Feb. 3,2010

Dr. David Heisey, principal of Scotch Plains Fanwood High School, and the Rotary Club of Fanwood Scotch Plains announced the renewal of Interact as a student volunteer organization at the local high school. Dr. Heisey will act personally as the advisor to the club, which already numbers ten students eager to serve local and international causes and gain an opportunity to exercise leadership in the community.

Interact is Rotary International’s service club for students 14 to 18. Each Interact club is sponsored by a local Rotary club, which provides support and guidance, but is self-governing and self-supporting. FSP Rotarians Thomas Russo, Michael Dietrich and Steve Goldberg will take this role for the SPF high school club. Interact clubs complete at least two community service projects each year, one of which furthers international understanding and goodwill.

Pictured are two of the newly inducted Interact members, Corey Fields, right, and Chris Smith, center. Seated at left is Dr. Heisey, who moments earlier had addressed congratulations to the students, and standing is Rotarian and superintendent of the SPF school district, Dr. Margaret W. Hayes.

January 20, 2010

January 17, 2010

Guest speaker was Carla Potter, public health educator, who represented Newark's Childhood Lead Poison Protection Program, who addressed numerous points of interest regarding the hazards of lead in the environment. Children are most susceptible to environmental lead effects because one of lead's chemical effects is to interfere with zinc metabolism, impacting neural development, where delays can turn into permanent deficits. In all people, lead's impact is felt by interfering with hemoglobin function and calcium absorption. Although lead has been removed by law from interior residential paint, it remains a component of exterior paint, and the most robust industrial-purpose paints continue to depend on lead for durability, vividness, color-fastness and so on, where lead is perfectly legal. Candies from outside the United States and even the bright wrappers they come in can be a lead hazard.

December 30, 2009

Bill Capuano, member of FSP Rotary for much of the past year, provided a classification speech. He described his upbringing in Bergen County, his early career as a bond trader, and his move in recent years to real estate, with Re-Max in Scotch Plains. Bill was the youngest of six children, is now parent of two (the elder a junior in Westfield high school) and husband to a native of India. Have you traveled to India, Bill? Not yet. Maybe Bill's mother-in-law, who returns on occasion, can talk her young people, such as Bill, into making the trip with her. Viva Mumbai (which was Bombay when Bill married in 1990)!

December 23, 2009

Guest speaker Michael Magaril spoke to the club about principles of conflict resolution that avert the pain and costs of resolutions achieved in the confrontational courtroom model. Mr. Magaril specializes in marital law. He described how, early in his career as an attorney, he was as committed as any conventionally educated lawyer to view every legal case as meriting the maximum in confrontation and courtroom challenge. He observed, however, that for divorcing couples this also resulted in the maximum stress and expense. ("In the end, the lawyers got everything", as the cliché goes.) Mr. Magaril turned his practice toward mediation and believes he has saved his clients great heartache, stress and waste of assets. His remarks were about the principles of conflict management, prominently the avoidance of commitment to positions and an embrace of commitment by parties to assessing and communicating clearly about their interests and goals.

December 9,2009

The club learned about ShelterBox from Eric Hendrickson of the Hillsborough Rocky Hill Rotary Club. Initiated in the U.K., ShelterBox is a project to stockready-to-ship urgent supplies for delivery to areas struck by disaster. The 120 pound boxes contain tents, water purification supplies, and other basic materials to sustain a family of ten for a period of weeks. Shelter and clean water are the two factors likeliest to make the difference between life and death in a disaster. Eric is proposing that Rotary District 7510 unite to provide support -- $1,000 per box -- for the England-based service, which arranges deliveries in cooperation with Rotary clubs in a given affected region

December 2, 2009

In an annual holiday tradition, the Chamber Choir of Scotch Plains Fanwood High School performed for the gathered FSP Rotarians. Director John Brzozowski is pictured at right. At far left are club president Janet Strunk, and to her left, SPF schools superintendent Margaret Hayes, basking in the excellence and popularity of her district's school music program

November 25, 2009

At this meeting, John Crisafulli gave his classification speech and our lunchtime speaker was Paul Grzella, managing editor of the Courier News. Paul spoke about the challenge the newspapers are facing in this electronic age, and their efforts to compete with web- based media. Mr. Grzella also spoke warmly of the efforts of Rotary in confronting the problems we face today.

November 18, 2009 -- Dictionary Day

At Brunner School, 3rd graders received dictionaries from FSP
Rotarians and in return presented a 'quilt' by which the class
honored dictionaries. Don Rosenberg, Pat Plante, Lisa Mohn
and Joe Qutub, pictured l. to r., did the honors.

Members recounted their experiences of the morning distributing dictionaries to local third graders. This is one of the most popular and festive of FSP Rotary's activities, as the dictionaries create a lot of excitement when we pass them out, explain Rotary to the students, and discuss dictionaries with them and their teachers.

