Vineland Rotary Newsletter October 9, 2023 (Oct 09, 2023)

Highlights from our October 3rd Meeting

President Andy Browne called the meeting to order at 11:45. David Scales led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Shirley Burke led us in the 4 Way Test. Pastor Heather Sugden gave the invocation. Linda Rumick was our notetaker. Guests included our program speaker, Mayor Anthony Fanucci and City Councilman, Paul Spinelli (better known as Josie Spinelli's husband).

Announcements

Sherry Soutiere announced that the Road Clean Up project has been rescheduled for this Wednesday, October 11th 3:30 pm until 5:30 pm in the Vineland Industrial Park. Volunteers should meet at Ben's Pro Serve, 3109 N. Mill Road. Please email Sherry at ssoutiere41@verizon.net to let her know if you can volunteer. We need 10 on our team to receive the $250 in grant funds!

Sherry also announced 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! We will package the gift bags for the students the evening before following our

Holiday Dinner Party Tuesday, December 12th.

More details to come!

President Andy reminded everyone that Pedals for Progress workday will be on October 21 at DNS Solutions 2898 S Main Rd in Vineland in the morning. Please donate bikes or sewing machines to this cause. Time is running out and we need more bicycles!! (See details below)

Sandy Hearing reminded us that Boscov’s Shopping Passes for 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

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!

Happy Dollars - once again, many of our Rotarians were happy - and made contributions to the Vineland Rotary Charities fund! This week, Ed Morvay and Sherry Soutiere collected Happy Dollars from happy Rotarians including: Ed Morvay, Joe Botero, Jay Einstein, Sherry Soutiere, Linda Rumick, Josie Spinelli and David Scales.

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 spoke with 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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Our Program: Mayor Anthony Fanucci

Mayor Fanucci gave us a broad overview of the progress that has been made in the City since his last visit with Rotary six months ago. Since April, nine more businesses have chosen to locate in Vineland and several more are evaluating Vineland for their businesses. “We are truly out of industrial land. The Industrial Park is sold out. We have been in land acquisition mode over the last few years. We’ve been buying property, getting approvals and turning it over for new development. We’ve come up with what we want and what is the best for tax ratables, future development, job growth and, of course, business.”

The mayor noted that new businesses also bring more revenue through utility usage. The city has a new marketing program which features tv commercials designed to attract business to Vineland. Currently, a commercial featuring the city’s utilities is gaining a lot of attention from national showings. Feedback indicates people are impressed with all Vineland has to offer for businesses seeking to locate here - quality utilities and quality of life.

“They talk about community organizations, civic engagement, schools, local government and the levels of support they receive. And frankly, Rotary comes up because you’re probably one of the longest standing organizations. We’ve had a lot of service organizations that were around, even when I was a kid, but most of them have not stood the test of time - not like Vineland Rotary.”

The City uses social media platforms for promotion - Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X) and LinkedIn - but the newest approach is the “My Vineland” app which is available in the Apple App store and Google Play store. The mayor encouraged everyone to download the app and explore its many features.

The city’s marketing features Vineland’s “Smarter City“ concept, Targeted messaging was used last year during the Super Bowl featuring Vineland’s own Isaiah Pacheco, the Kansas City Chiefs rookie star. Those efforts resulted in reaching millions and bringing strong inquiries back to Vineland.

“But what really came from it were all the economic development inquiries and how we've had people flying in from the center of the country, the western part of the country to come to see what we are doing here.” The city works with new businesses to ease the process for permits and licensing and guides them through the entire process. This process has proven to give Vineland an edge when competing with other cities.

The mayor spoke about the new golf course being developed in Vineland - Trout National - The Reserve and how the project came to be. The private course, now under design and development by Tiger Woods in conjunction with Mike Trout, has gained national attention. The project will bring substantial commerce to the area. In addition to hotels and restaurants, a commerce center is planned and professional space. Additionally, a second golf course will be built that will be open to the public. This golf course project will be bringing lots of attention to Vineland in addition to substantial revenues. “People are going to want to come to this facility, and when people tell me that its going to bring high profile people and millionaires who will be spending their money here. Please spend it, spend it all!”

As for future business expansion for Vineland, the City is now working to acquire a large parcel of land owned by the state - the west campus of the Vineland State School. The mayor noted that there are already some businesses waiting to locate there if the city makes the acquisition.

We thank Mayor Fanucci for his in depth overview of the state of the city and look forward to future exciting updates!