President Robert Bull welcomed everyone to our January 7^th Meeting.  The first official Club meeting of the year.  As you know, we had a New Year’s Day meeting on January 1^st.and details of that meeting are in the Rote that was distributed a few days ago.  We  I hope that everyone read the Rote and we wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year.

 

Karen Lapekas led us with the invocation and Noreen Timoney recited the Pledge of Allegiance. Robert then wished everyone a Happy New Year! Goodbye 2020 and Welcome 2021.  He then wished all beer drinkers a Happy New Beer and proceeded to open a can of Heineken.

 

Announcements:

 

For birthdays and anniversaries, today was Norby Rudel’s birthday.  Happy Birthday, Norby.  Next week is Bunny Uriarte’s Rotary Anniversary.  Congratulations to both of you.

 

Phil Seipp updated us on the GBI Rx project.  We are raising funds and have received donations from several Members, and donations from many individuals and other Rotary Clubs. It looks like we will exceed our goal of raising $100,000 that with our match and having exceeded our goal will probably reach near to $250,000.

 

Today we had a virtual banner exchange with the Rotary Club of Warburg, Germany.  Our Club appreciates the regular attendance of our Distinguished Visiting Rotarians, Jens Neumann and Charlotte Gormsen.  Jens Neumann said a few words thanking our Club and giving us some information of their hometown Warburg, Germany.  Warburg was established over 1,000 years ago and it is a beautiful small city with amazing architectural sights.

 

We then proceeded to discuss the recent Griffitts Award, of the Outstanding Police Officer of the Year.  Our own Spielberg, Jay Almeida, showed two videos about this this event than even included granting a Paul Harris Award to a Police Patrol dog, Kano.  After the video, Robert talked about the beginning of the Griffitts Award when Dr. Griffitts donated $50,000 to the Rotary Club of Miami Foundation for this cause. 

 

We followed up recognizing a former Member of the Club, Richard Pagliarulo, who unfortunately passed away a year ago.  We saw the official Club Roster of 2002 -2003, which clearly stated that he was the 2013^th Member of our Club.  For personal reasons he had to give up his Membership, but remained a Rotarian.  He had a Wooden Plaque of the Four-Way Test in his kitchen and lived his life according to the Four Way Test. Richard left a gift from his estate for the Rotary Club of Miami Foundation of nearly $50,000 to be used for Educational Purposes in Honor of his Friend, Leo Carreño.  Both gentlemen were bankers.  Talking about bankers, David McManus was a dear friend of Richard and he told us a bit about Richard.

 

Please consider the examples of Thomas Brown McClelland, Dr. Griffitts, Grace & John DeLury and now, Richard Pagliarulo.  They created a legacy through the Club’s Foundation. Anyone may create their own Charitable Legacy to honor a loved or memorialize their own name. There are so many options for charity: educational, athletic, planting trees, feeding the poor and the list goes on. 

 

You know our Club and the good works we do.  You know that the funds are managed carefully and are held with Northern Trust.  Setting up your own charitable legacy is easy.  You may consider a tax-deductible outright gift; include a gift in your will or life insurance.  If you are 70½ you may use a Qualified Charitable Distribution from your IRA.  Image a $25,000 Charitable Legacy could provide an annual $1,000 scholarship for an indefinite period.

 

Other charitable tax-deductible ideas are The Rotary Foundation. Rotary’s goal amongst the Membership is for Every Rotarian to contribute Every Year.  EREY. 

Water and Sanitation is one of Rotary’s Areas of Focus.  Access to clean water, which to in the USA, we take for granted, but in other countries that may not be the case.  Thousands of children needless die every year due to lack of clean water.  Rotary is addressing this issue.

 

Every year our District conducts a Golf Ball Drop event.  Each golf ball costs $25 and on the day of the Golf Ball drop at the Biltmore Golf Course a helicopter will fly over and drop all of the purchased golf balls.  The ones nearest the pin win.  You may get your golf balls from Robbin Shelley.  You may also let us know later in the meeting during Happy Dollars.

 

Noreen Timoney updated us on the Community Service Committee activities.  We have a Tree Planting project with Million Trees Miami.  You may dedicate a tree for just $10 or multiples of two tree for $18.  We will be sending out Certificate to those who dedicate a tree.  The Community Service Committee is holding its regular fortnightly meetings.

 

We are competing is an ESRAG #IFixthePlanet video competition.

 

We welcomed Agathe Padovani as our newest Member.  Diane Landsberg the honor of conducting the installation ceremony.  Agathe used to live in California and now lives in Miami Beach.  She is a photographer/videographer and loves yoga.  Welcome to our Club!.

 

Happy Dollars were donated by several Happy Club Members.  Many were Happy for the New Year, several congratulated Norby Rudel on his birthday and Randy Lichtman just celebrated a wedding anniversary milestone.  Happy Dollars were received from: Marcia Brod (who received a new car), Robert Bull, Diane Landsberg (happy because we have a new Member), Robin Shelley, Phil Seipp, Oliver Ruiz, David McManus, Priscilla Dames, Norby Rudel (who gave one dollar for every year of his birthday – sixty-nine dollars), Agathe Padovani (happy to have joined our Club), Randy Lichtman for his wedding anniversary and Ada Dana who was happy to be a Member of our Club.

 

After Happy Dollars, Robert played a Latin version (by Salsa Celtica) of that famous New Year’s Eve Song, Auld Lang Sine that was originally written by the famous Scottish poet, Robert Burns.

 

The Four-Way Test was led by David McManus, and then President Robert Bull ran the Rotary bell to end the meeting at 1:33 PM.