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Russell Hampton
ClubRunner
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Bulletin Editor
Arnie Goldman
Speakers
Jun 12, 2020
Being a Rotary Scholar
Jun 19, 2020
For All Ages
Jun 26, 2020
Canton Historian
Jul 03, 2020
Jul 10, 2020
President's Installation Dinner
Jul 24, 2020
Mediators Beyond Borders
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Executives & Directors
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President Elect
 
Immediate Past President
 
Treasurer
 
Secretary
 
Sergeant-at-Arms
 
Foundation Chair
 
Membership
 
Board Member-at-Large
 
Board Member-at-Large
 
Asst Treasurer
 
Interact Chair
 
EarlyRiser Presentations
A Promise to Jordan
The Annotated Guide to Ending Polio
Club Information
Rotary of Avon-Canton - Founded 1973
Avon-Canton
Service above Self
We meet Fridays at 7:30 AM
Avon Old Farms Hotel
279 Avon Mountain Rd.
Avon, CT  06001
United States of America
DistrictSiteIcon District Site
VenueMap Venue Map
 
 
January 24, 2020
Debbie Bain
Prism Health Advocates
 
 
 
Sergeant-at-Arms Report
 
Members Present: 35
 
Visiting Rotarians: None  
Guests: Bob Crawford (speaker), Heather Gansel (prospective member), Mary Voorhees, Sue & Steve Mitchell, Paul Pantano
Happy Dollars: $42.00
Raffle Winner: Alicia Canning
 
Fines
None.
 
Birthdays
Ed Querolo celebrated his birthday on January 10th.
Happy Dollars
Kurt Lux was happy to donate $20.00 in recognition of the many meeting's he's had to miss due to work-related travel. He actually took the day off so he could attend this meeting. Next week he will be going to Washington for his company, Source America. His company identifies jobs for people with disabilities, which often involve providing professional cleaning services for government buildings. They have negotiated contracts with many government agencies to provide those services. Learn more at:  http://www.sourceamerica.org/
 
Peter Vignati, is happy his brother John was finally matched with a bone marrow donor. John, who has a form of leukemia, has been accepted into the transplant program at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He has already undergone five rounds of chemotherapy leading up to the pending transplant, and his donor is a "10 point HLA match."
 
So-called, "HLA matching" is used to match patients and donors for blood or marrow transplants.  This matching is much more complicated than common blood typing as there are many more distinct HLA markers. As some HLA types are uncommon, it is often difficult to find a good match but because HLA types are inherited, siblings can sometimes, but not always, be a match for each other. Siblings have just a 25% chance of being a complete match. It is also more likely a patient will match with someone with a similar ethnic background or ancestry. There are rules for the minimum HLA match needed between donor and patient and physicians hope to match 8 to10 HLA markers to maximize success and minimize rejection. Research shows that patients have better outcomes with closely matched donors.
 
Dale Bronson had been ill, but is now doing much better. As Dale's mother had often said: "I'm in pretty good shape, for the shape I'm in."  "Onward and upward", said Dale.
 
Bob Case now owns a house in Collinsville which he is rehabilitating, and is happy he can now say he's from Canton. The house was built in 1830 and Bob hopes to have a Rotary pub night there before he puts it up for sale.
 
Jolly Lux shared photographs of the Ugandan girls who've learned new skills through the efforts of GLO. She also shared blackboard chalk the girls manufactured for the use of teachers in local Ugandan schools. It is a low tech solution to the needs of students and teachers and provides income for the girls involved. Noting her absence from most of the photographs, Jolly stated she is more often behind the scenes and therefore not in the photographs, but she is nevertheless thankful for our support.
 
Calendar of Upcoming Events
2/7: GLO fundraiser at Avon Congregational Church
2/9: GLO fundraiser brunch at West Avon Congregational Church, right after services
2/12: Interact open mic event at the Mapletree Cafe.
2/19: Rotary Pub Night
3/28: Tastes of the Valley tickets available now. $50.00 / regular ticket. $75.00 / VIP ticket, which includes the VIP function 90 minutes ahead of the main event.
9/14: 37th Annual Charity Golf Tournament at the Golf Club of Avon
 
Induction of New Members
None Today
 

Awards
None this week.
 
Community and International Service Grants
None this week.

 
Presentation
 
Hartford Wolf Pack
Bob Crawford
Tom Voorhees introduced Bob Crawford, voice of the Hartford Wolf Pack. A Harvard graduate, Bob started his broadcast career with Harvard's hockey team. Currently he lives in New Britain with his wife, and they have two sons in college. The Hartford Wolf Pack is a member of the American Hockey League (AHL) and is the top player development team for the New York Rangers. The Wolf Pack has been in Hartford for 23 years now, the same duration as the Whalers were here. Heather Pantano's husband Paul, once worked for the Wolf Pack.
 
Bob began his NHL broadcasting career right out of college, now 32 years ago. "It's a young person's game on the ice and often in the office, but I've managed to hang on", declared Bob. The Rangers organization and Spectra, which manages the XL Center are also great. Bob also serves as public relations person for the Wolf Pack, which is a full time position and keeps him working year around. Recent changes on the broadcasting side, resulted in the ending of their familiar AM radio broadcasting show in favor of webcasting. They were previously heard on I-Heart radio, at 1410 AM, but the signal was often weak. Access is now available via www.hartfordwolfpack.com or through AHL TV online at https://theahl.com/tag/ahltv.
 
