Club updates

There's a lot going on for the Merrimack club at the moment. Here's a snapshot...

We've recieved the NFL Superbowl raffle tickets and sales will begin shortly. The winner recieves two tickets to the Superbowl, $1000 and 4 nights lodging in the Bowl City. Tickets are $5 ea or 5 tickets for $20.

We'll be helping out the Westford Rotary Club with their Blues and Brews Festival as well as the revived Pig & Pepper festival August 20/21, at the Nashoba Ski area in Westford. Should be a great weekend. More info to come later this week.

District Governor Tom Polito will be visiting us at our weekly meeting August 17th. Always nice to have the Governor visit the club.

Richard is working on another Club International Project. We need to raise funds to support him in his endeavors. Luckily we have Carl's experience to guide us through this time. Good Luck guys!

That's all for now, stay tuned for future updates!

Weekly Meeting update

Officially Liz's last week as President for the club and we had almost a full roster of club Rotarians.  We also had a very special visit from one of the Scholarship recipients from the town of  Tewksbury.  Brian will be majoring in English this Fall and hopefully training to participate in the Tour de France in the years to come.  Good Luck Brian !  Please come back to share with us your experiences at school this Fall.


Andrea reminded the club that the 2011/12 District Governor Tom Polito will visit our club in August.  We'll have the actual date by next meeting.  Mike Peterson invited the club to a BBQ at his house.  A date needs to be firmed up but later in August seems to be the consensus.

Stories from the previous nights outing at LeLacheur park were exchanged.  The home team didn't fare so well but the evening was a great success.

Congratulations and best wishes to Andrea Bradford as she begins her term as club President today.  We're here to support you in your year!

Hope everyone has a nice 4th of July weekend!

Play Ball !!

our annual trek to see the Lowell Spinners play at LeLacheur park on the Merrimack River was once again blessed with good weather.  Attending members enjoyed a great night under the stars as the home team got trounced by Vermont... Oh well, we still had a great time.  Margueritte Carroll and family were in attendance along with John's brother, each of the kids got a little something from the park.

Here's a few pics with captions...  

Spinners night

Past President Liz makes trade for husband JAD

Team Merrimack Valley

 

Al keeps us organized

Black Duck Sells for $22,425

Who knew that an old carved black duck decoy could sell for so much.  Guess I'll be keeping my eyes open at yard sales from now on.  Click here to read the details. 

Unique Visitors

It really amazes me at how far our message travels.  I just clicked on sitemeter to see who's been reading our posts and I noticed one small dot in the middle of the pacific.  We just had our first reader from Hawaii... Honolulu to be exact.   Hang Ten!!

Weekly meeting update

We had almost full attendance yesterday.  Bob McDonald gave an update on the two scholarship funds we manage.  It's our goal to expand the program to include additional towns and more fundraising will be needed to build the base.  One of the other topics discussed was the scholarship recipient changes we may be putting forward.  Starting in 2012 we will be requiring recipients to visit one of our breakfast meetings to learn more about our club and Rotary and so that we can meet the people that benefit from our gift.  This only makes sense.  What we'll offer them is an opportunity to apply for the $30,000 Ambassadorial Scholarships that are given out by the district each year. 

Carl Good cleaned out his closet and was delivering a car load of books.  This guy is always busy and we're lucky to have him in our club.  He also gave us a brief update on the Bangladesh project reports currently underway. 

Weekly meeting - May 25

Light turnout this morning, looks like people are getting busier at work these days.  We had a very interesting presentation given by Bob Schecter from the Framingham club.  Bob lived and worked in Africa during his college years.  I'm a little fuzzy on the country but I believe it was Zambia.  The Framingham club is working on a matching grant to supply school supplies, clothing and other essentials in this area. 

We had a minor discussion on new fundraising ideas including one on a Broomball Tournament in Lowell.  More information and some number crunching is needed to understand the requirements and the costs associated with an event like this.  Initially the Tsongas Arena was thought to be a good location but thinking it through, only the finals would be held in the arena.  Elimination rounds up to the Semis would be held at local rinks. 

Other discussions included an expansion of the scholarship program to include a Regional Vocational school in Lowell brining the annual total to 7.   We'll need to raise additional funds to support the new school and Bob McDonald will guide us on the additional amount needed keep the account sustainable.  The scholarship set up in Andover earlier this year reduced the principle on the primary scholarship fund.  Growth is a good thing!