Welcome to the Second Century of the Rotary Club of Summit/New Providence
 
Rotary is an organization of business and professional leaders united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and try to build goodwill and peace in the world.
 
Rotary club membership represents a cross-section of the community's business and professional men and women. The world's Rotary clubs meet weekly or biweekly and are nonpolitical, nonreligious, and open to all.
 
Rotary membership provides the opportunity to become connected to your community, work with others in addressing community needs, interact with other professionals in your community, assist with Rotary International's humanitarian service efforts, establish contacts with an international network of professionals, and develop leadership skills.
 
Locally, the Summit/New Providence Club has been involved with community projects dating back to the Club’s founding on October 22, 1922.  Indeed, our Club has been offering financial aid to local high school students since 1926 (see Home Page Download files below - Our Scholarships - view all recipients for 99 years) and we just handed out our most recent scholarships on June 10th of 2024, to five deserving students from the Summit and New Providence High Schools.  While the majority of our efforts go into education, we are also involved in other projects, both community-wide and with Rotary International in such areas as student exchange and leadership programs. Internationally, we help fund our parent organization in its thirty year, and counting, ongoing effort to eradicate polio as well as a specific project initiated by Summit Rotarians to build and equip a school in a rural and impoverished area of the Indian subcontinent.
 
About Our Club

We meet In Person
Mondays at 12:15 PM
Christ Church
561 Springfield Avenue
Summit, NJ 07901
United States of America
Phone:
(908) 337-9536
Email:
info@snprotary.org
Alternating Mondays - Please verify before visiting
District Site
Bulletins
Venue Map

May 2025

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Home Page Download Files
Club News
Office-Block Ballots Explained
Posted by James Fleischmann on May 05, 2025
Our speaker was Joanne Rajappi, county clerk, Union county, NJ.  Joanne has had a long and distinguished career in public service.  She was elected mayor of Springfield in 1977, and in 1980, became the first female chair of the Union county Board of Freeholders.  She was elected to her current position in 1995 and has been re-elected five times, thereby serving in the position for thirty years, and she will run for re- election in 2025.
 
Today’s topic was the complete redesign of the primary ballots for the Democratic party.  New Jersey had a unique ballot design where candidates endorsed by county political parties were grouped together in a single line or column.  This structure was criticized for giving a significant advantage to party-backed candidates, effectively diminishing the influence of those running independently.  Congressman Andy Kim challenged the configuration of the ballots in court and a federal judge agreed that the county line format was unconstitutional.  This led to the creation of “office-block ballots,” where candidates are grouped by the office they are seeking.   Governor Murphy signed a bill requiring block ballots into law and this June it will take effect.
 
For those interested in knowing more about Joanne’s long and prolific career in public service you can go to: https://ucnj.org/county-clerk/about-the-county-clerk/ .  To view a sample ballot for the upcoming primary on June 10th, visit: https://unioncountyvotes.com/sample-ballots-for-the-june-10-2025-primary-election/ and find your town and ward.
 
We greatly appreciate Joanne spending time with us and answering the many questions the Rotarians had on this and other related subjects.
Ann-Marie Aymer, Joanne, David Dietze & Susan Haig
The Connection
Posted by James Fleischmann on Apr 21, 2025
 Our speaker today was Chris Bonner, CEO, The Connection.

 Chris started off with a short biography of his journey to becoming the head of one of Summit’s crown jewels.  He was raised by a single mom and things were tight –    organizations like the Connection were a beneficial part of his early life.  After university he enlisted in the US Army and flew helicopters.  After his Army hitch was up, he  enlisted in the Coast Guard.  In total, he served for twenty years, primarily in search and rescue assignments.  After leaving the service he earned a master’s degree in education and began working in the field in Newark.  In 2019, he was appointed head of operation for Kent Place School and five years later, accepted the position as CEO of The Connection.

 Chris then spent the rest of his time discussing The Connection, a 102-year-old very family-oriented facility (The Connection was formerly the Summit YWCA).  The bulk of the members are young – tots to teens.  There are a multitude of activities from dance to summer camp.  On any given weekday between 2pm and 6pm, there can be as many as four hundred kids in the after-school program the Connection runs for Summit Public schools and various classes in the main building.  The Connection is a 501c3 and scholarship are available for those who need them.  There are currently forty-five kids with special needs receiving an assortment of assistance, and there are also a host of classes and activities ranging from dance to swimming for all ages.  English as a second language is also hosted at The Connection and has been for decades.  Finally, The Connection hosts Pathways, a program that provides free support, education, and wellness programs for women with cancer.  Indeed, The Connection provides education, support, and wellness to all the residents of Summit.  (By the way, Chris is the first male CEO in 102 years.)
 
The Danger of Plastics
Posted by James Fleischmann on Apr 07, 2025
Today’s speaker was Lois Kraus.  Lois is Co-chair of the Westfield Green Team and a retired science teacher and current board of NJ Science Convention, Rutgers Tree Steward, Rutgers Master Gardener and Rutgers Environmental Steward.
 
Her topic was omnipresent plastics in our society and the increasing danger they pose to the environment and our physical health.
Here are a few of the dangers:

1.    Chemical leaching and migration of bisphenol can lead to infertility, certain cancers, metabolic disorders and neurological issues.
2.    Plasticizers used to make plastics flexible (used in food packaging films, containers, and some utensils) can cause hormone imbalances, reproductive issues in men, and neurodevelopmental issues.
3.    Other Additives: Various other chemicals added for color, stability, or other properties can leach, with potentially unknown or understudied health effects.
4.    The ingestion of microplastics and nano plastics and through dermal absorption can also lead to a host of issues including these chemical depositing in the brain and other vital organs causing inflammation and system effects.
 
Single use food packaging and utensils, especially when exposed to heat, exacerbates leeching.  
 
Vulnerable populations include infants, pregnant women and people with preexisting conditions.
 
Lois offered a few suggestions:  bring your own container when buying coffee (NJ law no requires stores to use clients’ containers if requested), skip the stuff – when ordering out, request no plastic utensils (use your own), and support legislation to require manufacturers to use less plastic in packaging - roughly 40% of all packaging is unnecessary and wasteful.
 
The ever-increasing reliance on plastic packaging and utensils may pose a significant and multifaceted threat to human health. 
 
We appreciate Lois bringing this serious matter to our attention.
 
SVFAS
Posted by James Fleischmann on Mar 17, 2025
 
Our speakers today were two senior representatives of the Summit Volunteer First Aid Squad: Laura Benevento, Chief of the Squad, and Leah Griffith, President of the board of trustees.

The presentation began with a brief overview of the Squad’s history.  It was started by two Summit residents, Sis Barker and Betty Bangs, in 1962.  From the outset, it was an all-volunteer operation.  Overlook hospital donated an old ambulance and the City assisted in finding space for the construction of a facility to house the equipment and volunteers.  Over the years the squad grew and added responsibilities as well as coordinated with other similar operations in nearby communities.
 
Today, the Squad has eighty adult members, thirty-one affiliate and junior members, three ambulances and one special purpose vehicle.  They are on call seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day.  Each responding volunteer is trained to become an EMT.  There are no specific requirements to becoming a volunteer.  There is a program for young people to volunteer with the possibility of graduating into the full program.  In addition to the eighty adult members and thirty-one affiliate and junior members, there are one hundred and fifty-three retired members.  So, the roots of this organization run deep in Summit.

The Squad receives no funding from the City or State – it is all volunteer and operates on a budget of approximately $450,000 a year which does not include its capital expenditures – a new ambulance costs well over $400,000, fully equipped.  Revenues come from community support as well as grants from various foundations.

In 2024, the Squad responded to over two thousand calls of various intensity, including twelve CPRs.  When emergencies strike, be they fires, car accidents, at home crises and/or traumas, our Summit Volunteer First Aid Squad is there to assist in a variety of capacities.
 
We thank Laura and Leah for visiting and informing the Rotarians of the outstanding service they provide to Summit and the surrounding communities.  For a further look at the Squad, visit their website at:  https://summitems.org/
 
   Laura Benevento, Leah Griffith, David Dietze & Susan Haig
 

 
Pollinators in Peril
Posted by James Fleischmann on Mar 03, 2025
Deb Ellis, founder of the Essex County chapter of the Native Plant Society of New Jersey and a Yale and NYU Law graduate, delivered a compelling presentation today on "Pollinators in Peril: How You Can Help With Native Plants and Other Easy Efforts." Driven by her passion for ecological restoration, as evidenced by her LinkedIn assertion that "we can each help heal Mother Earth by the simple act of planting flowers, bushes, and trees that are native to our area," Deb provided actionable insights into reversing the alarming decline of bird and insect populations. She highlighted the devastating impact of pesticides and invasive plants, offering simple solutions like avoiding insecticides, using yellow outdoor lighting, and embracing native flora. Deb emphasized the importance of native species like violets, milkweed, and golden rod in supporting pollinators, including the endangered monarch butterfly. Her message: simple changes, like reducing lawn treatments and planting native species, can make a significant difference. For a deeper dive into her impactful presentation, please see the accompanying hyperlink that will open the slide deck .
50/50 Raffle
Posted by James Fleischmann on Feb 13, 2025
It's that time again.  The SNP Rotary will participate in the District's 50/50 Raffle.  The Club will receive one half of the pot.  All Club proceeds will go to fund our various educational programs.  Every Rotarian is being asked to participate.
Our Dictionary Project
Posted by James Fleischmann on Feb 12, 2025
Today we delivered 475 English language and 10 English/Spanish dictionaries to the New Providence and Summit school districts.  Every third-grader in each district will receive a copy of one of these dictionaries which have been specifically designed to be used by children in the age range of eight to nine.  The instructors love this project as the dictionaries are now considered to be an excellent teaching tool for building vocabulary and enhancing referencing skills.
Neela's Path from pathology to Water Colors
Posted by James Fleischmann on Feb 10, 2025
 Neela Pushparaj has had a fascinating life.  From a small child from a small village in prewar India, Neela, one of nine children, overcame many hurdles, including financial hardship, as well as social and   cultural norms not conducive to the advancement of women.  However, she persevered, received an education as a doctor, emigrated to the United States in 1963 to further her education, met and married Gus (who had a similar amazing journey), became a highly respected pathologist and at the age of 49, embarked on an artistic avocation that eventually led her to becoming a successful water color artist represented by various New York galleries and with a global following.  Neela has several excellent websites where you can see some of her works.  In today's presentation, Neela showed us some of her water color    techniques.  She always has an idea of how a painting will appear but because she uses a method where colors merge on a damp canvas, the final product is always a bit of a surprise.
 
 Here are several links with much more detail about her life and art: https://www.findatopdoc.com/doctor/84727730-Neelavathy-Pushparaj-Pathologist  -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlbbl2i80N4   -   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Px3GKR0vpE
SNP Rotary Officer Slate for 2025/26
Posted by James Fleischmann on Feb 03, 2025
Today we elected our slate of officers for the fiscal year - 2026.  They include:
 
President-elect Mort OShea (stepping up for a second time as president – thank you, Mort)
Secretary, Joe Steiner
Treasurer, Jim Fleischmann
Vice President, Peter Bolton 
David Dietze will remain on the Board as Past President.
 
                Mort OShea
 
Examining the State of Local News in NJ
Posted by James Fleischmann on Feb 03, 2025
  Our speaker was Marc H. Pfeiffer.  Marc is the Senior Policy Fellow and Faculty Researcher, Bloustein Local Government, Center for Urban Policy Research.   Prior  to his retirement, Marc spent 37 years in New Jersey local government administration, having served as a municipal administrator in several municipalities, and 26 years in the Division of Local Government Services, the state’s local government oversight agency.  At DLGS he served as Deputy Director for 14 years, and periodically as Acting Director.
 
