Merrimack Valley Rotary To Sponsor Friends of Kevin

Friends of Kevin, the popular Networking Group, will be sponsored by the Merrimack Valley Rotary Club on Wednesday morning, April 17 from 7:30AM - 9:00AM at the Chelmsford Radisson, Independence Bar & Grill, in Chelmsford, MA.  Admission is $10.   Friends of Kevin is a very active group and usually attracts a good crowd to it meeings.  For more information write to kennethmasson @gmail.com.

Mary Jo Griffin gave a great presentation this morning on her late husband and media celebrity Paul Sullivan. She donated a few books titled "Sully" containing some of Paul's articles and a disk of some of his radio broadcasts selected by WBZ.  It was truly amazing how many people he touched during his lifetime.  Great meeting.

January meeting speakers

Our club speakers for January Rotary meetings.  Visitors always welcome!

 

January 9 -Mary Jo Griffin. Wife of the Paul Sullivan, Speaking on book about him

January 16- Bob McIntosh, Linkedin

January 23 -Walter Wise, Business Consulting for Veterans
January 30- Aleander Berube. (Soon to be member) Tutoring Special Needs.

Debi Farnsworth

Deborah Simms (Bray) Farnsworth, wife of Elliot O. Farnsworth of Dracut MA died Saturday August 11, 2012.


Daughter of Dorothy J. Bray of Dracut MA and John S. Bray of Norway ME.  Besides her husband, she leaves behind her daughter Dawn E. Dabling, son-in-law Kale L. Dabling and grandson Ash D.Dabling of Channing TX. Her son Eric J. Farnsworth, daughter-in-law Michelle L. Farnsworth, and grandchildren Christian J., Cameron A. Savannah L., & Hayden M. Farnsworth of Northport FL. Her brother John S. “Scott” Bray 2nd and nephew Matthew C. Bray of Beverly MA, and her aunt Ethel M. Farmer of Beverly MA.

Debi and her husband founded, owned, & operated Chem-Dry Merrimack Valley, Shine-A-Blind Merrimack Valley, and D&E Cleaning Services, Inc. all of Lowell MA.  She was very active in Rotary, belonging to the Dracut Rotary club and then the Merrimack Valley Rotary Club. She was president of MVRC in 1998 & co-director of the MVRC Scholarship Fund. A Rotary District 7910 Governor’s Representative in 1999 and Rotary District 7910 Assistant District Governor 2000-2002.

She loved music and had sung soprano over the years in many organizations including the New Greeley Singers (Pelham NH), Dracut Community Chorus (Dracut MA), and Spindle City Singers (Lowell MA).
An active RVer, she was a member of the NH Wheelers a NH Good Sam Chapter where she was secretary, the Merry-Mac Valley Campers a MA Good Sam Chapter, the Tri-City Sams a NY Good Sam Chapter, and the Heartland RV Owners Club.

She was past President of the Dracut Fellowship Luncheon, active for many years in the Dracut Scholarship Foundation, Dracut High Band Boosters Club, co-founder (with Sharon Piendak of Dracut) of the Dracut Divas Red Hat Chapter, co-leader (with Elaine Frissell of Dracut) of the Dracut Silver Spurs 4-H Club and for several years was the Christ Church United Secretary for Rev. Larry Zimmerman.

A Service of Remembrance, open to all, will be held at the Londonderry Christian Church at 372 Mammoth Rd Londonderry NH on Saturday August 25, 2012 at 1 PM. There will be a private burial at the family’s VT cemetery in 2013.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Merrimack Valley Rotary Club Scholarship Fund 176 High St. Chelmsford MA 01824 or the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network 1500 Rosecrans Ave #200 Manhattan Beach CA 90266.

The Merrimack Valley Rotary Club (well.. most of us anyway).  (From L-R Carl Good, Dave Bolton (prospective member), Steve Hamilton, Liz Duggin, Bob McDonald, Pat Crowley, Dan LeBlanc, Andrea Bradford, Gordon Neville, (Seated Al Jean, Deb Farnsworth)

International Project

Here are a few pictures from our Bangladeshi International Project that was spearheaded by our club member Carl Good. 