Our luncheon speaker, Bill Streets of the N.J. Clean Energy Program, caught the attention particularly of our financial and banking members with his discussion of state sponsored rebates for refitting facilities to make more efficient use of gas and electricity. www.njcleanenergy.com/ssb

November 11, 2009 -- Veterans' Day Special Luncheon arranged by Dick Dobyns

When Dick Dobyns once heard fellow FSP Rotarian Denise Hughes sing, he never forgot the skill she displayed, and so he asked Denise to solo for the opening of this luncheon, with "God Bless America". Members immediately realized they were in for a special meeting. Some took the chance to talk about their own family members who had served in the military. Dan Marrosu recalled his own experience in the Army in the early 1980s, stationed in Germany as a young man with a readiness and a need to grow with the values and culture of the American military. Others followed suit: Dick Dobyns made a moving presentation about being the radio man in a bomber over the southeast Asia area when three planes went out on the mission and only two returned. Dick asked that the day's luncheon be dedicated to the ten men who did not return that day. Fred Chemidlin talked about his time during the Korean conflict being a pilot and his fascination since them with military piloting; he counts astronaut Buzz Aldrin among his friends. Dick Dobyns made sure the luncheon ended with no eye still dry by inviting a special guest musician to play taps. We'd ordinarily post a photo here, but in this case, you had to be there.

November 4, 2009

Our club enjoyed an invitation to lunch at the LifeTime Athletic Club as guests of the Berkeley Heights Rotary Club. General manager of the club, Uli Martinez, provideda tour of the facility's lap and swimming pools, spa, sauna, Jacuzzis, cycling and weights, exercise machines, squash and basketball courts, and child-care facilities.

October 28, 2009

October 21, 2009

In a now annual event, FSP Rotary invited members from neighboring Rotary clubs to a luncheon adjacent to the Frazee House in southwest Union County on Raritan Road. The restoration of the Revolutionary-era Frazee House, www.frazeehouse.org, is a commitment of FSP Rotary intended to add historic luster to the town, county and state. Those attending numbered 47, including Rotarians from Plainfield, North Plainfield, Mountainside, Berkeley Heights and Westfield, as well as civic leaders: Scotch Plains mayor Nancy Malool, Scotch Plains councilwoman Mary DePaola (who acts as town council liaison to the Frazee Project), Fanwood mayor Colleen Maher, and Fanwood council members, Donna Dolce and Russell Huegel. The speaker is Rotary District Governor Alexander Cauwels.

Oct. 14, 2009

The club launched this year's Community Share 50/50 raffle, a major fundraiser, where we sell up to 2,000 tickets for $10, keep half, and disburse the other half in four prizes of, nominally, $6,000, $2,000 and $1,000 (third and fourth prizes). It's 'horse race' among members to sell the most, as John Perrotta provided race-horse names to members, generating hilarity and pokes in the rib. The launch was taped by George Weiss of Fanwood Channel 35, who recorded John Crisafulli's rousing speech explaining the raffle for community edification. In top photo , John is pictured delivering for the camera. Joe Qutub also went on camera for a special plea to the television audience.

The club welcomed new member Kiran Dhaliwal, whose induction was handled by Dick Dobyns. Kiran does commercial interior design and comes family of Rotarians, including her aunt and her father in law. Andy Calamaras noted that Kiran becomes our 42nd member, and recalled that this puts our club membership at the level previously when Andy himself joined the club -- as the then 42nd member -- in 1999.

Guests included, besides George Weiss, Roseann Mango who John Crisafulli introduced as his boss in the holding company of Town Bank; Geri Samuel's husband, Dick, local Democratic party leader and David Rogers, a small business consultant and manufacturer's representative.

September 23, 2009

The club welcomed back member Bob Giegerich after a spell of illness. You look great, Bob, and we feel great to see you.

Guest presenters were mother/son specialists in long term health care, Bonnie Bussler and Fred Bussler. Fred addressed the topic of longevity planning and explored the implications of the decision, or non-decision, to buy long term health care coverage in the latter decades of life.

September 16, 2009

Our speaker was Dr. Maureen Vandenbrande who spoke about "Calibrating Your Happiness." Dr. Vandenbrande provided basic strategies to increase your happiness level. Dick Dobyns, program director, was happy because he was able to introduce his sister to the club, visiting from Mishiwaka Indiana.

