The Town of Danvers has a large senior population who take advantage of the many programs provided at the Danvers Senior Center located on Stone Street. Danvers Rotary is pleased to support the seniors, and recently presented the Senior Center with a check for $10,000 for two new vans, which will provide transportation to seniors in Danvers.  The vans transport senior citizens to medical appointments, adult day care, shopping, and educational trips. 

The Melrose Rotary Club has continually focused on outreach projects to help fill the needs of our community. Past President ( 2014-15) Mary Beth Margolis knew that such a need existed through her involvement in the Community Coalition of Melrose. Melrose Rotary is a member of this umbrella organization which brings together non profit organizations to discuss projects and plan events. For quite sometime a group of Melrose gardeners had been hoping for a community garden spot but space in the 4 square mile city of Melrose was at a premium and finances were limited. Through her work on the Melrose Board of Alderman, Mary Beth helped identify an unused portion of parkland and began to reach out the the garden community. Thanks to a matching District grant which was noticed in the e bulletin, the Melrose Rotary Board of Directors approved an application and committed $3000 to the project. The City of Melrose matched the Rotary funds and the local Whole Foods and Whittemore Hardware store also contributed. Nineteen beds were carved out from the space allotted and included one for nearby residents of the Senior Housing, McCarthy House. Work began May 20th with several Rotarians helping to fill the beds. Despite the late Spring weather, most of the beds are now planted and there's a 50+ name waiting list for any additional beds!

 

The Grand Opening is scheduled for June 17th at 8 AM at the Franklin Field Community Gardens. We hope many of our Melrose Rotarians and District leaders will join us to celebrate this wonderful collaboration!

The Rotary Club of Medford continues its long-standing tradition of honoring graduating seniors with a scholarship. The scholarships are given in memory of Medford Rotarians who contributed to Rotary for many years and in many different ways. This year's recipients were honored at a dinner with the families, where the scholarships were presented. The recipients are Jeffrey Fernandes of Austin Prep receiving the Mark Egitto scholarship. The Joseph Carr scholarship was presented by his son, to Matthew Hirl who is graduating from Malden Catholic. Emiline Antunes of Medford High received the Charles Oxnard Scholarship award. The Joseph Mahoney Scholarship was presented to Mary Listro a graduate of Matignon High School. Lydia Ryan earned the Medford Leadership Scholarship as a graduating senior from Medford High School and Ryan Kreatz also a Matignon Grad received the Public Safety Scholarship in memory of retired Fire Chief, Leo McCabe. How appropriate that Ryan comes from a long line of Medford firefighters. On June 6th, our final recipient Ailish Fallon, will receive the M Club Scholarship in memory of Mrs. Ellard a former gym teacher at Medford High School.

President Bob Kaminer thanked the students for their hard work and dedication, and wished them well as they moved forward to college. Bob also introduced the Scholarship Committee members, John Hackett, Sr., Edward Hackett, Patrick Theberge and Anthony Giamberadino for their time & effort. Our annual scholarship program is funded by the proceeds from our many social events. All of our Rotarians should be applauded for their hard work throughout the year running our Comedy Night, Casino Night, Raffles and other fundraising events.

During the month of February, the District 'Service Above Self' Scholarship Committee reached out to the Guidance Departments at all the Technical High Schools in our District. The committee made available scholarships to graduating seniors to aid them in furthering their plans after high school.

As a result, we are pleased to announce that the committee has awarded $4,500.00 in scholarships to nine graduating seniors. We congratulate the recipients who have all incorporated 'Service Above Self' in their school, work, community, and personal activities.

We are confident that these scholarship recipients will continue to incorporate 'Service Above Self' in their future endeavors.

 

Please join with our Fellow Rotarians from across District 7930 as we kick off the new Rotary year. We will be installing all 49 Rotary Club Presidents along with the President of the Rotaract Club of Boston. Gather your club members to come and support your incoming President and register a table or two as we introduce the 2017-2018 Rotary Theme - Rotary: Making a Difference. What a perfect theme as it is really what we are all about. The work that members, under the leadership of their President, do year in and year out in service to others. Celebrate what we have done and become inspired about what we can do.

 

The program will be fun and a little different than previous years. We have opted to not have a keynote speaker, but rather focus on building teams. Think about how we are all more successful working together, and when everyone on the team is successful, great things happen to Rotary and the communities we serve. Imagine how building committed and focused teams will drive our projects, events and fundraisers, all to enhance the service we bring to our communities.

 

Plan ahead, get your club to commit to the start of the Rotary year by registering for the District Installation. It will be on June 29, from 6-9 pm at the Danversport Yacht Club. Register here!