Vineland Rotary Newsletter October 16, 2023 (Oct 16, 2023)

Highlights from our October 10th Meeting

President Andy Browne called the meeting to order at 11:45. Linda Foster led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Steve Schiavo led us in the 4 Way Test. Pastor Heather Sugden gave the invocation. Linda Rumick was our notetaker. Guests included our program speaker, District Governor Tom Kozempel and Assistant District Governor, Ken Smith.

Pastor Heather Sugden, who will mark her 5 Year Anniversary as a member of Vineland Rotary later this month, received her 5 Year Rotary pin in a presentation from Ed Morvay of the Membership Committee. Congratulations, Heather!

Announcements

President Andy informed us of the sad news of the passing of Rotarian Joanne Hewes' daughter, Dakota. We all send our prayers and carrying thoughts to Joanne and her family during this difficult time.

Sherry Soutiere reminded us that the Special Needs Holiday Party is set

for Wednesday, December 13 at Rossi School!! You don't want to miss this amazing event as we entertain special needs students with music, movies, holiday snacks and a visit with Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus! So far, we have 140 attendees! We will package the gift bags for the students the evening before following our Holiday Dinner Party Tuesday, December 12th. More details to come! Karen Bauman said invitations for the Holiday Dinner will be emailed soon and noted Jay Parks will present his much anticipated Rotary Year in Review that evening.

Food Drive: Let's not forget about our monthly food drive! Sherry reminded us to bring canned goods and other non-perishables to our weekly meetings. This month's recipient will be Mission Teens.

Josie Spinelli announced that the Downtown Clock Dedication, celebrating both the Vineland Rotary's 100th anniversary as a club and the Downtown Vineland "Where Its Always Growing Season"! will be held Monday, October 23rd. Please come out and join in the celebration!

When: Monday, October, 23, 2023

Where: Landis Avenue near 7th Street @ the Town Clock (near PNC bank)

Time: 10:30 am

All Rotarians are welcomed and encouraged to attend!

Alicia Fichera gave us an update on Pedals for Progress:

“We're less than two weeks away. We're trying to keep the momentum in honor of Henry Hanson. With that being said, it's a little bit disheartening that we've lost a lot of the local police departments who cannot help us as much as in the past. As of right now, we have 30 bicycles and 16 sewing machines. If you have any pull with anyone who might have some, let me know. One succes

s story - We called Freedom Bike Club in Pleasantville and the wonderful owner was such a breath of fresh air. He said ‘I have no idea what this organization is, but I love it. I want to know more, and I want to help you.’ So he sent us nine bikes! We need to think outside the box, and contact anybody within a 50 mile radius that might have some bikes. So if you have any insight on leads let me know. And if you can show up on October 21 to help us, we need all the elbow grease we can get!” Peddles for Progress workday will be on October 21 at DNS Solutions 2898 S Main Rd in Vineland in the morning.

Jim Siwek reminded us that the next Red Cross Blood drive is

TOMORROW, Tuesday October 17th from 7:30 am until 12:30 pm. There are still some appointments available. The drive is at the Ramada Inn 2216 W. Landis Avenue.

Voc

ational Service Award Announced!

Brian Lankin (left) owner of Al's Shoes on Landis Avenue and an active community leader has been selected as this year's Vocational Service Award winner. Brian will be honored at our November 14th luncheon meeting. Congratulations, Brian. We look forward to hearing your acceptance talk.

Caitlin Terry joined us and let us know there is still time to donate used soccer equipment donations! Donations will be shipping to Kenya. Please bring any used cleats, uniforms, socks, deflated balls and pumps to our next meeting. Caitlin shared the photo at left from last year's donation happy recipients. She also received some donations this week. Let's do our best to help Caitlin!

President Andy announced that Wreaths of Remembrance will be held December 9th at 9:00 am. Rotarians will once again gather at the Cumberland County Veterans Cemetery (Trench Road in Bridgeton) to place wreaths on the graves of area veterans to mark the holiday season. Dave Schad invited the Bridgeton Rotary to join us and they have accepted! They will be bringing students from Bridgeton and Cumberland Regional High Schools. We will also be joined by Interact students from CCTEC.

