Our regular Wednesday meeting was opened at 12:21 by President Laura Camp.  Prayer was led by Carl Lazzaro, with a song led by John Cuozzo.  Today we had 14 of our members present, with 2 visitors.  Gerry Hanifan introduced his wife, Maureen.  Denis Reilly, formerly of the Boonton and Paterson Rotary Clubs was also introduced.  Greetings were extended to our visitors by Matt Hannum.

 

 

President Laura asked if there were any Happy Dollars.  Laura began with a dollar for the fact that her son-in-law had a successful 2^nd operation for his eye.  This time the doctors were concerned that he when he comes up next week for the wedding, that he would be at a significantly different elevation from the coastal level in North Carolina where they live.  Without the corrective procedure he went through now, the results of the first surgery may be undone by the change in pressure.

Jim Taylor gave a dollar for the production of the Wizard of Oz that had three performances in the Newton High School auditorium this past weekend.  He said that the sell out crowd for each performance was treated with an exceptional production.

John Frank came up with a five-dollar bill for his happiness with the production that was held in the building where he was principal for 20 years.  His joy could not possibly have been slightly influenced by the fact that his granddaughter performed the part of the scarecrow?

Buz Tomasino kicked up a buck because of his satisfaction with the food from “Jersey Mike’s”.  The only problem was that he had difficulty remembering just where that sandwich shop was located.  Another member of the club had to help him out with that tidbit of information.

Finally, John Cuozzo handed in two dollars and reported that Joe Mello was in the hospital and apparently recovering.

 

 

NEW MEMBERSHIP BOOK  -  President Laura noted that the membership book project is under the diligent care of Bob, Carol, and Alice.  When asked if we were going to have new photographs taken for this project – her answer was – we will see.

 

ROTARY QUILT  -  Denise spoke about the Rotary quilt her friend from the Amish community in Pennsylvania made for us.  This quilt is to be raffled off at the end of June.  Raffle tickets are $10 each.  She said that she had wanted to go around to each of the rotary clubs in the county to promote the ticket sales, but her time is constricted because she has to be driving a bus for both the morning and afternoon shift.  She is looking for volunteers to take the quilt and tickets around to the Branchville, Wallkill, and Vernon Rotary Clubs and promote the raffle.  Buz volunteered to take the quilt to the Branchville club this Friday.  Tickets can be obtained from Denise.  Proceeds of the raffle will benefit Project Self Sufficiency.

 

VISIT BY UKRAINIAN STUDENTS  -  Denise also spoke about the fact that the Branchville Rotary Club recently hosted students from Ukraine.  She said that she is still in contact with one of the students.  She passed around a photograph of the students with information about them for us to look at.

 

TWO HEART PROGRAM  -  Carolyn spoke briefly about the Two Heart Program.  She said that we are now at $1,900 and very close to our goal of $2,500.  Please remember that Carolyn will be personally matching every dollar we raise for this program.  Additionally, her employer – Merrill Lynch – will also be matching dollar for dollar the final amount we as a club raise.  Also, Denise Current will be matching what we raise as a club, on a dollar-for-dollar basis. So – if we raise all $2,500, then we will have effectively invested $10,000 for the project.  What a wonderful accomplishment that will be.  So, open your hearts, open your checkbooks, remember – each dollar counts here.  Checks should be made out to “GIFT OF LIFE N.J.” and given to either Helen Wescott or Carolyn Ottenbreit.

 

SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM  -  Laura noted that the scholarship program is in the works.  Because of the Covid problem – we were not permitted to meet with the students to talk about their essays and were not permitted to even see the essays.  The school guidance counselors decided that they would review them and that they would select the winner.  NO more of that in the future.  The Board of Directors decided that if we could not meet the student faced to face, the members of the Scholarship Committee would do it by ZOOM.  Also, the guidance counselors will no longer be the ones to decide who gets the scholarships.  Our money for the scholarships – our rules.

 

INTERACT  –  at both Newton and Kittatinny – it has been confirmed that at least one student from Kittatinny will be attending the RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) program this year.  It costs $275 to send one student to this once-a-year event.  Hopefully a student from Newton will also attend.

 

ENDOWMENT COMMITTEE  -  A meeting of the Endowment Committee will take place on April 8^th and will be held on ZOOM.

 

ROTARY SIGN  -  Laura spoke about the new metal (one sided) Rotary Meets Here sign.  It seems we have worked out an agreement with the management of the Hampton Diner to have the sign put in one of the front windows of the restaurant so that it will be easily seen by the public.  We are also talking about a two-sided metal sign that could be put in the columns of the main free-standing sign for the diner.  We will see how those negotiations turn out.

 

ANNUAL GARDEN PARTY  -  Laura informed the club that the Champaign Garden Party for this year will be held on Saturday, June 25.  Mike Hanifan has graciously agreed to serve as over-all chairman for the event, with Wayne McCabe and Denise Current working with him (along with a lot of other people).

 

B I R T H D A Y S  -  Carl Lazzaro fessed-up that he had a birthday this month.  He said that he was born on March 22, 1843.  If that is correct, he then is even older than the county historian or John Iliff.

 

 

Today our speaker, introduced by President Laura, was our very own – the one and only Incoming President Todd Lattig. 

 

After a great amount of deliberation, Todd came to the conclusion that our club members could use a little brush-up about the history of wearing ashes during the upcoming Easter holiday.  He opined that in writings dating back to the 2^nd century, references to wearing ashes can be found.  The wearing of ashes, during the period of Passover, originally shifted slightly in the very early centuries as the date for such celebration was based on the lunar calendar.  Once we shifted to using the Gregorian calendar, the date of the celebration stabilized and so did the period for wearing ashes.

 

Todd said that Ash Wednesday actually was established during the 10^th century in Europe.  The wearing of ashes was common place and was symbolic of a significant loss or remorse – directly relating to the death and loss of Christ. 

 

Todd added that modern day protestant churches are going back to having Ash Wednesday start the period of Lent, instead of beginning the observance of the holiday on the first Sunday of Lent.

 

Laura thanked Todd for his presentation and the interesting information that was covered.

 

 

On April 6^th, a representative of NORWESCAP will be joining us to talk about the various programs they operate in the tri-county area of Sussex, Warren and Hunterdon Counties.

 

 

Maureen Hanifan was asked by Laura to pick the 50/50 winner this week.  Bud Luthman nailed the weekly fund for a whopping total of $4 (this was the THIRD time in three weeks that his ticket won).  But when he went and picked a card from the diminishing deck of cards (the Queen of spades) – he once again left the ever-growing pot of $259.50 on the table.

 

 

With no other business to come before the club, the meeting was formally adjourned by President Laura at 1:10 pm.

 

Respectfully submitted

Wayne T. McCabe