lampasona was presented his 40 year pin! Wow! Congratulations to both.
    Walt Brown was presented a Four Way Test ball-point pen for completing 13 weeks perfect attendance.
    Our speakers this week were Al Dion and Ray Valentini from Groton Utilities. Al is Deputy Director for Water & Sewer and Ray is Manager of Water Operations. They presented a tag team update on the Regional Water Interconnection Project. That project you will recall connects public water supplies on opposite sides of the Thames River via a large pipe running beneath the river bed. When fully operational the system will transfer about 1.2 million gallons of water per day.
 

    AUCTION!!!

    The date is April 5 and that is coming up fast. Approximately 350 letters are in the mail to prospective product donors and now is the time to bring in the product. That’s where you all come in. We need every Rotarian that is able to help calling on local businesses to get a commitment for product donation for this year’s auction. So, let’s go get’em.
    We have a really interesting program lined up for next week. Our speaker will be Dr. Kathleen Dudzinski; she is with the Dolphin Communication Project (you know, like swimming with dolphins) and you won’t want to miss her presentation. This will be a great week to bring prospective members.

Have a great Rotary week and I hope to see you all at the next meeting. Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as our guest!
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Regular Meeting of February 19th, 2008

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    We had 28 Rotarians and guests in attendance this week, which on the surface sounds fairly good. The breakdown though is 20 Rotarians, well below fifty percent of our membership, 7 guests (all potential members) and 1 guest speaker. So, on a positive note it was great to see that many prospective members and they all got to see a great program (more on that below).
    There were no birthdays to celebrate. We did announce Moshe and Martha laurie’s wedding anniversary (Feb 23).
    There were no years of perfect attendance to celebrate, but yours truly did complete another 13 weeks.
    Vice President John Silsby aka 2008 Rotary Auction Chairman announced that we have collected $6,000 in product so far for the auction. There is potentially another $36,000 out there, so please Rotarians let’s go get it. April 5 is coming up fast!
Groton Ledyard Rotary will be sponsoring 5 students from Fitch High School to attend the New Generations Conference in Wallingford, March 8, 2008. This conference is held each year and affords ovre100 high school students from all over district 7980 and opportunity to assemble, meet fellow students from across the district and discuss issues most important to them. Topics from last year’s conference included Sexuality, Relationships, Stress and Body Image.
    Our program this week was one of the best I have seen. Dr. Kathleen Dudzinski of the Dolphin Communication Project was our guest speaker and she delivered a fantastic presentation brief of her work. The DCP studies and records behaviors and communication patterns of dolphins at four locations around the globe, two with captive dolphins and two with wild dolphins. The group offers individuals an opportunity to join them at the various locations and actually swim with and interact with the dolphins. Our own Dave Stryker and wife Sharon have actually taken one of these trips and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. To learn more about DCP, visit their website at http://www.dolphincommunicationproject.org.
    One additional item; we will be loading another truck with donated books for the book project on Saturday March 1 at the Groton School administration building. So, if you need some variety in your physical fitness program, please join us at 10:00 am on Saturday, March 1 behind the Groton Public School Administration Building and we’ll provide you with an opportunity for about two hours of good PT. We also hope to have help from some energetic student athletes from Fitch.

Have a great Rotary week. Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as our guest to the meeting after this next one!
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Regular Meeting of February 26th, 2008

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    We all sang happy birthday to our hard working web master this week; Ed Kolar celebrated his birthday February 26 and even brought in a cake so we could all enjoy some and celebrate with him.
    Ted Colburn received a Rotary four way test ball-point pen for completing 13 weeks perfect attendance.
    We did have two prospective member guests in attendance this week and one of them even jumped right in to help with the auction. Way to go!
Club assembly this week and so, there was no speaker on the agenda. The major item of discussion for assembly was/is the auction we finally got all the product sheets into the hands of a Rotarian (or prospective Rotarian) so now we can get all that product in. Speaking of product, we made no gain for the last week, so, the current value of all product for the auction still stands at $6,000 leaving about $36,000 out there to be gathered in. Ed Kolar needs about 40 to 45 minutes to enter each item into the system so it is imperative that we get the product to him sooner rather than later. We cannot wait until the last two weeks to get the product in. Please, everybody make it a goal to have made initial contact with all your potential donors by next week’s meeting.
A second major item of business this week concerns weekly meeting fees. After many years of holding the line of prices, Groton Inn & Suites has had to raise prices for our meals. So, we are raising our weekly meeting dues accordingly. Beginning next week, March 4th, weekly dues will be as follows: lunch and raffle ticket $14, lunch with no raffle ticket $12, no lunch $4.
    Groton Ledyard Rotary will be hosting a blood drive at Groton Regency on Monday March 24th. Mark that day on your calendars and save up your blood.
    Calling all able bodied Rotarians, we will be loading books into a semi this Saturday at the Groton Public Schools Administration Building. Books are going first to Maryland and thence to Africa. Come help us load books; 10:00 am Saturday rain, shine, snow, cold etc.

