Month: October 2016

This morning five intrepid members of our Club braved the cool early morning temperatures to help with our semiannual litter pick-up as our participation the the PENNDOT’s Adopt-A-Highway effort.

Mark, Augie, Irv, Ira and Dick each donned their gloves and undersized orange vests, grabbed a handful of large plastic trash bags and began their trek along Yardley-Langhorne Road collecting discarded soft drink and Jim Beam bottles, plastic cups, soda and beer cans, newspapers, plastic shopping bags, countless cigarette butts, pieces of disintegrating Styrofoam, bottle caps and even a large bag of soiled diapers (YUK!).

Their efforts were spurred on by Lou who, as usual, arrived as they were getting “suited up” with fresh coffee, fruit and warm bagels for the troops.  THANKS!

Our next litter patrol will be scheduled in late April or early May.

 

 

 

Once again our Club’s members purchased, prepared and served dinner to the patients and guests at Hope Lodge which offers lodging at no cost for cancer patients being treated in the Philadelphia area as well as free shuttle transportation to Fox Chase Cancer Center, Temple/Jeanes Hospital, Thomas Jefferson  University Hospital, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Abramson Cancer center (Perelamn Center of Advanced Medicine), Pennsylvania Hospital and Wills Eye Hospital.

This evening’s dinner was highlighted by a birthday party for one of the patients and another celebrating his 23rd wedding anniversary.  Club member, Ed Carne, held his regular “Trivia” contest, in which gold silver dollars were handed out to the first person answering questions on a variety of subjects ranging from presidents to geography to classic movie films.

Among those participating were

Alan Agree, the Club’s coordinator for its quarterly visits

Stan Cohen (slicing bread), Dolly Sokol, Debbie Cohen and Marsha Fineberg

Marty Fineberg

Irv Perlstein, Ed Carne and Debbie Newbert (wife of president and photographer, Dick)

Current and past members of our Rotary Club gathered this past Wednesday at the Black Bass Inn in Lumberville

where the scenic shores of the Delaware River and Old Glory

served as an appropriate backdrop.

With valet parking and an open bar, many past and present members had a chance to spend some time getting reacquainted.

Before beginning with our regular opening ceremonies, Club president, Dick Newbert asked that we remember both those former members who have passed away

Anthony Anella

Mike DiMeo

Burt Forman

Dottie Gelenberg

Mel Gelenberg

Joan Gilbert

Ken Magnani

Robert Pfeilsticker

Maurice Sokol

Jim Stravos

Joseph Wiess

as well as the immediate family members of past and current members who have also left us all too soon.

Charles Agree

David Redington

Linda Edelman

Linda Sokol

Margaret Carne Hagan

Nora Magnani

Roseann Garcia

Sonny Lenzner

Major Jud Laidlaw of the Salvation Army, whose annual Bell Ringing campaign the Club supports offered an invocation.

Running on a nearby television was a pictorial history of the Club’s many fund-raising activities and community service projects.  Since its founding the Rotary Club of Shady Brook has donated over $125,000 for a wide variety of charity and needy causes and people as well as having made some $25,000 of in-kind contributions and volunteered over 7,500 hours to a variety of community and other causes.

During what was a not-to-be-missed meal,

several of the Club’s founders related some history and anecdotes on the organization’s early years.

Bob Morris – First President

David Lenzner

Arnie Weinstein 

Ed Carne

Fred Edelman, who had the inspiration for and was the driving force behind this wonderful reunion made a poignant champagne toast, again recalling the Club’s and looking forward to what we hope to accomplish in the future

Dick Newbert then presented the Club with congratulatory letters and plaques he had received from:

John F. Germ – President of Rotary International

Frank Farry – Pennsylvania State House Proclamation

Robert Tomlinson – Pennsylvania State Senate Proclamation

Tom Wolf – Governor of Pennsylvania

Mike Fitzpatrick – 8^th District Congressman

Pat Toomey – U.S. Senator

Robert P. Casey – U.S. Senator

Joe Bartorilla – Middletown Police Chief

Board of Supervisors – Middletown, PA

President Jimmy Carter

President George H.W. Bush

The founders of the Club were recognized

Bob Morris (President)