  Marc discussed the state of local news reporting in New Jersey.  He began by noting how all local news media has shrunk materially over the past twenty or so years.  Digital communications and digital on-line shopping have severely cut into the print media’s ability to survive, especially at the local level.  Print media always required advertising from local merchants to support its capital-intensive operations.  Amazon, et.al., has eaten into the model.  He went on to discuss the obvious negative implications of not having adequate local reporting, especially as it relates to government oversight – who’s keeping our elected officials honest?  He summarized the problem by quoting the masthead from the Washington Post – ‘Democracy dies in the dark.’
 
  However, he was becoming more optimistic.  He believes local news coverage is bottoming out.  The media is adapting.  Print is migrating to a digital format and the publishers are beginning to figure out how to operate within the digital world and how to develop digital advertising with local businesses.  There are different constructs – for profit and not-for-profit.  And clearly, the curation of content remains an issue.  Nevertheless, Marc believes local news is beginning to recover, albeit slowly.
 
  During Q&A there was much discussion of bias.  He noted engines like Facebook, Instagram, and similar aggregators simply sweep up whatever is in the domain.  The information is not curated.  The reader is then subject to whatever bias is contained in the content.  So, checking the source is critical to staying informed with facts versus opinion.
 
  It was an informative and enlightening presentation – much appreciated by the Rotarians.
 
After a Minor Glitch, Another Successful Blood Drive
Posted by Joe Steiner on Jan 20, 2025
 
On Monday, January 20th, the SNP Rotary held its annual blood drive. We had a goal of 45 donations.  We achieved 42, with two deferrals.
   
Our thanks to the officials at Christ Church who did their best to overcome the heat issues in the building which resulted in a delay in starting the drive for about a half hour.  Rules are that they cannot begin unless the room is over 64 degrees and it was about 56.   After having the doors closed for a while the temperature increased enough for them to proceed.  (Cold conditions and the doors being open for the equipment loading dropped the temperature).
 
A special thanks to the church music director who contacted the building chair (Lew), who did his best to help out and to Brenda and Pastor Chuck for allowing us access.
 
And, thanks also to the following members who assisted with various tasks …..  Susan Watts, Christie Hodde, Jim Fleischmann, Joe Steiner, Mike Katz and his wife Jackie Wechter, and Beth Welsh
 
Neela Donates Painting to Summit Speech School
Posted by James Fleischmann on Jan 14, 2025
SNP Rotary's resident artist, Neela Pushparaj, poses with one of her outstanding water-colors which she has given to the Summit Speech School (SSS).
 
After a decades long career as a pathologist, Dr. Pushparaj took up water-color painting at age 49, perfecting her technique, to bring to life works that range from the semi-abstract to the fully abstract. Neela's works have become very popular and her paintings hang in homes and galleries all over the world.
 
Later this week, she will travel to India to attend a reunion of her medical school class and to celebrate her birthday (her 39th) with friends and some family members - bon voyage, Neela.
 
Ray Dorso , ExDir. SSS, David Dietze, President SNP Rotary, Neela & Jim Fleischmann
SNP Rotarians Present Some Background on Themselves
Posted by James Fleischmann on Jan 13, 2025
Today we had the pleasure of having three of our newer Rotarians share a bit of their backgrounds with us.
 
First up was Bradley Eich - Brad is a financial advisor with the McKenna Group, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch.  He is a certified financial planner (CFP) with over twenty years of experience.  He has worked for JP Morgan/Chase, and Wells Fargo before joining ML in 2021.  As a wealth manager, Brad helps his clients with investment and liability management as well as retirement planning, tax minimization, and estate planning.  Brad and his wife have two school age kids and he assists their respective schools by coaching his daughter's lacrosse team and his son's wrestling and football teams.
 
Next, we heard from Francie Cho, our newest member.  Francie studied physics and astronomy at Yale and was planning to pursue an advanced degree in astrophysics, but as happens, life got in the way.  She married, had four children and along the way became an actuary (lots of math - so the early training didn't go to waste), a job she thoroughly enjoyed.  She has also been quite active in Summit's civic life and currently serves on Summit's environmental commission and is the president of the Luminary Fund which just announced that in 2024, they raised $142,000.  All of the funds, after minor expenses, will be distributed to a variety of Summit's non-profit organizations.
 
Finally, we heard from Henrik Patel.  Henrik is an attorney and Global Head of White & Case's Employment, Compensation and Benefits practice where he advises clients on executive compensation and employee benefits issues. He and his wife, Donna (another Rotarian), have two young children.  Henrik says his job is fairly strenuous and to relax he is an avid golfer.  He estimates he played about 95 rounds in 2024 - that should have reduced a lot of stress.
 
We welcome our new members and appreciate their willingness to share some of their life stories with us.
 
                     Brad
 
                   Francie
                  Henrik
NPHS and ALL That Jazz
Posted by James Fleischmann on Dec 16, 2024
  As in so many holiday seasons past, the New Providence high school’s music department shared the many musical talents of their students and teachers with the SNP Rotary.

In addition to the music department, present were newly appointed superintendent of schools, Lauren Zirpoli (the Rotary offers our congratulations to Lauren on her promotion to superintendent) and Brian Henry, principal of NPHS.  They were joined by about twenty-five Rotarians and guests.

The concert started with three seasonal numbers by the Swingin’ Strings under the direction of Ben Rubens.  This was followed by a solo song (with jazz accompaniment) by Kylie Freeman.

The Jazz choir followed with three more numbers, under the direction of Scott Ziegler.  There were several outstanding solos as well as one wonderful scat rendition.

Finally, the jazz band, under the direction of Michael Niedziejko, played two numbers and brought the house down (in a manner of speaking).

The Rotarians so appreciate the NPHS students and their terrific instructors sharing their talents with us.  We wish the students, their teachers and the administrators a healthy, safe and happy holiday and new year.
 
The Swingin' Strings
 
Ms. Freeman & accompaniment
 
The Jazz Choir
 
The Jazz Band
Inter-Club Holiday Program
Posted by James Fleischmann on Dec 09, 2024
On Monday, we hosted our annual joint Lions/Rotary Holiday Luncheon and were again privileged to be entertained by the Summit High School Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Choir.  Our emcees were Peter Twill, Lions president and David Dietze, Rotary president.

We were honored by the presence of several special guests including Summit mayor, Elizibeth Fagan, Summit schools superintendent, Scott Hough, principal Stacy Grimaldi, and city council member Claire Toth.  Additionally, approximately twenty-five Rotarians and Lions were in attendance.

The Chamber orchestra started the program with the Chanukah Festival Overture by Calvin Custer.  This was followed by the Chamber Choir singing three numbers, A Holly Jolly Christmas, Bim Bom (an Israeli folk song) and Silver Bells, featuring a solo by Ben Schachne.  The orchestra then played White Christmas followed by In the Bleak Winter by Gustav Holst with solos by Julia Mohecha, Isabella Kim, Emma Vachal and Hatikvah with a second solo by Julia Mohecha.  The choir then sang three more numbers, Silent Night, the Angel Medley and I’ll be Home for Christmas with a solo by Rose Goeta.  The orchestra finished the program by playing The Christmas Song.

As always, the talent and dedication of the students left us in awe.  None of this would have been possible without the extraordinary guidance of their instructors, Ms. Neveno Bojovic (Orchestra) and Ms. Mary-Lynne Rhodes (Choir).

The Lions and the Rotarians greatly appreciate the Choir and Orchestra sharing their wonderful musical gifts with us and we wish them – and everyone - a joyous holiday season and healthy and prosperous New Year.
 
The Chamber Choir
The Chamber Orchestra
The Summit Foundation
Posted by James Fleischmann on Nov 18, 2024
 
Today’s speaker was Dana Turk, President of the board of trustees of the Summit Foundation (TSF).

Dana gave an overview of the Foundation.  It was created in 1972 by a group of local residents and progressed slowly.  In its first decade it made grants of roughly $37,000.  However, it continued to attract donors, merged with another 501c3 in the 1980s and by 1992, has assets of about one million dollars.  Fast forward to today, and TSF has assets of twenty-one million dollars and distributed grants of more than ten million dollars over the past decade.

TSF manages donor directed endowments as well as an unrestricted pool of money.  TSF has assisted dozens of not-for-profit organizations in Summit and the surrounding areas of Union county.  Grants have been made to the Y, the Connection, Visual Art Center, the Parkline, Overlook Hospital, Hometown Heros, the Reeves-Reed Arboretum, Summit Speech School, Community Food Bank, Bridges, Grace, SAGE, the new fire house, and many, many more.  In addition, they give roughly a hundred and fifty thousand dollars yearly in scholarships, primarily through donor directed endowments.

The Foundation employs a bookkeeper and pays a low management fee to an outside professional fund manager and all the other work is done by the trustees, at no cost to the Foundation.  Approximately ninety cents of every dollar collected goes to their grant and scholarship recipients.

TSF is also in an excellent position to help the community in times of crisis.  During COVID, TSF was in the lead in raising funds to assist our local merchants survive the near cessation of commercial activity in the downtown area.  Many survived because of this initiative.

For those interested in learning more about TSF, here are two excellent resources, the website: www.summitforever.org/, and a recently made Hometown TV video about TSF: www.youtube.com/watch?v=R07NknV3fQ8 .
 
Jim Fleischmann, Rotarian & TSF board member, Amy DiSibio, TSF board member, Dana Turk, Rotary President, David Dietze & former TSF board member
 
SNP Rotary Holds Club Assembly
Posted by James Fleischmann on Nov 04, 2024
 
 
 
Today we held a Club Assembly for the purpose of discussing the SNP Rotary’s future.  Topics up for consideration were reversing declining membership, should we continue with ongoing service projects, potential new service projects, changes in meeting frequency & venue, how dues are assessed, and raising our profile through advertising and potentially partnering with other local service organizations.

The discussion began with some data regarding membership globally, nationally and in New Jersey.  Rotary is growing in parts of Asia such as India, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Korea, but stagnant in places like Brazil, Mexico, and Italy, and shrinking, materially, in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and Japan.  Rotary has shrunk by roughly 30+% in New Jersy over the past several decades.  Twenty years ago, NJ had seven districts.  Today there are three districts, and we are expected to contract to a single statewide district in 2026.  In 2005, there were 7302 Rotarians in NJ.  Today that figure has fallen to 4460 and the demographics are not favorable.  It was noted that many other social and religious organizations are experiencing the same loss of membership – we are not alone.

The SNP Rotary has decreased from roughly fifty regular members fifteen years ago to thirty members, today, with five honorary members.  Regular weekly attendance varies from ten to fifteen.
At today’s assembly, we had eighteen in attendance and all members participated in a lively discussion.
 
We began by noting we have given out scholarships for one hundred years – something we are all proud of, but the Summit zip code shows nearly three hundred 501(c)3 organizations, and many of them distribute scholarships.  We are not unique in this endeavor.  It was suggested we may consider finding other ways to employ our limited resources.  Several members were open to this, but there was also push-back.  It was suggested we could perhaps limit scholarships to the InterAct club which could also be a boost to the significantly reduced membership of that club in the high school.  This topic will be open for discussion over the next several months, or possibly longer.
There were suggestions about advertising.  We have never advertised, but there are low-cost/no-cost avenues available to us.  We also have a very limited social media presence.  Happily, one of our members volunteered to undertake a venture into this area– a most positive development.  There was also a suggestion to see if we could get local real estate brokers to make their clients aware of our Club.

We discussed a variety of methods to assess dues, possibly eliminating the up-front annual payment for meals and moving to pay-as-you-eat; this creates other problems in scheduling but could be dealt with.  We talked about more evening meetings at venues with a cash bar – many people simply find lunch difficult – we can alternate between lunch and evenings.