Have a great Rotary week. Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as our guest to the next meeting!

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Regular Meeting of March 4th, 2008

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    We welcomed three prospective new members this week, Walt Jay (former member), Paul Lapides and Lea Doran. Paul brought in a donation for the auction!
RB Kent & Gina Kolodnicki were congratulated for completing 13 weeks perfect attendance.
    There were no anniversaries or birthdays to celebrate this week, so no singing.
Tyler Olsen from the Red Cross was also a guest this weej and brought us information, posters, flyers and a sign up sheet, for the upcoming blood drive at Groton Regency. The blood drive will be held from 1:30 until 6:00 pm on Monday March 24. Anyone interested in donating blood may sign up at any of our Rotary meetings between now and the 24th, or you may call 1-800-448-3543 to make an appointment by phone. All presenting donors will be entered into a weekly drawing to save $200 on home heating costs!
    We received word that the latest load of textbooks we shipped out arrived safely and in good shape in Maryland on Monday. The book loading crew of Bob Perry, Ted Colburn, John Silsby, Nolan Nixon, Jim Mitchell and Mike Riegel had loaded the books in the rain last Saturday. These books join others for shipment to Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Samoa.
    Our speaker this week was Lisa Ellison of Catholic Charities. Lisa program coordinator for the Catholic Charities Mentoring Program and brought us up to date on this important program. There are many opportunities there for Rotarians to get involved in mentoring a young person age 14 to 21 committed to the guardianship of the State of Connecticut. This program provides adolescents with caring, positive adult role models that can become a major support in the young person’s life. Anyone interested in learning more or volunteering may contact Lisa at lellison@ccfsn.org.

Auction, Auction, Auction!!! 

    It’s less than four weeks until our annual auction. Let’s all get out now and get those product donations.
    I will be out of the area and will miss the meeting of March 11. VP John Silsby will be filling in.

Have a great Rotary week. Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as our guest to the next meeting!

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Regular Meeting of March 11th, 2008

Greetings fellow Rotarians,
    Well, with both President Mike and Vice President John out of town, I (Michelle Mencer) had the privilege of holding up the fort in their stead. (The few ‘oh-oh’s’ did nothing to dissuade me – nice try though!) I surely had fun and hope you all did too.
    We welcomed two guests this week – prospective member Lea Doran and one of our favorites – Bruce from New London. (I don’t think that’s his real last name, but since he’s always introduced that way…maybe it is!)
    Congratulations and kudos to Bill Miller, Frank Winkler and Peter Lampasona for another 13 weeks of perfect attendance.
    We sang Happy Birthday to Dave Stryker this week, as his birthday was on the 10th. I don’t think we did too badly. Happy, happy Dave!
    Ted Colburn invited any interested Rotarians to participate in the Amber Alert sign-up that is being held this weekend, at Connecticut College. Many hands make light the load and it is one of the most rewarding, fun things we do! I do hope many of you can help. Please call Ted if you’re interested.
    Ted also shared his newly acquired membership materials with us. There is something for everyone – for existing members who want to refresh your knowledge about Rotary, or new/prospective members who want to learn the history and workings of Rotary.
    Ed Kolar sadly reminded us all of how quiet his evenings are with no donations to input into the computer. Please, let’s all help keep Ed busy…drop your donations off at his house when you receive them. Thanks!
    Our guest this week was Michelle Drake, Communication Specialist and CEO of The Cove Group. Michelle shared stories from her newly published book, From the Kitchen to the Corner Office. The book shows how we can take the lessons learned from our family and apply them in the office. Michelle’s stories proved to be very entertaining and enlightening.
    I wanted to say a special thank you to all who gave condolences on my father-in-law’s passing. It was very much appreciated. (A special hug to RB Kent for matching my donation in Celebration of Cliff’s life – thanks RB!)