Arnie Weinstein (President-elect)

Ed Carne (Vice President)

David Lenzner (Secretary)

Henry Garcia (Treasurer)

Mel Gelenberg (Sergeant At Arms)

Michael DiMeo (Board Member)

Pete Espinosa (Board Member)

Ken Magnani (Board Member)

Augie Audrid

Bruce Barsky

Jerry Brodie

Som Dev

Jerry Epstein

Arthur Finkle

Dottie Gelenberg

Maxine Goldblum

Stuart Goldblum

Alan Golombek

Charles Hinton

Jane Kleibert

Phil Kolman

Paul McCool

Lew Morein

Irv Perlstein

Wendy Perlstein

Bob Pfeilsticker

Joel Portnoff

Helen Powell

Irv Schatzberg

Charlie Shestack

Mike Sirover

Maurice “Mo” Sokol

Frank Start

Dessy Stoumpas

Joe Stracci

Those in attendance, Bob Morris, Arnie Weinstein, Henry Garcia, Irv Perlstein, Wendy Perlstein, David Lenzner, Ed Carne, Arthur Finkle (partially hidden) and Augie Audrid,

As were the Club’s past and current presidents.

Dick Newbert (2016-17),  Ed Carne (2008-09),  Bob Morris (2006-08),  Fred Edelman (2009-10),  Augie Audrid (2010-11),  Mark Nath (2011-12),  Alan Agree (2014-16),  Irv Perlstein (2013-14)  and Henry Garcia (2012-13)

 A presentation was made to Stan Cohen as the first of what we hope will be a number of former members rejoining a reinvigorated Rotary Club.

New members Alex Van Dyke and Heather Estes were officially welcomed by Dick Newbert.

Finally, before closing, a special tribute was paid to Fred Edelman, without whose hard work, this celebration would not have occurred.

Our Club has good cause to be proud of all that it has accomplished, with some of the beneficiaries of our funds, in-kind donations and volunteer time are; the Guardians of the National Cemetery in Washington Crossing, Pediatric Section of St. Mary Medical Center Emergency Department, Alex’s Lemonade, Angel Flight East, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, American Red Cross, Ovarian and Prostate Cancer, local food banks, ADAH Awareness, Children’s Hospital (CHOP), Juvenile Diabetes Foundation,  Operation Warm, Susan G. Korman for the Cure, the Salvation Army, Philadelphia’s inner-city William Dick School, Astra Zeneca’s Hope Lodge, Parkinson Foundation, Chris Jones Memorial Fund, funding of a fresh drinking water well project in a remote Philippine village, Haitian Earthquake Relief, Baton Rouge Flood Relief, Typhoon Hayian Relief in the Philippines, PENNDOT’s Adopt-A-Highway, in-kind donations for many deployed Servicemen and women as well as for Veterans’ hospitals, driving seniors to the polls on election day … and also award scholarship monies to a local Maple Point Middle Students-of-the-Month and a Neshaminy Student-of-the-Year.

In the wake of the destructive floods which ravaged the Baton Route area last month, the Club, with the assistance of and recommendations from the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge and its president, Robert Levy, donated $1,000 to the Baton Rouge Area Foundation.

Many members of the Club as well as several of their family members participated in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s annual Light the Night charity walk which was again held in Doylestown’s Central Park.

This year the Club raised just shy of $10,000 to help fight and discoer new cures for these devastating diseases.

The Club was again pleased to present Bob Craven with a check in the the amount of $3,000 from the proceeds of its annual charity golf outing held this past June.

Dick Newbert (president), Bob Craven (Guardians), Alan Agree  (past president) and Irv Perlstein (golf outing chairperson)

In addition to financial support, members of the Club regularly assist the Guardians with their Wreaths Across America and other projects.