We discussed partnering with other like-minded organizations such as the Junior Leage, the Chamber of Commerce or possibly other near-by Rotary Clubs – all unexplored opportunities.
There was general agreement that to increase membership we needed to revitalize our reason for being.  We have structure, organization, and members with solid ties to the community.  We all realize there are many needs in and around Summit.  We have the ability to identify them and as a 100-year-old service organization, the capacity to become a more relevant factor.  We also discussed that this is only the first step in a longer journey and if we don’t have buy-in by a majority of our members, not much will change.

This was a good start.  One must identify a problem before it can be fixed.  We’ll see what happens and have a follow up meeting to check our progress in about six months.  In the interim, we will begin to shape our second century.
Club Assembly November 4th
 
 
 
 
 
This coming Monday, the SNP Rotary will have a club assembly to discuss the direction of the Club.
 
In the US, many social organizations from long established religious congregations to numerous social organizations like the Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis, etc., have been loosing membership.  Our Club is no exception.
 
We will be discussing what steps we can take to revitalize our service efforts to both benefit our community and have a reason to recruit new members.
 
Please plan to be there and contribute to the discussion.
 
 
DG Jeannie Tsukamoto Visits SNP Rotary
Posted by James Fleischmann on Oct 21, 2024
 
Today we had the pleasure of being addressed by our District Governor, Jeannie Tsukamoto.
 
Jeannie spent a good part of her time walking us through the abundance of information contained on the district 7475 web site.  There is information ranging from demographics to membership numbers, info on every club, suggestions for speakers, information regarding grant applications, Rotary finance, projects, insurance, and a host of other things, i.e., a large repository of very useful information.
 
The most pressing issue facing Rotary in the US is declining membership.  We are not alone; membership in social clubs and many other long-established institutions, including many religious organizations, have been suffering from attrition in membership for decades.  On this topic, Jeannie noted that there have been huge changes in the past twenty-five years from technology to numerous social attitudes, i.e., things have changed and Rotary has to change if we are to remain relevant.  She noted we must set priorities, adapt to be impactful and participate where needed – we are primarily a service organization.
 
Suggestions included doing a community assessment, partnering with other non-profits and other Rotary Clubs and networking.
 
Jeannies’ visit was timely as it precedes our next meeting, a club assembly, to discuss these very matters – how are we going to change to remain relevant.
 
We thank DG Tsukamoto for sharing her thoughts with us.
 
Republican Candidates for City Council Address SNP Rotary
Posted by James Fleischmann on Oct 14, 2024
        Don Nelson
 
       Mark Gunderson
 
 
Today, we had the second half of our ‘meet the candidates’ program.  Our speakers were the Republican candidates for City Council, Don Nelson, ward one, and Mark Gunderson, ward two.
 
Don led off with a brief introduction of himself – born, raised, and educated in Summit.  Don joined the fire department in 1986 and rose to deputy chief before retiring in 2022. He has been deeply involved in many of the City’s activities including coaching athletics, serving on the parking commission and for six years as the City’s coordinator of emergency management.  Don and his wife Rose raised five children in Summit.
 
Don’s agenda as a member of council is to first maintain the general character of Summit.  He favors adding, modestly, to both the police force and fire department to keep these units able to meet their increasing demands, enforcing traffic and parking ordinances, getting more assistance from the County with our unhoused population, and realistic and responsible property development.
 
Mark was raised in Bernardsville.  He and his wife, Lucy, and son John are now Summit residents with strong ties to the community.  He currently serves on the City’s Economic Development Advisory Committee, is a member of the Summit Downtowners’ Association, and has served as a volunteer head coach in the Summit Softball & Baseball League.
 
His background is in finance.  Mark began his career in investment banking and is currently co-owner of a financial firm focused on funding small and mid-sized businesses. 
Mark believes he can use his financial background to promote fiscal responsibility and assist Summit’s local businesses.  Like Don, he wants to emphasis safety and security and ensure responsible development.
 
Summit is fortunate to have four outstanding candidates running for two seats.  The Rotary greatly appreciates their willingness to serve as our representatives and to share their thoughts with us.
 
Democratic Candidates for City Council Address SNP Rotary
Posted by James Fleischmann on Oct 07, 2024
 
 
Michell
Claire
 
Today we had two speakers, the Democratic candidates running for Summit City Council, Michelle Kalmanson and Claire Toth.
Each candidate made introductory comments and then they answered questions.
 
Michelle is a six-year resident of Summit.  She and her husband have two young children in the public schools, ages 9 and 12.  She has been active in the City: President of the PTO, Washington school, past chair of the Santa Claus Shop, member of the Wilson Primary PTO and an active participant in the effort to prevent the lighting of Tatlock field because of the intrusion it would bring to the residents in the immediate area of the field.  It was the Tatlock experience that prompted her to run for council.  Michelle will attempt to bring greater transparency to issues affecting neighborhoods.  She will also strive to make fair and equitable decisions and make civility in City government a prime objective.  Michelle is the ward one candidate.
 
Claire Toth is a 28-year resident of Summit (she is also the wife of Rotary president, David Dietze).  She has recently retired from Peapack-Gladstone bank where she was head of Private Wealth Management.  Claire is a lawyer with a specialty in tax law.  In addition to her professional activities, she has been active in many of Summit’s non-profits including SAGE, Summit Downtown, Family Promise, the city zoning board, and several others.  Claire wants to bring her considerable experience in fiscal and budgetary matters as well as her non-profit understanding to bear on city government.  Among several issues she feels needs more attention are both traffic and pedestrian safety and environmental resilience, especially storm water management.  Claire is the candidate for ward two.
 
We appreciate the candidates taking the time to share their campaign thoughts with us.
 
We will hear from the Republican candidates for city council next week on the 14th of October.
Free Covid Test Kits Available Again
Posted on Oct 08, 2024
 
The Federal Government is again offering free covid test kits.  Simply go to www.covidtest.gov and fill out a very simple form.  You will be sent four kits by USPS.  These are a new test designed to be sensitive to the newer variants of the virus.
The Rose House
Posted by James Fleischmann on Sep 23, 2024
       David Dietze, Beth McKenna & Tom Mitchell
 
 
Our speaker today was Tom Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer of the Rose House, a Morris Plains non-profit organization providing adults with special needs supervised housing where they can live independent lives.
 
The Rose House is celebrating twenty-five years of offering its residents the opportunities to live and work in the community while receiving the extra assistance they require to maintain their independence.  Services are offered to “no-behavioral” special needs individuals.  Facilities include individual apartments, maintained by the residents and assistance where needed such as food shopping, transportation, administrative details, etc.
 
Finances are primarily provided by Medicaid and donations.  Staff costs are the bulk of expenses and staff turnover is only 12% compared to 44%, nationally, for similar organizations.
 
We were impressed with the work being done by the Rose House and thank Tom for his illuminating presentation.  Further information can be found on their website: https://therosehouse.org .
 
Volunteers Needed for Special Project
Posted by James Fleischmann on Sep 10, 2024
 
 
 
Rotary has an opportunity to assist in a very special local project - this is a "one-off", it requires no experience, no heavy lifting and no money!
 
As explained by Donna Patel, Chair of the Summit Environmental Commission and fellow Rotarian, "the Summit Library started a Native Seed Library last year, and the Tiny Forest is one of the sources to replenish the seeds. The Native Seed Library is available to the public - people are allowed to take up to 3 seed packets (and then hopefully provide seeds back once their plants thrive). 
 
Many seeds have been collected but are still waiting to be sorted into smaller numbers of seeds and labelled for distribution. 
 
There was a couple committed to sorting and then they moved or are no longer available. This project would be ideal for Rotarians as it’s indoors and can be done together as a group at the Library or as a take-home project. 
 
You can read more about the Native Seed Library and partnership with the Tiny Forest here: https://www.tapinto.net/towns/summit/articles/summit-environmental-commission-library-partner-to-expand-native-seed-collection. "
 
If you would like to volunteer you can simply call the Library, 908-273-0350 or contact Donna directly at dgp212@gmail.com.
Also, the Library will hold a special training meeting on 15 October 2024, essentially, a "how to" session.  Times are 10AM with a possible 2PM.
 
Read more...
Summit's Hometown Heroes
Posted by James Fleischmann on Sep 09, 2024
   
Today’s speaker was Michael Arlein, Summit resident and head of Summit’s Hometown Heroes program.  The original Hometown Heroes Banner program first ran in Harrisburg, PA in 2006.  In 2017, it was    brought to Michael’s attention by a friend and City council member that New providence was participating in the program and suggested Summit should, also.  Long story short, Michael volunteered to head the program.  He joined with other interested Summit residents, veterans, and organizations such as the American Legion and the Summit Foundation to begin the process.  The City supported the project, but it had to be privately financed.  Michael and his committee then raised the $20,000 needed to seed the project and set the ground rules for participation.  There were issues ranging from the type of brackets to use for displaying large photos of the vets to who should be eligible to participate.  These were eventually worked out and the program has been successfully running, honoring Summits many veterans for the past eight years.  Currently there are about 150 banners (two photos per banner) installed on several of Summit's streets and avenues, honoring roughly three hundred veterans.  The banners are displayed during the warmer months and then stored to avoid weather damage.  There are many veterans in Rotary, and we greatly appreciate Michael’s efforts.
Millburn Students on Ecology
Posted by James Fleischmann on Aug 26, 2024
 
Our speakers today were five high school students from Millburn HS, Pingry, and the Lawrenceville school.  They are all members of Eco-Ambassadors, an organization co-founded by Dr. Radhika Iyengar, director of education at Columbia University – Earth’s Institute Center for Sustainable Development, and a group of Millburn residents.  These highly accomplished young men and women are civic leaders who attend Millburn council meetings, create videos and podcasts to raise awareness about ecology, and foster healthier communities and ecosystems.
 
Each spoke for several minutes about their science and ecology research and action as members of Millburn’s ‘Green Team’ and positioned their comments in the context of Rotary’s 4-Way test.  The speakers, in alphabetical order are: Anvi Anand, Ishaan Bharadwaj, Suvid Bordia, Ayan Dalmia, and Aaryan Jain.  They all have very impressive resumes, and we greatly appreciate their inputs to further the nation’s collective efforts to combat environmental mis-management.
Learning About the Nation's Food Banks
Posted by James Fleischmann on Jul 29, 2024
Today’s speaker was Chris Costanzo, the founder and editor of Food Bank News, an online publication dedicated to seeking and sharing knowledge of best practices about hunger relief among a national audience which she started in 2019.  The website receives 10,000 visits a month and the bi-weekly newsletter has 7,000 subscribers.  Chris spent decades as a magazine and newspaper editor, reporter and freelance writer, and more recently began volunteering at her local food pantry and hunger-relief agency.  She lives in NJ and is a Cornell graduate.
 
Chris presented a highly informative discussion about the Nation’s national food banks.  She had four main points.  First, the US government’s program to fight food insecurity is actually ten times bigger than the nation’s combined food banks which number about two hundred (the smaller food pantries number in the many thousands).  The Government’s program, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) is a $100B operation.  The various state food banks distribute roughly $10B of food. Second, the food doesn’t always go where it is most needed, particularly in rural areas.  This is because rural areas often don’t have the necessary infrastructure for distribution and the qualified people to operate the system.  Third, and perhaps the most amazing factor, roughly 40% of the nation’s available food supply goes to waste.  There is considerable spoilage due to a variety of issues such as transportation, perception (e.g., grocers rejecting consignments due to appearance), restaurant uneaten food, weather, simply unsold perishables, etc.  It is estimated that around 100B pounds of food is wasted each year.  The food banks are working with national and regional truckers to reduce this wastage with a goal of rescuing an additional one billion pounds of food a year – currently, about four billion pounds of rejected or past-sell-date food is delivered to national food banks.  Finally, the SNAP program and the food banks are trying to move away from simply offering calories for more nutritious foods, i.e., less sugar and salt and more vegetables and fruits.  Medicare is also part of the process of emphasizing nutrition over calories.
 