Thanks again for making my short tenure as ‘president-for-a-day’ so much fun!
Best, Michelle Mencer
And, please bring a friend as our guest to the next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of March 18th, 2008

Greetings fellow Rotarians!
    We had 26 Rotarians and guests in attendance this week. Included in the guests were three prospective new members who will all be inducted next week, one former GL Rotarian (Richard Abston) and Darrell Fox from the Mystic Club.
    There were no birthdays or anniversaries to celebrate, so no additional signing and there were no years of perfect attendance or 13 weeks of perfect attendance to celebrate.
    Stan Cardinal stood in for the Sergeant at Arms this week and did an admirable job of collecting fines for late arrivals, early departures, missing Rotary Pins and missed meetings.
    We shared a letter with the club that we had received from the South Asia Pure Water Initiative thanking us for donations the club has made to the water filter project. Included with the letter were some pictures of children in India alongside operating water filters Rotary has helped to provide. The letter also announced that Saturday March 22 will be “World Water Day”. In view of World Water Day, we passed the filter bank around the room and it came back with $145! That’s another water drop for the bank (four bio sand filters) and almost half way towards another drop. Thanks Rotarians for your generosity!
    Our speaker this week was Mr. Michael Rohde, Development Director for Ronald McDonald House (RMH) of CT. RMH of CT is located in New Haven, is one of 160 RMH’s in the US and the only one in Connecticut. It was opened in 1985 and since then has served about 8500 families; with most Connecticut families coming from New London County. As you probably know, RMH provides an “oasis” for families with children being treated at Yale New Haven for serious diseases such as cancer, birth defects, neo natal disorders, etc. They provide accommodations, food, laundry facilities, wifi, a complete loving family atmosphere for families going through tremendous emotional stress. The house is run by 75 volunteers; there are only two paid staff, the house director and the development director. Each year they must raise 94% of their annual operation expenses through fundraising. McDonalds provides about 6% of the annual operating costs. For more information, visit www.ronaldmcdonaldhouse-ct.org.

            Think AUCTION!!
    As of this Tuesday (18 March) there are only 18 days until the auction. April 5 is coming up fast, so please let’s get out there and get that product!
    Have a great Rotary week and please attend next week’s meeting we will be installing three new Rotarians; Leah Doran, Paul Lapides, and Greg Caskey. Please come and help welcome these new Rotarians to our club.

Have a great Rotary week. Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as our guest to the next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of March 25th, 2008

Greetings fellow Rotarians!
    We had 25 Rotarians and guests in attendance this week; included in the guests were Assistant Governor Doretta Colburn and former club member, Richard Abston.
    Celebrating birthdays this week were Frank Eppinger, Moshe Laurie and Ted Colburn. Frank and Moshe were absent, so we sang to Ted.
    We announced Fred Keith's anniversary (coming up on April 1). Fred wasn't in attendance today, hope he doesn't forget.
    There were no years of perfect attendance to announce this week; but Bob Perry did complete 13 weeks perfect attendance. Bob was not here this week, so we'll present him with his four way test ball point pen next week.
    Our next Groton Seniors Dinner is coming up on Saturday, April 19. Rotarians please sign up and come help with that event; it's a lot of fun and the food is good.
    Our speaker this week was Grace Lynn Guyol representing CUSH. What's CUSH you ask? The acronym stands for Clean Up Stonington Harbors. The group is advocating for all the coastal waters between the Mystic River and the Pawcatuck River. They were formed in 2006 after a concerned person spotted a boater dumping his holding tanks within 100 yards of swimmers and when the issue was raised with the boater he became very belligerent. The groups aim is to address non point-source sources of pollution including runoff from farms and lawns, fertilizers, insecticides, storm drains, boat holding tanks, septic tanks, household chemcals, old medications, etc. CUSH publishes pamphlets that explain how homeowners and boaters can help clean up the harbors; they also publish a yard guide for the coastal homeowner. For more information, visit their web site at www.cushinc.org.

AUCTION!!
    There are only 11 days until the auction! So, please make the final effort to bring in product donations for the auction. We are sending out over 200 letters to former bidders this week, alerting them to the coming auction and asking them to tune in and bid on April 5th, so let's make sure we have plenty of good quality items for folks to bid on.

