Newton, New Jersey           October 7, 2020          Carolyn Ottenbreit, Editor

• Carl is happy to have finally met a woman who can drive (hint: she has NY plates).
• Alice is happy for her son’s 20^th anniversary.
• Bill Kehoe is happy for his daughter’s second wedding (to the same guy).  After two small ceremonies to include immediate family, they are still planning the big party which was derailed by COVID.
• Barbara gave “A happy dollar for a happy day!”
• Laura, is happy that her youngest son, Frank, has returned to working at Crystal Springs, where he is a cook, after a brief sojourn to Mohawk House.
• Tom Digby is happy that his son, Gordon, who lives in New Orleans, has continued to dodge the disasters that have plagued that city in the last 10 years.

• The landscaping looks great!  The full cost of $6,800 from Dave Wright was very reasonable.  One half the cost has been covered by an anonymous donor and recent memorial gifts have also been applied to the balance.  The Club is planning to appeal to members for voluntary donations to help cover the last $2,000.
• Sometime during the weekend of September 26^th, the three-door freezer at the Food Booth died.  President Jim discovered the problem when he arrived to water the plants and noticed the “dead rat smell”.  That was the smell of 760 lbs of rotten meat in the freezer which he and Carl then removed to the landfill.  Thank you to Carl and Jim for their extraordinary example of “service above self”.  We will look for a second-hand freezer - more and more are becoming available as restaurants close because of COVID.  Carl has submitted an insurance claim for the meat.
• Newton Medical Center has received approval to perform percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), or coronary angioplasty, at Newton Hospital.  The total cost of implementing the new program is $1.4 million, and Newton Medical Center has approached Newton Rotary about contributing to the cost from the dedicated account established with proceeds of the annual golf outing.  The Executive and Golf Committees will meet with Newton Hospital on 10/28 to discuss the proposal.
• Carolyn asked for volunteers to assist in the Dictionary Project.  Bill will take delivery of the Dictionaries at his office, Barbara will have Newton Rotary bookplates printed, and John Cuozzo, Dawn and Carl have offered to help with distribution.  Please reach out to Carolyn if you would like to get involved in providing dictionaries to 3^rd graders at local public schools.
• Barbara announced that we are still awaiting approval of the $1000 District matching grant for the homeless project.  Once approval is received, she and Laura plan to go shopping for backpacks, duffle bags, and items to fill them.
• October 24^th is End Polio Day
• Wednesday, October21st, we are planning a joint meeting with the Rotary Club of Colombo, Sri Lanka.  The Colombo Club is the local Club involved in our Global Grant to provide pediatric heart surgeries in Sri Lanka in conjunction with Gift of Life.

• Bill Kehoe assured the jogger who stopped by during our meeting that we are not a AA chapter.