Chris has created a most valuable asset which is helping to optimize a system that clearly is sub-optimal.  Anyone can access Chris’ newsletter at: www.foodbanknews.org .  We thank Chris for her visit.
 
Enhancing Environmental Sustainability
Posted by James Fleischmann on Jul 15, 2024
Today’s speaker was Vanita Gangwal.  In addition to being a partner at KPMG, she is a trustee of the Nature Conservancy and a member of the Millburn Environmental Commission.  Vanita grew up in Jaipur, India and moved to the US at age eighteen. During High School, she was an active member and President of her School’s Rotary Interact Club. Her topic was sustainability and some thoughts about taking a reasonable approach to protecting the environment.
 
She began her presentation by noting the incredible abundance we have in the US and how this abundance can also lead to unintended degradation of the environment.  Examples cited were our ever-increasing use of disposable things like all types of plastics, from bags to cutlery to packaging.  While convenient, it is now common to find plastic in the bodies of many ocean organisms.  This concept can be expanded to many other types of what she described as “affluent waste.”  Another environmentally harmful issue denoted was the homogeneity of suburban landscaping – vast lawns with almost no native vegetation.  She cited one specific case, the near extinction of the monarch butterfly which can only lay its eggs in the common milkweed plant.  As the name implies, milkweed is a weed, spreading rapidly, and it is poisonous to humans, pets, and cattle.  Suburbanites and farmers eschew it.  Hence, the monarch is going extinct.
 
She concluded by making the case for simply increasing awareness of these issues.  We can’t, and won’t stop using plastic, but we can certainly use less of it.  We want nice looking homes, but there is an option to perhaps not have 100% of our green spaces comprised of manicured grass – some space can be reserved for natural flora.  Increasing awareness and increasing willingness to address environmental degradation is the only solution.  It will require both bottoms up (the citizenry) and top down (the political leadership) to solve these problems.  We thank Vanita for sharing her insights with us and for her efforts towards addressing our many environmental problems.
David Dietze Assumes Presidency of the SNP Rotary (for the second time)
Posted on Jun 11, 2024
Today, twenty Rotarians, their spouses and friends attended a great evening dinner at the Elks Club to witness David Dietze accept the president’s gavel from outgoing president, Mike Katz.
 
Mike thanked everyone for their assistance and noted several highlights of his year including our 98th consistent awarding of scholarships, the dictionary and constitution projects, and our recent successful pedals for progress event.
 
David said he was proud to accept the presidency, for the second time, and said he would listen closely to how the Rotarians wanted to take the Club forward.  He noted our membership is declining and we need to rejuvenate our efforts in recruitment, he mentioned the possibility of returning to weekly meetings, and said he would look for new opportunities for our participation in the community.
Mike & David
SNP Rotary Awards 99th Series of Scholarships
Posted by James Fleischmann on Jun 10, 2024
Today we awarded our 99th series of scholarships to five outstanding graduating seniors from Summit and New Providence high schools.  In attendance were the recipients and their family members as well as Scott Hough, Superintendent of Summit Schools, Stacy Grimaldi, principal of Summit HS, and Dave Miceli, superintendent of New Providence schools.
 
Rotary president, Mike Katz, noted that Dr. Miceli, an 18-year member of the SNP Rotary, would be retiring on Friday and wished him well as he transitions into his next challenge.
 
Mike Katz then proceeded with the program.  Ms. Grimaldi presented awards to the SHS recipients: Jason Cespedes who will attend Syracuse, Randy Rodriuez who will attend Stevens, Maria Gonzales who will attend Lehigh and Diane Saint-Louis who will attend the College of New Jersey – Ms. Saint-Lewis was also the recipient of the Wilber Nelson memorial scholarship.  Then, Dr. Miceli presented the final scholarship to Avery Lee.  Avery will attend the University of Tennessee.
 
As we have so many times in the past, the Rotarians were delighted to present these scholarships to a new group of aspiring, deserving and accomplished scholars.
 
David Dietze, president elect, Mike Katz, Avery, Randy, Jason, Diane, Maria
 
 
 
Pedals for Progress - A Successful First Effort
Posted by James Fleischmann on Jun 08, 2024
Today we held our first Pedals for Progress event.
 
P4P is a New Jersey based 501c3.  Their mission statement is simple: 'To empower sustainable economic development by recycling bicycles and sewing machines from the U.S. and shipping them to motivated people in the developing world'.
 
Terri Hutchinson was the point person for this project - she organized and directed the effort.  For a first attempt, we did quite well.  Terry, with the assistance of two volunteers from our InterAct club at the high school, posted fliers all over town, Terry also put ads in the local media and collected ten bikes and several sewing machines from the Summit transfer station and from friends and acquaintances.
 
On Saturday, June 8th, at the Summit YMCA headquarters parking lot, we collected another fifteen bikes and more sewing machines.
 
The bikes were partially dismantled to facilitate shipping.  Volunteers Roger Mehner, Jim Fleischmann, and Jennifer Zhou from the InterAct club, managed the dismantling of the bikes with help from the P4P president, Allen Schultz.
 
In total, we collected twenty-five bikes and ten sewing machines.
 
A special thank you to Terri for all the time-consuming and challenging work she put into this project and to Roger, Jennifer and Jim for their hard work in preparing the bikes for shipment.
 
 
David Dietze Discusses the Markets
Posted by James Fleischmann on May 13, 2024
  David Dietze discussed the state of the stock market and the economic outlook for the near to intermediate time period.  David noted that while the economy remained strong and unemployment was   near historic low levels, inflation was still a concern and the Federal Reserve was likely to keep rates high and longer than previously expected.  Essentially, David is relatively positive on the economic outlook.  While the consumer is fighting higher interest rates and higher prices in several sectors, the government has also injected considerable stimulus which has a balancing effect.  He also believes one should remain invested in the stock market and not try to market time as stock prices can react faster to changes in perception than most investors can change their allocations.  David also noted there has been an increasing concentration of value into a decreasing number of companies; roughly one third of the S&P's value is contained in less than twenty stocks, nearly all in the high tech area.  In the link below you can open and review David's excellent PowerPoint slides.  documents/en-us/8efbe607-ff27-48ad-93cc-54727c59e70a/1
 
 
M&T Banker Discusses Mortgages
Posted by JG Fleischmann on May 20, 2024
  Our speaker today was Jack Pier, senior mortgage loan officer, M&T Bank.  Jack is a seasoned banker with 33 years of experience.
 
  He began his discussion with several observations.  Housing prices are going up largely because many home owners have very low-rate mortgages written within the past ten years and are reluctant to give them up,   so housing turnover is low and this is reducing homes available for sale.  Also, inflation has caused the FED to raise short term rates and that has caused mortgage rates making home ownership less available for many, especially young families buying a first home.  This has also caused rental prices to rise.
 
 He reviewed a relatively new phenomenon, 'generational living'.  This applies more often to larger and more expensive homes. Older parents (or other relatives) want to down size and their adult children cannot afford a new home or to buy the family home.  They subdivided the home with the children assuming some or all of the expenses and all live together.  Eventually, the children will become the sole occupants.
 
Jack noted the problem is abating, somewhat.  Mortgage rates have already fallen from over 8% earlier this year to around 6.5 - 7%, but the supply remains tight.  He believes supply/demand will remain tight for a while.
 
 
 
Council President and Mayor Address Rotary
March 25, 2024
By James Fleischmann
Today we had the privilege of being addressed by the president of Summit City Council, Lisa Allen (a SNP Rotarian) and Mayor Elizabeth Fagan.

Lisa led off with a few comments about the direction the City would take over the coming several years.  The Broad Street West project has been scrapped, so a new plan will be necessary to deal with the property available on the site of the old firehouse – the new firehouse should be fully operational in June/July.  As the City moves forward, Lisa, as Council president, plans to emphasize three main issues: safety, community engagement, and transparency.  This also relates to how the city's plans for reusing this area will be conducted.

Mayor Fagan discussed several issues relating to safety.  The City is now deploying a newly acquired drone for surveillance.  It can be used by both the police and the fire department for everything from apprehending criminals to traffic control.  The police department is initiating a home security assessment, available to all residents, and the fire department is employing new software to assist in optimizing the fastest access to fires and other emergencies.

After their opening remarks, Lisa and the Mayor took questions.  One question involved Mt. Laurel decision vis-à-vis the State’s new affordable housing law mandating each municipality to present a plan for affordable housing in conjunction with the State. The new State law establishes the process for cities to comply with the NJ Supreme Court’s Mt Laurel decision’s Affordable Housing obligations for a ten-year period beginning in 2025. Summit has not yet fulfilled all of its Mt laurel agreement but will likely “reset” the clock and the goals for our affordable units in the upcoming negotiations with the State.  The closing of Maple Street for the summer months was raised – the City engineer will not permit its closing as it ultimately presents a safety hazard.  Finally, a question was raised regarding the weekly delivery of advertising fliers.  Many residents don’t want these weekly deliveries thrown onto their property.  The Mayor has had other complaints about this issue and said the City potentially could ban the deliveries, but it was noted there is an opt-out option – the contact info is printed on the plastic bag containing the materials.

We would like to thank the Mayor and Lisa for sharing their thoughts on the City and directly and fully answering all questions put to them.
 
Our Annual Blood Drive
By: James Fleischmann
On Monday, January 15th, we held our annual blood drive.  It was another success.  We collected 50 units of blood.  The Red Cross estimates this will save up to 150 lives.
Kassandra Romas Knows how to Throw a Christmas Party
Posted on Dec 18, 2023
By: James Fleischmann
On Monday, in lieu of a regular luncheon meeting, we had a fantastic holiday party at Christ Church.

As she has in the past, Kassandra Romas, with a little help from the Marco Polo restaurant, arranged this outstanding event.  We had a first-rate pianist (arranged for by President Mike Katz) who entertained through dinner and later played while Susan Haig led us in “Rotary” carols, and then Mort O’Shea crowned the festivities with one of his classically wry and witty jokes.

About thirty Rotarians, spouses and guests enjoyed great food, great conversation, and the usual Rotarian good fellowship.

Again, many thanks to Kassandra for making all the arrangements: the food and the incredible flowers and decorations.
 


We wish everyone a happy holiday season, whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Bodhi Day, or the winter solstice, and a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.
Grace Founder, Amanda Block, Discusses Organization's Mission
Posted on Jul 10, 2023
 Amanda Block is the founder of GRACE. GRACE is an acronym for giving and receiving assistance for our community’s essentials.

 From GRACE’s website: “GRACE stems from eight months of research and conversations in 2015-2016 with local leaders, agencies, and institutions.

Our first month of Family Fun Nights in August 2016 grew into the weekly GRACE distribution thanks to the Summit Interfaith Council, Christ Church, Beacon Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Central Presbyterian Church, and the City of Summit’s Department of Community Programs. Five months into GRACE’s inception, the Junior League of Summit adopted GRACE as a project which gave us the necessary governance and administrative support to stabilize and grow.

In October 2019, GRACE moved from Christ Church to the Cornog Field House, where it flourished. In July 2020, the City Council of the City of Summit unanimously voted to name GRACE a program of the City of Summit. In June 2023 GRACE moved distribution to The Summit Community Center, providing  more access to community programs and services that support our neighbors in need.”

The GRACE program grew out of research into what the basic needs are of the “working poor,” i.e., those who are employed but still have insufficient funds to meet life’s necessities. In most cases they are nutritious food and other essentials such as cleaning supplies, bathroom supplies - toilet paper, diapers, and sundries such as simple children/family entertainment – e.g., books and board games. The research goes on – e.g., it was learned that superior quality socks are as important as superior quality shoes, possibly more so – GRACE distributes superior quality socks to those who need them.

