We opened with the pledge and the 4 way test, led by President Alex. Gwen Davis led us in singing America the Beautiful. Joan performed the invocation. Joan also had the member minutes tag and told us her life story. She's been at GD or a prior derivative for 49 years and married for 38 years---not sure if thats to her husband or the club! 

THIRD THURSDAY REMINDER--this weeks meeting, 10/20, will be at Patrick's Pub from 5:00 till 7:00--bring a guest and let Joan know.

We had 3 guests of Gail Molari and John Murphy--Welcome!

John Hudnall reported out on the Benevolence projects and they are amazing: $2000 to the Pittsfield Humane society and $4500 to the Turkey Angels. The turkey Angels donation is $2500 from our club and $2000 from General Dynamics. We are fortunate to have such a generous, community minded business in our family.---Thanks!

Jay Bailey gave us a Food Drive update. The dates are set and the Nov 10 meeting fines are going to the drive. Make sure to bring CASH!

Roger Gibboni gave a brief outline of our emerging Hurricane Ian Relief Effort. He will be contacting the Ft. Myers Club to determine how we can best make an impact. More to come on this important effort.

Chris Keegan joined us as our guest speaker and reported on this year's Toys For Tots program. I know we aren't thinking about Christmas yet but this program starts early. Chris gave us a brief history of the project dating back to 1947 with the Marine Corps taking the lead in 1948. The program provides toys to children in need from ages newborn to 14 years. Typically 3000 children receive toys in an annual drive. This is an extremely worthwhile effort!

This note from Cpt. Justin Barter, Pittsfield Office

As you know Christmas is right around the corner and we are less than 2 months away from our Kettle Campaign which is our yearly bell ringing fundraiser. In the past Rotary has helped ring the bell for us and has proven to be an important part of our campaign. We would love to have Rotary back to ring this year! We will ring every day except Sundays. Our schedule goes from 10:00 AM-7:30 PM (although accommodations can be made to go earlier or later). We will start the day after Thanksgiving.

Just a reminder---the club is NOT doing an organized effort for the Kettle project so please contact Justin directly if you can find the time to support this worthwhile effort.

We were fortunate to have Officer Darren Derby of the Pittsfield PD join us for lunch and speak on the topic of homelessness in Pittsfield. Apparently, officer Derby is the point man for the PD in this effort and is a wealth of knowledge, empathy and facts on this disturbing predicament in Pittsfield. The takeaway was that there are only approximately 50 truly homeless people in Pittsfield and these folks are victims of mental health issues and addiction. Officer Derby was careful to separate the panhandlers from the truly homeless and felt that the panhandlers were taking advantage of the generosity of the community. For those who are truly homeless, he expressed that shelters don’t work due to the restrictions imposed on those who use them. He asked the club if we could again supply the PD with “Homeless Support Bags” that contain basic sundries and toiletries. Apparently these were very well received in our past efforts.