It is an exciting time now as the Rangers have made roster changes by trading away a number of older, more expensive players. They've also made a commitment to rebuild the team through new player development, further trades and draft picks. This manner of building a team occurs over a few years, which requires a lot of patience on the parts of the team, management and fans.
 
John Davidson, the new Rangers president, former goal tender and commentator believes the Wolf Pack is important to the overall organization and he is committed to making the Wolf Pack successful and integral. The Wolf Pack has been first place in their division for most of this season and also has an entirely new coaching staff with 3 new faces recently seen in the coaching office. While the Wolf Pack missed making the playoffs for the last 4 years, and 6 of the last 7 years, this followed a previous pattern of success in their first 14 of the 15 years they have been here. Today, their expectations are that they are heading towards future successes. Defense, offense and goal-tending are all improving and the overall idea is to get players ready to move up to their NHL team, the Rangers. Two young players have recently gone up to the Rangers and now the Rangers have three goal tenders, which is unusual. That includes a Russian player who passed through the Wolf Pack organization. The Wolf Pack team is buoyed by many young players and several of these players are also Russians. Bob gave a shout-out to Paul Pantano, who stopped by our meeting, as one who remembers the one Wolf Pack championship, in 2000. Concluded Bob, "We are hoping for another title in 2020."
 
Questions and Answers:
Don Bonner: I played hockey as a youth, and noted there was "stupid fighting" on the ice back then, and now there is less of it. Bob: The instigator rule adds an extra minor penalty to the fight instigator and the other team also gets a power play. It's no longer like in the old days when fighting was used as an intimidation technique.
 
Don Bonner, continuing: The speed of the game is as fast now and the player skill "unbelievable." Bob: The salary cap requires having players with several skill sets as opposed to as back then, just being a fighter. Much less fighting is now seen. Players do get continuously faster and bigger every year.
 
Rollie Sterrett:  In Division 1 college hockey , both players are put off the ice and possibly suspended for fighting.
 
Bob Cave: How many fans attend? Bob: They average 4000 fans / game, but this time of year there may be twice that number. We are one of the top teams in the AHL in day-of-game sales. We have many spur of the moment attendees. But we are lower performing among the league's teams in terms of season ticket holders.
 
Questioner: Would attendance be better if the XL Center was improved? Bob: It's not holding us back but the building is 40 years old and does need updates. Many mechanical issues exist, including the HVAC. A recent ice-making system replacement was welcome.
 
Questioner: What has been the impact of having UCONN hockey at the XL center? Bob: It's been a wash as serious hockey fans just get treated to more hockey and it brings more sports fans to Hartford generally. Numbers-0wise it has not negatively impacted attendance. Our market is families with kids with many discount plans and promotional ticket offerings directed at getting families to attend greater than once per season.
 
Don Bonner: Any uptick on the nights when dollar beers and hotdogs are offered? Bob: Yes!
 
Questioner: Any talk of bringing a new NHL team to Hartford? Bob: No, nothing serious, and that goes back to the XL center buildings' condition too. It's not up to NHL standards. To get a major league franchise it would have to be completely redone, with the cost at least $200 million and up to $500 million dollars. The state government would have to invest in this, as it would be tough to attempt to rely on greater Hartford alone to afford and pay for hosting an NHL team. The annual economics of having a team is close to the 80 million dollar range, though with respect to it happening, you can never say never. Winnipeg lost and regained a team in recent years thanks to a deep pocketed owner.
 
Kurt Lux: The 1970s were a heyday for hockey when he could still name many hockey players. Since then other sports have publicized their stars but the NHL has not. Bob: The culture of hockey is more "about the team" and players have a hard time enjoying the spotlight. The league and the teams are seen as bigger than their stars, however that is changing now as marketing the stars is becoming more acceptable.
 
In closing Bob noted he had brought a bunch of full color Wolf Pack calendars for Rotarians to take with them.
 
Heather indicated she plans to organize a group of Rotarians to attend a Wolf Pack game on a Saturday in the near future
 
 

Special Announcements
None.
 
Mail Bag
Former Rotarian and Club member Arthur Hayes and wife Sara sent a card and $500.00 donation in memory of Nancy Nation. Mr. Hayes noted that he sponsored Nancy's membership in our Club in the early to mid 1980s and believed she was the first female member we admitted. He closed his note with: "We know she will be greatly missed by all who knew her, but we will keep her smiling face in our hearts." heart
 
A letter was also received from Sara Avatapalli of Dress for Success of Hartford thanking the Club for our $2000.00 donation in support of their Employment Readiness and Employment Retention programs for women.
 
Photo Credits 
Photographs courtesy of Phil Worley.
 
Editor's Notes
Submission Deadline: Members are kindly encouraged to submit all materials for each week's Early Riser as early as possible. Please note that some editions may be published and distributed as early as the Saturday following our meetings, and during those weeks further contributions to the Early Riser will be included in the subsequent week's edition.
“The FOUR-WAY TEST of the things we think, say or do”:

1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all Concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?