Michael Mezheritskiy, President-Elect filled in for President Don Bonner, who was away at the farm.
 

Salin Low thanked everyone for helping at the Seniors Luncheon yesterday. In addition to the local seniors group, clients from Cherry Brook Health Care Center will included this year. Salin said she would miss next week while she was away in NY.

 

Bob Cole has a family gathering coming up in Atlantic City. His son just returned from Thailand and would be joining them.

 

Phil Ferrari missed last week's meeting to an important business meeting in Bermuda. He also had a chance to play golf at Wing Foot.

 

Rollie Sterrett was the host to 20 family members on the Cape in Chatham with 9 of his grandchildren.

 

Larry Haber just returned from a business trip to Long Beach, CA, where he stayed on the Queen Mary.

 

Peter Vignati recently reconnected with a friend whom he hadn't seen in a year. He last visited his friend at Gaylord where the friend was recovering from a stroke. After nearly a year, the friend is much better, but still using a wheelchair. Peter and Susanne are heading to Scotland using the new Norwegian Air direct flight from Hartford to Edinburgh.

 

Capri Frank was sitting at a different table this morning and suggested that other members moving around occasionally. 

 

Joanne Santiago had a "Capri" dollar this morning to remark on all the happy miracles that we hear about.

 

Sue Budde used her "Capri" dollar to say that she like sitting with the same friends every meeting.

 

Gary Miller remarked that he had a great family vacation in Sandbridge, VA, last week with about 50 of Debbie's family and cousins and grandchildren.  The main house was right on the Atlantic beach.

 

Kathleen Parr had a great visit with her aunt who is a Rotary of 22 years.  The visited the Torrington Club for lunch.  She suggested that other members visit clubs in our area to see what those clubs are doing and promote our golf tournament.  She passed around a list of club meeting dates and times.

 

Larry Sullivan said his youngest daughter was getting married soon. If they all survive the festivities, he would be back to continue plugging the golf tournament.

 

 

Nancy Nation said the she and Craig would once again be hosting the Pencil Box party at their home on Thursday, August 24th.  Nancy also reminded everyone to make sure they resell all the golf tee signs from previous tournaments.

 

Larry Sullivan was happy to say that the golf tournament was going well. He reiterated Nancy's comment regarding ensuring that all the golf repeats from the last 2 years are taken care of.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ed Queirolo introduced our speaker, Susan Pribyson.  Susan is the Executive Director for Gifts of Love and Farms to Family.

 

Susan reminded us that she had been a guest of the club about 8 years ago. She loves the positive energy at our club meetings because it reminds her of the same energy exhibited by the volunteers and staff at Gifts of Love and the Community Farm of Simsbury. Gifts of Love and the Farm have ten employees who are mostly part-time plus over 100 volunteers. The volunteers are the heart of the operation.

 

Gifts of Love grew from a neighbors helping neighbors small operation. GOL is now a 501(c)(3) charity which benefits the working poor, who are not on any state assistance.  Anyone who lives in the Farmington Valley and qualifies can use the services without a referral from another agency. Client families receive a services for up to 12 months.  Services include shopping for clothes and food which includes fresh produce from the Community Farm and Fresh Market.  Foods in the GOL store are color coded red, yellow and green, following the SWAP scheme for designating healthy choices versus less healthy ones.  Volunteers accompany clients during their shopping to offer coaching as necesssary.

 

 After six months clients can also receive furniture--beds, tables and chairs. Furniture donations can be picked up and are coordinated with a delivery to a recipient client.

 

Gifts of Love also assembles 250 backpacks containing about 9 pounds of food for needy students at local participating schools.  The backpacks are distributed directly to the students to provide healthy meals over the weekend.  Schools do all the screening of students through the Free and Reduce Lunch program. A need to 300 backpacks has been seen.

 

Gifts of Love merged with the Community Farm in Simsbury three years ago. Since then they have had donation of a green house and other facilities to extend the growning season of fresh produce.

 

Area students participate in classroom program at the Farm to engage them with Hartford students to learn about farming and self-sufficiency. The program follows a STEM curriculum (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).

 

Susan said that they are always looking for more opportunities to work with area stores and businesses.  They also need more volunteers. GOL currently services over 20,000 clients in the Farmington Valley area.

 

Food donations can be delivered directly to the GOL Store.  Furniture will be picked up by their truck.  Susan said that Gifts of Love is a partner with Foodshare and receives food from them at an approximate cost of $1 for $9 worth of food.

 

Two fundraisers are coming up.  A benefit dinner at the Community Farm hosted by Metro Bis will take place on August 9th.  A Benefit Gala the the Marquee in Hartford would be held on November 4th.  Flyers for both events are available under Presentations & References in this newsletter.