When GRACE began in 2016, they were assisting roughly one hundred families per week. During covid, the numbers swelled to over five hundred and currently the number tops four hundred and Amanda expects it to grow.

So, once a week, bags of nutrient dense food, fresh vegetables, fruit, dairy, etc., as well as necessity sundries are given to those in need.

Everything distributed is donated by either suppliers of the produce/products or purchased through donations or through contributions from other eleemosynary organizations.

Finally, in addition to the many religious institutions in Summit, GRACE is aligned with Summit’s department of Community Programs and both Union County and the State. Besides giving, GRACE is always trying to connect its users with other available resources such as medical, dental, educational, and social services.

For those interested in more information about GRACE, it is available on their web site: https://www.gracegivingreceiving.org/home .
Meet Our 101st President - Mike Katz
Posted on Jun 26, 2023
Today, thirty-five Rotarians and guests had the pleasure of watching Mike Katz accept the president's gavel from outgoing president, Eric Evers.

The festivities were held at the Elks club in Summit, where, as we usually do when the Rotarians gather, there was good food, good drink (the Elks have a bar), and lots of camaraderie.  The speeches were short - Eric reviewed his rather eventful year; returning to in-person meetings in July after sixteen months of COVID induced zoom meetings, the celebration of our 100th anniversary, successful dictionary and constitution projects and the rewarding of our annual scholarships in June.  He also graciously thanked those who assisted him in his year as president, especially Joe Steiner.  Mike followed with a short review of the club's goals and a few thoughts about some future projects and the need to reconstitute several committees. 

All participants agreed we should hold a few more of these evening events where we can schmooze and simply enjoy each other's company.- something President Mike said he would place on his priorities list.
 

Eric & Mike
Some Insights into the 250th Anniversary of New Jersey
Posted on Jun 19, 2023
Today’s speaker was Donald Peck.  Don is the CEO of The Clausen Company, a leading manufacturer of automotive refinishing products for the automotive aftermarket, as well as a historian.  He is a direct descendant of six signers of the Mayflower Compact. Active memberships include The Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of New Jersey and several state and national historical organizations.  He has deep roots in New Jersey.

Don informed us that New Jersey would be celebrating its 250th anniversary in 2026.  The State is gearing up for the celebration by trying to coordinate the many local historical societies and helping them publicize their specific artifacts, battlefields, buildings, etc. He also gave us a history of the eventful year, 1776, vis-à-vis New Jersey’s role in the revolution.  He noted that Thomas Paine published his political treatise, Common Sense, in January 1776, which set forth the case for separating from England.  The colonies were split regarding whether to separate or not, but Paine’s arguments tilted the opinion and several key battles were fought by Washington in that year and 1777 in New Jersey: the battle of Trenton/Princeton, the battle of Monmouth, and the battle of Short Hills (not the current location – it was actually fought in the Metuchen and Edison areas).  These were pivotal battles and set the stage for the ultimate defeat of general Cornwallis in October 1781 and our full independence from King Charles and Britain.

Don encouraged us to look for opportunities to become involved in the preparations for the 250th anniversary of New Jersy.  Most of us were unaware of the anniversary, and we appreciate Don’s enlightening presentation and insights into our state’s history. For those interested in learning more or becoming involved, we invite you to visit: https://jerseyhistory.org/ .
Scholarship Monday - 2023
Posted on Jun 12, 2023
Today we had the distinct pleasure of awarding our 98th consecutive series of scholarships to five aspiring students from the Summit and New Providence high schools.  The Rotary gave our first scholarship to a young man named Phillip Dean in 1926.  He attended Colgate college and about three decades later served as Summit’s mayor.  We hope today’s recipients have similar successful journeys as they venture out.

In addition to our scholars and their proud family members, in attendance were Dave Miceli, superintendent of schools, New Providence, and Kristy McCauley, NPHS senior advisor, and Scott Hough, superintendent of schools, Summit, Stacy Grimaldi, SHS principal and Laura Kaplan, SHS senior advisor.

Our five scholarship recipients are: 
  1. Kanya Srithong, NPHS and the recipient of the Chandler Coddington scholarship.  Kanya will attend Drexel and study fashion design.
  2. Emma Vatoci, SHS and the recipient of the Wilbur Nelson scholarship.  Emma will attend Boston College and study economics.
  3. German Augie Barrantes, SHS, Seton Hall University.  Augie will study finance/sports management.
  4. Yenni Chacon Gonzales, SHS, Drew University.  Yenni will study business.
  5. Melissa Liang, SHS, Washington University, St. Louis.  Melissa will study business.
The SNP Rotary is proud of its nearly century-long support of our scholarship program and wish our current recipients all the best as they move on to their next major step in life.
 

Mike Katz, Augie, Melissa, Scott Hough, Yenni, Dave Miceli, Kanya, Emma, Eric Evers, Kristy McCauley
SNP Rotary Celebrates 100 Years of Service Above Self
Posted on Oct 24, 2022
On Sunday, October 22, 1922, at the Canoe Brook Country Club, the newly formed Summit Rotary Club held its inaugural dinner.

This past Saturday, on the 22nd of October 2022, exactly 100 years to the day later, the Summit/New Providence Rotary Club celebrated its 100th birthday at, where else, the Canoe Brook Country Club.

About eighty celebrants, Rotarians, family and friends, commemorated Rotary’s many successes over the past century.  Among just a few accomplishments highlighted were our ninety-seven consecutive years of college and university scholarships to deserving high school seniors, our participation with Rotary International in the near eradication of Polio, our several international projects aiding the small Indian village of our friend and past president, Gus Pushparaj, our decades long Dictionary Project providing specially designed dictionaries to every third-grader in both school districts and our more recent Constitution Project providing pamphlets containing the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and learning materials to every middle-schooler in both districts, and our most recent effort, in process, to partner with the Summit Old Guard to create a career counseling program to share our substantial accumulated knowledge and experiences with the high school students as they prepare to start on their own journeys.  We are proud of our past accomplishments, but not resting on our laurels.

There were a few very short speeches briefly recapping some of our highlights by several Rotarians and a special short commentary by Amanda Kowal Kenyon, who a quarter of a century ago, benefited from a Rotary exchange program that expanded her horizons and changed her life, for the better.  There was also a short video produced by Lucas Pastor, Roz Dorlen's talented grandson, describing some of Rotary's best features - watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkr4B-JVWnY .

Our Gala committee did an outstanding job of creating a wonderful atmosphere and everyone present enjoyed excellent food and drink and even more importantly, what usually happens when Rotarians gather, bonhomie and good fellowship, as we all celebrated 100 years of Service Above Self.

An extra special thanks to our Gala committee who made this happen:
Co-Chairs - Roz Dorlen & Beth McKenna
Evelyn Davis – Immediate Past President
Eric Evers – President & our MC
David Dietze, Joe Steiner, Melanie Cohn, Mike Katz, Jay Leatherbee & Jim Fleischmann.
 

Co-Chairs Dr. Roz Dorlen & Beth McKenna Welcome Celebrants


New Providence Mayor Al Morgan Presents President Eric Evers with Proclamation of Congratulations


Summit Councilwoman Lisa Allen presents President Eric Evers with a Proclamation of Congratulations


Scholarship Chair, Mike Katz, Reviewing 97 Years of Scholarships


Jim Fleischmann Discussing Several other Community Projects


The Room


Vito & Diane Gallo, Mayor Al & Christine Morgan, Shelly & President Eric Evers

 
 
Most of The Gala Committee: Mike Katz, David Dietze, Roz Dorlen, Neela Pushparaj, Beth McKenna, Evelyn Davis, Joe Steiner & President, Eric Evers
Evelyn Davis Hands the President's Gavel to Incoming President, Chief Eric Evers
Posted on Jun 27, 2022
At today’s meeting we installed our new president for fiscal 2022/23 and our new slate of directors.  In attendance was the District Governor, Shelby Rhodes, who as one of her last official duties, oversaw the appointments.

Outgoing president Evelyn Davis handed over the gavel to incoming president, Eric Evers.  During Evelyn’s tenure we returned to in-person meetings, held another successful shredding fund raiser, initiated a new program, the Constitution Project, whereby each middle schooler in Summit and New Providence will receive their own copy of the US Constitution in conjuncture with a new statewide mandate to teach civics in all public schools, completed our annual dictionary project by handing out over 500 dictionaries to every third-grader in the Summit and NP school districts , distributed $20,000 in scholarships to six deserving high school students from SHS and NPHS, and, finalized a multiyear effort to assist the Monfort Brother’s ongoing effort to enhance education in the small village in southern India of our past president and departed friend, Gus Pushparaj.  Gus’ wife, Neela, spearheaded the effort and we were able to transfer $20,000, a substantial amount coming from the Pushparaj Foundation, to assist in the furnishing of the school’s new library.

Incoming President Eric Evers will have the honor of presiding over our centennial celebration.  The SNP Rotary began on 22 October 1922.  In addition to overseeing the completion of Summit’s New Fire station, Chief Evers will take the SNP Rotary into its next century.  He will be assisted by the incoming slate of directors which include Mike Katz, President -Elect, Beth McKenna, Vice President, Joe Steiner, Secretary and Jim Fleischmann, Treasurer and Past President, Evelyn Davis.

Finally, Evelyn presented Dr. Roz Dorlen with her past president’s pin.  Roz was president from June 2020 through June 2021.  Interestingly, she never had the opportunity to preside over an in-person meeting as all our meeting were held via Zoom due to the necessary isolation from COVID-19.  However, it was through the efforts of Joe Steiner who reconstituted our meetings through Zoom and Roz’s ability to adapt to the new format that the Club managed to remain largely intact.  So, a big thanks to both Roz and Evelyn for their leadership over the past two years and our congratulation to Eric on his appointment as the ‘centennial’ President.

Chief Eric Evers & Evelyn Davis
 
 

Dr. Roz Dorlen & Evelyn Davis


Beth McKenna, Jim Fleischmann, Joe Steiner, Mike Katz, Eric Evers, Evelyn Davis
Our 97th Consecutive Annual Scholarship Awards
Posted on Jun 06, 2022
Today, the Summit-New Providence Rotary awarded scholarships to six outstanding students from the Summit and New Providence high schools.

The SNP Rotary is currently in its centennial year (we began on 22 October 1922).  Since 1926, we have been awarding college scholarships to local area students - this is our 97th consecutive series of grants.  In addition to our scholarship program we have been involved in numerous other community based activities ranging from recognizing local residents and/or organizations for their contributions to the community to several international projects where we helped finance two educational facilities in southern India.  Currently, we supply specially designed dictionaries to all third-graders in both school districts and this year began a new project to provide all middle-schoolers with specially designed and annotated copies of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights to be used in concert with a newly mandated requirement by the state of New Jersey to teach civics to all middle school students.

Our scholarships are awarded on academic achievement, community service, extracurricular activities and financial need.

In attendance at today’s awards ceremony were David Miceli, superintendent of New Providence schools and the principal of the NPHS, Brian Henry, and Scott Hough, superintendent of Summit schools and the SHS principal, Stacy Grimaldi.  Each of the scholarship recipients were accompanied by a parent and each received a certificate of merit along with a tuition check made out to their respective college or university.  There were two special awards honoring the memory of two late Rotarians, Chandler Coddington and Wilbur Nelson.  Both men contributed significantly to their community over many decades.  Michael Katz, chair of the scholarship committee made the presentations.

The recipients, listed in alphabetical order are Amanda Brown - SHS & Boston College, Gwenevere DelJones - SHS & Rutgers University, Jessica Luo – SHS & Rutgers University, Natalie Peralta – SHS & Bowdoin College & recipient of the Wilbur Nelson award, Anthony Quesada – SHS & Drew University, and Kalina Kornacki – NPHS & Amherst College & recipient of the Chandler Coddington award.
We are proud to again be able to honor this year’s six outstanding students and wish them well as they begin their freshman year.
 

