The Nominating Committee for District 7890 recently announced their candidate for District Governor Nominee Designate for 2024-2025, our own Vin Marinaro. For several years Vin has served as Assistant Governor for Area 1, and has spent a great deal of his involvement with Rotary focusing on Youth. He will be officially voted in as District Governor Nominee at the business meeting to be held at the District Conference in April. We’re proud of you Vin!
With a PowerPoint presentation, Alex Reczkowski at our last meeting briefed the membership on Rotary Club of Pittsfield’s Global Grant with RC Bor (Serbia) and USAID. Through this partnership, USAID and Rotary empower Rotary Clubs in Europe and Eurasia to positively influence their communities by increasing opportunities for transatlantic networking, collaboration and friendship. He introduced us to the Serbian Team coordinating efforts at the Serbian end, and demonstrated how Rotary Club of Pittsfield’s initial investment was matched and parlayed into $65,129:
Rotary Club of Pittsfield $ 10,000
BOR Rotary Club $ 2,000
12 Rotary Club Partners $ 9,400
RI District 7890 Designated Funds $ 14,715
RI Global Grant / World Fund $ 14,715
USAID $ 14,299
TOTAL GRANTED: $65,129
Alex noted his trip to Serbia previously planned for October has now been tentatively moved out to March or April, 2022.
The Club's special raffle, the proceeds of which will support our international "Service Above Self" mission, specifically our "Years of Ascent" (kindergarten S.T.E.M.) program in Serbia, was drawn at our last meeting. 180 tickets (at $20 each) were sold, which raised $3,600 for the project. The prizes were one of three gift cards from Mazzeo's Ristorante: a first prize of $250 (won by Jim Bronson), a second prize of $150 (Josh Healey), and a third prize of $100 (Matt Mallach).
The latest from our Auction Committee: Thank you for your continued support of the Rotary Auction! This year's theme matches our Rotary year theme: “Serve to Change Lives.” Donation forms have been distributed to the membership, so it's time to start collecting items. The Committee has scheduled an Auction Item Drive for our December 9, 2021 meeting. Members are asked to bring as many of their items to the meeting that day so that we can get them all collected, stored, and entered into the database with plenty of time. The auction is going to be Saturday, February 12, 2022 at Berkshire Hills Country Club. A blank donation form that you may use to collect even more great items for the auction was sent to members in a separate email. The form is also downloaded onto the Club’s website (“Home Page Downloaded Forms”). We'd love to be able to include as many local partners as possible. If you want to check to make sure that another member hasn't solicited an item already, you can view the updated item solicitation spreadsheet online [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BCO96dhdXVnOL2yacSZUH0YW_UoVG6u9lyTBkVNn8FU/edit?usp=sharing]. Questions about items or the spreadsheet can go to Alex Reczkowski. Questions about sponsorships and ads should go to Ro
At our last meeting we were introduced to one of our student guests for the month of November: Connor Soltaire (THS). Please help make Connor feel welcomed at our meetings.
Two birthdays to celebrate this week: Crash O'Brien (11/15) and Donna Palma (11/17); and two Club anniversaries: Brooks Sherman (6 yrs a/o 11/12/15) and Alex Reczkowski (5 yrs a/o 11/17/16).