Have a great Rotary week. Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as our guest to the next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of April 1st, 2008

Greetings fellow Rotarians!
    Greetings to all Rotarians; we installed another new member this week. We welcome Paul Lapides as our newest member. Paul is a branch manager at Peoples Bank.
    We sang Happy Anniversary to Fred Keith (April 1) and Lee Vincent (April 5) this week. Actually, Michelle sang a solo at Fred’s request and it was great!
    We had four visitors this week including one potential new member.
    This week was a club assembly and we devoted the discussion time to completing final preparations for our upcoming auction. We noted that the auction would not be the organized success it is without the tireless efforts of our Rotarians and we are particularly grateful for the work in years past put in by Doc Doolittle, and currently by Ed Kolar and Larry Lewis. We are also grateful for the work of all Rotarians in going out and gathering in all the products for the auction and most importantly for all the businesses and individuals that donated items for the auction. Thank you to everyone.
Now it is time to put it all together. Please join us this Saturday, April 5 on public access Cable Television Channel 12; bid early and bid often. The bidding opens at 10:00 am and goes until 6:00 pm. If you are anxious to get started, log on to the web site at www.grotonledyardrotary.org and you can put in proxy bids now!
Remember, it’s all for charity.
    I hope to see many of you this weekend at the auction.

Have a great Rotary week. Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as our guest to the next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of April 8th, 2008

Greetings fellow Rotarians!
    We had 26 Rotarians and guests in attendance this week. It’s good to see the snow birds starting to return. Welcome back to Bill Anhalt.
    There were no birthdays or anniversaries this week and no years of perfect attendance to celebrate.
    Ed Kolar and Michelle Mencer were congratulated for completing another 13 weeks of perfect attendance and were each presented with a Rotary Four-Way Test Ball Point Pen.
    Well, Rotary Auction 2008 is completed. Thank you to all Rotarians and other volunteers who participated in making this auction a success. Thanks to all businesses and individuals who donated items to the auction and thanks to all who bid on and won the items. Thanks to Comcast for the use of their studio. And a special thanks to Larry Lewis and Ed Kolar.
    District Assembly is coming up April 17. We have 7 Groton-Ledyard Rotarians attending. I’m sure there’s room for last minute additions; if anyone else wants to go, just let me know asap.
    The next Rotary dinner at Groton Senior Center will be on Saturday April 19. If you want to help set up, then show up at 3:00 pm. If you want to help serve and clean up, then show up at 5:00 pm. There will be live entertainment and as always a good time will be had by all.
    The GSE team from the Philippines will visit our club on April 22. We have a full day of activities planned for them. Anyone interested in helping out please contact John Silsby.
    Our guest speaker this week, introduced by Doug Crandall, was Steven Shaw representing the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. He gave a little history of the SAR and then devoted the bulk of his presentation to the Nathan Hale Campaign. They are attempting to raise $170.000 to create a permanent Nathan Hale exhibit at both museums, to build a new post and beam barn at the schoolhouse museum in East Haddam and to restore the interior woodwork and plaster in the schoolhouse in New London. Anyone interested in learning more about the Connecticut SAR and their museums may visit www.ConnecticutSAR.org.

Have a great Rotary week. Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as our guest to the next meeting!

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Regular Meeting of April 15th, 2008

Greetings fellow Rotarians!
    We had 31 Rotarians and guests in attendance today, included in the eight guests were two prospective new members.
    There were no birthdays, anniversaries, years of service or 13 weeks of service to celebrate this week; sad, no singing!
    One of our guests this week was Larry Lewis, who as most of you know has been a driving force behind our auction for nine years. Without Larry’s hand in the development of and maintenance of the auction database the auction would not be the event it is today. Sadly, Larry announced he was stepping down after this year’s auction. We all thanked him for his 9 years of faithful service; he has truly epitomized the ideal of Service above Self. We shall definitely miss him.
    One new member proposal was made this week, Mr. Mark Vinchesi, the new proprietor of Great Brook Golf, has been recommended for club membership.
    We are sending 7 of our club members to District Assembly in Meriden on Thursday April 17. Thanks to all for stepping up to the plate.
    Our speaker this week, introduced by Dave Stryker, was Ms. Christine Lautz of Moving Solutions. Christine spoke about “How to strategically de-clutter your house” She presented a prize (one brand new garbage bag) to the Rotarian who had been living in the same house for the longest time. That prize went to Doc Brown.
    Christine defined clutter as “The stuff we move out of the way to find the stuff we want”. Among tools she recommended were approaching clutter like a jigsaw puzzle, finding the corner pieces, then the edge pieces then matching shades and colors. If that is too daunting, there is the 21/5 rule; put 21 items in a garbage bag in 5 minutes, repeat each day until the bag is full and then start over. She said to choose one area at a time; that could be a room, a closet, a desk or just one drawer. It was a fascinating, entertaining presentation and one we all found valuable.

