Chelsea Rotary - Rotagram - Archive (Dec 8, 2009)

This week’s meeting of the Chelsea Rotary Club was opened with President Brian leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance. P.P. Bruce offered the prayer and President Elect Tom lead us in the singing of God Bless America.

Sergeants-At-Arms Mitch gave the secretary’s report. The East Boston/Revere Club was our guest today. We had one birthday in the Revere club. Ed Bride from the Andover Club was visiting. Louis had a guest, Carol Lee Hutchinson, Juan’s guest, Madelyn Garcia. Also visiting today are P.P. Saritin and her son Domenic.

Sergeants-At-Arms Mitch announced the general fine was everyone not wearing a pin. We then proceeded to happy and sad fines.

P.P. Sue was happy for a very successful Breakfast with Santa this past Saturday morning. About 400 kids came through the door.

P.P. Saritin was happy to be joining us after a long time away.

P.P. Barry was happy to see Domenic and happy to see friends Billy & Joe. Happy he had a good time in New Orleans. He was happy for his new vehicle, a 2001 silver Mustang.

P.P. Allan was happy to see guest Rotarians from the East Boston/Revere Club and that they didn’t bring guns. He also announced that he would be leaving early.

P.P. Bruce was happy for the Packers and to see the East Boston/Revere Rotarians.

President Elect Tom was happy to see snow over the weekend so that his tulips can stay in the ground.

Christian was sad because his father-in-law’s father passed away. He was happy for the Roca fundraiser event this past Friday and happy to see Saritin and Domenic. He announced the Chelsea Neighborhood Developers 30^th Anniversary will be on January 28^th, more details to follow.

Juan was happy to see friends from East Boston/Revere Club and for the snow.

P.P. Patrick missed a meeting because he was on vacation and moving into new house.

President Brian was happy to see Saritin and Domenic and looking forward to the new meeting. He announced Juan would be doing a presentation on the Colombian Project and the East Boston/Revere Rotary Club would be talking about what they have done this past year. He suggested we auction two Celtic’s tickets for that evening that Barry gave away before the meeting ended and the money would go towards the Colombia Project, all members agreed.

Sergeants-At-Arms Mitch was happy it didn’t snow too much.

The East Boston/Revere Club would first like to thank everyone for having us-Glad to be here. Roger will talk about what we have done this past year. The East Boston/Revere Club has a very successful blood drive that 40 people participated in hosted at the Comfort Inn. They also had a trivia and comedy night that were a lot of fun. They used the money for scholarships. They also ran the Dictionary Project for which they handed out dictionaries for 3^rd graders in East Boston and Revere. Roger sponsored a child from Bolivia who was a fire victim and brought her to Shriners Hospital for a couple of surgeries. This past year was her last surgery.

Juan began his Colombia Project presentation by thanking the Revere/East Boston Club for their generosity and support for the project. The grand opening of the health center will be on February 6^th. The center will serve about 1500 indigenous people who live in the area who would usually have to travel 18 hours to the nearest hospital. One very sad statistic is that 50% of children in this area of Colombia die of malnutrition. The project will have cost $40,000 but will save many lives. There will be four nuns, two of which are registered nurses living in the health center and a medical student sponsored by the Colombian government. Kitchens and bedrooms will make it possible for there to be clinics of different topics for all in the reservation. An interesting fact is that it took 1200 mule trips to bring materials to the reservations because after a certain point there is no road with 1 ½ hours of additional traveling are left.

Juan and Madelyn are working on a fundraiser for January 12, 2009 to get the last $4,000 that will fully equip the health center. He will forward more information about where and what time when it becomes available.

Thank you so much and bless you!

President Brian then proceeded to auction the Celtic’s tickets with the help of President Elect Tom. The bid started at $5 and the tickets were bought by Roger from the East Boston/Revere club for $100.