Events

Al Getler is a past president of the Andover Rotary Club and a Paul Harris Fellow recipient. Al lived and worked in the Merrimack Valley serving as the publisher of the Eagle Tribune, Andover Townsman, and the creator of Andovers Magazine. Al will be speaking about what Rotary has meant to his life as he prepares to help a Vermont club reignite and to speak at a district conference in Ohio. Oh, and he'll have help from a friend.

James Moore has more than 30 years in the banking and mortgage arena, but today he will speak with us about his role as President of the Merrimack Valley Toastmasters.  Toastmasters International is a nonprofit educational organization that builds confidence and teaches public speaking skills through a worldwide network of clubs that meet online and in person. In a supportive community or corporate environment, members prepare and deliver speeches, respond to impromptu questions, and give and receive constructive feedback. It is through this regular practice that members are empowered to meet personal and professional communication goals. Founded in 1924, the organization is headquartered in Englewood, Colorado with approximately 270,000 members in more than 14,000 clubs in 150 countries. Learn how Toastmasters can help improve your public speaking and build leadership skills!

Andover High School students made a splash on the world stage recently after winning an international physics competition and being invited to a laboratory in Germany.

It all began at the start of the 2023-2024 school year when then-junior Richard Chen approached physics teacher Daniel Donovan with a lofty idea. Chen, a member of the Andover High School Physics Club, wanted to enter a group into Beamline for Schools, a challenging particle physics competition.

Last May, the team received news that it was one of the competition’s three winners and earned the team a trip to Hamburg, Germany to test their experiment.

Only the third team from the United States to win this competition, the team is bound for Germany in September 2024, excited for a unique two-week long learning experience that will serve Andover students in years to come.

 Nasser and Kathleen run Transmural Systems, a medical device company addressing structural heart failure.  Transmural Systems is a Clinical Stage Medical Device Company with a Platform of Innovative Transcatheter Electrosurgery and Heart Failure Therapies headquartered in Dundee Park in Andover. 

They have been residents of Andover since October 1997 and will share insights into the pioneering work that they and their team do every day, right in our back yard!

Monica is a strategic nonprofit leader developing comprehensive plans for inclusive, community-wide art and social impact projects. She effectively curates experiences and manages projects to ensure alignment with organizational values and mission.  Monica is the new Executive Director of the Essex Art Center and will oversee EAC’s mission and work to advance the Center’s education and exhibition programming and broaden its impact.

Since 1809, the Andover Bookstore has been located on Main Street, in the heart of historic Andover, MA. We take pride in being the country’s oldest continuously operating independent bookstore, in the value we add to our local community, and in our part in the fight to save small, local independent bookstores across the country from the faceless, ruthless online corporate behemoth that threatens all of our Main Streets.

Sarah Klock has worked as the manager for the Andover Bookstore since August of 2022. An lifelong reader, Sarah has loved being a part of the storied history of Andover Bookstore and has bold visions for its future in downtown Andover. She believes that a town that supports a bookstore is a town worth living in. Sarah lives with her husband and three kids in Ballardvale.

Katie provides audit, tax, and consulting solutions to sophisticated nonprofit organizations, including multi-service human & social service providers, residential and day treatment agencies, early education and care (EEC) agencies, and independent schools. She has extensive experience auditing nonprofit organizations in accordance with Uniform Guidance/Single Audit and Government Auditing Standards as well as those with Uniform Financial Statement filing requirements.

Recently 60 Minutes reported on fentanyl, the deadly synthetic opioid that has created the worst drug crisis the United States has ever faced.

Last year, more than 70,000 Americans died from a fentanyl overdose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's a higher death toll than U.S. military casualties in the wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan combined. 

Drug cartels in Mexico have flooded the United States with fentanyl, often hiding it in counterfeit pills designed to look like authentic prescription pills, including OxyContin, Percocet, Xanax, and Adderall. And fentanyl is also showing up as an additive in street drugs, like cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine. This has led to an increased risk of accidental overdoses, cases where someone has unwittingly ingested fentanyl without knowing it was present.

This week, as part of our ongoing Andover Cares efforts, Paul Salafia will present on this harrowing topic.

The Rotary Club of Andover is pleased to welcome Town Manager Andrew P. Flanagan for his annual Town Meeeting preview. 

Also, Joanna Reck, a member of the Central Street Historic Study Committee will provide an update from the committee as well. 

Handmade with love by Gale Page, these warm wonders have fleece on the outside and cozy sherpa and hand pockets inside. Learn about the inspiration to start this small business ~ Cozy Plankos.

