[return to Installation Dinner] I would like to say what an honor it has been to serve you, our members, as President of the Rotary Club of Forked River. I have had a great time this year and it is only because we have such a wonderful club and members. It was an added treat to be President during our 100th Anniversary. There are very few companies in the world that stay at the top of their game all the time. We are one of them. Our club has been able to change with the times, consistently increase membership in a manageable way and maintain the traditions that make our club great. As I look back on the year there were several things that stood out but the one significant item was the success of our fundraisers. Having money certainly makes it easier to provide support. You, our club, have done a great job as usual. Our new fundraiser chaired by Lori Aceto, the Plasma TV Raffle, allowed us to do a lot more this year as it brought in an extra $9,800 into the club. In addition to the raffle, all fundraisers exceeded the budget cumulatively by over $3,000. With the additional monies, our club was able to increase our per child amount from $30 to $75 in the Holiday Elf Program. The Interact students were always creative with what they purchased for the $30 budget, but this year they had a little more flexibility. I will never forget how excited and emotional one of the students was the morning the gifts were delivered, as she was able to get one of the children a bicycle. In addition to increasing our amount, we also were able to include military families in our holiday programs and provide $1,275 worth of gift cards to help them get through a stressful time of the year. We also spent another $1,356 on families who were going through exceptionally bad times. This included a Lacey family Jodi Russo shopped for during Christmas (outside the Elf Program). This family's father was terminally ill and it might very well have been their last Christmas together as a family. The gifts Jodi purchased on behalf of our club were delivered on Christmas Eve by Santa Claus on a fire truck. Another accomplishment we did with the extra income was provide all the third graders in our service area with personal dictionaries (they will be given out at the start of the next school year). About 1.8 million children worldwide have received dictionaries through this project. Getting back to our fundraisers, the first big one of the year was the 5K Run. Bill Ridgway recommended we move the run to the fall (was a spring event) in hopes of increasing the amount of runners. Bill was right, as this event made about 55% more than the previous year. The Autumn Windfall is always a fun event-except when you pull your own ticket like I did last year. Veronica and our MC, Dick Ritchie always do a great job with this event. Mentioned previously, the Elf Program and also our Thanksgiving Food Program have always been the first thing I talk about when someone asks what our club does. John Lorton and his committee including Bill Whitson, Bruce Halliday, Doug Ruhlin, Glenn Candeletti, and Leo Tierney did an incredible job this year with the program. Another special memory for me was the Mid-Year Assembly. Forked River was the first club to induct a member at the Mid-Year assembly. That was exciting but what I remember most was when the "Gift of Life" speaker, who had been at our club the previous week, announced that a child and mother was coming in for heart surgery and Forked River was going to host the child. A little later I found out that Gus Piazza and his wife Debbie had volunteered to host the child and her mother. Please remember that this commitment could be for a few weeks or three to four months. Gus had only been inducted as a member the previous July but wasted no time getting involved in Rotary. Gus and Debbie opened their home up to strangers from another country in order to save the life of a young girl. They are a true Rotarian family in every aspect and I will never forget what they did to help save the life of a young girl. Moving on with the year, Casino Night, chaired by Debbie Edgecomb with assistance from Lori Aceto and Veronica Laureigh was a big success and probably the best run Casino Night to date. Shortly after Casino Night, our friend and fellow Rotarian Stan Cislak passed away unexpectedly. I did not hang out with Stan outside of Rotary but always enjoyed his company. For whatever reason, I was always lucky enough to fall on the same team as Stan during our annual flag program. We always paired up to put out and or take in the flags. I really enjoyed our trips up and down Route 9 and will miss Stan. I encourage everyone to keep in touch with Donna Cislak and their children. In Stan's memory our board this year voted to rename our student of the month program next year to the Stan Cislak Student of the Month. We also had our first Family of Rotary lunch this year. All the spouses and significant other were in attendance during one of our meetings in November. Steve Dunham, our family of Rotary chairperson made an incredible speech. Steve has done a great job this year following up with absent and or ill members of our club. Steve delivered almost every card we sent to ill members personally. If I made one great decision this year, it was to make Steve Dunham our family of Rotary chair. I don't know if anyone realizes it but Tom McGillick has been involved in one program or another almost all year. There is the 13-Run Baseball Pool, the Rotisserie Pool, the Super Bowl Party, the All-Star Pool and all the boxes during football season. Tom also did a great job organizing and running the baseball trip and the Blood Drive. Al Golluscio ran our weekly football pool (I'm not sure how a sports event got away from Tom). I think most of our members enjoy participating in these activities and I have to thank each of them for the time they spend each weekend checking the box scores on ESPN. In the fall, we also did the first "installation" for the Interact Club in recent club history. It was held at the Lacey High School Auditorium. I also want to mention what a great job Chief Flatt did this year as the Interact Chair for our club. Ken was 100% committed to Interact. Ken even rode the bus as a chaperone with the students to all joint Rotary/Interact events. Ken also ran our Job Shadow Program, which has been consistently one of the best in District 7500. One other person I cannot forget is our Sergeant-At-Arms, Don Bochicchio. Every week Don has made sure the podium and banners are setup before the start of our meeting. One of my big pushes this year was to organize our accounting and internal controls. I wanted to make sure we spent this year putting all the procedures together in order and to have this task completed by year-end. Vinnie Layton and Veronica Laureigh did a great job this year working toward those goals as both Foundation and Club Treasurers. I also want to mention that Veronica, on her own time, took classes to help familiarize her with the new systems. Veronica also played a significant role in our Flag Program. Veronica, again on her own time, rode up and down Lacey Road and Route 9 writing down addresses of potential flag program customers for a mailing. Needless to say, we increased the Flag Program this year to 370 sold from last year's 317. The Flag program, even with the purchase of 60 new flags will generate about $9,200 in profit this year (about $1,200 over budget) Giving out the Scholarships at Lacey High School was really special. Between that night and the following week, I must have heard from 40 people who told me what a wonderful job our club does and who were amazed that Rotary is able to give away so much money in scholarships to our students. Another highlight this year was providing a Barnegat resident who has Cerebral Palsy a $12,000 transportation Scholarship (along with the Rotary Clubs of Southern Ocean and Long Beach Island). This enabled her to purchase a handicap accessible van so she can attend a local college this year. This project had been going on for over one year with most of the legwork being done by Connie BeCraft of the LBI Club. It was also nice to see the three clubs recognized in the paper for this project. The newspapers have been very kind to us this year. Including the previously mentioned van project, we have been on the front page of the Lacey Beacon 6 times this year (there might be a 7th coming up as of this writing). We have also had coverage throughout the paper for various events. Lastly, and most importantly, I would like to thank my wife Linda and our children, Danny, Vincent and Victoria. It would be impossible to do this job without their support. Linda always makes me look good by selling all my tickets to our events. I hope I did not forget anyone. I would like to thank each and every one of you for all the hard work this year. I also would like to wish Doug Ruhlin and our 2005-2006 Board of Directors the best of luck. I know Doug and the Board will do well. With our group of members who understand better then most what "Service Above Self" means, it makes the job of President of the Rotary Club of Forked River a real pleasure. Yours in Rotary, Dan Cortese
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