Pledge: President Gerri Lewis
Prayer: Ken Roche
Song: Rick Beck
Brents Card Game Winner: Dr. Eugene
Sergeants Report: Joe Arcari
Raffle Winners: Mark, Gerri, Jan
Happy Bucks: Warm weekend, just happy, UCONN Womens basketball team, sad buck for the federal budget eliminating money for Meals on Wheels and EPA getting slashed, Marty for his son being home, Jan happy to be back and promoting the Adams Family play at the high school, please vote 'yes' to approve the OS budget which is increased only 1.5%, kids recently took a field trip to the state capital and met with our local representatives, the Catholic schools are getting beat up in the NCAA tournament, Pete and wife will be traveling to Scotland soon.
Announcements:
Meals on Wheels: Ken and Charlie Norz stepped up to the plate for this week. See schedule under ACTIVITIES
Gerri, Pete, Bill and Andy supported the Honduras dinner
The Rotary District Assembly is Saturday April 1 from 8:30am to 2:30pm at the 4 Points Sheraton, Meriden. Everyone is encouraged to go especially newer members to see how Rotary works.
Other Business:
Gerri read a request from social services concerning an elderly person who needed dental work. The Lions Club and local churches have donated and Gerri proposed we help as well. The club approved $1,000 which is the needed amount to fully fund this.
Golf tournament applications are available on this website. Downloadable and suitable for email, if you have any prospects who need early contact you can do so. The tournament is Thursday, May 25. They will be printed in a couple weeks.
Stay tuned for the venue of our next meeting. March is a 5 meeting month and we will probably have a dinner meeting next Wednesday.
Bill O'Shaughnessy talked about the Club Clinic, an initiative to help clubs increase membership. Flexibility is the key with other ideas like reduced dues and corporate memberships.
We are very fortunate to have Dr. Eugene Sapoznikov as a member of the club. Born in Russia, Eugene was small in stature and Jewish, a combination that led to bullying as a child. Eugene worked out, built himself up and was able to defend himself. He grew up during the cold war and so learned about weapons and defense systems but his passion has always been medicine. This was a difficult career to aspire to if you were a Jew living in Russia but he excelled in school and was accepted to medical school at age 17. By age 23 he was a surgeon. Eugene emigrated to the US with his mother, father and grandmother and began learning English on the plane. It was total culture shock. It would take 10 years for Eugene to get back to his professional level. He did his intership at Flushing Hospital, residency at UMNJ and a fellowship at UCONN Health Center.
Eugene has 3 children ages 15,13, and 8. His practice is in New London called Coastal Digestive Diseases, PC.
Meeting ended with the 4-way (+1) test
md
