This week is incredibly special, my wife Terry and I celebrate 24 years of marriage. Faith, Family and Service serve as the foundation of our relationship. Terry is the energizer to everything I do her encouragement and belief in me pushes me to dream bigger and work harder. We were married in Springfield and continue to work in the city, we will continue to serve to make a difference in the lives of our community.  

We have a great challenge ahead of us this year and I am looking forward to seeing everyone together, once again, sharing our talents, our time, our wisdom, with each other and our community. You are the Springfield Rotary Club and we need each other. We can rebound from the pandemic and declining membership by embracing the 2021-2022 Rotary theme: Serve to Change Lives. We must reach out to members we have not seen in a while and invite them to come back to Rotary. Everyone will see we are more than a "lunch club" and how we are serious about serving the community. I also want to honor John's leadership through the pandemic. It was not easy, and he sacrificed to keep our club going. John's presidency was historic and significant. Mary-Anne's legacy will also be celebrated. We will honor Mary-Anne at the Service Above Self Luncheon on November 18, 2021, with a Lifetime Achievement Award. John and Mary-Anne have served to change lives, we must encourage others to continue in their footsteps.  

We respect everyone's safety and have made accommodations for members who are not able to join us in person by investing in the equipment that will allow us to stream our meetings LIVE virtually from your computer or mobile device via Zoom. Please join us in person this Friday from 12:00pm to 1:30pm at the Cal’s in West Springfield to break bread in fellowship and plant the seeds to make our organization and our community flourish.