    Don’t forget:
Dinner for the Groton Seniors at the Groton Senior Center on Saturday, April 19. Set up team is to be there by 3:00 pm and the serving and cleanup team should be there by 5:00.
    Next week we will be hosting the inbound GSE team from the Philippines. We have a full day’s activities planned for them including having them attend our meeting. The Niantic club will be hosting a Gala evening for the GSE team on Friday April 25 at St. Mathias church. All area Rotarians are invited; the cost is $15 for each Rotarian and guest and includes wine, hors-d’oeuvres, and a pasta dinner. Anyone planning to attend should let us know by the next regular club meeting so we can give a head count to the Niantic club.

Have a great Rotary week. Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as our guest to the next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of April 22nd, 2008

Greetings Fellow Rotarians!
    We enjoyed the company of 33 Rotarians and guests this week. In addition to our five GSE team guests, we had two prospective member guests.
    There were no anniversaries or birthdays to celebrate.
    There were no years of perfect attendance or thirteen weeks of perfect attendance to celebrate.
T    he highlight of this meeting was a visit from our district 7980 inbound Group Study Exchange team. The team is from district 3830 in the Philippines. The team leader is Catalina (Lina) Hilario. Lina is Charter President of her home Rotary club; additionally, both her husband and one of her children have served as charter presidents of new Rotary clubs. So that’s three Rotary clubs started by one family!
    All team members were introduced and each one gave a brief synopsis of their background and what Rotary meant to them. The team members were:
    Angelina (Twinkle) Legaspi is an entrepreneur and public servant. She operates her own pastry business, has served 12 years as an elected public official and is currently consultant for the Social Services Committee of Barangay Dasmarinas.
    Lloyd Lim is a practicing attorney. He manages his own law office, has served as a consultant to the Philippine Retirement Authority and the Metro Manila Development Authority. He is married and has two children.
    Marielle Nadal, a writer, works in the fields of social development and the creative industry through Ideals Creatives, a youth led social enterprise that devotes itself to providing creative communications services to development organizations, where she is Co-Founder and Executive Director.
    Sol Racelis is a media strategist; she has a solid career in advertising as a Senior Media Planner of Mindshare Philippines. She has been with the industry for five years and her expertise includes crafting strategies and media tactics for national brands like Pepsi and Nike.
    What an impressive group! Did I mention these superstars range in age from 27 to 32?
    The team leader and each team member presented the club with a banner from their home clubs. We, in turn, presented each of them with a banner from Groton Ledyard Rotary and a four way test ball point pen.
    Have a great Rotary week and please plan on attending our meeting next week. We will be honoring the Service Person of the Month, and additionally, will have as guests several members of the Fitch Interact Club.
 
Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as our guest to the next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of April 29th, 2008

Greetings Fellow Rotarians!
    We had 37 Rotarians and guests in attendance this week. Guests included two visiting Rotarians, six students from Fitch High School along with their faculty advisor, two new Paul Harris recipients, the April Service Person of the Month along with his wife and three members from his command.
    There were no birthdays to celebrate. Mike & Sue Riegel will be celebrating their wedding anniversary on May 6; Mike paid $2, choosing the no singing option.
    There were no years of service to celebrate. George Letz was presented with a Rotary Four Way Test Ball-point Pen for completing 13 weeks perfect attendance.
Chris Kennedy, a senior at Fitch High School, was one of our guests this week. As you may recall, Chris was our entrant in the Rotary Four Way Test speech contest in January of this year. The club presented Chris with a $100 savings bond for his participation in the contest.
    Five members of the Fitch Interact Club, Stephanie Fillipetti, Rachel Dempsey, Cady Kolnaski, Allison Dyakew, and Amanda Sager along with faculty advisor, Mr. Wayne Clark attended the meeting. The girls had all attended the New Generations Conference earlier this year. Cady, acting as spokesperson for the group provided a brief synopsis of their experiences at the conference. All plan to attend next year’s conference as discussion leaders.
    Two Paul Harris awards were presented this week. Nolan Nixon presented a Paul Harris to his son, Police Lt. Jeffrey Nixon of the Waterford Police. Bruno Giulini presented a Paul Harris (which had been donated anonymously) to Sgt. Scott Sanford of the Groton City Police. Sgt Sanford’s wife was with him to receive the award..
    Groton Ledyard Rotary honored the April 2008 Service Person of the Month at this week’s meeting. The April Service Person of the Month is IT1 Cortney R. Michael and was introduced by his commanding officer, LCDR Chris Bowen.  PO Michael was accompanied by his wife, Maribel, and one other member from his command. Denny Hicks, representing the Eastern Connecticut Chamber of Commerce presented him with numerous awards including cash, savings bonds and shopping gift certificates from local businesses. Groton Ledyard Rotary presented the SPOM with a $100 savings bond.
    HEY! This is important! There will be an Amber Alert Registration program at the Sub Base Kid’s Karnival this weekend. The event is being held off base at the Sub Base Youth Center on Hickory Drive in Groton.
The dates/times are:
Friday May 2 from 5:30 to 9:00 pm
Saturday, May 3 from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm
Sunday, May 4 from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm.
They need lots of help. Anyone who is interested/ able to participate, contact Herb Hicks of Stonington Rotary at herbhicks@ct.metrocast.net or just show up at the above times. Thanks in advance.

