Club History - 2022-2023 Adam Duncan

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Below is a record of the second consecutive Rotary year of President Adam Duncan, 2022-2023.

If you would like to go in chronological order, start at the bottom and scroll your way up.

On July 12th the incoming president, Elizabeth McCoury, was sworn in by Past District Governor Diane Hagemann.  Her Board of Directors was sworn in immediately after.

Another honor for Adam Duncan:  He was named by his peers as Rotarian of the Year for an amazing year of leadership.

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??On June 14th John Frantz was recognized as the club's newest member of the Paul Harris Society.  He is shown here with Kevin Yeargin, the club's Rotary Foundation Chair.?

 On June 8th we had dinner and a game: a picnic at the ball park, and a baseball game featuring our hometown team, the Peninsula Pilots.

During April and May our speakers included our own Adam Duncan giving advice on retaining employees, Kalen Hammann talking about relationships at home and in the workplace, Pam Croom expounding on diversity, Amasa Smith bringing us up to date on An Achievable Dream, Billy Hannah telling the history of his own company, Diane Umstead talking about Smart Beginnings, Virginia Woodward talking about the Fear 2 Freedom program, and Judge Doug Miller explaining the U.S. District Court system.

March 25th saw our Casino Night.  The intention was for this to be the first of many annual Casino Nights, which would become our chief fundraiser.  The first of an event like this is always difficult, and the success of this one promises even greater success in the future.

The Ides of March was active in the membership area.  First, we inducted James Hicks as our newest member; then James and Michael Vassalo told us about themselves in Classification Talks.

Some meeting programs early in the 2023 calendar year included Joe Massino joining us via Zoom to discuss our upcoming Casino Night, Linda Ficht speaking about the legalities of non-compete clauses in employee contracts, Jerry Markham explaining the Pentagon Memorial, and William Donaldson discussing the economy of 2023.

We closed out February with a multi-club social at the 1700 Brewery.  Members of the Peninsula Club, the Newport News Club, the Warwick at City Center Club, and the Yorktown Club joined in fellowship.

Our Charter Night celebration this year was February 18th at the Oozlefinch Brewery Brewery on historic Fort Monroe.  We recognized the 47th aniversary of the founding of the Club.

On February 8th Randy Gnatowsky and Amanda Gundry, portraying a pirate and his barmaid friend, introduced us to the daily life of the 19th-Century East Coast.  They came from "Blackbeard's Crew," a Poquoson-based performing nonprofit.

Our own Phil Harris on the 1st of February spoke to the Club about how businesses buy business software, and how software vendors sell it.

On January 25th our newest member, Michael Vaasalo, was inducted into the Club.

On January 15th Amy Scott, a relatively new member of the Club, and her husband David presented the world with twins.

Our annual day of ringing the bell for The Salvation Army was on December 21, the Wednesday before Christmas.  Shown here are Suki Pierce and Bill Ziglar.

Rounding out the end of the calendar year we were joined by Tammy Guido speaking about her family's memorial foundation, Sean Heuvel discussing CNU's Office of Graduate Studies, Luisa A. Vazquez-Lopez on the Mariners' Museum, and Monica Hill on how to use ads on LinkedIn.

Here we are showing off the Rotary Year 2021-2022 awards we garnered at the District's Foundation Banquet November 10th: the EREY (Every Rotarian Every Year) Award, the award for 100 percent participation in Foundation giving, the award for support of the Polio Plus campaign, and the award for giving $250 per capita or more to the TRF Annual Fund.  Shown here are Club President Adam Duncan, Club Foundation Chair Kevin Yeargin, and Rotarian Suki Pierce, whose husband Jim was a long-time ardent supporter of the Foundation.

Some autumn programs not mentioned elsewhere included Mike Poplawski, Director of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism for the City of Newport News; Jack Gelman of the Peninsula Council of CEOs, discussing and demonstrating the activity of his organization; and John MacDonald, manager of the award-winning Hampton/NASA  steam plant.

The Peninsula Club and the Warwick at City Center Club had a joint service project in late September, at the Four Oaks Day Service Center in Newport News.

As usual, this year's District 7600 Assembly just outside Richmond saw a good representation from the Peninsula Club.

The end of September saw a Club social at Bull Island Brewery, with a good crowd.

On September 14th District Governor Kenny Janes paid his official visit to the Virginia Peninsula Rotary Club.

Three late-summer programs not otherwise mentioned here were Coleen Bonadona giving us an update on Rotary's Polio Plus campaign, Chris Sapp from Yorktown's Victory Family YMCA told us about his facility's expansion plans, and Jonathan Provost of Pro/Vost Construction discussed his construction company and its project in downtown Newport News.

At the end of August we had a joint social event with the Warwick at City Center Club at the Smoke Restaurant.

On August 10th we inducted our newest member, Amy Scott.

July 28th found us out at the ball park--for dinner and for watching the Peninsula Pilots.  Our team won!

At a gathering of District leadership July 16th, our President Adam was recognized as the outstanding club president in the entire District for the Rotary year 2021-2022.  Well done, Adam!!