Author: CMHC

The Whipping Post

Rotary Club of
Litchfield-Morris

November 2016—January 5, 2017

November 2016 Happenings

Officers:

From our November 3rd meeting
Polio Plus: We have sent in our group donation, but if you would like to donate, please forward funds to Bob Doyle.
Fellow member Barbara Rodenbach has had a stroke recently and is convalescencing in Rose Haven. She is doing well and would love visitors
11/5/16 Col. Rodenbach will be recognized at 10am at the All Wars Memorial. Barbara has also sponsored a plaque on one of the benches in honor of Col. Rodenbach.
The Raffle Tickets: 20% goes back into the Raffle fund.
Our Food Drive: We are currently collecting food for the local food banks that have the most need. Per Teresa, as of yesterday, we have received 6 banana boxes full of food from Stop and Shops hard work in collecting food for our food drive.
The Greenway: an appeal letter is coming out to all residents in the area to help raise funds for phase3 of the Greenway that starts on Bissell Rd. Our benches are up at the Litchfield Hills Nursery and Cliff is going to have a publicity photo taken noting the donation from the Club.
Membership: Leo Paul is going to join as a member of the club. Clifford is sponsoring Bill Jones as a new Rotary member.
Sweeda update: She is working on pursuing her education at the college level and has recently visited Lafayette College and will be visiting others in the next few weeks.
Rotary Youth Exchange: Fred Colson and Rob Vanwyck will begin working on the Youth Exchange program.
Recently we lost Art Webster who was a longtime member of the Club. It has been requested that a contribution be made in his honor. Isaak Sobek, the 12 year old son of former member Adam Sobek is undergoing treatment for acute myeloid leukemia and they are raising funds to defray the cost of his medical treatment.
Salvation Army Bell Ringing time: Teresa will pass around the bell ringing schedule and will be the keeper of the schedule. Please contact her to schedule your time to ring the bell.
Christmas Holiday Party: We will be sending out the invitation shortly. Save the date for 12/9.

Teresa Spring -President
Sue Voghel—Immediate Past-President
Lynn Cossette—Treasurer
Mitchell Fishman-Asst / Treasurer
Mickie Budny—Secretary
Bob Kluge—Sergeant At / Arms
Chuck Conn—Board Member
Ted Murphy—Board Member

Committee Chairs:
Donations: Teresa Spring
Basketball Game: Ted Murphy
Beverage Booth: Dave Pavlick
Golf Tournament: Peter Aziz
Membership: Sue Voghel
Speakers: Sky Post
Rotary Foundation: Bob Doyle
Earth Day: Rob Van Wyck
Food Drive:
Greenway: Clifford Cooper
Interact/RYLA: Rob Van Wyck
Red Cross: Mitchell Fishman
Salvation Army: Teresa Spring
SCORE: Teresa Spring
Youth Exchange Picnic: Rob Van Wyck
Education Foundation: Club President
Social: Dan Ferrara
Installation Dinner: Ileana Santore
Sunshine: Ileana Santore

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The Whipping Post

From our November 17th meeting...