Have a great Rotary weekend, Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as our guest to the next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of May 6th, 2008

Greetings Fellow Rotarians!
    We had 29 Rotarians and guests in attendance this week. We welcomed back another snow bird with Bo Bohannan’s return. Welcome back Bo.
    We sang happy birthday to Bill Miller who celebrated his birthday on May 1.
    There were no years of service or thirteen weeks of service to commemorate this week.
    One of the big announcements this week is that Jim Mitchell will be celebrating his retirement on Sunday June 29, 2008 after 38 years of public service to Groton Public Schools. The celebration will take place at the Mystic Marriott and the cost will be $55 per person; all GL Rotarians are invited. Good news is that Jim and Marguerite will be staying in the area so Jim will be continuing with GL Rotary.
    We had no speaker this week, not too sure what happened there but stuff does happen from time to time. So, we adjourned early.

Have a great Rotary weekend, Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as our guest to the next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of May 13th, 2008

Greetings Fellow Rotarians!
    We enjoyed the company of 30 Rotarians and guests this week; two guests were both prospective members.
    We sang Happy Anniversary to Ed Kolar; he and Jeannie had their 36th wedding anniversary on May 14.
    We presented congratulatory Rotary Four Way Test Ball-point pens to Walt Brown and Bruno Giulini for completing thirteen weeks perfect attendance.
At each meeting, we continue to promote giving to the Rotary International Foundation annual fund. At this point we are about $800 short of our annual goal. Remember, $100 a year is less than $2 per week; I’m sure we each waste at least that much, so please think of the foundation.
    Our speaker this week was Mr. Duane Cashin, a motivational speaker. Duane was introduced by Bruno and gave, as you might expect, a short inspirational talk on how we need to differentiate ourselves and our businesses to stay competitive these days. He said it isn’t hard, the pond we swim in may be crowded, but for the most part it is not competitive. Duane said, as we all know, that leaders must know their people and treat each person as someone of value with something positive to contribute to the organization. He cautioned not to over use email, but to pick up the phone and call; to above all be flexible. Being flexible also applies when dealing with external customers/clients; we should create an experience for our clients, appeal to their inner sense of pride. Duane called upon various club members to share some of their experiences/ideas in leadership as well. For more information, see www.Duanecashin.com.  

Have a great Rotary weekend, Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as our guest to the next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of May 20th, 2008

Greetings Fellow Rotarians!
    We enjoyed the company of 46 Rotarians and guests this week. Of the guests, two were prospective members, four were students of the year and the remainder were their parents, school principals and one guidance counselor. What a great turnout!
    Bo delivered the Weekly Foundation Thought and Dave delivered the Weekly Membership Minute.
    Mike Falk has an anniversary coming up on May 27; Happy Anniversary Mike.
    There were no birthdays to celebrate.
    There were no years of service or thirteen weeks of service to celebrate this week.

    Announcements:

    The next Groton Senior Center Rotary Dinner will be a barbeque on Saturday June 28. Several Rotarians have already signed up to help, but there is still room for more volunteers. It’s an easy way to get involved in a project and a lot of fun at the same time.
    The Board has recommended Richard Abston for membership.
The program this week was recognition of the Students of the Year from each of the three Groton middle schools and Fitch High School. Rotarian Jim Mitchell introduced each of the school principals who in turn introduced each of the students, telling a little about each student, their background, interests, and activities and why each was chosen as student of the year.
    From Cutler Middle School, Principal Munson Lane introduced Student of the Year Andrew Lewis.
    From Fitch Middle School, Principal Robert Pendolphi introduced Student of the Year Tiera Lanford.
    From West Side Middle School, Principal Michael Talbot introduced Student of the Year Maria Tompkins
And
    From Fitch High School, Principal Robert Bacewicz introduced Student of the Year Courtney LeBlanc.
    Each Student of the Year received an award certificate and a $50 gift card for Borders from the Groton Ledyard Rotary Club. Each of the parents should be justifiably proud of their student’s accomplishments; with youth such as these fine young people stepping up to take leadership roles our country should have a bright future.

