Spoke 1-28-14 (Jan 28, 2014)

Stories

Meeting 1-28-14

50-50 RAFFLE

Pot Size: $530.00

Winners: John Neely and Bill Henning (no winners)

CALENDAR RAFFLE

Sold By: John Hall

Sold To: Cliff Boggs

Sold By: Ray Hodge

Sold To: Carolyn and Judson Greene

VISTING ROTARIANS AND GUESTS

Nancy Sorbet was a guest of Mike McLaughlin.

Sarah Buckley of the Cornell School of Veterinary Medicine was a guest of Liz Bradt.

Mickey Northcutt's guest was Henrick Erickson.

Viktoria Talebian's guests were students and the teacher from the Mandarin Chinese language class at Swampscott Schools.

Jason Silva's guest was Adria Leach from Salem State University.

FINES AND RECOGNITIONS

Rich Blazo went to Florida and played golf with other members of our Rotary.

Bob Conley spent 5 days in Puerto Rico playing golf.

Jacob Segal was one of those Salem Rotarians who joined Rich on the links.

Juli Lederhaus went to Aruba for 5 days sunny days and enjoyed golf there.

Juli let the group know that Maryann Curtin's granddaughter is home from the hospital following her accident. She is recovering, but needs lots of prayers.

John Fisher went to a dental meeting in Chicago, but doesn't want to return to the windy, cold city any time soon.

Bruce Whear went to his wife Heidi's Marblehead Harbor Rotary meeting to present a check for $5,500 from their church, the 1st Church of Swampscott. It went to the Rotary's Shelter Box drive. Rotaries throughout the country have donated $60,000 toward this cause.

Bruce also mentioned "Noises Off", a hyped-up keystone cop-like performance at the Marblehead Little Theatre.

Rinus Oosthoek talked about the Chamber of Commerce lunch at Finz where there will be a presentation on the minimum wage by the Massachusetts Retailers Association and the Massachusetts Restaurant Association.

Rinus also mentioned the annual Salem So Sweet celebration beginning this Friday.

John Neely suggested Juli pay a fine because all the fortune cookies on the tables stated that everyone likes the food at the Hawthorne Hotel.

Liz Bradt paid a fine because her picture was in the Boston Globe and she was on NPR radio talking about the bird musical exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum.

Viktoria Talebian stated that she and the Mandarin Chinese language teacher, who was the speaker of the day, purchased the coins and chopsticks that were part of the day's place setting.

Mark Leavitt met a carwash owner from Providence who is also a Rotarian and scheduled to be his Rotary's President in 2015...the same year Mark will be the Salem President!

Mark asked that all calendar money be submitted as soon as possible.

Mark discussed some planned community service events including the senior (citizen) prom, as well as plans in the works to assist the Northeast Animal Shelter and others.

Claudia Chuber and Chris Casey discussed this year's Auction which will be held on March 21st. It is the club's largest fundraiser. Tickets will be $60 per person or $450 per table. Chris and Claudia hope all Rotarians will be involved by securing one donation to the auction, by obtaining an ad for the booklet, by donating a bottle of wine, and by coming to the event with others. Chris thanked the Hawthorne Hotel for donating 2 drink tickets per person as well as the 2 bottles of wine per table. This year will have a tighter schedule than last year, and will will include a live auction item of 12 bottles of single malt scotch.

BIRTHDAYS

Happy birthday to Ken Rothwell on the 28th of January!

CLUB ANNOUNCEMENTS

Just to let everyone know that John Quinn is home from the hospital, and would appreciate hearing from all his fellow Rotarians.

President Brenda thanked everyone who attended last week's meeting at Finz that was organized by Tim Clarke.

The World Peace and Understanding Dinner will be held on February 5th from 6-9pm in Stoneham. Please sign up on the District website. http://www.rotary7930.org

Juli is updating the Club's email list, and requests that you check with her to be sure your email address is correctly listed.

FIRST CLASS UPDATE:

Governor John Hall has asked every Rotarian in our district to make a donation to the Rotary Foundation. In particular, he would greatly appreciate 100% participation from his home club.

As you know, RI uses the funding for great causes throughout the world, and in 3 years 50% of your donation comes back to our district to be invested in local causes through the district grant process!

To date, 25% of our 71 members have contributed. The 2 easiest method of payment are to bring in cash or check to next week's meeting, and give it to Rinus, Tim or Patty OR email Tim at timfclarke@aol.com and ask that we invoice you for a specific amount for the Rotary Foundation. Also, you can contribute online at www.Rotary.org/myrotary

The Polar Plunge will be held Saturday, February 1st at Long Beach, Gloucester. You can check out our Club's fundraising page at Polar Plunge 2014The Polar Plunge pledge checks should be made to Rotary International Foundation.

Jeff Holloran and Patrick Langmaid WILL be joining in the chilly experience, as over $1000 has been raised! At the meeting, spontaneous donations were made to the level that compelled David Wescott to join in the fun!

THIS WEEK'S SPEAKER

This week we celebrate the Chinese New Year with Ms. Liming Yang.

The Club enjoyed a Chinese meal in celebration of the new year which is this coming Friday. As part of the celebration, tables were set with lucky coins (chocolate and yummy!), as well as chopsticks and fortune cookies. Thank you, Elaina of the Hawthorne, for making it all come together!

Viktoria introduced our guest speaker, Liming Yang, a Mandarin Chinese language teacher at Viktoria's son's school in Swampscott. Mrs. Yang also brought her language students to the meeting.

Mrs. Yang was born in Shanghai where she went to East China Normal University. She taught English in China for several years before coming to St. Louis in 1989. In 2003, she came to Boston and taught Chinese at the Berlitz Learning Center. In 2007, she began teaching Mandarin Chinese in Swampscott.

Mrs. Yang discussed the Chinese New Year's traditions. New Year's Eve is also called the Spring Festival. Before the celebration, there is home cleaning, and changing of paintings and paper cuttings in the windows, as well as changing of couplets...all reflecting the new year's symbols. Families purchase new clothes and shop for celebratory foods.

Mrs. Yang showed pictures of New Year's paintings that often depict fish and fat babies, denoting enough good food and wealth.

The paper cuttings in the windows always show symbols of happiness and fish, and the zodiac for that year (1 of 12 possible animals. This year's animal is the horse.

On New Year's Eve, there is a family worship of deceased ancestors. These ancestors are given a whole chicken, duck, vegetables, and fruit to honor them. They are also asked to protect the family in the new year. Then, the family has a traditional New Year's Eve dinner consisting of whole fish, dumplings, and in some parts of the country, spring rolls.

There is a huge celebration that includes a variety show that is shown on Chinese television with the largest viewing audience in the world. It takes place for the 4 hours preceding midnight. At midnight there are fireworks.

In the morning, everyone says "Happy New Year!" to their relatives and friends and watch parades. The parades include lion and dragon dancing. These symbolize wisdom, power, and wealth.

Children also receive red bags from the relatives they visit. These bags contain money.

The New Year's celebration continues for 15 days, and culminates in a Lantern Festival when red lanterns are lit and released with a wish.

The children from Ms. Yang's class introduced themselves with their English and Chinese names, and sang Happy New Year songs.

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