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Donate to Reading Rotary via PayPal.  Reading Rotary Charitable Trust is a 501(c) tax exempt organization.  Tax Id 47-7416401.  You may designate the purpose of your donation.
 
Upcoming Events
Speakers
Dr. Sudeshna Chatterjee
Jan 09, 2023 12:15 PM
Director of Equity and Social Justice
Doug Brendel
Jan 23, 2023 6:00 PM
New Thing (a charity)
Everett Blodgett
Feb 06, 2023 12:15 PM
Parker Tavern
View entire list...
Club Executives & Directors
Co-President
Sheila Clarke
Co-President
John Douglass
President Elect
Sheila Clarke
Vice President
Phil Stewart
Treasurer
Michael Bonsey
Secretary
Jeanne Borawski
Immediate Past President
John Douglass
Director - Public Image Chair
Tim Kelley
Director - Membership Chair
Lisa Gibbs
Director
Patricia Calley
Director
Kathy Kinney
Director
Phil Stewart
Director
Jenniffer Rogers
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Rotary Club of Reading, Massachusetts, USA

Rotarians have fun serving the community.  Join us!

New Meeting Schedule starting September 2022. 
1st Monday: Residence at Pearl 12:15 pm. 
3rd Monday:  RCTV at 6 pm. 
4th Monday:  Board Meeting. 
 
Home Page Stories
Denise Eaton is Our Community Hero
Posted by Tim Kelley on Nov 29, 2022
Reading Rotary is pleased to announce that Denise Eaton is the recipient of the Club's 2022 Hero Award. Denise was honored as part of Rotary District 7930’s Robert C. Wood Heroes Celebration at its Foundation Dinner held on November 10 at Danversport Yacht Club.  Reading Rotary selected Denise as an extraordinary person in our community who puts others before herself and is dedicated to helping others in need, truly embodying the Rotary motto: “Service above Self.”
 
Reading Rotary presented Ms. Eaton with a Paul Harris Fellow Award, one of the highest honors Rotary can give to an individual.  In addition to the recipient's recognition exemplifying the highest ideals of Rotary, Clubs or Rotarians recognize Paul Harris Fellows from donations made to The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International which supports Rotary’s world-wide programs.  Paul Harris was the founder of Rotary International.
 
Denise exemplifies Rotary’s value of selfless service.  In particular, Reading Rotary decided to honor Denise for her years of being a crucial volunteer for the Reading Fall Street Faire.  Denise has worked on the Faire since its inception in 2009 and has continued to do so since Rotary took over management of the Faire in 2017.  Denise masterfully heads the enormous task of plotting out vendor locations along the Faire route.
 
Read more...
Happy Thanksgiving from Reading Rotary
Posted by Tim Kelley on Nov 26, 2022
Happy Thanksgiving from the Thanksgiving Day Shack Shack crew of Rotarians and family!
 
Special shout out to Mike Collins for managing the hectic Shack Shack season.  Lots of fun and spreading the good will of Rotary.  
Thanksgiving Traditions Continue
Posted by Tim Kelley on Nov 22, 2022
 This Monday, Stoneham and Reading Rotary Clubs met jointly for the 46th Annual Thanksgiving Luncheon.  It was held at St. Agnes Parish Center and catered by our great friend Laurie Rizzo of Laurie's 909.  The luncheon is a traditional run up to the Reading-Stoneham Thanksgiving Day game.  Reading is home team this year.
 
Among the crowd were the football captains, cheer captains, coaches, athletic directors, town manager, superintendent of schools, fire and police chiefs, school administrators and, of course, Rotarians.  Shown here are the captains and head coaches holding the trophy sponsored by Stoneham Bank and Reading Cooperative Bank.
 
The program included football captains addressing the crowd with their thoughts on football, teamwork and leadership.  Both teams have had very successful seasons.  The Rockets were undefeated into the playoffs, before being knocked off by Bishop Feehan, whose defensive coordinator is none other than Patriot legend Tedy Bruschi.  The Spartans have made it to play in their Division Superbowl in Gillette Stadium.
 
The Thanksgiving game is 10 am at Reading Memorial High School.  Rotary Shack Shack will be open for business.
 
 
 
 
Rotary's Learning Center
Posted by Tim Kelley on Nov 04, 2022
Have you ever asked, how can I easily learn about all the offerings of Rotary?  Have you wondered where you can find out answers to many questions about all things Rotary?
 
Well, you are in luck.  Rotary International has a Learning Center which offers many online courses/modules with information about all aspects of Rotary.
 
