Seán Deneny, Co-Vice President, led the meeting as Aleksandra and James were out of town, and Brian is out on leave for three months. There were several important announcements. First, we wished Paul Cassella a very happy birthday. Paul advised that the customized event tent with our logo had arrived.
Rosane Cassella updated us on the peace pole installations and shared the committee’s preliminary ideas for the upcoming Southampton Fest. Seán said the Southampton Breakers baseball game was a lot of fun despite the fact that our school did not win. Seán also discussed the ad in Patch for the 8K Firecracker Race (a reminder has been sent to all Rotary members). Most of the Rotary items are held in Rob Gil’s storage, which is now at 85% capacity, so we may have to rent a small storage unit locally. Vicki Kahn read thank you notes from the Pak twins for their scholarships. Paul received thank you notes from the Southampton school district for the Rotary scholarships and another from the Rockhill Golf Club (they netted $27,000 for their event in June!). Karen Acker was Sargent, donated $50 to the pot, and picked the winning ticket, though she did not pull the right card. A wonderful presentation was made by East End Food Hub’s Kayla Barthelme; this not-for-profit partners with food pantries, schools and other groups as a conduit to provide locally produced, organic, non perishable produce and seafood to those in need, including local schools via a NYS Produce distribution system among others. Rotary awarded East End Food Hub a $350 check to further their efforts.