All of us within Rotary strive to live by the motto. “Service above self. Each of us applies our unique skills and experience to helping others, with this as a guiding principle. The efforts and successes of our Club in this regard I am convinced will stand the test of time. We can be very proud of such major contributions to our community as Rotary Rink, the FLW Boathouse, “Old Glory” on the waterfront, and our mentoring program at Lorraine Academy among many, many volunteer efforts.
The opportunity, the challenge, yes, sometimes even the risk of stepping outside the normal bounds of helping others, to do what is right when it occurs should be recognized. Recently several members of our Club were asked to do just this. They responded as true Rotarians. When they learned that the home of a community activist who was trying to rid her neighborhood of drug activity was firebombed, they acted. With Paul Marzello leading the way, George Adema, Paul Lamparelli and Tim Lang came forward with the necessary resources to help restore this woman’s home. Working with a volunteer group of Santa’s (which proves that old adage that yes, there is a Santa Claus), they were successful in restoring her home so that she was able to move back into it before the Holidays.
Ladies and Gentlemen of Rotary, Honored Guests, it is a great honor for me with the assistance of Past District Governor, Joe DePaolo to award the Paul Harris Fellowship Medal to these four outstanding individuals., who have reached out and applied our Motto of Service Above Self in a very extraordinary fashion.
