Larry Knabinde Inducted As President Of Newtown Rotary

Newtown Rotary held a special formal black tie event for the induction of Larry Knabinde as the new president. His officers also inducted were Paul Lux, president-elect; Larry Gardner, secretary; Allan Clavette, treasurer; Kevin Cocchioca, assistant treasurer, and Mike Snyder, sergeant-at-arms.

The many projects and programs of Rotary can be broken down into four Avenues of Services and the directors of each are Paul Lux, club service; Mark Dandurand, community service; Jim McManus, vocational service, and Chris Hoeffel, international service. Bill Wiemels was inducted as director at large.

Awards made during the evening included perfect attendance for 17 years to William Watts and Ed Osterman. Rotary meetings are held every week and if a Rotarian cannot make a meeting he can make up for the absence by attending any Rotary Club meeting in the world within two weeks of the home club meeting that was missed.

The Frank Miles Award was presented to Jim Gulalo, a 20-year Rotary member and former president. The award is presented to a club member who is always quietly ready to give help whenever help is needed. Whenever anything needs to be done, Jim Gulalo immediately volunteers, whether it is to serve as chairman of the Gold Raffle, chairman of one of the committees involved in the planning and building of the Fun Space at Dickinson Park, or simply to stand in for the sergeant-at-arms whenever needed. When he was president, he was determined to do something for the senior citizens of Newtown and this became a hands-on multifaceted project spanning through three presidencies.

Mr Gulalo likes to cook and when Rotary members were making the 13-foot flower boxes for the Senior Center, he volunteered to do cook the entire meal. “One would have thought hot dogs and hamburgers would have been sufficient but he thought otherwise and the meal on the grill, which included salad and dessert, surpassed many of the dinners where we met,” said Rotary member Ed Osterman.

For years, Mr Gulalo has been a frequent volunteer at the Dorothy Day Soup Kitchen. “When we suddenly needed someone to take over he stepped right up and for the last few years has not only planned and bought the meals and organized the volunteers for the day but has joined the Board of Directors of the Dorothy Day House, which meets every month to review the current status activities and plan for the future,” Mr Osterman said

The highest award to a member or a nonmember is to become a Paul Harris Fellow. Paul Harris was the founder of Rotary in 1905 in Chicago. The first Paul Harris Fellowship for the evening was presented to Brian Amey in recognition of his outstanding leadership of the Newtown Rotary Club during the 2003-2004 year. During this past club year he has led the club in a record-breaking fundraising effort that will enable the club to do more projects and support more charities than ever before.

The club has met its commitment to the Rotary International’s Polio Eradication Project with a $9,000 donation from the proceeds of the club’s first ever Harley Motorcycle raffle. The club has been able to increase its support of local charities and institutions such as the Newtown Meeting House, Dorothy Day Hospitality House, Newtown Scholarship Association, Family Counseling Center, Shelter of the Cross, and many others.

The club has also been able to support of some new community efforts such as Kevin’s Community Center and the “Pencils for Peace” project at Reed Intermediate School.

During Brian Amey’s year as president, the local Rotary has added many new members, which has enhanced the club’s ability to give more service to the community. The community service programs have been strengthened and the club-sponsored Interact Clubs at the intermediate, middle, and high schools continue to grow and flourish.

One of Mr Amey’s initiatives this year was the introduction of the “Business of The Year” Award, which was a tremendous success. Mr Amey’s desire to do “Service Above Self” is nothing new. Before he moved to the United States, he was involved in many community service projects in England.

State Rep Julia Wasserman, who joined Rotary in 2002, was presented with a Paul Harris Fellowship for her long and continuous service to the Town of Newtown and the State of Connecticut. Elected to the House of Representatives in 1990 from the 106th District, which included Newtown and parts of Bethel, her endeavors spread over a large field of state agendas.

