Norfolk Rotary was among the individuals and groups feted by VOLUNTEER Hampton Roads on Wednesday night at the Founders Inn. Representing the club were Susan Donn, past president, Sally Hartman, president-elect, and Sigur Whitaker, president.
In 2014, the club:
Provided funds to save the Calvert Square Boys & Girls Club from closure.
Funded literacy labs in two Title 1 Norfolk Public Schools.
Started the Rotary Smiles pilot to provide dentures to low income residents
Provided a grant to the Slover Foundation for the new library
Two volunteer days at the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia.
Plantings to stabilize a pond shoreline at the Virginia Tech Extension Center
A bit of jet lag may have hit our guest of honor on April 14. Major Tom spent most of our meeting sprawled on the floor snoozing while his owner Victoria Melody, a British beauty pageant contestant, delighted our club with tales of her eight-year romp through life with him.
Our club was the first stop in the United States for Victoria and Major, an 84-pound Basset hound. They hail from Brighton and perform in a one-woman/one-dog show that has drawn rave reviews overseas and has jumped the pond to make its U.S. debut in Norfolk. A few hours after our meeting, the duo opened to a sold-out audience the first of its seven-night run of the Victoria Melody: Major Tomcomedy show for Virginia Arts Festival. The show runs through Sunday at the Robin Hixon Theater in the arts festival building across from Scope. http://www.vafest.org/2015/2015-performances/genre-theatre/major-tom-2015
At our meeting Victoria gave a sneak peek into her show. She drew parallels between Major's life as a dog show contestant and her stint as an adult beauty pageant contestant. He was judged for the size of his rib cage; she was judged for the size of her bottom. While neither was welcomed to the show or pageant circuit, our club made up for that with its enthusiasm. Club members' questions let us learn these tidbits about Major:
His plane ticket costs three times what Victoria's does.
He travels in a giant lion's crate and has his own puppy passport.
He always does what he wants, which includes sleeping through our meeting.
Major did perk up and went running when Bill McInnis came forward with the raffle bag to make Bernie Cohen the daily winner. Afterwards, Major and Victoria worked the room and connected with our members.
In other club news:
We welcomed new member Steve Schultz, a Michigan native, who recently moved to East Beach and is vice president of sales at Yupo Corp. in Chesapeake, which manufactures synthetic paper. He moved to our region from Greenville, S.C. where he was active in a Rotary Club.
We gave Harry McCoy a standing ovation when he celebrated 60 years of Rotary happiness by donating to Norfolk Rotary Charities and noting that he joined our club on April 14, 1955.
We were happy to have three visitors -- Michelle Nettles (Dona Overstreet's guest), Dave Hinton (Dalton Dunbar's guest) and Walt Sobczyk. Michelle and Walt were being voted on at our meeting along with Dyteya Lewis.
VOLUNTEER Hampton Roads is honoring our club at a Wednesday dinner as one of its outstanding volunteers.
Lynne Berg thanked our club for its recent grant to Primeplus Norfolk Senior Center, which is paying for a sink and cabinet for the art room at the center.
Mary Raiss gave details on the upcoming Virginia Zoo outing set for this Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. Admission is free for members and their guests.
Laurie Harrison announced that April 28 is the deadline to order Rotary shirts in the color of your choice. The cost is $38.
Diane Wallach let us know that four high school students from the Tiel, Netherlands Rotary Club will be our guests from July 12 to July 25. She is recruiting host families and other members to help with activities while the students are in our region. Our students will visit The Netherlands next summer.
Sigur Whittaker reminded us that just over half of our club members have donated this year to The Rotary Foundation. Reminder emails have gone out to club members who have not donated in our club's quest to continue its Every Rotarian Every Year (EREY) donation status and do great work around the globe. Gifts of any size are welcome.
We learned during Congratulations and Fines that Bob Powell's wife has a new car, life is good in many areas for Michael Desplaines, Sharon Laderberg is busy with special Susan G. Komen events, Barb Lipskis highly recommends the Virginia Stage Company production, Sigur's college campus has been named the most beautiful by Buzzfeed, Jim Clary is excited to welcome Steve Schultz because he is another economist who loves sailing, and the latest Veer magazine features photos from our Suds & Buds party.