Shirley Burke announced a "Meet the Local Authors" event at the Vineland

Women'

s Club October 26th at 6 pm at the Club, 677 South Main Road. Proceeds benefit the Emmanuel Cancer Foundation. The mission of the Foundation is to provide New Jersey families faced with pediatric cancer a place to turn for comfort and relief through free supportive services uniquely tailored to each family. Five local Authors will share stories of history, family, comedy, romance, mystery, horror and humor. Tickets are $20.

Happy Dollars - Happiness continues! Frank Rumick and Sherry Soutiere collected Happy Dollars from: President Andy Browne, Jay Einstein, Shirley Burke, Carol Sumosky, Nick Surace, Assistant District Governor Ken Smith, Harry Maloney and Alicia Fichera.

Josie Spinelli announced that the Bay Atlantic Symphony will open its season on October

21st at 3 pm at Rowan College of South Jersey and on October 22nd at 2 pm at Stockton University. Contact Josie for discounted tickets for Symphony events.

Josie also reminded us about the 3rd Annual Olde Fashioned Christmas celebration that will be held in Downtown Vineland on Friday, December 1 and Saturday, December 2. Last year's celebration has been characterized as "magical"! The committee, chaired by Josie (who is credited with developing the celebration from its inception) is seeking sponsors and vendors. Rotary will have a booth as well. Follow this link for much more information:

https://www.theave.biz/events/olde-fashioned-christmas/

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Sandy Hearing reminded us that Boscov’s Shopping Passes for this Wednesday, October 18th are still available for $5.00. Remember - all the money collected for every card sold comes back to our club!

Sandy also reminded us that we have been asked by the Cumberland County Women's Hall of Fame to consider nominating a Cumberland County woman who is a trailblazer. The deadline for nominations is October 15, 2023. Our own Donna Bennett and Jay Park's wife, Carol Parks are past recipients.

Follow this link to the website to make a nomination: http://www.ccwhof.org

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Our Program:

District Governor Tom Kozempel

"Kindness in Action"

This year's theme for our Rotary District 7505, chosen by our District Governor Tom Kozempel, is "Kindness in Action". The theme for Rotary International this year is "Create Hope in the World" and Tom chose our theme to work with the RI theme.

"Everything we do in Rotary, whether it's the smallest project to the largest effort, is an act of kindness. And that's not just in our in how we treat each other. I know you probably had the same experience as me. You came to your first Rotary meeting and everyone was so welcoming that you felt at home right away. That's the kindness of our fellowship side. You know people are weary of social isolation coming out of the pandemic. People are tired of the polarization that we’re seeing in social media and on television. And when you have the disasters that are occurring around the world - whether it’s an earthquake or a new military action - people are ready to do something to help and they may not know where to start. I believe that we are the perfect fit right now for these needs at this moment in history.

Our clubs are positioned in every community in the world and people get the immediate opportunity, just by joining Rotary, to not only help themselves if they’re struggling with all that’s going on in the world, but they can immediately start helping others. Because in Rotary, one person can make a really big difference. I believe today, Rotary is stronger than it’s ever been at any other time in our history."

Tom has created a Strategic Plan for the district that is available on the district website. "What I wanted to do this year as governor, was to create an action plan. I created the Serve Better Action Plan, which is like a strategic plan, which I had a lot of experience doing in business. But the idea was to align Rotary vision and action in a plan that your club can use."

Follow this link to view the Serve Better Action Plan:

https://district7505.org/documents/en-us/2823b208-108b-4b8a-928d-91c9ceddc827/1/

Tom also encouraged our members to attend the Rotary District Conference May 3-5, 2024. It's a joint con

ference for Districts 7505 and 7490 and will be held at the Seaview Resort in Galloway Township.

Tom was presented with two beautiful baskets with seasonal produce and fruits as a thank you for his visit. Donna Bennett and Josie Spinelli made the presentation, joined by President Andy.

Thank you Governor Tom. We enjoyed your visit!

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