Updates:
Rotary Foundation Donations will be coming up. This is vital to us being eligible to receive a grant.
Rob Vanwyck asked if we could send a notice through the mail.
The Food Drive: We have received great donations from Stop and Shops. Cash cards are always welcome to
purchase turkeys for people.
The Salvation Army bell Ringing: Email Teresa Spring for times that are available for bell ringing.
Bell ringing starts 11/25 thru Christmas eve. We have a lot of hours to fill.
The Greenway: The annual appeals letter has gone out and any donations are welcome.
They are very happy to have received a grant from the Community Foundation. The Spring Fundraiser at the
Litchfield Distillery will still be held so no one will miss out on some free bourbon! They are looking for additional volunteers at their monthly meetings to fill various committees.
Interact/Youth Exchange: Fred and Rob are sending the schools the forms for interested students who would like to take part in the Youth Exchange. They will meet with interested students
Speakers: The only date we don’t have filled is in March 2017.
Litchfield Educational Foundation – selling Stop and Shop gift cards. It’s a win-win because the LEF gets 5% of the sales and you get a full value of the card. If you want cards in-between meetings, text Dave Pavlick at 860-459-9862 and he will get you cards.
Treasurer: the tax filing has been done.
Our Guest Speaker – Steve Ardussi:
Steve is a 30 year resident of Litchfield. He has a Harvard MBA and is an independent Insurance Broker licensed in CT and MA.
The Medicare Savings Program (MSP) is a little known program that is hardly spoken about but is a tremendous program to help seniors and those on disability. MSP is a state and federal program for those enrolled in Medicare for more than 2 years. The program helps people with low to moderate income. It is strictly income based and assets are not looked at. DSS handles the program. During their review, they look at Social Security income, Pension, IRA income, disability payments, wages, alimony, rental income, dividends and interest. If you are single earning $2435 or less per month or married earning $3284 per month or less, you receive your Part B at no cost (save $104.90 per month) and prescription benefits ( reduces cost to $0-$8 per prescription). If your prescriptions change, you can change your program any time during the year to make sure that your prescriptions are covered. A broker can be instrumental in decoding the options so you get the best one for your situation. The people at the lowest income levels $2,088 per month for single, $2,816.85 for couples have additional benefits including receiving all of their co-pays and medical fees paid for. It takes about 6 weeks from the time of application to notification of approval to participate. If they are approved, Steve will help them file the right application to the right provider to make sure their medical expenses and prescriptions are covered. In Connecticut this is the most generous plan available and other states have an asset determination. There is also a LIS: Low income subsidy. A federal program that helps pay for drugs. Very similar to the MSP but it has an asset test.
Steve, your Personal Benefits Advisor, is the man who can decode all of this and get people pointed in the right direction!

November 2016—January 5, 2017

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The Holiday Party!!!

Rotary Club Meeting. – Club Assembly 1-5-17
Lynn Cossette distributed the financial reports effective 1-5-17.
Our Credit Card Machine: discussion was held as to whether or not we should keep it. It was agreed that we go until November 2017 with the machine, but to make sure that we advertise it. Defer to the executive committee for a final decision.
The 2016-2017 Board and Committee List was distributed for review and comment.
April Rotary Conference to be held in Providence, Rhode Island, 4 districts are gathering for a multiday event. 4/28/17- 4/30/17 – “an international conference without a passport”. Rotary President John Germ will be in attendance. For more information go to the district website. You can also reserve hotel rooms on the website.
The International Conference, Atlanta GA 6/10/17-6/14/17. Teresa will be attending on behalf of the club. If anyone is interested in attending the conference, contact Teresa.
The Sunshine Committee: Teresa asked for a volunteer to join the Sunshine Committee to assist Ileana. Lynn Cossette volunteered to help Ileana with the Sunshine Committee.
Donations and Gifting Committee: The committee has not met. Lynn reported that she is receiving donations requests. The committee will work out a date to meet and discuss the donations.
Basketball Game: The Game was on Monday, December 26 between the alumni of LHS and Wamogo. The event netted approximately $1,500.00 which is similar to past years. LHS did not have enough players for the women’s team so Wamogo players volunteered to swap teams. Ted Murphy suggested copying the challenge cup trophy as we do in the Golf Tournament. The trophy will reside in the winning school’s trophy case. The new trophies were awarded for the first time this year.
Beverage Booth: The committee will start meeting closer to the event. We will need teams to set up, break down and to man the booth.
Golf Tournament: Peter Aziz is the newly appointed chair of the golf tournament. This is our major fundraiser for the year and will be held May 19, 2017 this year and the committee will begin meeting very shortly.
Membership: We have a new member, Bill Jones, with a possible additional new member in Leo Paul. Bob suggested a great way to get people interested is to invite them to our luncheon and enjoy our great line up of guest speakers coordinated by Sky Post.