Dave Miceli, Brian Henry , Kalina , Gwen,  Amanda, Mike Katz, Jessica, Natalie, Anthony, Stacy Grimaldi, Scott Hough
 
SNP Rotarian is Big Winner in District 7475 Raffle
Posted on Jun 02, 2022
 
We are delighted to report that a SNP Rotarian was one of the big winners in the 2022 District 7475 50/50 raffle.

Susan Haig, past president, purchased a winning ticket and named CivicStory.org, the 501c3 for which see is the founder, the designated recipient.  CivicStory advances solutions-based news about sustainability, civics, and equitable, healthy communities in New Jersey.  CivicStory will receive $10,548 which will go towards supporting operations.

The SNP Rotary sold 115 tickets at $20 per ticket for a total of $2300.  We received back $9.75 per ticket for a total of $1121.25 to be used to support our scholarships and other community programs.  This year 53 Clubs participated in the District raffle and the District returned over $50,000 to the Clubs and a similar amount to the winners – and fortunately, CivicStory is among them smiley!
Another Thank You Note for Dictionaries

The Lincoln Hubbard School sent a thank-you note from the school's librarian accompanied by fifty-six handwritten notes from the third-graders.  They are available for any Rotarian to view.

 
Every Middle-Schooler in Summit & NP Will Receive a Copy of the Constitution
Posted on Mar 12, 2022
Sometimes events transpire in such a way as to almost preordain an outcome.  Such was the case with our newest undertaking for the benefit of our community.

On 31 January 2022, DG Shelby Rhodes visited the SNP Rotary.  She made a short presentation regarding the District and then held an open Q & A session.  Many things were discussed but one mention of a recent project undertaken by the Naples, FL Rotary resonated with several of us.  Naples, concerned about the growing ignorance of young Americans regarding civics, began distributing copies of the Constitution to school children in the City.  Many of us have commented on this topic and lamented that civics was no longer even being taught in NJ schools.  However, NJ lawmakers apparently were also reflecting on the same thing.  Then, in the wake of the 6 January 2021 insurrection, an obvious demonstration of Americans’ lack of civics awareness, the NJ Legislature passed S854 which makes civics instruction mandatory at the middle school level.  At our next Board meeting on 7 February 2022, it was proposed that we explore setting up  a “Constitution Project”.  There was unanimous approval.

We have partnered with the local schools for two decades to enhance elementary school students’ learning through our Dictionary Project where every third-grader in both Summit and New Providence receive a specially designed dictionary.  The teachers love the program for its instructional value and the kids simply love their dictionaries.  It was an easy jump to propose to both school superintendents a “Constitution Project” as a second effort at enhancing the curriculum, especially now that civics was mandated in the middle schools.  Both superintendents (both of whom are Rotarians) fully supported the program.
 
We immediately contacted Naples.  They had already partnered with Children’s Literary Publications to create and print a booklet which contained the Declaration of Independence, the full Constitution as well as some other teaching exercises, notable quotes and important dates and related facts.  We ordered 600 copies.  The were delivered five days later and subsequently distributed to the schools and the students.  This will now be an annual project.

Just another reason to be proud to be a Rotarian!
 
Summit Third-Graders Say Thank You for their Dictionaries
Posted on Feb 11, 2022
Here is a second reason to be proud to be a Rotarian - From the third-graders in Summit:

Please let the Rotary Club know how much the third-graders appreciate their new dictionaries.
This year I had them work in teams to locate information first in the back of the book. I call it a min-encyclopedia. They LOVED this. One question was to find the list of Big Words and figure out which movie is associated with one of the words. The answer is Mary Poppins. I bet you can guess the word. The second class they worked in groups again to learn how to use the dictionary part. It was fun to watch them say the alphabet multiple times in order to find a word. Thanks to the Rotary Club for supporting all the children in Summit Public Schools.

Evelyn Davis Accepts the Gavel as SNP Rotary's 99th Presidetn and UCC's Alexander Mirabella
Posted on Jul 26, 2021
It was a busy day at Rotary.

We started, as usual, with our song accompanied by Susan Haig on the piano (acapella isn’t our forte – always sounds better with music).  We immediately moved to our long delayed inauguration of our new president.  Outgoing president Dr. Roz Dorlen thanked the many Rotarians that assisted her in her presidential year – a year like no other.  Roz never presided over an in-person meeting and never even got to ring the bell (she did, today).  Despite all the difficulties we encountered due to COVID, Roz had a most successful year – she oversaw regular weekly Zoom meetings, held a successful fund raiser, helped maintain the Club during the pandemic (along with much assistance from Joe Steiner who organized our zoom meetings, Melanie Cohn who took over as Club secretary, Peter Bolton who did an outstanding job as program chair and the other Board members, Mike Katz, Eric Evers, Don Steele, Evelyn Davis & Jim Fleischmann who offered council when needed).
 


Past President Roz (left) welcomes Incoming President Evelyn

Roz then handed the gavel to our incoming president, Evelyn Davis who said she was ready to assume her position and was looking forward to guiding the SNP Rotary towards fulfilling our goals of community service and even expanding our undertakings.  Evelyn then presented four Paul Harris awards, three of which were delayed due to the suspension of meetings because of the pandemic: receiving awards were past president Swati Goorha, past president Don Steele, past president Melanie Cohn, and Neela Pushparaj.

Finally, Joe Steiner introduced our speaker, Union County Commissioner Alexander Mirabella.  Al is also the chairman of the commissioners and probably the longest serving commissioner in New Jersey history – in his 24th year (and six time chairman).  There are roughly a half million residents in Union County divided into 21 municipalities. So, there is a lot going on.  Al touched on a few issues he felt were of import and that we should be aware of – the county reacted swiftly to the pandemic.  Early on, COVID testing was set up at Kean University and as soon as the mRNA vaccines were available, in January, Kean was the vaccine site.  We were the first county to have over 50% vaccinated.  The county is now offering mobile vaccinations for those who are unable to travel.  The county also addressed issues of food insecurity and set up a special $16.7 million fund to assist residents with mortgage and rent payments for those effected by job losses, etc., due to the pandemic. The county maintained its AAA bond rating, and, for the second year, had no tax increases.  Closer to Summit/NP, the Morris Ave bridge to the “rails to trail” project is on tap as is an experimental effort to revitalize the Bryant Park Pond.  Al opened the floor for questions.  There were many.  One item stood out – the closing of the county jail.  Bail reform reduced the occupancy significantly and it was decided to share facilities with Essex County.  Al noted that no dangerous people were released into the community – rigid tests are applied before release.  This move saved the county over $20M a year.

As in the past, Commissioner Mirabella was most informative and generous with his time.  We appreciate his presentation and hope to see him again at a future date
After Seventy Weeks, We Meet Again!
Posted on Jul 12, 2021
Today, we met in person for the first time since 9 March 2020!

For the time being, we are meeting at Christ Church, 561 Springfield Ave in Summit.  Lunch was catered by Zappia’s - it was delicious and there were enough leftovers to fill many doggie bags.  About one half of the members were in attendance, but at least ten members were unable to attend due to prior conflicts and other sundry issues.

The room we were in has a grand piano and we are fortunate to have a master pianist, maestro Susan Haig, who played while we sang our SNP Rotary anthem and happy birthday to Joe Steiner (who tried to hide the fact it was his birthday, but he was outed).

We met, not on Zoom, but in person, two new members, Adenilson Franczak & Leigh DelPorto.  Leigh works for M&T Bank and Adenilson, who just became an American citizen, is a Brazilian transplant.

Christie Hodde won the 50/50 and breaking all SNP Rotary rules donated her winnings to the scholarship fund.  Speaking of the scholarship fund, Happy Sad dollars generated a recent, if not all time, record collection of $330 – there were a lot of Happy Rotarians – probably had something to do with not meeting on Zoom and being able to schmooze again.

We also had a great speaker, Jon Bramnick, assemblyman for the 21st district of New Jersey.  Jon is the Republican leader of the NJ assembly and well known as a raconteur.  Jon chose to talk about a serious subject he knew was on everyone’s mind, discourse amidst political polarization. He said it was possible to have dialogue but only if there were willing participants which he believes there are – it’s just tricky and requires a lot of effort to keep channels open.  He also said having two viable parties is essential to prevent really bad legislation which usually originates from the far sides of either party and if one party is totally dominant, the legislation can pass even if the vast majority of delegates know it is bad legislation.  He annotated his presentation with several amusing (and a few not so amusing) anecdotes about various topics ranging from gerrymandering to the power of ‘political bosses’ (they exist).  We had a robust Q&A session and Jon was responsive to all questions, as he always has been at his past visits to Rotary.  We appreciate the generous amount of time Jon spent with us.

We will reassemble in two weeks and hope to see those who couldn’t attend today.
SNP Rotary Presents it's 96th Consecutive Scholarship Awards
Posted on Jun 14, 2021
 
With great pleasure, today, the Summit/New Providence Rotary Club awarded its ninety-sixth consecutive series of college scholarships to six deserving students from the Summit and New Providence high schools.

Despite COVID and the inability of the Club to hold a single in-person meeting since March 2020, we managed to hold a successful fund raiser in April and raise additional funds through generous donations from many of our members.
 
In attendance, and of special mention, at today’s Zoom Rotary meeting were: Scott Hough, Superintendent of Summit School, Dave Miceli, Superintendent of New Providence School (and SNP Rotarian), Stacy Grimaldi, Principal, Summit High School (SHS), Brian Henry, Principal, NPHS, Laura Kaplan, Director of Counseling, SHS, Nathan Parker, past Superintendent of Summit Schools (and SNP Rotarian) and Clara Coddington.

SNP Rotary President, Dr. Roz Dorlen, introduced the co-heads of the scholarship committee, Mike Katz and John (Jay) Leatherbee, who then introduced the scholarship recipients.  The awards were presented in alphabetical order.

Ms. Hannah Allocco, SHS, was the first recipient.  She will attend the Mason Gross school of Arts at Rutgers University and plans to work towards an BFA.

Ms. Sarah Brennan, SHS, was awarded the Wilbur Nelson scholarship and will attend Rutgers University.

Ms. Lindsay Kinum, SHS, was awarded the Chan & Linda Coddington scholarship and will  attend Boston College.  Clara Coddington, daughter of Chan & Linda, was present and offered her congratulations to Lindsay and all the recipients and thanked the Rotary for its continuing dedication to supporting deserving scholars in the Summit/NP area.

Ms. Gabriella Merino, SHS, was awarded the next scholarship and she will attend Quinnipiac University.

Mr. Alejandro Nociari, SHS, was awarded a scholarship and will attend Cornell.  Alejandro is an EMT volunteer and plans to study pre-med.

Mr. William Zipf, NPHS, was awarded the Bud Smith scholarship.  William is also an EMT volunteer and will attend Drew as a pre-med student.

There were congratulatory comments from many of the audience including Dave Miceli, Stacy Grimaldi, Scott Hough, Nathan Parker, Vito Gallo, Laura Kaplan, Evelyn Davis and President Roz.

The SNP Rotary is proud to continue our long tradition of assisting our future leaders as they pursue their goals through higher education.
Dr. Roz Dorlen becomes our 97th President
Posted on Jun 29, 2020
By: James Fleischmann

Today we had the pleasure of installing Dr. Roz Dorlen into the position of President, Summit/New Providence Rotary.  Roz will be the 97th Rotarian to hold this position since the Club’s founding in October 1922.  Outgoing President, Rev. Don Steele, digitally passed the gavel to Roz during a Zoom meeting also attended by District Governor Ray Freaney and District Governor elect, Ann Walko as well as many members of the SNP Club.

