Pledge, Prayer, 4-Way Test: Tara Winch
Happy Bucks: for our guests, the beautiful day, the successful Wine Tasting Event, the upcoming Shredding Event, the great weather we are having!
President Jan Perruccio announced our meeting of April 29 is a social at Coastline Brewery in Westbrook. A sign-up sheet was passed around. You may invite 1 guest but if you'd like to invite more than 1 ask Jan.
The meeting of May 20 is Student of the Month at Saybrook Point Resort & Marina. A sign-up sheet was passed around for that. Let Jan know if you plan to attend. The deadline is May 12.
Program: Special Olympics, Team Connecticut 2026 USA Games
Special Olympics is seeking help with funding travel to the games which will be held in Minneapolis June 20-26. Whelen Engineering has provided their private jet to use and funding is needed for additional travel costs. Special Olympics CT is nonprofit 501c3 organization that runs 56 programs in CT over 4 seasons and 25 sports. The USA Olympics is held every 4 years and this year they are in Minneapolis, MN. They include all states including Hawaii. Loren Belval is a coach who was on the Old Lyme High School gymnastics team. She also has other responsibilities like maintaining the calendar. Their budget calls for $127,000 for expenses. There is no cost to the athletes but costs have gone up significantly.
Here are some facts and stats for the upcoming games:
39 Athletes & Unified Partners
20 Coaches & Staff
59 Members of Team CT
35 Towns represented
5 Sports: Unified Basketball, Bowling, Unified Softball, Swimming, Track & Field
A vote was taken later whether or not to approve the Outreach request of $2500.
To learn more go to www.soct.org
President Jan announced there will be a Centennial Committee meeting at 1:30 at John Aforismo's house. The venue for the event will be Saybrook Point Resort & Marina. John will assign committees. There will be some history including the original charter for the club.
Wine & Beer Tasting and Silent Auction preliminary report
Unofficially, the event was a big success clearing approximately $33K. While the event ran smoothly and people had a great time, there is always room for improvement so there will be discussions about that. Comments are welcome. There are many people to thank, the core of the event was the club members who sold tickets, got sponsors and auction items and worked to set up and run the various tasks for the evening. The staff at Saybrook Point was outstanding. They accommodated us in every way. There are still a few payments we haven't received yet and we are reviewing the invoice from Saybrook Point.
Epic Day of Service, Joan Winters
In concert with the Rotary Club’s 2025-2026 district goal of Promoting Literacy, we are committed to creating and implementing a plan to enhance the literacy skills of the children in our three communities. We will launch our project on the Annual Rotary Day of Service on May 16th, 2026, delivering a morning of literacy activities across the 3 communities of Old Lyme, Old Saybrook and Westbrook.
Rotarians will gather at the following locations to read books, listen to children tell stories, play games and other fun activities:
- Old Saybrook Town Green (next to the OS Garden Club’s Plant Sale)
- Old Lyme: The Phoebe Griffin Library (community room)
- Westbrook: The YMCA (outside in back under the pavilion)
FREE writing journals and FREE books will be available to take home!
The event takes place Rain or Shine from 9:00 AM- NOON. In addition, there will be donation boxes for gently used books that will be donated to Acton Library for their annual book sale.
To volunteer at any of the locations visit epcidayofservice.org
Special thanks to our sponsors Connecticut Water and Ocean State Job Lot of Old Saybrook.
Shredding Event, John Aforismo
John is organizing the event and he says we need lots of help. There is a JV baseball game going on that day so extra attention will be paid to car traffic flow and parking. If you are directing traffic, bring a chair. Credit card payments will be available using our payment online system that worked so well for our wine tasting. Wear your Rotary attire. John will be seeking help from Interact members and he has also asked the police to help. Joan Winters has repurposed the old signs. Charlie Renshaw is predicting good weather!
Community Outreach, Tara Winch
Tara has received several requests for funding:
- A request from Safe Futures was not approved by the committee because they are out of our service area.
- Veterans Helping Veterans asked the club to sponsor their golf tournament for $150 which the committee approved.
- Clinton Rotary Cancer Walk asked us to be a sponsor for $250 which the committee approved.
- Old Saybrook Safe Grad Night asked for a donation to support their annual party for graduating high school seniors. Its a fun night out for the seniors which is alcohol free and with adults in attendance to help run it. The committee was evenly divided between $100 and $150. Jan broke the tie to make it $150.
- Special Olympics requested $2500 for travel expenses to this years games in Minneapolis. The decision was deferred pending their presentation at today's meeting. The committee voted to approve the request following their presentation.
Club action: President Jan made motions on the above funding requests, were seconded and were voted on by the club and approved. In addition, Bill O'Shaughnessy will pay an additional $100 for Safe Grad Night
Nancy Morin has chaired the Summer Concert Series that the club is the major sponsor for. Nancy is stepping down as chair and is asking for someone to take over for her. Please contact Nancy if you have any questions about what it entails. Nancy will continue to help out.
President Jan announced that on May 14 there will be a meeting of area Rotary Clubs at Scotch Plains Tavern from 6 PM to 9 PM. It's an opportunity to meet fellow Rotarians from local clubs and find out each others activities and goals. Let Jan or Nancy know if you'd like to attend, the cost is $40pp.