All these courses are E-Learning.  They consist of videos that you can review from the convenience of your computer.  Catalog areas include:  
 
About Rotary
Club Leadership
District Leadership
General
Membership
Professional Development
Public Image
Service
Rotary Foundation
Trainer
 
The Learning Center can be found here.  You will need to login with your My Rotary login.  If you do not already have one, you can follow the prompts to register.  This is different from your Clubrunner login.
DG Alexander's Official Visit
Posted by Tim Kelley on Oct 27, 2022
We welcomed DG Alexander Falk for his official club visit on October 17 at RCTV.  Alexander gave a wonderful presentation about the goings on in District 7930 and Rotary International. 
 
Here Alexander holds a Tutu desk, which is a project to provide lap desks to African students.  Co-President Sheila will be speaking more to the club about a possible donation for them.
Rotary Donation to Support Community Garden for Food Pantry
Posted by Jeanne Borawski on Oct 24, 2022
Recently Reading Rotary voted to donate $6,000 to support the expansion of the Reading Community Garden located at the Mattera Conservation Area. This approval comes after two months of collaboration between the Reading Rotary Club and the Community Garden Steering Committee.
 
Reading Rotary is applying for a districtwide grant to help fund this project.  Rotary districtwide grants support projects that promote the seven focus areas of Rotary: promoting peace, fighting disease, providing clean water and sanitation, saving mothers and children, supporting education, growing local economies, and protecting the environment.  Sheila Clarke, Reading Rotary Co-President, explains, “I reached out to Town Manager Fidel Maltez to ask if there were local projects that might fit these focus areas.  He was kind enough to connect us with the Community Garden Steering Committee and we began to have discussions to see if Rotary could help.”
 
Community Garden Steering Committee member Cathy Zeek explains, “We have a local volunteer who maintains a small garden bed that provides fresh produce for clients of the Reading Food Pantry.  This garden plot was able to provide produce for Food Pantry clients this past year but we would love to create a much larger garden plot, fully run by volunteers, to be able to provide a larger amount and greater variety of produce to support the more than 120 households who use the Reading Food Pantry. We currently don’t have funds to buy the supplies to make that happen.”
 
Read more...
Rotarians Making the Best of a Stinky Situation
Posted by Tim Kelley on Oct 19, 2022
Please check out our own Jeanne Borawski being interviewed on WBZ TV regarding Reading's ongoing trash mess.  Jeanne and President John brought refreshments to the DPW on behalf of Rotary to show appreciation for all the extra work the Town workers have done to deal with the failings of the Town's trash contractor.  Details are available in the video linked here (or in the many reverse-911 calls from Town Hall advising residents of the trashy goings on).  In a nutshell, the former trash collector was bought by Republic who is very bad at picking up trash.
 
Thanks to Jeanne and John for doing this and representing Rotary so well.  Town Manager Fidel Maltez and the entire DPW team are working hard to resolve this literal mess.
 
 
Rotary Tackles the Snack Shack
Posted by Tim Kelley on Oct 17, 2022
We are in the midst of running the Snack Shack at Reading High's home football games.  
 
We have had 2 fun-filled games so far.  Upcoming dates are:
 
Fri., Oct 28 and Thanksgiving, Nov. 24.
 
There are likely additional playoff games to be added.
 
The pizza, burgers, candy and hot chocolate won't sell themselves, so sign up to help.
 
If you can help this week sign up here:  Snack Shack: SNACK SHACK 10/28 (signupgenius.com)
Town Beer Garden on Oct. 22
Posted by Tim Kelley on Sep 27, 2022
The Town is organizing another Beer Garden on the Common on October 22 from 1-7.  If you haven't checked out the previous ones, you should.
 
Town Manger Fidel Maltez has asked us to help spread the word.  So, come on down and bring a few friends.  Also, please spread the word as you can, on social media, email, word of mouth, etc.
 
There will be beer and non-alcoholic refreshments, food vendors and games for children.  It is a family friendly event and it would be great for Rotarians to support it.
KC's Fish Story
Posted by Tim Kelley on Sep 26, 2022
Our own KC Latham has bagged himself a huge tuna.  Earlier this month, KC caught a 107 inch bluefin tuna on his boat.
 
Aside from running his insurance agency, Davis, Clark and Latham, KC is known for his love of fishing and the sea.  Over the years we ran the Auction, KC donated dozens of charter boat excursions.  KC's secret Rotary classification is Fisherman.
 
Congrats, KC, on landing the big one!