Welcome

Announcements On July 1, 2007, a new Rotary year began with Rotary International President, Wilfrid J. Wilkinson and a new Rotary theme: ROTARY SHARES. The Newburyport Rotary Club also began its new year with new Club President,Grace G. Connolly, and the club's very own Liz Cullen as District Governor. The new year got off to a great start with The Rotary Club of Newburyport's float in the Yankee Homecoming Parade, entitled "The Family of Rotary Salutes George Cashman".The float was awarded two trophies. Rotarians marched in the parade and later enjoyed a Rotary family barbecue at the home of Claudia and Marshall Harris.

Dear Fellow Rotarians:

Welcome to a new Rotary year! We look forward to a year of fellowship and sharing, as we come together to advance Rotary's goals of promoting literacy, clean water, ending immunization preventable diseases such as polio through education and innoculations,and reaching out to our local and global communities to make our world a better place for all of us. Rotary International President Wilf Wilkinson's theme for the year, ROTARY SHARES, captures the essence of Rotary.

At our weekly luncheon meetings we share friendship, happy moments and happy dollars, laughs and even robust singing. The Family of Rotary extends to our spouses, children and extended family and friends. We started the year with our Chicken Barbecue on Old Fashioned Sunday and the annual Kayak Raffle. As chairman of the Chicken Barbecue,Chuck Withee received the secret recipe and supervised the making of the secret sauce, which everyone commented was especially delicious. David Hall did a great job lugging the kayak all around the City of Newburyport. Both events raised funds and awareness for Rotary!

This year we did something new that we have not done in many years - our club entered a float in the Yankee Homecoming Parade! Rotarians Chip Nutter, Brett Murphy, Jack Murphy and Mark O'Brien dedicated many days of "service above self" to design and build our award winning float, in honor of George Cashman. Under an arched sign displaying the words: THE FAMILY OF ROTARY SALUTES GEORGE CASHMAN, our spectacular blue and yellow float was followed by marching Rotarians singing the Rotary song along the parade route. It was especially moving to hear the applause and cheers for George and for Rotary along the way. The beautiful, sunny afternoon culminated in a Rotary family barbecue at the home and garden of Rotarian Claudia Harris and her husband, Marshall. What a great way to kick off the year!

The Golf Tournament in September was a huge success and kudos go to Jay Howlett, Bill Piercey and Kate Howlett for running a great event. On Friday, October 12 you are invited to join us for a fun-filled Comedy Night featuring local masters of ceremony, Peter Kelly and Tom Ambrosi,at the Firehouse Center. Please support our Comedy Night, which also serves as a fundraiser that enables us to do the many wonderful things we want to do in the community. On November 3rd Rotarians and their guests are invited to participate in Rotary Day at the United Nations in New York City. This popular event will sell out and the reservation deadline is October 20th.

Attendance is up at our weekly meetings and we have gotten good feedback about the quality of our programs. A special thanks goes to our Club Secretary, Peter Johnston, for sending out those weekly reminders with the speaker information.

It has been a fun and rewarding start! I look forward to seeing you on Tuesdays!

Grace G. Connolly

Club President 2007-2008