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Donate to Reading Rotary via PayPal.  Reading Rotary Charitable Trust is a 501(c) tax exempt organization.  Tax Id 47-7416401.  You may designate the purpose of your donation.
 
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Annalena Bacher and Marlene Dietrich
Feb 24, 2025 6:00 PM
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Caleb McGonagle
Feb 24, 2025 6:00 PM
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Rotary Club of Reading, Massachusetts, USA

Rotarians have fun serving the community.  Join us!

Meeting Schedule (subject to adjustment due to holidays). 
1st Monday Lunch: Bertucci's, 12:15 pm. 
3rd Monday Dinner: Austin Prep, 6 pm.   3rd Monday Board Meeting, 5 pm
 
Home Page Stories
We have exciting news with regard to our Club Succession Planning.  The following members have enthusiastically agreed to take on leadership roles in the upcoming Rotary years.
 
2025-26 Phil Stewart and Amy Walsh, Co-Presidents; President Elect Lisa Simmons
2026-27 Amy Walsh and Lisa Simmons, Co-Presidents; President Elect John Feudo
2027-28 John Feudo, President; President Elect (this could be you)
 
If anyone is interested in assisting with Club leadership, please reach out to President Phil.  In addition, we are always looking for people willing to serve on the board and as chairs of our committees.  So please don't be shy to step forward.
 
Two of the more persistent issues facing Rotary clubs in North America (as well as other volunteer organizations) are (1) declining membership and (2) leadership succession planning.  We are very fortunate to have a solid leadership plan to give out club stability over the next few years.
 
If anyone has any questions, objections or the like, please contact President Phil.
 
Thank you!
As part of the District Competitive Polar Plunge this year, we are going to "Get Movin to End Polio" at the Burbank YMCA in Reading.  
 
Event Date:  Tuesday, Feb. 11
Time:  6:45 to 8 pm
Who can attend:  EVERYONE!  Please bring your friends, spouses, families, neighbors and Interact.
Events:  Novice Zumba, Spin Bikes, Treadmills, Ellipticals, Basketball, Swimming.  
 
We have created a Raise for Rotary fundraiser page for our challenge. Please use and send the link below for people donate on your behalf.  All donations will automatically be sent to The Rotary Foundation and credited to the Club.  Donation Link.
 
Register here to let us know you'll be there.  Contact President Phil with any questions.
 
Please (1) Come on Feb. 11; and (2) Donate and/or spread the word for donations. 
 
If you can't make it to the Burbank Y then, do your own "Plunge" activity another time and place.  We look forward to a fun evening to support one of our core Rotary initiatives.
 
Annalena Bacher will be our meeting speaker on February 24.  Annalena is the Global Grant Scholar that Reading Rotary is hosting.  Annalena hails from Rotary District 1980 in Switzerland and is studying at the Fletcher School of Tufts University.  Annalena will attend our meeting and talk about the Global Grant Scholar program.
 
Annalena has attended our meetings previously and even helped out at the Snack Shack.
 
Please mark your calendar and make every effort to attend this meeting.
We are excited to announce Tim has been elected to be the DGND for District 7930 and will serve as our District Governor 2027-28!  Tim will be the first DG from Reading Rotary.
 
Congratulations Tim!
 
Tim Kelley has been an active member of Reading Rotary since 1994.  He has served as Club President three times, multiple years as Secretary, Board Member and served on many fundraising and service project committees including Reading Rotary Auction, Reading Fall Street Faire, Snack Shack, Rotary Readers Literacy Project and the Circus Committee.  Tim was raised in Reading and practices law here.  He believes Rotary provides uplifting and exciting opportunities to contribute to the local community and beyond.
 
 
Each year Reading Rotary partners with ReadingCares and the Town of Reading to run the Adopt-a-Family project at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The Christmas distribution day was December 19.  These community partners coordinate this long-standing community giving program.  Receiving families are matched anonymously with donor families and/or groups to provide meal and gifts at Christmas and meals at Thanksgiving.  Donors drop off in the first shift, then recipient families pick up their food and gifts during a later shift.
 
This year there was increased demand and 100 families in need and donor families/groups were matched to provide Christmas gifts and holiday meals to these families anonymously.  Reading Rotary’s efforts were coordinated by Rotarian Sasha DiPietro.  Special thanks to Betsy Schneider of ReadingCares and Kerry Valle of Reading’s Elder and Human Services Department for their work in organizing this program.
 
This is a truly inspirational and humbling event to see the community come together to help others.  The generosity of the donors is overwhelming as evidenced by the many smiling faces as well as some tears of thanks.  Reading Rotary is proud of and grateful for its partners ReadingCares and the Town of Reading in this community giving event.  A huge thank you to all the donor families and groups. Their generosity makes this all possible. 
 
 
Each year Reading Rotary partners with ReadingCares and the Town of Reading and many community donors partner to run the Adopt-a-Family project for Thanksgiving and Christmas/Holiday.
 
If you or someone you know needs this help, you are encouraged to apply. Use the QR code or this link:
We have the following dates upcoming for the Snack Shack.  
 
Friday, Oct. 18 (4 signed up -- need at least 6 more);
Thursday, Oct. 24 (2 signed up -- need at least 8 more); and
Friday, Nov. 1 (3 signed up -- need at least 7 more).
 
Here is the Signup Genius link.  
 
Ideally, we need about 10 volunteers to fully staff it, including grilling burgers.  (That number can be doubled if people work half the game.) On our first 2 nights we did not have enough people to pull out the Blackstone and grill burgers.
 
Please sign up for multiple nights.  This is a great Rotary service project and fundraiser.  We cannot continue it if we do not have it staffed.  We also encourage people to bring family and friends to help.  Shout out to Lisa Gibbs, Chris Kowaleski and Mike Collins for bringing family to help so far.  If you have ideas of other people who may like to help us, please ask them and let us know.
 
Also note that there may be additional dates for home games for playoffs.
 
Finally, the Thanksgiving game between Reading and Stoneham will be Tuesday, Nov. 26 at Fenway Park.  So, we do not have Snack Shack duty on Thanksgiving morning.  
 
We do not have anyone who volunteered to oversee this important fundraiser, so if you feel the calling, please contact me, Prez Phil or anyone on the Board.
Our next meeting will be September 16 at 6 pm at Austin Prep.  RCTV is moving from their space and Austin was gracious enough to offer to host us.  Thanks to our Austin members Lisa Simmons, Sue Belanger and Dr. Jim Hickey for welcoming us.
 
We will have a speaker Autumn Hotaling on Walk to End Alzheimer's.  Looking forward to seeing everyone there.
 
We will not meet on September 9 due because of the Reading Fall Street Faire on September 8.  Lunch meeting location is not changing.
 
 
Our major fundraiser and event is coming!  The Reading Fall Street Faire is September 8.  Our RFSF Committee is working in earnest.  Please spread the word to potential vendors and sponsors.  Many of you may have been sponsors.  Prior sponsors should have received an email from Sheila Clarke and Jenn Rogers.  Sponsorship information can be found here
 
Upcoming planning meetings are August 7, 14, 21 and 28 at 5 pm at the Reading Public Library.  All are welcome to attend and become involved.
Our biggest event the Reading Fall Street Faire is this Sunday, September 8.  We are short of volunteers, especially in the Children's Area.  Please reach out to friends and family to help if they can.  It takes so many to make this event run.
 
Here's the volunteer sign up link.  We really need our members and friends to turn out on Sunday.
 
See you all at the Faire!