New Club member, Christian Allyn, shared his “bio” with members present at the 3/7 luncheon meeting, chaired by past Club President, Randy Chapell.  Noting his family’s long history in Canaan, and his ancestral roots from Lithuania, Christian summarized how his interests growing up led to getting involved with FFA @ HVRHS, attending UConn, his life of community service in Canaan & the NW Corner, his career and business dealing with invasive species (Invasive Plant Solutions) and a more recent involvement with Waterbury’s large Lithuanian community.  FMI:
www.nomoreincasiveplants.com

The Salisbury Rotary Club’s 2/14 luncheon was a Business Meeting conducted by Past Club President and current District Governor Randy Chapell.  The club also inducted and welcomed Alex Collins, employed by Salisbury Bank & Trust Co., as a new member.  DG Chapell conducted the induction ceremony, assisted by another Past Club President, John Hedbavny.  WELCOME to Alex!  Club President Bill Spalding provided red flowers to all attending; Happy Valentine’s Day to all! 

The January 24 luncheon meeting of the Salisbury Rotary Club was conducted by Peter Fitting as Club President Bill Spalding was in Mexico visiting the Tulum Rotary Club with which the SRC has partnered with on several past projects.  Members present discussed plans to resume one of the Club’s major fundraisers, the Kentucky Derby Social, not held in recent years due to COVID.  The Silent & Live Auction will be held at Noble Horizons on Saturday, May 6, to raise money for the Club to sponsor local scholarships, support local non-profits, and other “good works.”  Mark your calendar now for this fun event!

Salisbury Rotary Club members, spouses & other guests, came together for a wonderful holiday buffet luncheon at Noble Horizons. In addition to a fun program of Christmas trivia organized by member Duane Estes,  Club President Bill Spalding inducted Christian Allyn (Canaan) as a new member, shown here with DG Randy Chapell as his sponsor.

Members of the Salisbury Rotary Club arrived at Noble Horizons for its weekly luncheon meeting with bags of non-perishable food items for local food banks, along with baked goods, wine and other tasty goodies for its annual Food Auction to raise money for the Club’s “good works” locally and internationally.  The meeting also served to induct Leo Nadeau of Salisbury as a new member.  Leo’s diverse background includes being an artist, photographer, lecturer, podcast host and producer of documentary films, all under the umbrella of Steel Wood Media.

The Salisbury Rotary Club had 40+ members and guests join a dinner evening meeting at the Canaan Country Club last Tuesday.  Club President Bill Spalding presented Housy High School Senior Mackenzie Casey a $200 check to help make her Senior Capstone Project possible, providing recovery health packets to clef pallet surgery patients. Accepting the check, Mackensie spoke about the project and her plans for college, as she thanked the Rotary Club for its support. And then, the BIG DRAWING—the Club’s $10,000 cash raffle drawing was held and the winner, a local woman from Lakeville who asked to remain anonymous, was selected the winner!  She indicated she will use the money to pay college tuition.  The raffle raised money for the club’s local scholarship program and other “good works” programs locally and internationally.

Members of the Salisbury Rotary Club selling tickets for its $10,000 raffle outside Lavonne’s Market. There is still time to get one @ $10 or 3@$25 before the November 1st drawing to be held at the Belted Cow, 5-7PM in Canaan.  All proceeds beyond the $10K go to support local scholarships and local community organizations. FMI: www.salisburyctrotary.org

October 8th was a beautiful day in Salisbury CT and a great turnout for Fall Festival with a good presence by the Salisbury Rotary Club.

Salisbury Rotary Club President Bill Spalding inducted Rudiger “Rudy” Stoer as a new club member at the 9/6 luncheon meeting.

Dan Bolognani, executive Director of the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area, was the Salisbury Rotary Club’s program speaker at the 8/23 weekly luncheon.  Under the umbrella of the National Park Service, the local non-profit org is a great local resource with information, history, efforts to conserve the area’s heritage and offering programs pertaining to our unique NE region.  A new effort, and one partnering with Rotary District 7890 clubs that include Salisbury Rotary, is Operation Pollination.  Noting that healthy ecosystems rely on pollinators, District Rotary clubs will work with Housatonic Heritage to support pollinators in the area to protect and their health and habitats. FMI: https://housatonicheritage.org/ 