Have a great Rotary weekend, Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as our guest to the next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of May 27th, 2008

Greetings Fellow Rotarians!
    We had 24 Rotarians and guests in attendance this week; quite a decrease from last week, but that’s what happens sometimes on club assembly days.
    We announced Stan Cardinal’s birthday (May 27) and Jack Flaherty’s anniversary (June 2) this week. Neither one was in attendance, so no singing. Mike Falk was present this week and we had announced his anniversary last week; he paid $2 for us not to sing. We wish a Happy Anniversary and Happy Birthday to all.
    Ed Kolar was congratulated for completing 8 years of perfect attendance and received his 8 year pin. Way to go Ed!
    Cathy Lathrop and Mike Riegel completed another 13 weeks perfect attendance.
    Welcome to a new Rotarian! Richard Abston was inducted this week as the newest member of GL Rotary. Welcome back Richard!
    As mentioned above, this week was club assembly and therefore no speaker was scheduled. Several items were discussed during assembly including:
    Groton Ledyard Rotary received a Rotary Presidential Citation for Rotary Year 2007-2008 in recognition of achieving goals set by RI President Wilf Wilkerson.
Fitch High School Interact Club also receives a Presidential Citation for Rotary Year 2007-2008; we will have the club faculty advisor and some interact members attend as guests in the near future to officially present them with the award.
    The next senior dinner at Groton Senior Center will be Saturday June 28. Volunteers are needed to help set up and to serve.
    Bill Miller, after more years than anyone can remember as club meeting greeter, will be stepping down at the end of this Rotary year. We thank Bill for his many years of dedicated service at the door, collecting money, making sure folks remembered to pick up their badges and raffle tickets, greeting all with a smile. Now, we need someone to take Bill’s place at the door. Anyone interested may apply; no experience is necessary. We provide on the job training and generous benefits.
    The Foundation Board will meet at 5:00 pm Monday June 2 at the Submarine Force Library & Museum.
    Please be on the lookout for a club by-laws change notice. You will be receiving it very soon by email or by snail mail for those that do not have email. We will vote on the by-laws change at our June 10 meeting.

Have a great Rotary weekend, Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as our guest to the next meeting!
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Regular Meeting of June 3rd, 2008

Greetings Fellow Rotarians!
    We enjoyed the company of 29 Rotarians and guests this week.
    There were no birthdays or wedding anniversaries to celebrate this week and no years of perfect attendance to announce.
    Four Rotarians completed 13 weeks perfect attendance and received a congratulatory Four Way Test Ball-Point Pen; they were RB Kent, Gina Kolodnicki (Gina was not present so she’ll get her pen next week), Pete Lampasona and Cathy Lathrop.
    A letter recommending John Scott for membership was provided to members in attendance.
    We announced, again, the upcoming Senior Dinner at Groton Senior Center on Saturday June 28.
    We also announced an upcoming vote on June 10 regarding a proposed change to the club by-laws. Copies of the proposed change were mailed to all Rotarians last week.
    Speakers this week were Doreen Martin (President) and Katherine O’Brien (Board Member) of the Children’s Museum of Southeastern Connecticut. They provided a lively tag team description of the museum, its current activities and plans for the future. Included in the presentation was a short video showing the “magic” of the museum. Free passes were provided to Rotarians. The Children’s Museum is located at 409 Main Street in Niantic and you may get more information by visiting their web site at www.childrensmuseumsect.org.
    The Foundation Board met on June 2 and allocated funds for grants to local organizations for this Rotary year. A complete listing of the organizations and amounts received will be announced at our regular club meeting next week.

Have a great Rotary weekend, Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as our guest to the next meeting!