Kudos to Don for a successful year and for maintaining the Club’s continuity by championing and supporting Club Secretary Joe Steiner’s efforts to move to a digital format. 

We thank Don for his year of service in this most unusual of times and offer Roz our support and best wishes as she moves the Club into another year of uncharted waters.

                                                               
                                                                           Roz Dorlen

SNP Rotary Awards our 95th series of Annual Scholarships to Five Local Area Students 
Posted on Jun 08, 2020

Today, the Summit/New Providence Rotary Club proudly celebrated its 95th consecutive year of awarding college/university scholarships to outstanding high school students from New Providence and Summit.  This was also a first for the SNP Rotary as the presentation of the awards was made in a digital meeting using Zoom.

SNP President Don Steele introduced Mike Katz, co-chair with Jay Leatherbee, of the Scholarship Committee which selected the recipients.  Mike then had the honor of introducing the superintendent of the New Providence Public Schools and a fellow Rotarian, Dr. David Miceli, who introduced the principal of the NPHS, Lauren Zirpoli.  Ms. Zirpoli then introduced our first recipient, William Leo Mormile, who was awarded the Chan and Jane Coddington memorial scholarship.  Leo will attend the College of New Jersey, where he will study music education.

Mike then introduced Robert Gardella, acting superintendent of the Summit Public Schools, who in turn introduced Stacy Grimaldi, principal of the Summit High School.  Ms. Grimaldi introduced the recipients of scholarships from SHS.  Isaiah Shakir was awarded the Wilbur Nelson memorial scholarship.  Isaiah will attend Seton Hall in the fall and plans to major in chemistry.  Michael Bermudez was awarded the Bud Smith memorial scholarship.  Michael, who emigrated from Colombia at age eleven, will attend Rutgers in the fall to study biochemistry and hopes to pursue a career in medical research.  Julissa Lopez was our next recipient.  Julissa will attend Monmouth University, where she plans to study healthcare/kinesiology.  Andy Toxtle was our final recipient.  Andy will attend Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts, where he plans to study art and graphic design.

The SNP Rotary has been awarding grants to deserving young scholars from our local schools since 1926.  The awards are based on four criteria: academics, extra-curricular activities, community involvement and financial need.  We have never missed a year, not during the great depression or World War II, and had no intention of being impacted by a global pandemic in 2020. 

We present the named scholarships to honor past Rotarians who have exhibited outstanding public service to the community.  This year’s scholarships honored Wilbur Nelson, Watson “Bud” Smith, and Chandler Coddington.  Wilbur, Bud, and Chan all served the community in multiple ways – through volunteering with many, many non-profit services, holding elected office, and through numerous generous donations.  Each one of these Rotarians has exemplified Rotary’s primary tenet: Service Above Self.  Members of the Smith, Nelson and Coddington families were present to observe today’s awards ceremony.

The Rotary would like to thank Mike Katz, Jay Leatherbee, Roger Mehner, Peter Bolton and Beth McKenna for serving on the scholarship committee and undertaking the considerable work required to vet all the applicants and make the final selection of the recipients.

And lastly, all the Rotarians want to wish our 2020 scholarship recipients our congratulations for earning these grants and for long and productive careers in their chosen fields and hope that they will always keep in mind Rotary’s basic tenet – Service Above Self.

A sad farewell to our long-time friend Chan Coddington
Posted on Dec 23, 2019

Chandler (Chan) passed away on 16 November.

In addition to being an active Rotarian for many decades, Chan was a true pillar of our community. Among the many, many civic projects and organizations he actively supported were the Summit YMCA, the Overlook Foundation, the Chamber of Commerce, the United Way, the Morris Union Jointure Commission, the Autism Educational Foundation and the Reeves Reed Arboretum. Chan was always generous with both his time and his financial support. In addition to his community support activities, Chan had a successful 50 year career in the insurance industry as well as several lucrative venture capital endeavors.

A celebration of life will be held on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2020, at Marco Polo Restaurant, 527 Morris Ave., Summit, from 1 to 4 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Rotary Club of Summit-New Providence, Scholarship Fund, 34 Ridgedale Ave., Summit, N.J. 07901 (or the non-profit of your choice).

 

SNP Rotary Distributes 350 Dictionaries to all Third Graders in the Summit & New Prov Schools
Posted on Oct 14, 2019
 

Today, about twenty SNP Rotarians affixed 530 labels to as many dictionaries which were then distributed to all the third grade students in both the Summit and New Providence public schools.

The New Providence schools received 200 books and the Summit schools, 330.

The rotary has been supporting the Dictionary Project for over twenty years. The dictionaries are specifically designed to be used by students in the age range of 8 to tens years old. The teachers love the project. The dictionaries are a great teaching tool because in addition to the traditional word definitions, there are maps, statistics, many lists such as Presidents of the US and other items designed to appeal to third graders.

A special thank you to Lauren Nisenson and Jay Leatherbee who assisted in transporting to the Hotel for labeling and then distribution to the schools.


Melanie Cohn, Mort O'Shea, President Don Steele, Jim Fleischmann & Ron Hutchinson
Our 94th Scholarship Monday
Posted on Jun 03, 2019

Today was scholarship Monday, and for the 94th consecutive year, the Summit/New Providence Rotary Club presented scholarships to six outstanding students from Summit High School and New Providence High School.

This year’s scholarship committee was headed by John Leatherbee. Committee members included Mike Katz, Roger Mehner, Swati Goorha and Peter Bolton. The committee reviewed thirty-eight applications from the two schools and culled the list down to the final six recipients. In addition to the three thousand-dollar scholarships, two special one thousand-dollar awards were added in honor of two Rotarians who recently passed away and were stalwarts of the Club: Watson “Bud” Smith and Wilbur Nelson. Bud was a 1949 graduate of Summit High, ran a successful electrical contracting business and among his many civic activities, served as president of Summit City Council. Wilbur was a US Navy veteran participating in the D-Day landings in Normandy as well as other theatres in WWII. He returned from the war to become a teacher in Summit and eventually principal of the Brayton Elementary school for the final thirty years of his teaching career. Both men were past Rotary Presidents, Paul Harris Fellows and recipients of numerous awards and recognitions from their community for public service – they typified the core value of Rotary: Service Above Self.

June Chang, Superintendent of the Summit Public Schools and Stacy Grimaldi, Principal of SHS, presented the scholarships to the four Summit HS students: Shah Faizan Alam, attending NJ Institute of Technology, LaShanti Starr Brown-Womack, attending William Patterson Univ., Evan White, attending the College of New Jersey. Sarah Flaherty received the Wilbur Nelson scholarship and will attend Fordham University.

David Miceli, Superintendent of the NP Public Schools and Lauren Zirpoli, Principal of NPHS, presented the scholarships to the two NPHS recipients: Justin Mathew Sullivan will attend Richmond University, and Julie Gertie received the Bud Smith scholarship and will attend Boston University.

A heartfelt congratulation to our scholars and to the scholarship committee that spent countless hours in the selection process.
 


Mr. Chang, Ms Grimaldi, Mr. Alam, Mr. White, Ms Flaherty, Ms Gertie, Mr. Sullivan, Ms Brown-Womack, Ms Zirpoli, Dr. Miceli

Our Dictionary Project
 
We recently received the below letter from the Dictionary Project which the SNP Rotary has supported for about fifteen years.  Check out the last paragraph to see our impact on our community and the Rotary's impact on the Country.



Our 93rd Scholarship Monday

Today we celebrated our 93rd consecutive ‘Scholarship Monday’.

In attendance were our six recipients as well as several proud parents. Also present were Summit School Superintendent, June Chang, New Providence School Superintendent Dave Miceli, Summit HS Principal, Stacy Grimaldi and NPHS Assistant Principal, Brian Henry.

This year’s recipients are Michelle Leung, NPHS, attending RPI, Anthony Cusumano, SHS, attending Lehigh, Hamail Iqbal, SHS and recipient of the Wilber Nelson scholarship, attending Rutgers, Tatyana Lewis, SHS, attending West Virginia U., Steve Molina, SHS and recipient of the Bud Smith scholarship, attending Princeton, and Keyshawn Reese, SHS, attending Montclair State.

These awards are based on academic achievement, community service as well as financial need. The Rotary is proud to recognize the outstanding qualities each of this year’s recipients have demonstrated over the past four years and we wish you well as you move on to the next phase of your education – congrats!
 




From left to right: SNP Rotary President, Melanie Cohn, Keyshawn Reese, Anthony Cusumano, Tatyana Lewis, Michelle Leung, Hamail Iqbal & Steve Molina

SNP Rotary Holds 95th Presidential Installation 

This evening, Susan Haig passed her Presidential Baton to the incoming President, Melonie Franklin Cohn.

Susan took a few moments to review her year which included several significant accomplishments: a new, successful fund-raiser, the Vocal Showcase, a very successful Citizen of the Year awards banquet, where SNP Rotary honored the 17 librarians from our two towns, our first off-site evening meeting, and a profitable “Dollars for Scholars” 50/50 raffle. In addition, we added eight new members. Susan noted how she had partnered with Melanie from the start of her year, guaranteeing continuity when Melanie assumed the Presidency.

Susan then presented past President, Reagan Burkholder, with his Paul Harris award and he presented Susan with her “Past President’s” pin.

Finally, Melanie briefly spoke and pledged to build on the work she and Susan undertook, and told the Rotarians she would work with the following year’s president, Ellen Dickson, to a assure continuity of purpose and programs.

There were about twenty five Rotarians and guests, and as in the past, there was plenty of good fellowship accompanied by good food and drink. If you don’t attend these events, you’re missing one of our nicer gatherings.


Susan presents past President Reagan with a Paul Harris Award

Susan passes the "Presidential Baton" to Melanie

The SNP Rotary's 2017 Citizens of the Year - The Librarians of New Providence & Summit
Posted on Mar 03, 2017

On Thursday evening, 2 March 2017, the SNP Rotary honored the librarians of Summit and New Providence as our Citizens of the Year. In all, seventeen librarians attended representing the New Providence Memorial Library, the NP Elementary Schools, NP Middle School and NP High School, and the Summit Free Public Library, the Summit Elementary Schools, the Summit Middle School and the Summit High School. In addition to the honorees, approximately eighty Rotarians and guests were in attendance.

We honor these accomplished individuals whose work insures that all of our citizens, young and old, have access to the information they need to enjoy the process of discovery and learning and to build skills in a vast array of subjects from the arts and sciences to business and technology, medicine and wellbeing, and government and civics.

There was a short program which included statements from the program Chair, Melanie Cohn, Rotary President, Susan Haig, and Scholarship Chair, Ellen Dickson. This was followed by brief comments from representatives of each of the several library systems. The librarians gave a very short description of the many, many activities and services offered by their respective facilities which are an extensive selection raging from story time for toddlers to film series for seniors, weekly concerts, a 3-D lab, extensive reference materials, CDs, music, audio book selections, magazines, periodicals, and excellent physical spaces which include large and small meeting rooms.

Our public and school libraries are core treasures of Summit and New Providence and Rotary is proud to honor the people who run them with efficiency and allow us unfettered access to the information we need on an ongoing basis.

And finally, this event is also the primary annual sponsorship for our Scholarship Fund. Through the enormous efforts of our program chair, Melanie Cohn and Rotary President, Susan Haig, and a dozen other Rotarians, we raised a little over $8,000. Thank you to all the generous donors who helped make this a wonderful celebration and a successful raise for another year of scholarships.