Salisbury Rotary Club (SRC) members attending the 8/9 luncheon meeting heard two presentations. The first, Joseph Brennan of Canaan, was one of six recent Housatonic Valley Regional HS graduating Seniors who received a SRC scholarship. In expressing his appreciation to the Club, he indicated he will be using it to attend Seton Hall University (NJ), majoring in Diplomacy & Foreign Policy.  Next, Aline Libassi, serving her third term as President of the Talum Rotary Club in Talum, Mexico, spoke of the many programs and projects of their small club of only thirteen members.  Noting there are two Talums, one being the tourist destination with its beaches and expensive hotels & resorts, and the other being characterized by poverty and many needs, she shared their Rotary Club’s diversity of programs to help the “2nd Talum,”ranging from providing water fountains in the school for the children to have potable water, healthcare for diabetics, getting computers for students, restoring the sea turtle population, to programs addressing violence in relationships and healthcare information on maturation to developing teenage girls, and more! The Salisbury Rotary Club has financially supported getting water fountains and computers for the schools.  Aline, dividing her time between living in Talum and Falls Village, has been a SRC program speaker before and worked with the SRC in 2019 on the Murder Mystery Dinner Theater fundraiser production at Noble Horizons, to raise money for the water fountains. FMI:  https://www.tulumrotary.org/events-1

 

 

 

 

Saturday night, July 30th, 2022 was Rotary District 7890-Night at Hartford’s Dunkin’ Donuts Park and Salisbury Rotary Club member, Past Club President and current District Governor Randy Chapell threw out the first pitch and spoke to the sellout crowd of 7000 about Rotary International’s world-wide success in its continuing work to eradicate polio.

Members of the Salisbury Rotary Club attended Noble Horizons’ BBQ picnic dinner for the community & its residents, in lieu of its weekly 7/12 luncheon, to show its support of Noble’s 50th Anniversary.  A nice and enthusiastic mix of Noble residents and local residents enjoyed a wonderful chicken BBQ dinner prepared by the Firehouse, complete with baked beans, cole slaw, potato salad, rolls, cake and beverages. Great entertainment was provided by the Salisbury Band, in its 94th year (established in 1928!) of spirited concert and parade music.

With many Salisbury Rotarians collecting money at the Infield & at the Outfield, others selling raffle tickets in the crowd, and others trouble-shooting and coordinating on foot and by golf cart, it was quite a display in the air and a successful fundraiser for the club to raise money for local scholarships and support for local non-profits and international “good works.”
     MANY THANKS to all of our sponsors:
Lakeville Hose Company #1
Litchfield Bancorp - A Division of Northwest Community Bank
Stateline Car Wash
National Iron Bank
NAPA- North Canaan
Lime Rock Park
Salisbury Bank
Ca Lindell
Lone Oak Campsites - East Canaan CT
Herringtons Lumber

Photos by Peter Fitting.

Members of the Salisbury Rotary Club present last night at the Torrington Country Club for the annual District 7890 installation of the new District Governor and Club Presidents.  Salisbury’s Randy Chapell is District 7890’s DG for ‘22-‘23 and Bill Spalding will lead the Salisbury Club for the coming year.  Not shown, but present also, Inge Dunham.   CONGRATULATIONS!

 

Salisbury Rotary Club member Duane Estes, long-time baseball coach at Salisbury School and with a wealth of knowledge of the history of baseball, spoke to club members present at the 6/14 luncheon meeting on David Halberstram’s 1977 best seller, October 1964.  The book looks at the 1964 World Series with the aging NY Yankees vs the up-and-coming St. Louis Cardinals, and does so in the context of the societal changes of the times, primarily with regard to race relations, integration of Major League Baseball and differences between the American & National Leagues regarding their levels of having Black players.  He cited many examples and stories involving greats like the Cardinals’ Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Curt Flood and Yankee Elston Howard.  The book chronicles the important interplay between sports, in this case baseball, and society.  The Cardinals won the ‘64 Series, 4-3, ending the Yankees’ dynasty since 1949.

