The Rotary Ambassador Newsletter has created the most fascinating gems of 2014 at Rotary. This yearbook features some of the projects, speakers, special events and happenings at Rotary Club of Hamilton throughout 2014. Sit back and enjoy the trip down memory lane as we look back of some of the best of 2014 Rotary moments. Click here to read more in the Ambassador.
Hope you didn’t miss too much! But in case you want a recap – a summary of all that happened is defined below!
- Garden Party in the Dark – How could we forget the annual Garden Party in June 2014. The Garden Party is an opportunity to say thank you to outgoing President Christopher Cutler and congratulate incoming President Peter Quaglia. Thanks to a storm earlier that evening, the power was out at Beverly Golf & Country Club. The Garden Party continued by candlelight. It was warm, but the celebration continued.
- President Peter ALS Ice Bucket challenge. President Peter Quaglia of the Rotary Club of Hamilton took the ALS Ice bucket challenge in his suit at the weekly Rotary meeting…and still gave $110 to ALS! Rotarian Ginny Mattuzzi was the lucky dumper of ice water!
- 2014 was Rotary by the month. The Rotary Remembers Calendar gave us the opportunity to see some of the women of Rotary each month. This fundraiser helped raise over $12,000 for the Sunshine Fund during our 100th Anniversary year.
- A year of great growth – The Rotary Summer Literacy Program and the Telling Tales Literacy Festival saw great growth in 2014. Both foster literacy in young people and families while being great “hands on projects”
- The Rotary Fall Golf Classic brought back the long tradition of having a golf tournament to our Rotary Club. This afternoon golf tournament was a huge success with food, beverages or prizes on each of the nine holes. A sell out is expected for 2015 as many golfers plan to return and bring more golfers. This is a one of a king unique and fun golf tournament!
- The year of the New! In 2014 Rotary International released an updated logo. Our Rotary Club also launched an updated website, created the new networking event Rotary After Dark and for the first time had on-line donations to help support our Rotary projects.
- Partnerships – This help leverage the projects of Rotary. A partnership with Scotts Miracle Gro, the City of Hamilton & Cathy Wever School we helped with the Extreme Park Makeover at Pinky Lewis Parkette. The project created an outdoor classroom and learning gardens for the community.
- Past President’s Day. On May 15th 2014, our Rotary Club held the annual Past President’s Day. A great meeting saluting the contributions and leadership of our Past Presidents. It is always a great meeting!
- Polio – We are this close to ending Polio. Our social media campaign on Polio featured many of our Rotarians holding signs indicating we are “this close” to eradicating Polio. The entire membership had a group photo taken as part of this campaign
- Light up Rotary – We held our Rotary Day in September by hosting a community BBQ at the Wever Fall Harvest Celebration. A lot of burgers and hot dogs grilled, and a huge community celebration with over 1000 people
2014 was a very busy and exciting year. President Chris & President Peter showed great leadership, having fun and showing Rotary in a positive light. It is difficult to do a top 10 for the year as there was so many outstanding projects and happenings that didn’t make the list : Spring Uncorked 2014, Rotary project Thrive for Five in Mali, ICYIC meeting at the Outdoor Classroom at Cathy Wever School, the Little Free Library we installed, and Rotary District 7090 awarding 4 out of 4 Stars from district 7090 Web Critics for our website and Facebook Page. We presented a number of Paul Harris Fellowship and had a number of Rotarians celebrate significant years of service in Rotary Club. We ended our Centennial Anniversary year in June and had a number of events as part of the 100th anniversary. As we enter into a new Century of Service and a New Year we hope that Rotary and Rotarians continue to be engaged, caring and generous individuals who make the world better in 2015.