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Fred Dery was unable to make the meeting, so we have no epic stories to pass on from last weeks meeting! Sorry folks. We did have a guest rotarian visit the club: Donna Collins from the Amesbury MA club. Jay Bailey gave a wrap-up of the food drive. He thanks John O’Brien, Carol, Sylvia and Nick for collecting and amazing 1,780 lbs of food and $176.00 on our last collection day. We also collected 2,579 lbs of food from the schools with thanks to Fred and his nephew, Jim and Erik for helping with the pickup. Overall, we collected 4,167 lbs of food and $3,674.00 cash. Thanks to Jay and Shaun for their hard work and all who volunteered. Speaking of volunteering, here are out members hard at work Feeding The Sheep! |
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We were joined by District Governor Christine Burns, the Governor was our featured speaker and shared some of her story with us. A member of the 106 year old Rotary Club of Holyoke, Christine enjoys her role as District Governor, spending several days / evenings a week visiting the 54 clubs in Western Massachusetts - Northern Connecticut 7890 district. Her club welcomed 16 new members this year and promotes different fellowships, recently focusing on gardening. The last district Governor from the Holyoke Club was in 1945, so it's been a while! Governor Burns encourages Rotarians to participate in community events wherever they take place, to visit other Rotary Clubs when traveling out of the area and help bring hope to the world! A project near and dear to the Governor is removing the stigma of mental health conditions. She advises that we ask on another "how are you doing?" In this question and answer she councils Rotarians to ask the question and listen carefully to the answer and to answer the question in full when someone asks you - How are you doing?! While she is certainly pleased with her tenure, she does look forward to handing over the reins to our very own Vin Marinaro. Thank you for joining us Governor! 
Well well Gwen Davis, you had no idea the monster you created! Not to be outdone by last week's member minute (see last week's award-winning edition of Sparks if you missed the live version) Adrienne DeBlieux-Speed provided part one of a two part series on her trip to Brooklyn in 1987. Whilst traveling in the "party van" pictured nearby, Adrienne began her story with the caution that "you know what goes on in those vans," as the story proceeded, we learned that our Ms. DeBlieux-Speed was traveling to L'Amour's Music hall for the Guns N' Roses show. After a full evening of GNR and with the last notes of Paradice City still ringing in her head, she returned to the van to continue the party. After some time, she and her companion(s) realized they were just about the only vehicle left in the parking lot, but for the tour bus GNR planned to travel to their next stop in. It seems the bus had a dead battery and couldn't get started without the help of the mysterious van hovering nearby. Part one of the story has our heroine making fast friends with Slash, the guitarist for GNR, and we'll assume getting the bus started, but that detail is apparently forthcoming. We don't want to wait a year until her member minute rolls around again, it's likely we'll have to ask for part two! Most certainly, the bar is set quite high for Fred Dery who is up next!
Please join us at 5:00 PM or so for some holiday cheer! Belly up to the bar at The Sideline Saloon, 434 Fenn St in Pittsfield for our 3rd Thursday night out. Kindly notify Jayson Tanzman of your attendance decision. 