Guest Speakers: Sky reported that we are all filled up through June 2017. We are looking for speakers between July – December. Fred suggested inviting someone from Forman School to speak on what they do with the kids at the school. Sky will reach out to Adam Man to suggest a possible speakers. Rob Vanwyck will reach out to discuss RYLA and Interact.
June 15 2017 is our induction dinner.
Public Relations and Website: We have been posting to our Facebook page so we have 55 followers on Facebook. Our website has a lot of information out there so go and check it out. Chuck praised WZBG for their constant support of our charitable efforts.
Rotary Foundation and Paul Harris Award: We are going to set the end of March as our goal to finish up the donation drive. We have a committee that comes up with names of people who are deserving of a Paul Harris award. If you know someone who should receive the award, please forward the names to Bob Doyle. To be eligible to receive a grant, we need to have 100% participation to be eligible for a grant.
Earth Day: April 29th 9-12. Rob Vanwyck will get the activity shed reserved and insurance taken care of.
Food Drive: a huge success this year with a special thank you to Stop and Shop! The food was distributed to Litchfield Food Bank, Morris Food Bank and Friendly Hands Food Bank. It was written up in the Litchfield paper, Litchfield.bz. We have received a thank you letter for the town of Morris and Friendly Hands.
Greenway: Phase 2 of the Greenway was completed last summer. They are fundraising for phase 3 currently. Phase 3 includes a bridge that needs to be built. They received a grant from the Connecticut Community Foundation and have applied to other places for grants. Much of the engineering work has been done and are awaiting funds. Clifford is looking for volunteers to be on the Greenway Committee. Please contact Clifford.
Interact/RYLA: RYLA is the first Saturday in June and Rob Vanwyck will contact the schools for applicants. We will add Forman this year. You do not need to be an Interact Student to attend RYLA.
Red Cross: next set up/breakdown is 1/31/17. We need volunteers for set up and breakdown.
Salvation Army: the total was $13,786.27 collected which is down from last year. Reasons for the reduction can be attributed to weather. Thomaston lost their kettle representative but still raised in excess of $2,000. Bob Kluge helped pick up Bethlehem as a new location. These donations have helped fill the pantry closets as well.
youth Exchange Picnic: 6/1/17. Teresa would like all Rotarians to attend if possible
Education Foundation: Litchfield Morris just received $5,000 and Morris received $1,200.00. We have enough in our Foundation operating accounts to cover the scholarships. We are all set until April.

Coming Attractions:

01/19/17 Club Meeting, Speaker is Paul Colbern speaking about Black Bears in CT
1/31/17: Red Cross blood drive @ Litchfield Community Center—Set up and breakdown
02/02/17 Club Meeting, Speaker is Paul McLaughlin speaking about LABA
02/08/17 Pre-PETS and Mid Year Presidents’ Meeting @ Enfield Holiday Inn, Enfield CT
02/28/17 Grant Management Webinar 7:00pm-8:00 pm via gotowebinar
03/02/17 Club Meeting, Speaker is Kym Crown speaking about Reactive Attachment Disorder
03/16/17 Club Meeting, Speaker is Ben Rosenberg speaking about Reverse Mortgages
04/04/17 Red Cross Blood Drive @ Litchfield Community Center—Set up and breakdown
04/06/17 Club Assembly
04/20/16 Club Meeting
04/28/17– 04/30/17 Rotary Conference In Providence Rhode Island
04/29/17 Earth Day—Rob Vanwyck committee chair
05/04/17 Club Meeting
05/10/17 District 7890 Training Assembly 7:30 am—1:45 pm, Holiday Inn Enfield CT
05/19/17 Golf Tournament (no club meeting 05/18/17)
05/30/17 Blood Drive @ Litchfield Community Center—Set up and breakdown
06/01/17 Youth Exchange Picnic (no daytime club meeting)
06/10/17—06/14/17 Rotary International Conference in Atlanta, GA
06/15/17 Installation Dinner (no daytime club meeting 06/15/17), location TBD
***Rotary Executive Board meeting dates are being rescheduled. Stay tuned!

The Rotary Club
of Litchfield-Morris
Service Above Self
Since 1978
PO Box 273
Litchfield, CT 06759
Visit our ClubRunner page: http://portal.clubrunner.ca/6924