She also worked to enact measures of particular interest to Newtown residents. Some of these include a $300,000-plus grant for Sandy Hook center, 3.6 acres for youth sports programs by the high school, obtained 37.6 acres for $1 from the state to expand Commerce Park, obtained land for a north/south road through Fairfield Hills, and 350 acres of Fairfield Hills was placed permanently in the Department of Agriculture as open land. She worked to get an increase to $200,000 a charitable organization must raise annually before expensive, formal audits must be conducted by the charitable organization. She also was instrumental in finally getting the new railroad bridge constructed over Church Hill Road. “Her accomplishments as a legislator go on and on,” Mr Osterman said.

Karen King is a Reed School teacher who involved her fifth grade students in world affairs by helping a school in Shala, Kosovo. She learned of the school’s problems while on a trip to Ireland and when she related the story to her students they wanted to do something to help. The first program was “Pencils for Peace.” When her students learned of the shortage of pencils they started a campaign to collect pencils and managed to send 10,000 pencils to the students.

The Newtown then raised more than $10,000 in a fund drive and Ms King, with the sponsorship of Newtown Rotary, traveled to Shala, Kosovo, to deliver the money and other supplies. Her students are very excited about helping out fellow students and are learning more about the world then they could from any book. Ms King is an exceptional teacher and fully deserves this award, the Rotary Club said.

Paul Harris Fellowship was presented posthumously to Bob Stokes. His wife, Caroline Stokes, accepted the award on his behalf. Bob Stokes joined the Rotary Club of Newtown in January of 1952. In 1964 he became the 29th president of the Newtown club. When the Rotary Club had a community project he was always ready to help. Some of the most notable and major projects were the Heritage Preservation Trust resulting in the acquisition and preservation old Congregational Church as the Meeting House. The Newtown Rotary club flag with the picture of the flagpole and the church steeple is recognition of the success of that project.

Mr Stokes was deeply involved in the three-year project at the Senior Center and the Fun Space project at Dickinson Park; both were great successes because of dedications of people like Bob Stokes. One of his favorite projects was the club’s annual pancake breakfast. He was there from the start more than 40 years ago. He developed his secret recipe for pancakes and he was there every year to make sure the batter was mixed properly. Bob Stokes lived the Rotary motto “Service Above Self.”

Dorothy Baumert was presented a second Paul Harris Award by husband Duane Baumert for more than 25 years in numerous service activities to Newtown and the greater Danbury communities. Her Rotary activities began in 1989 as the first woman member of the Rotary Club of Newtown. She served in all of the officer positions and became president in 1992. She was one of the first women to serve as the District Governor’s area representative (now known as assistant district governor) for Rotary Governor Bob Vossler. She was responsible for rallying the area Rotary Clubs to support the start up of the Shelter of the Cross while she was the area representative. She was nominated for Woman of the Year by the Newtown Business and Professional Women’s Club in 1990 and received her first Paul Harris Fellow in recognition for her service as the clubs president in 1992-1993 year.

Rotary Governor Paul Burns then presented President Brian Amey with the District Citation Award for many achievements, programs, and projects the club conducted in all Four Avenues of Service during the year. He was assisted by incoming Governor Pam Akins.

 The final event of the evening was the Passing of the Gavel from Brian Amey to Larry Knabinde. Assisting with much of the program were Rotary District 7980 (four counties in Southern Connecticut) Governors Paul Burns of West Haven who just completed his year as Rotary Governor and Pam Akins of New London who assumed the Rotary Governorship on July first.

The Rotary year runs from July 1 to June 30 and this past year has been very successful for Newtown Rotary. Assistance has been given to more than 20 local organizations and to many people in poverty-stricken areas of the world. Through the help of Newtown Rotary, 785 people suffering cataract blindness in India will have their sight back in a few months. A 40-foot sea-going container filled with more than 100 computers and 25,000-plus used text books will soon be arriving in South Africa where schooling is needed so badly. Families in Jeremei, Haiti, will feel the effect of Newtown and other Connecticut Rotary Clubs with additional housing (called Happy Houses), water purifiers, family support, and better hygiene with outside toilets.

Newtown Rotary meets every week at the Fireside Inn (except when meetings are held at local industrial plants) on Monday at 6 pm. Anyone interested in learning more about Newtown Rotary, and how to become involved in helping other less fortunate people in the world, is encouraged to attend one of the dinner meetings at the Fireside.