Naugatuck Rotary - Naugatuck Rotary Newsletter

Sergeant at Arms Duncan Stephens fined Rupi Rupwani and John Ford for sleeping at the conference last weekend; John Aresta for keeping wild animals (foxes); Jeanine LeVasseur for almost running over the competition in the parking lot (John Roman). John Roman then had a happy dollar that she missed him.

Announcements & Information

Milt sent around the sign up sheet for the Memorial Day Parade. Rebecca Zandvliet is taking orders for shirts with the logo - $20.00. Exchange Study Group from Guatemala is going to Seven Angels Theater tomorrow night – still a couple of tickets left. Duck tickets are on sale – please help sell them.

Food Bank

This being the first Wednesday of the month, a basket was distributed to members to collect monies for the Food Bank. $141.00 was collected….thank you to all.

Guests

Carol Beebe, Ruth Hagin, Lois Gerber, and Tim Walsh.

Students

Alyssa Colbert

Visiting Rotarians

Group Study Exchange Members from Guatemala – Clemen, Ana, Veronica, Lulus,Roberta Massey, Ron Webb, T.S. Anand from India.

Upcoming Speakers
5/13      Brian Barrett
5/20      Anne Butler
5/27      Jeff Chipokas
6/3       Mary Connolly
6/10      Peggy Dufresne
6/17      Barbara Csanka/Richards
6/24     Annual Meeting
7/1        Joe DaSilva
7/8        Ray Dowling
7/15      Geoff Drawbridge
7/22      Deb Corso
7/29      Club Assembly

Birthdays and Anniversaries

Mike Steir - May 9th

Membership Anniversaries

Brian Barrett – 5/1/82

Tony Purcaro – 5/3/89

Peggy Dufresne – 5/10/06

Duncan Stephens – 5/1/86

Our Speakers Today

John Aresta, the speaker host, introduced the members of the Group Study Exchange to make a presentation on Guatemala and their roles. The first speaker was Clemen (Clem) who is in charge of the GSE to the USA. She showed us some slides of her house and land. Clem has been volunteering for the past 49 years in different capacities. She has volunteered for a hospital, runs a clinic where x-rays and other services are performed and currently is in charge of the wheelchair program. She spoke of her experience here and thought that the best thing was actually living with the families here. She thought it was great that they shared their lives with the group and that she will never forget.

Lulus then showed slides of her family and spoke very briefly. She is married with two children and works in a burn clinic.

The next speaker was Veronica. Veronica is not originally from Guatemala so she has only a few relatives. She showed slides of her family. She works for a company that does market surveys. She is very thankful for the opportunity to visit America and will be married in November.

The last speaker was Ana. Ana has a 13 year old son, two brothers and her mother. She has worked in the family business which is advertising. In addition she owned her own floral business for 9 years. She works part time for KLM and has had the opportunity to travel to places like Hong Kong and Greece. She likes the outdoors, beach and horseback riding.

Ana showed many slides about Guatemala. She volunteers in a clinic. Clinics are not supported by the government so they look to help from private sectors. Their country has a very diverse population – the very wealthy and the very poor. 50% of the families live in one room; 50% have no electricity. What this means is everything goes on in one room – sleeping and cooking included. Since there is no electricity, the cooking is done with large pots on an open fire pit. Because of this many of the children experience burns from soups, liquids splashing, to actually falling into the pot.

Their burn clinic is small and inadequate – they can only handle 15 patients/day. They are in great need of physical therapy equipment, beds, ventilators, air conditioners, just to name a few. They need an ICU area for the more serious burns. They need operating rooms. As it stands now they use the O.R. of the local hospital but can only use it on Tuesdays and Thursday from 3 pm – 5pm and with burn victims time is of the essence. The team is working relentlessly to raise funds to support this worthwhile cause.

Absent Members Today

Barbara Csanka, Jose DaSilva, Peggy Dufresne, Jonathan Farmer, Cathie Mauritz, Tony Purcaro, Michael Steir, Debbie Wheelahan, Laurie Yelding

Upcoming Club Events

Memorial Day Parade, Monday May 25th

Annual Meeting, June 24th at The Waterbury Club

Happening Around the District and RI

May 15, 2009 GSE Farewell Brunch/Memo of Club visit due to DG

June 21 - 24 2009 International Convention, Birmingham, England

AREA CLUBS FOR MAKEUP AND INFORMATION LINKS

Silvermine Tavern - Norwalk - Monday 12:15 pm

The Inn at Newtown - Newtown - Monday 6:15pm

John J Sullivan's Restaurant - Ansonia - Tuesday 12:15 pm