Bandey Hefler Exchange

The Bandey Hefler program is one of the Semi hidden perks for Rotarians.  The event is held on a 3 year rotating schedule.  Year one the Rotarians from the UK visit the US, staying with various families over a two week period.  Year two the US Rotariams visit the UK and year 3 is a rest year.  Click here to see the video. 

What a great way to meet Rotarians from other parts of the world.  Everyone that has attended, raves about their experiences.

Flower Power

We've joined forces with Gurney's to take advantage of a Fundraising opportunity they created.  Help us generate funds for upcoming Rotary projects and get a great deal on your Flowers for Spring.  Click here to go to the order page. 

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!

The District Conference

The Rotary District 7910 conference is just around the corner and as usual it promises to be another great event.  The Merrimack Valley Club is donating a decorative bench (pictured and donated by Bob McDonald) for  the silent auction.

55 clubs from central Massachusetts will gather June 9, 10 and 11th at the Boxborough Holiday Inn.  This is District Governor Mike Ellis's celebration party for a job well done this past year.  His term ends June 30th when the new Rotary year begins. 

There are many events at the conference and a personal favorite is some of the presentations given Saturday afternoon, followed by the house of Freindship and evening dinner to follow.  If you're a Rotarian in district 7910, you don't want to miss this event.  See you there!

April 20th Meeting

Full house this morning with almost every member present.  It's a great feeling when everyone shows up.  I suspect we all got charged up from the joint meeting yesterday.

The Ayer club has asked for our assistance in the Ducky Wucky Race coming up in May.  We're selling duck adoption tickets for their annual duck race.  No... Not real ducks but rubber duckies!  They dump thousands of sponsored wubber ducks into the Nashua River, first duck across the line wins!!  The grand prize is a dinner for two.. anywhere in the world!! This years race takes place May 7th so contact us for tickets today!  There's still time.

We're headed to LeLachuer park again this year to see the Lowell Spinners Baseball team.  This is a fun night of fellowship for the members and family.  Make your reservations early if you want to attend.  Andrea will be making the purchase in the coming weeks.  We've decided on June 28th, game start is 7:05.

Joint Club Meeting of the Merrimack Valley Clubs

The Merrimack Valley Club participated in the Merrimack Valley Rotary Club joint lunch meeting at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell, MA.  It's been a number of years since this this event was last held and the timing was perfect.  District Governor Mike Ellis was on hand as well as Past District Governer Greg Roche to speak about District 7910 as well as updates on the Rotary International strategic plan. 

Many of the regional clubs were in attendance including  Billerica, Chelmsford, Westford, Dracut, Merrimack Valley Area Club, Tewksbury and Lowell.  For many of us it's the only opportunity to see each other outside of the District Conference in June.  Over 100 Rotarians were in attendance, far exceeding Lowell Club President Mike O'Flaherty's expectations.

Mike Ellis made a pitch for the District Conference that will be held at the Holiday Inn Boxborough this June.  Rooms are still available and as always ... The House of Friendship !   Details are available at http://www.rotarty7910.org/

Richard Lewis let me know of an expanded event the Westford Club will hold this Summer.  Each year his club runs the Blues and Brews festival as their primary fundraiser.  This year they plan to expand the event to include the following day which will be designated as a family day for the town residents and Rotarians.  He promissed lots of events for the kids as well as the adults.  The event is now being held at the Nashoba Ski Area in Westford.  Check out http://www.bluesnbrews.com/ for the details.

Awesome event, excellent food and fellowship.  Great Job Lowell club!!  Thanks for taking the lead to organize the event.

District Assembly Update

We had a great night at the District 7910 Assembly last night.  It was nice catching up with familiar faces and meeting new people.  I was taken by the energy and passion these club leaders have. 

The breakout sessions were designed to get the club secretaries and treasurers rolling on their rolls that start July 1st.  In addition there were presentations on Social Media, Public Relations, The Rotary Foundation and Membership.  The organizers did a very good job this year and the change of venue from a Saturday to a Thursday was a good call.  There were right around 100 District Rotarians in attendance.