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Regular Meeting of June 10th, 2008

Greetings Fellow Rotarians!
    We had 30 Rotarians and guests in attendance this week.
    We sang happy birthday to Bruno who celebrated his birthday on June 4.
    Four Rotarians received a Rotary Four Way Test Ball-point Pen for completing 13 weeks of perfect attendance; they are Gina Kolodnicki, Doug Crandall, Bill Miller, and Frank Winkler. Congratulations to all.
    Club members voted unanimously to approve a previously submitted by-laws change. The change increases the total number of board members to 13 and removes the specified dollar amount of dues and initiation fee from the by-laws. Club members still approve dues and fees, but the approved dollar amounts are no longer codified in the by-laws.
    Our speaker this week was Tony Cronin, Business Editor for The Day. Tony provided an update on what's going on with newspapers in general and The Day specifically. The Day, as are most if not all major newspapers throughout the country, is going to a slightly smaller format for the paper. This is due to economics; newsprint is expensive and fewer and fewer people are reading newspapers anymore. He said The Day plans to remain one of the dwindling numbers of independent newspapers; this has allowed The Day, through the Bodenwein Foundation to give back millions to the community over the years.

        Upcoming events:

    Barbeque at Groton Senior Center on Saturday, June 28. There are still opportunities to sign up for this fun event.
    District Governor Installation banquet will be held in Westbrook on July 7.

Have a great Rotary weekend, Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as our guest to the next meeting!

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Regular Meeting of June 17th, 2008

Greetings Fellow Rotarians!
    We had 29 Rotarians and guests in attendance this week. We sang Happy Birthday to our Charter Member, Walt Brown.
    Ted Colburn, Nolan Nixon and John Silsby all received a Rotary Four Way Test Ball-Point Pen for completing 13 weeks of perfect attendance.
    Our speaker this week was Linda Wilkinson. Linda is with World Vision International and lives alternately in Zambia and Stonington CT. As you may know Zambia is experiencing an Aids crisis with some 250 deaths each day and some 350 new cases of Aids each day. There are as a result many destitute widows and orphans. To help out these women and children, Linda formed a Non Government Organization (NGO) called “Chikumbuso” to help them out. Chikumbuso means “remembrance”; the women make and market handbags and are thus able to have a small income. So far the organization has been able to purchase some small buildings (one a former brothel and bar) and convert them into school facilities. Linda is known by the women in the group as “Mama Linda”.
    Groton Ledyard Rotary will be partnering with a Zambian Rotary Club to help Chikumbuso in the coming Rotary year.
    Three Cheers! We welcomed a new Rotarian to our club this week. John Scott, owner of Bailey Agencies became our newest member. Welcome John.

Have a great Rotary weekend, Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as our guest to the next meeting!

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Regular Meeting of June 24th, 2008

Greetings Fellow Rotarians!
    We enjoyed the company of 36 Rotarians and guests this week. Included in the guests were three scholarship winners and their parents (and one grandmother).
    The club voted on and passed a dues increase for the coming Rotary year. Beginning July 1, initiation fee for new members will be $100 and annual dues will be $125. Dues letters will go out within the next week; Rotarians please pay your dues as soon as possible after receiving your dues letter as our semi-annual dues to RI are due 1 July.
    We announced at this week’s meeting that we will be supporting Chikumbuso in the coming Rotary year; the hat was passed for an initial contribution to go along with a modest $150 we had already set aside. $278 was collected so we can immediately send a check for $428. Thanks Rotarians!
    There will be a Red Cross Blood Drive at Groton Regency from 9:30 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. on Monday, June 30. This is a short notice pop up blood drive and not one of the two scheduled Rotary supported drives scheduled for each year.
Some dates to keep in mind: Monday July 7, District Governor and Club Presidents installation dinner in Westport; Tuesday July 8, installation of officers and board members for Groton Ledyard Rotary; July 29 presentation of grants to 2007-2008 grant recipients.
    Rotarian Fred Keith presented each of our scholarship winners. He provided some background information about why each was selected along with comments from their teachers and advisors. All three high school graduates will be attending UCONN. Go Huskies!!
 

The scholarship winners are:

From Ella Grasso Tech: Christopher Campbell
From Fitch High School: Hannah Drake
From Ledyard High School: Rebecca Belcher
&
Adult continuing education:
Ms. Donna Sawyer. Donna was unable to attend and will be our guest at a future meeting.

    Rotarians please remember, we are serving dinner at the Groton Senior Center this Saturday, June 28. Set up crew be there at 3:00 p.m. to set up, servers be there at 4:30. Dinner is served at 5:00 p.m. As always these are fun events and I really look forward to them.

Have a great Rotary weekend, Mike Riegel
And, please bring a friend as our guest to the next meeting!

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June 24th marks the end of Rotary Year 2007-2008