Pledge: Pres. Keith Wescovich
Prayer: Ron Scott
Following the prayer, a moment of silence was observed for Dick Purdy who passed away last Saturday. Dick's obituary has been added to the member's area of this website.
Song: Gerri
Brents Card Game Winner: Peter Manley
Sergeants Report: Lee David
Raffle Winners: Peter Corbett, Bill O'Shaughnessy, Ron Scott
Happy Bucks: There were a lot of sad dollars for Dick Purdy - a longtime Rotarian and good friend to all who kniew him.
Announcements:
John Donnelly: John has been working on getting matching funds for the Ghana school project but signatures from the local club is required. Due to the current economic climate, the matching grant may get bumped to next year.
Mike Velgouse: Shirley Von Dassel has resigned from the club.
Ron Scott read a letter of thanks from a student who recently attended the World Affairs Seminar. The club sponsored the student.
Pres. Keith: There will be a Bd of Directors meeting at the Acton Library Thurs at 5:30 to go over and approve the budget.
Program: David Wight
David Wight has a passion - its rowing. As a young man, David didn't excel in sports like baseball, football or 
basketball and so as a freshman at Exeter Academy, he took up the sport of rowing. Exeter had a great team and an excellent coach. David loved it and became a member of the team which accomplished much and making it to the Olympic trials. That year, his team won the first heat beating Harvard but was eliminated in the next round. In his senior year at Yale, the team came back to beat Harvard by 23 seconds, and won the Olympic trials in Syracuse in 1956 beating Cornell. That year, the Olympics were in Melbourne Australia. It took 8 hours to fly to Hawaii and another 14 hours to get to Melbourne. The first heat consisted of all English speaking teams and Yale finished 3rd seemingly eliminated but they stayed alive by winning the losers bracket and got another chance. In the semi-finals, they again faced a powerful Australian team and won giving it their all but they had to face the same Aussie team in the finals the next day. The press wrote that the American team was spent from the previous match and didn't have a chance. The team proved everyone wrong by winning the Gold Medal by defeating Australia. Dave has that medal and will bring it in to show. David has continued to be active in rowing, founding the New Haven Rowing Club. He plans on helping coach the Guilford High School rowing team this year. Pictured above is Dave at our meeting holding his gold medal. The pictures below are the team racing, receiving their medals and in Melbourne for the Fiftieth Reunion.
Crew receiving medals from John Jewett Garland, member IOC USA.
md
