Slow Flow of Dollars

On September 8th, ten Rotarians gathered to enjoy a Mexican buffet, salad and cookies. Caroline rose and gave two Sad Dollars in announcing the passing of a nephew who was good and kind, but didn’t find a safe place during this pandemic. Eddie added a Happy Dollar to the basket because he has  baseball cards of two players who were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Lindsey reported that there was a four way tie for the “Makes You Smile” category of the public voting as part of the BAS. She passed out ballots and we voted to break the tie. See the winner of all categories at the end of this newsletter. Bob stood and asked President Tony to pass the gavel. He then went on to propose a fine of one-and-nine on him for “hiding” behind the lectern. Eddie was added on when he didn’t stand when he seconded the motion. Both amendment and major motion passed. 

Since Last We Met

Birthdays

Caroline  Sept. 4th

Paul Haigh  Sept. 2nd

Wedding Anniversaries

Tom and Linda Babic  51 years  Sept. 2nd

On this day in history

1664 New Amsterdam becomes New York

1954 SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization)

Upendo Mmoja Pommerin Updated

President Tony introduced Nicole.

Nicole started by reminding us that Upendo Mmoja is a 39 member nonprofit cooperative in Pommerin, Tanzania. Her work began in 2011 when she traveled to Pommerin as a consultant and the idea of a cooperative was born. The vision included: an 18-bed residential center for orphaned youth; a training facility where the children and community members can receive vocational training;  a small business development for income generation including carpentry and crafts, livestock development, sustainable agriculture and sunflower oil production/sales; and a self-sustaining community development model for neighboring villages to learn and benefit from. For the next ten years, a host of people have worked to achieve the vision. Norwich students traveled to Pommerin to volunteer on a variety of projects while others (architecture students) designed buildings and alumni contributed as well. Local Rotary clubs, District 7850, Norwich Rotaract and Interact participated in either providing funds or volunteers for various projects including the construction of the structures. A major contributor was the Tawani Foundation associated with the Pritzker family of Chicago. Nicole presented a drawing of the master plan and the floor plans of the barn, the kitchen, the craft/workshop and the sunflower oil production/bottling facility. Her presentation was filled with myriad photos of the people involved in the project with the children taking center stage. Nicole warmly and emotionally told wonderful stories of successes of the children as well as the economic accomplishments of the adult community. At the end of her presentation, Nicole announced that an additional $60,000 is needed to complete the project and that she plans to ask Rotary clubs to donate $1000. 

After a brief discussion, Caroline moved and Eddie seconded that the Board of Directors consider donating $1000 to the Upendo Mmoja Project. Motion passed unanimously.

Until next time...that's all folks.