Reminder: Our weekly meetings now take place at the Lanam Club.

Our own Jean Leider will present on her recent Rotary District 7930 Rotaplast Mission to Cebu, Phillippines.   

The March 2025 mission to Cebu marked Rotaplast’s 20th visit to the region. It was supported by District Governor Tom Hankard (7930), under the leadership of Past District Governor Terry Resendez Curran, who is set to serve again as District Governor in 2027 when another mission is planned.

The Rotary Club of Andover contributed $1,600 in support of the Cebu mission.

To register for the meeting: CLICK HERE

Susan Stott has been an AVIS Trustee since she retired from Phillips Academy.  She was also a founder of Andover Community Trust, which has developed 13 permanently affordable homes in Andover.

AVIS is an all volunteer organization and Susan’s primary responsibility has been for land acquisition. The two largest acquisitions in the last ten years have been 26 acres of the Franciscan property along the Merrimack River and 11 acres near Tewksbury along the Shawsheen River.  Now her biggest challenge is the permitting and funding for the All Persons Trail in the Goldsmith Woodlands, the subject of her presentation.  She will also share what she has learned while working on this project for the past two plus years.

Angelina Berube is the Andover and North Andover reporter at The Eagle-Tribune. She has been at the newspaper since July 2022, covering New Hampshire and the Merrimack Valley during that time.

Berube has covered a wide range of topics in the community and enjoys writing features about the people who make her communities vibrant. The job keeps her on her toes with different stories to write each day.

Berube has experience with sports reporting as a former high school and college hockey player. She writes about the Professional Women's Hockey League Boston Fleet's players and its games in Lowell for The Eagle-Tribune in addition to her daily news reporting.

To register for the meeting, CLICK HERE.

Great Dog Rescue New England is a nonprofit, shelterless, all-breed rescue group headquartered in Massachusetts. Our group is comprised of volunteers all over New England who love dogs and want to help those that end up homeless through no fault of their own. Loyal and loving dogs turn up every day in New England and Southern shelters, as owners turn them in or they’re found roaming the streets after being dumped.

Great Dog is dedicated to animal rescue. In addition to our primary goal of helping homeless and abandoned dogs find loving forever homes, we:

– DONATE money to spay and neuter clinics in the south to help solve the problem of pet overpopulation.

– ENGAGE IN COMMUNITY OUTREACH activities with local schools to help educate children and young adults about animal rescue, responsible pet ownership, proper pet care, etc.

– ADOPT DOGS to agencies that train dogs to assist the physically disabled and hearing impaired (many dogs that were abandoned are now helping people lead independent lives).

We are proud of the work we do with the dogs and in local communities.

To attend this meeting, please REGISTER HERE.

Karla is the Executive Director at Stone Hill at Andover and has been with the community since November 2018, before the building opened. As Executive Director, Karla ensures the community is in compliance with state, federal and safety requirements.

Karla is also an esteemed Rotary member!

Please register for this week's meeting before the end of the day on Tuesday to ensure we have adequate food, to register CLICK HERE.

Our own Past President will update us on what he is up to these days.  Using over 25 years of experience as an agent of change and a business leader, combined with a proven system to identify and implement sustainable improvements, Al is now helping business leaders to achieve unprecedented levels of success in their operations.

This morning, he will speak on entrepreneurship through franchising…the many hats a small business owner wears, and KBIs to know when you’re on the right track, or heading off the rails.

Join us this Friday for our weekly meeting to mark a changing of the guard. It will be President Al Timm's final meeting, and we'll welcome a special guest from District 7930. We'll honor outgoing board members, install new ones, present awards, and induct new members.

Please register here to help us with adequate seating and availability of breakfast.

Tom is a Senior level financial and operations professional with over 37 years of for-profit and non-profit experience. His areas of expertise include financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, financial analysis, non-profit governance, banking compliance, cash management, system implementations, policies and procedures documentation, grant management (federal and private), internal control reviews, board presentations, organization assessments, audit management, organization formation and dissolution, and IRS non-profit application completion and submission. Prior to joining CLA, Tom worked for a professional services firm, for nine years, that specialized in working with Non-Profit organizations. He held positions as CFO, Treasurer and Executive Director for many of the Non-Profit Association clients for a Professional services firm (including Senior Vice President for the firm managing four departments), that managed more than 70 Non-Profits (primarily Associations), around the world. Prior to that Tom held positions as Director of Finance and Administration for a social services non-profit and CFO of a long-standing non-profit preservation society. Tom currently works with a variety of nonprofit industries: Associations, Human Services, Community Development, Religious and Tech groups.