March 21, 2008 Meeting

Pledge Song Invocation

President Helene Andersen led us in the Pledge of Allegiance; Marie Schultz appropriately on Good Friday, conducted a rousing version of “When the Saints Go Marching In”, and Len Wilson did a truly eloquent invocation with both a tribute to Rev. Cal Mutti and on each individual’s mind, body and soul resurrection.

Guests and Makeups

Karen Mercandetti…daughter of Paul
Colin and Jason Spencer…sons of Mark
Perrin and Elizabeth Troiano…son and daughter of Bob
Kerry Ellen Enright…the Area General Manager of the Red Cross
Frank Geary…our guest speaker
Robert (not Robbie anymore) Evans…the 6 year old grandson of Paula

Announcements

President Helene reported the following:

1. Lowell Devils – Rotary/Ironstone fundraiser, Wednesday, March 26th. For tickets see Paul Mercandetti.
2. Our sensational Ambassadorial Scholar, Francesco who will soon be graduating from Harvard Law School will despite several lucrative offers from American firms be returning to Italy (Francesco negotiated well and God bless him, that’s the American way) at an even more lucrative offer.
3. Two of our finest Rotary veterans, Len Wilson and Bill Buck will be receiving significant and richly deserved community service awards. Len will be receiving the Ralph J. Wilkenson Award from the Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce. Bill will be the recipient of a Citizenship Award from the Yankee Clipper Boy Scout Council. Additional details will follow with information on how Len and Bill’s fellow Andover Rotarians can participate in both these events recognizing two of our finest.

Rotary Minute

Ed Bride, did a sensational job in speaking on Rotarian’s Herbert Taylor’s business philosophy which saved a company from bankruptcy in 1934 by literally implementing the 4 way Rotary test. This was followed by the Andover Rotary Members reciting (in various degrees of expertise) the 4 way test.

Raffle

Ed Bride possibly because of his great Rotary minute won the $10.00 with a high card of 6. The big pot continues to grow.

Fines and Happy Dollars

Peter Caruso, may have pulled off the Sgt. At Arms coup of all time by using a 6 foot collection basket (hopefully not stolen from St. Augustine’s) to collect the Holy Friday bucks.

Peter collected “donations” from all those who had eaten meat (i.e. bacon, sausage) on Good Friday, as well as the slackers without Rotary pins.

Happy Bucks included:

• Jamie Lyman saluting Joan Johnson on lively, timely and highly professional Rotary minutes.
• Dave Lindsay our President in July 2008 gave several dollars for: A)PETS Training (President Elect Training Seminar recently attended); B) David God bless him thanked all the “Rotary reporters”…with Joan obviously the best followed by Jim Greeley, Jim Sutton and Mark Spencer (A.K.A Moe, Larry and Curley).
• Marie Stulz for both Citizen’s Who Care and yet another book published
• Mark Spencer (A.K.A. Curley) for a very successful “Jazz at the Hall” program.
• Jim Sutton, for recovering well from hip surgery and the fact that no one has sued him for 10 million dollars in the last two weeks.
• Jim Greeley, for guest Kerry Enright and hopefully soon to be new member.

Guest Speaker

Frank Geary, Chairman and Co-Founder of Vietnam Veterans of America and the inspiration behind Helping Our Troops, a program designed to support our American Hero’s from Eastern Massachusetts fighting overseas.

The mission is to support the troops of “Operation Iraqi and Enduring Freedom”. We fulfill the “Wish Lists” of local soldiers from Massachusetts stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan by providing care packages from home.

H.O.T. was officially introduced to the community in November 2006 by Frank Geary. The V.V.A. and V.F.W. Post 620 (S/Sgt. George Hall) of Stoneham, MA banded together with families and friends of local soldiers to show their support. Word quickly spread throughout surrounding towns uniting our entire community as a support force for our troops here on the home front.

Local supermarkets and businesses alike joined in to show their support by allowing donation bins in their establishments and donating funds to defer exorbitant shipping costs of $1000.00 per month.

As of January 9, 2008 H.O.T. had delivered 2426 packages hitting the six ton marker for shipments overseas. Since December 2006 H.O.T. has supported over 8000 soldiers including: 54 combat units and 3 combat hospitals.

Additional information will be mailed to each Andover Rotarian’s home and each of us can determine the best way to possibly support this program.