September 9, 2009

Club program director Dick Dobyns, pictured left, achieved a coup when he identified Scotch Plains' own Tuskegee airman, Malcomb Nettingham, and secured Nettingham's agreement to share his recollections with the club. As Nettingham stood before the group to speak he received a standing ovation. Nettingham was part of the bomber group that had been assembled from African-American air corps recruits, and he was part of the U.S. military's first integrated training activity. Although the Tuskegee airmen made a dramatic contribution to influencing attitudes among Americans who held negative views of non-white people's capabilities, the American military remained thoroughly segregated until 1948. This was three years after the African-American air groups achieved heroism on behalf of the Allied cause in the latter days of World War II. However, by 1945 one modest experiment in integrated training was attempted. Nettingham was one of 25 pioneers -- five black, 20 white -- who with no public disclosure together entered 25 weeks of training in radio operation, which was part of their preparation to serve as gunners and radiomen on the planes. Nettingham's assignment was to the 617th bomber squadron of B-25s. The saga of the Tuskegee Airman reached fulfillment as the 332nd fighter group flew with American bomber groups and protected them in the skies over Europe, but the war ended before Nettingham's bomber group completed its training, and Nettingham never himself flew in overseas action. But his place in the annals of American race relations will always be secure.

September 2, 2009

• Fanwood Scotch Plains YMCA, $1,500
• Resolve, the counseling organization, $500
• Betty Frazee House restoration project, $4,000
• SPF Student Leadership Conference (for leadership skill training), $1,000
• Rotary Garbe Foundation for college scholarships, $1,000

Club assembly discussion was wide ranging and served to introduce the club's activities to three -- count 'em! -- three new members inducted this day. In the accompanying photo, membership director Mike Dietrich, left, presents new members, from left to right: Bill Capuano with Re/Max Realty in Scotch Plains, Darren J. Mills CPA and attorney with The Mills Group LLC in Scotch Plains, and Tim Corrigan with Unity Bank in Scotch Plains. May Bill, Darren and Tim enjoy long lives in Rotary.

August 26, 2009
Fontaine Gatti, member of the Westfield Historical Society, treated the club to a 100-slide view of Tibet. Fontaine recorded her experiences in that country, led by guides vetted by the Chinese government, and with miles driven accounted at frequent staging points (and fines levied in case mileage exceeded the official distance from the day's outset point). The club enjoyed a view of a culture ancient and pre-industrial in most ways, a rare experience at any time. Walter Long, CEO of Travelong Inc. in Summit accompanied Fontaine.

Darren Mills who anticipates joining the club brought his father-in-law to the meeting. Making a second guest visit was business consultant, Vincent A. Baiardi. The club also enjoyed a third-time visit from prospective member, Bill Capuano of Re-Max Realty.

August 13, 2009
Guests attended from four organizations that Rotary supports with proceeds of the 2008 Community Share 50/50 raffle.

• $1,500 to the Fanwood Scotch Plains YMCA, Karin Dreixler the Y's executive director accepting the donation.
• $4,000 went to the Frazee house restoration project, Denise Hughes and Andy Calamaras accepting on behalf of the Frazee organization.
• In our local schools, the SPF Student Leadership Conference, a skills development program, received $1,000, superintendent Margaret Hayes accepting.
• The Rotary-Garbe Foundation, source of scholarships for local students, received $1,000, Bob Scalera presiding over the Foundation's donation program accepted the award.

July 29, 2009
Luncheon: John Gorman discussed auto insurance from the attorney's point of view. Practicing in New Brunswick, John shared his views of common errors in the choices Jerseyans make in the auto insurance coverage.. Bottom lines: emphasize liability coverage and uninsured motorist levels; don't fear to increase collision deductibles if tradeoffs seem indicated (such as to free cash in favor the liability categories); try not to agree to the 'verbal threshold,' which limits the insured's ability to sue (although this is a choice that may add hundreds to the annual cost).

Two-year member Steve Goldberg provided his 'classification speech'. He talked about his life and how it led to his career in financial planning. He's from Belle Harbor in Queens, hopes to appear on Jeopardy one day, and got his picture taken with Mickey Mantle, who waved Steve over to the photographer's attention by saying, 'Come on, pork chop'. Steve is one of the communities most involved members, with hardly an organization that doesn't have Steve on a committee or in a chairmanship

Guests included Darren J. Mills, introduced to the club by John Crisafulli (and who has applied for membership), and Bill Capuano and Tim Kerry.

July 23, 2009

Its recent donation toward the purchase of new equipment for Fanwood's local cable channel 35 took place in the chambers of the Fanwood council to the attention of local reporters and the applause of the council and those gathered for the occasion. Channel 35 is a primary outlet of local information to the Fanwood and Scotch Plains communities.

July 22, 2009
Luncheon: Speaker Rebecca Hughes told the club about Patch -- that is, patch.com, an innovation in web communication providing news coverage of local communities. Patch covers locales such as Scotch Plains, Milburn, Maplewood, South Orange and growing number of others. A local editor posts news items contributed by site visitors. The sites provide an opportunity for local businesses to promote themselves on the site -- and local clubs as well. PR director Blanchard Hiatt is looking into it for FSP Rotary.

