Reading Rotary is sponsoring the Festival of Trees again this year.  The Festival of Trees is an event put on by our community partner Reading Education Foundation.  It is held the weekend of December 6-7 at Parker Middle School.  Hours are Saturday 10 am to 8 pm and Sunday 10 am to 4 pm.

 

Please join us for our Holiday Party on December 15 from 6 to 8 pm at Austin Prep.  Please reach out to any of our volunteers to join us.  Family and guests are encouraged to come.

 

We will have holiday music bingo and lots more fun, too!

 

Please respond to Lisa Simmons (or just come!)

 

We will also be collecting for the Reading Food Pantry.  The following is a list of their current needs:  laundry detergent, tissues, instant coffee; canned potatoes; canned pasta, canned ham/chicken; low sodium soups; pasta sauce; shelf stable milk; canned beans; canned veggies; and canned no sugar fruit.  These items can be brought to this meeting to directly to RFP.

Thanks to DG Pooja Singla for visiting our lunch meeting at Kitty's this week.  She gave us updates about District initiatives and committees.  Thanks also to DGE Terry Curran and Governor's Aide Maria Bertolone for coming out.

 

Thanks also to all our Rotarians who came out for Pooja's visit.  Great food, fun meeting.

Our longtime tradition of participating in Adopt-a-Family continued for Thanksgiving again.  Distribution day was November 24. Reading Rotary partners with ReadingCares and the Town to organize, match and distribute complete holiday meals for local families who have a need. Shout out to our Sasha DiPietro from Reading Cooperative Bank who coordinates this wonderful giving project on behalf of our club.

 

Christmas distribution day is December 22.  This will take the place of our Morning Coffee Meeting for December.  Look for the Sign Up by email from Sasha.

At our November Morning Coffee Meeting, we put together backpacks containing winter hats, gloves, socks, scarves feet warmers to donate to the Outdoor Church of Cambridge, who serve the homeless. Thanks to all who contributed items.

 

Shoutout to Lisa Gibbs and John Feudo for organizing and hosting.

On November 25, Stoneham Rotary hosted the Annual Joint Thanksgiving Football Luncheon with Reading Rotary.  Featured were the high school teams football captains, coaches and athletic directors.  Reading and Stoneham are traditional Thanksgiving football rivals, a matchup which extends well over 100 years.

 

Rotarian Steven Rotondi, also of the Stoneham Historical Society, gave a short speech to display a piece of the Reading High goal post from the 1941 game.  Stoneham won that game and students returned to the field to take the goal post as a trophy.  The theft sparked a chase around the streets of Stoneham.

 

This years' competitors displayed much better sportsmanship and camaraderie.