 

 

 

Karen Grodell, Scoville Memorial Library’s new director since December 2021, was the 5/31 featured program speaker at Salisbury Rotary’s weekly luncheon at Noble Horizons. Coming to Salisbury after fourteen years directing the Beardsley Library in Winsted, she shared that she was ready for a change and applied when she learned of the opening and is happy to be here. Noting that SML was established in 1895, making it the oldest publicly funded library in the US, the Library as we know it today grew from two historic libraries, one of which received town tax dollars in 1810.  She reviewed the more recent history of how, during the COVID years, services became more remote, digital and hybrid offerings, much of which continues today, though there is still a major interest in and demand for readers to have and hold real books! FMI: 

Bill Spalding, current President of Habitat for Humanity of NW CT and President Elect of the Salisbury Rotary Club, spoke to SRC members attending the 5/25 weekly luncheon at Noble Horizons.  Sharing first the history of the National parent organization, he then noted that, since 1991, the local affiliate has been helping families achieve strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter in our NW Corner communities of Canaan/Falls Village, Cornwall, Norfolk, North Canaan, Salisbury and Sharon. Now, they are reaching into Torrington and will begin building a home there, its first. The not-for-profit org works with volunteers to promote home ownership by building houses in partnership with families who are priced out of the local housing market.  FMI:  https://www.habitatnwct.org/2016/07/25th/

Richard Tennyson, the club’s newest member, shared a bit of his autobiography with those attending the 5/10 luncheon meeting at Noble Horizons. Born and raised north of London in Ware, he has worked and traveled extensively throughout the world.  Married and with two grown children, his current work in telecommunications allows him to live pretty much anywhere and, having lived already in so many places, he chose Salisbury CT and is very happy with the decision.  He describes his interests as “anything that creates adrenaline to flow” (he’s tried sky diving!) and he is a classic car enthusiast.  He is a former member of the UK Roundtable, a civic service club, similar to Rotary.

    Returning to in-person luncheon meetings at Noble Horizons, Club mambers heard Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation’s executive director, Peter Taylor, speak to the members present and attending remotely via ZOOM.  Noting that BTCF was established in 1987 and manages over 550 funds valued at 225M$, with the goal of strengthening the communities served through philanthropy and leadership. Located in Sheffield MA, the Foundation distributes grants in Litchfield, Berkshire, Columbia and northern Duchess counties. He highlighted several NW Corner programs supported by BCTF, including the Jane Lloyd Fund and the Margaret Derwin Scholarship at HVRHS.  FMI:

 

At the District Foundation Brunch, on behalf of the Salisbury Club, Bill Spalding accepted the Rotary Citation for the year 2019-2020. This award is given to clubs that successfully accomplish a specified number of goals that were set at the beginning of the Rotary year. Presenting the award is Area 8 Assistant Governor, Heather Pantano.

Salisbury Rotary Club’s 8/31 program speaker was Amanda Freund, third generation of Freund Family owners of East Canaan’s Freund Family Market & Bakery.  She shared the history of the family-owned business, started by her grandparents in 1949 with six cows, telling how it has evolved from a roadside stand with a basket of sweet corn for $.50/ear to today’s farm market, bakery, garden center and catering business sitting in the middle of the family’s dairy farm. The operation was incorporated in the late 1980s as it transferred to the next generation. Looking for ways to be more than a seasonal business led to the creative use of the 100lbs of cow manure generated daily by their 350 cows and the creation twenty years ago of Cow Pots, and becoming the longest continuous methane digest operation in US today. They now ship nationally and internationally and feature 14 different Cow Pot sizes.  Cow Pots now fill a market demand for environmental products that are made from recycling waste material into a useful item that itself can be recycled and current research and development efforts are underway to create additional new recycled products.  FMI: 

 

      

 

 

The Salisbury club, in partnership with Lime Rock Park, held the annual Independence Day celebration fireworks event on July 5th after weather forced a postponement of the original July 3rd date. This event is a major fund raiser for the club and proceeds benefit local scholarships and community programs. The event, featuring approximately 500 aerial fireworks were launched by Legion Fireworks Company Inc. based in Wappingers Falls, NY.

 

 

 

 

In an effort to assist those most in need during the current pandemic, the Salisbury club donated $5,000 to Sharon Hospital for PPE equipment and medical supplies. The club also donated cash and food totaling over $10,000 to: The Corner Food Pantry in Lakeville, Fishes and Loaves Food Pantry in Canaan and The Cornwall Food and Fuel Fund in Cornwall. Members of the club purchased food locally and on-line and delivered the items to the local food pantries.

 

 

Lance and Ann Beizer were each recently awarded a Rotary International Paul Harris +8 pin. Paul Harris award is a prestigious award given to those who have donated $1,000 to The Rotary Foundation (TRF). Each successive $1,000 results in a Paul Harris plus (+) pin. Lance and Ann's award means they have donated $9,000 to TRF. Rotary International, through TRF, has donated over $4 billion dollars on life changing, sustainable projects throughout the world.