Frazee House Update

July 15, 2009
Annabelle Radcliffe-Trenner of Historic Architecture Associates, LLC, spoke to the club at a luncheon to which the public also had been invited. Radcliffe-Trenner summarized not only the physical progress made to date with restoring the Frazee house but also the grants and fundraising activities on the restoration's behalf. The presentation included numerous pictures of the house including the recent interior scaffolding that has been applied to prevent roof collapse during heavy snows and remove the load from fragile parts of the walls.

Traffic Laws You Never Heard About

July 8, 2009
Anthony Parenti, councilman in Fanwood, former director of the Stamler Police Academy in Scotch Plains and former Chief of Police in Fanwood spoke about traffic laws you never heard about. Parenti regaled the club with the status of laws and court findings including:

• responsibility to keep snow on a car roof from creating a road hazard while driving
• requirement to idle an engine no longer than three minutes
• community responsibility if traffic signals malfunction; driver responsibility to treat an unpowered traffic signal as if it were a four-way stop
• move-over-law -- responsibility to change lanes or slow down and ease left when passing emergency vehicles or tow trucks
• wave-on liability -- a driver who gestures helpfully to another whose view is obstructed may be liable for any consequences if that driver accepts the wave and drives into a mishap
• red-light cameras, illegal, but present in Newark and proposed for South Brunswick, intended to catch drivers who don't beat the yellow signal
• interlock devices against inebriated drivers (ineffectual in Parenti's view)

The former chief also advised the club of pending signal pre-emption, in which many communities may opt to enable emergency vehicles to signal ahead to traffic lights and cause them to be green in time for the emergency vehicle to pass unimpeded.

John Crisafully introduced a guest, Annette Oriscello of NationalCard, a credit card processing company.

Club Assembly

July 1, 2009
Discussion of future club direction: Casino night (April event). Community Share raffle (fall fund raiser). Identification of a sister club in a Latin American country where FSP Rotary might partner on behalf of worthy causes among the poor.

June 24, 2009
Union County sheriff Ralph Froehlich spoke to the club. The sheriff recounted episodes from his early career in Elizabeth onwards.

Annual Installation Dinner

June 17, 2009
FSP Rotary Club officers for 2009-2010 were formally installed. The speaker was State Assemblyman John Bramnick.

Alexander Cauwels, the new district governer (left in the photograph) installed 2009-10 officers, Janet Strunk, president (on Cauwels' left), Karen McNally, vice president, John Crisafulli, secretary. Next to John is member Andy Calamaras, a former district governor, then to Andy's left is Steve Goldberg. Treasurer Sean Duffy is at far right.

Also pictured separately, Alexander Cauwels and Janet Strunk.

Semi-Annual Guest Day

June 10, 2009
Linda Stender, Assemblywoman from New Jersey's 22nd District, spoke at the club's semiannual Guest Day, which drew 14 special attendees including Scotch Plains mayor, Nancy Malool.

Ms. Stender recapped the situation in Trenton, where the legislature by the end of June must settle a budget that copes with heightened needs and a revenue shortfall stemming from the economic downturn. On the bright side, she noted that New Jersey is benefiting from the Obama administration's stimulus package which is providing $17.5 billion to the state, including for NJ Transit Hudson River tunnel construction. Ordinarily, she noted, New Jersey is a net supplier of revenue to Federal coffers and rarely gets to tap into Federal outlays in proportion to its contributions. She noted that the tunnel and other changes on the Raritan Valley line to Newark will soon make possible a 'one-seat' ride to New York from the Fanwood-Scotch Plains area -- to result, she expects, in a twenty percent boost to property values. Forces impinging on the state budget at this time will tend to result in policies that induce municipalities to share services rather than duplicate them on a small scale town by town.

Andy Calamaras did a brief presentation explaining the meaning of Rotary for the benefit of guests.

Pictured with their school superintendent and
F-SP Rotarian, Margaret Hayes, are David E. Ringle scholarship winners Michelle Conway and Karthik Kumar.

Rotary Club of Fanwood-Scotch Plains Scholarships

June 3, 2009
F-SP Rotarians hosted the Scotch Plains Fanwood High School seniors whom the club recently recognized with scholarships. The awards had been bestowed at the May 20 Senior Awards Program at the high school by F-SP Rotary members Bob Scalera, Sean Duffy and Blanchard Hiatt.

Fanwood-Scotch Plains Rotary provides three kinds of scholarships. Those who this year received Rotary-Garbe scholarships (each expecting to receive $4,000 in aid during their undergraduate years) were Steven Berger, Charles Ringel, Martin Sweeney, Linda Timko and Brittany Veeck. Recipients of the David E. Ringle Memorial Scholarships were the class valedictorian, Karthik Kumar, and salutatorian, Michelle Conway. Recipient of the F-SP Rotary Turnaround Award was Kevon Paynter.

At the June 3 luncheon the students paused for photographs.