Our Citizens of the Year:

Cindy Abramov, Washington School, Summit

Ann-Marie Aymer, Summit Free Public Library

Abigail Brady, Summit Free Public Library

Colleen Byrne, Director, New Providence Memorial Library

Brandee Conover, Roberts Elementary School, New Providence

Michelle Demich, New Providence Memorial Library

Karen Doherty, Jefferson School, Summit

Lisa Florio, New Providence Memorial Library

Megan Hartley, Lawton C. Johnson Summit Middle School

Courtney Kaczynski, Brayton School, Summit

Paula McGraw, New Providence High School

Amelia Nagle, New Providence Middle School

Susan Permahos, Director, Summit Free Public Library

Judy Shue, Summit High School

Loreli Stochaj, Franklin School, Summit

Carole Stubeck, Lincoln-Hubbard School, Summit

Kerry Sullivan, New Providence Memorial Library

Beth Thomas, Lawton C. Johnson Summit Middle School

Rebecca Zarabi, Summit High School


 

Scholarship Monday & Our Dollars for Scholars Raffle

On Monday, 13 June, the SNP Rotary awarded $21,000 in scholarships to seven deserving seniors from three of the area’s high schools.  The awards ceremony was held at the Grand Summit Hotel and was attended by about fifty Rotarians, the scholarship recipients and members of their families.  Rotary President, Reagan Burkholder and Scholarship Committee Chair, Ellen Dickson, emceed the program.  In addition to awarding the scholarships, we also held the drawing for our annual Dollars for Scholars 50/50 Raffle which awarded three prizes.  The Raffle garnered slightly over $10,000, with half the proceeds going to the three winners and the other half, into our scholarship fund.  The Rotary congratulates all our scholarship recipients as well as the winners of our raffle.  Our scholarship program began in 1926 and is now in its 91st consecutive year.  We remain proud to invest in the futures of our local seniors as they pursue their undergraduate degrees.

Pictured below are five of the seven scholarship recipients:

From left to right: Reagan Burkholder, Rotary President, Samantha Hanley, SHS, winner of the Bud Smith Award, U of Indiana; Lorik Berisha, NPHS, Rutgers; John Berardi, SHS, College of New Jersey; Ife Campbell, SHS, U of New Haven; Juliana Nociara, SHS, winner of the Walter Eddy Award, NYU; Ellen Dickson, Scholarship Committee Chair.  Not pictured are Aila Poticano, SHS, Rutgers and Cindy Weng, Union County Magnet School, NYU.

Click on the “read more” button to the lower left of this screen to view more pictures of the event.

Dave Miceli, Superintendant of New Providence Schools addresses the audience.

June Chang, Superintendant of the Summit Schools, addresses the audience

President Burkholder opens the Awards Ceremony

A Rabbi's Journey
Posted on Mar 16, 2016

Today’s speaker, Rabbi Hannah Orden talked about her passage towards becoming a rabbi, as someone raised in a secular household, being a female, and ultimately choosing this path as a second career after being a teacher, actor and writer.  She spoke of being a life-long “seeker” who felt the need to reconnect with her Jewish heritage after experiencing a traumatic event involving the tragic death of a seven year old student in the school where she was teaching and having to deal with the inevitable explanations required of her by her students and even other faculty members.  Many years after this incident, she eventually had the opportunity to undertake the rigorous five year course of training needed to become a rabbi and was ordained in 2010.  In 2014, she accepted her current position and described her desire to “. . . build communities where people can make connections with each other, with Torah, and with the divine spark in each of us and in the world.”  The Rabbi offered an interesting portrayal of her journey to Summit, and Rotary welcomes Rabbi Orden to the community.

RI Director, Julia Phelps, Addresses 130 Rotarians

Today’s speaker was Julia Phelps, Director, Rotary International, representing North America, Russia, France (by a fluke of island geography) and Bermuda.

Julia began her career in education in 1976, and is currently the associate commissioner for the Center for Curriculum and Instruction for the state of Massachusetts. She served on the board of the Amesbury Educational Foundation, Inc. and the John Ashford Link House Inc.

A Rotarian since 1997, Phelps has served Rotary as Rotary Foundation alumni coordinator and district governor. She is a Major Donor, Benefactor, multiple Paul Harris Fellow, and a member of the Bequest Society, and a recipient of The Rotary Foundation's Citation for Meritorious Service.

Julia related several anecdotes from her global travels for Rotary including how local villagers in the Philippines look for creative ways to expand membership and how Rotarians in Pottsville, Pennsylvania created a “human school bus” to walk children to the local schools, safely, after the community could no longer afford to provide busing service – as always, SERVICE ABOVE SELF.

Of special note, this weekly Rotary meeting was one of the largest ever held in Union County.  We had 105 guest Rotarians from 15 clubs in addition to the SNP Rotarians, roughly 130, in all.

Many thanks to the volunteers who made this event go off without a hitch.

 

Sadly, we mourn the loss of another friend and Rotarian,
 

Jim Kellogg passed away on New Year’s Eve – surrounded by his family.  He was a long time (twenty years) and valued member of the SNP Rotary.  In addition to being involved in many community and charitable endeavors, some of the more noteworthy being President of the Community Foundation of New Jersey and President of the J.C. Kellogg Foundation, he was from time to time a special benefactor to our Club (always surreptitiously  – but one impact which must be noted was his generous establishment of our 501c3 fund within the CFNJ, seeded with a $5000 grant) .  Jim had a deep and abiding interest in community and local politics and generously shared his knowledge and often gave insightful and illuminating presentations on the political goings on in Union County and New Jersey. 

Jim was a graduate of Pingry, Princeton and Harvard Law and a partner in the NYC law firm of Townley & Updike.  He also served on many, many non-profit boards. 

A memorial service will be held on Friday, Jan. 8, at 12 noon, at Short Hills Community Congregational Church, 200 Hartshorn Dr., with a lunch to follow at the Short Hills Club at 144 Highland Ave.

We offer our condolences to Jim’s wife, Gail, and his three children, Jimmy, Kate and Elizabeth, and brothers Peter, Kelly and Rusty.

The SNP Rotary will miss our friend, Jim.

Vito Gallo details Summit's re-development
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
By: James Fleischmann

During November, the majority of our speakers were Rotarians.  This week, Vito Gallo, retired head of the Summit Housing Authority as well as Paul Harris Fellow and past SNP Rotary President, discussed the major program Summit undertook in the seventies and eighties to redevelop a substantial swath of land near the center of town which transformed the City’s footprint and resulted in, essentially, a slum clearance project that replaced dilapidated dwellings (both commercial and residential) with modern housing which maintained the social fabric of the residents displaced and allowed for substantial development of new businesses as well as a major senior housing facility, one of the largest and most successful in the State.  Vito presented a fascinating history of both Summit’s last century and its municipal evolution, and his large part in it.  Thank you, Vito, for being a good steward of your City.

Mayoral Candidates Address the Rotarians 
Mayoral Candidates Address the Rotarians
Monday, October 19, 2015
By: James Fleischmann

Today we had presentations by the two candidates running for Mayor of Summit. 

Mayor Ellen Dickson, the Republican candidate and running for a second term, led off by presenting her platform and reviewing her past tenure.  The Mayor then fielded questions.

Nora Radest, the Democratic candidate, then presented her platform and also fielded questions.

Both candidates bring impressive credentials to the contest and the Rotarians appreciate the presentations.

SNP Rotarians learn of advances in braing surgery
SNP Rotarians learn of advances in brain surgery
Monday, June 29, 2015
By: James Fleischmann

Monday’s speaker was Dr. Yaron Moshel, M.D., PhD., with Atlantic Health.

Dr. Moshel made a fascinating presentation on the current state of neurological surgery.  He showed how the tremendous advances in tomography through MRIs, ultrasound, etc., have allowed surgeons to operate with accuracy unimaginable twenty years ago.  Tumors in the brain, inoperable as recent as a decade ago can now be treated.  In addition, the heightened accuracy makes these procedures much safer with considerably less likelihood of collateral damage to surrounding brain tissue.

He also described how some surgeries are conducted “awake” allowing the surgeon to better assess procedures while operating.  New techniques were also described such as doing deep brain surgery by entering the brain through the nasal cavity, thereby having greater access with considerably less intrusive damage to the skull. 

Finally, Dr. Moshel discussed cutting edge techniques such as radio surgery (the Cyber-Knife) and advances in chemotherapy which involve harnessing the body’s immune system (immunotherapy) to combat some tumors.

Dr. Moshel then took questions – there were many.  All in all, a most interesting and informative presentation, and much appreciated by the Rotarians.

 

Burkholder Succeeds Fleischmann as SNP President
Burkholder Succeeds Fleischmann as SNP President
Friday, June 26, 2015

On Thursday, 25 June 2015, Reagan Burkholder was installed as the new President of the Summit/New Providence Rotary. 

In the annual ceremony, retiring President, Jim Fleischmann, presented his predecessesor, Christy Hodde, a Paul Harris Award in honor of her excellent service as President for the fiscal year, 2013/14.  Reagan then presented Jim with the traditional Past Presidents lapel pin.

In a short presentation, Reagan pledged to build on the work started by Hodde and Fleischmann, noting that the Club had regained momentum with increasing membership and community based service projects.

There was good food, good wine and lots of good fellowship amongst the Rotarians - an enjoyable evening for all those who attended.

    Past Presedent Christy Hodde receives Paul Harris Award

Outgoing President Jim Fleischmann receives "Past President's Pin"

 

Scholarship Monday - our 90th!
Scholarship Monday - our 90th!
Monday, June 15, 2015
By: James Fleischmann

Today, Monday, 15 June 2015, the Summit/New Providence Rotary awarded its 90th consecutive series of scholarships to local high school scholars.  This year we selected six outstanding students from Summit High School, New Providence High School and the Union County Magnet School for Math and Science.

In addition to the Rotarians, which included Superintendent of the Summit Public Schools, June Chang, Superintendent of the New Providence Public Schools, Dr. David Miceli and Mayor Ellen Dickson, the  attendees included Paul Sears, principal of SHS, John Richter, Assistant Principal of NPHS, many parents, and one prior scholarship recipient, Claudia Kosiecki (2013), brother of Zachary, a 2015 recipient.

To see all of the recipients of our scholarships, going back to 1926, click on "Our Scholarships", under "Club Links", on the left column of this page.

 

In the front row, from the left, Claudia Hanley, SHS - Stanford University and next to Claudia, Ruth Kim, SHS - Drew University.

In the back row, from the left, Alan Payne, NPHS - University of Virginia; Zachary Kosiecki, NPHS - Rutgers University; John Stombous - Union County Magnet School - University of California @ Berkeley and Jared Chang, SHS - Cornell.  Jared Chang was awarded the Bud Smith Memorial scholarship and Claudia Hanley was awarded the Walter Eddy Memorial scholarship.

Chris Cotter reviews his tenure as City Administrator
Chris Cotter reviews his tenure as City Administrator
Monday, May 18, 2015
By: James Fleischmann

Our speaker today was Chris Cotter, City Administrator for Summit, NJ.

 Chris will be retiring next month after 39 years of service beginning at the Fire Department in 1976, where he started as an eighteen year old in the dispatch office and eventually rising to the rank of Chief of the Force.  After an interim position in public works, Chris assumed the position of City Administrator in 2005.  He reviewed his tenure with the City of Summit and touched on the many changes he has seen in his four decades of service covering such topics as advances in the efficiencies of the Fire and Police Departments to the most recent innovation of shared dispatch between Summit, Milburn and New Providence for emergency services.  He also discussed the numerous people who influenced his career over the years and his great appreciation to many of the City’s leaders (several of whom were in the audience), both elected officials as well as administrative.

 The Rotary wants to thank Chris for his many years of outstanding service to the community and offer our best wishes in his future undertakings.

 

Club Executives & Directors
President
David Dietze
President Elect
Mortimer O'Shea
Secretary
Joe Steiner
Treasurer
James Fleischmann
Membership
Donna Patel
Immediate Past President
Mike Katz
Rotary Foundation
Ev Davis