Recent Happenings

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Scroll down to see recent meetings and other events....

On December 21st the Club did its yearly day of bell-ringing for the Salvation Army at two locations.  On the left is Rob Dick and Danny Carroll at Patrick Henry Mall.  On the right, Harvey Weinstein and Gail Pearce at Peninsula Town Center have a moment of fun as Tom Morris prepares to take his turn for the next hour.

On December 14th, long-time Rotarian Abe Firestone brought his wife, Ernestine, to lunch with him.  It was their 65th wedding anniversary!  At left is Abe and Ernestine with the cake the club presented them.  On the right, President Elizabeth gives a surprised Ernestine an armload of roses.

During the Christmas season, Rotarian Kim Feinauer of the Salvation Army has been giving us traditional Christmas music as we eat our lunch.  He has been bringing in--and playing--an astonishing variety of different musical instruments, both woodwind and brass.

On December 3rd, for the second year in a row, our Christmas party was held at the home of David and Cathy Miller.  For candid photographs see the Christmas party item in the Photo Albums.

An Achievable Dream, in partnership with the Rotary Club of the Virginia Peninsula, held its 19th annual Tennis Ball on November 12th.  Above is the dining room, and below is the silent auction room.  For more photos go to the Photo Album.

Our $20,000 project in Costa Rica, installing water purifying filters at ten schools, has now started.  On the left we see installation at one school underway, and on the right the finished assembly.

At the November 2nd meeting the president, Chris Ohlhaver, and the rest of the officers of the Peninsula Catholic High School Interact Club were sworn in.

The Peninsula Rotary Club was much in evidence at the 2011 Rotary District 7600 Conference in Short Pump, just northwest of Richmond.  Above, Cap Neilson speaks from experience of what can and can't be done when major disaster strikes.  Below is the Hall of Friendship, where our club had a display.  Diane Hagemann was busy as co-chair of the conference.  Ray Spencer, Danny Carroll, Cap Nielson, and Jim Pierce gave a break-out seminar on the mechanics of Matching Grants and grants funding.  Jim and Cap were prominent throughout the conference in their positions as past and future District Governors.

On October 5th Steve Adams, Chair of the Vocational Service Committee, presented this year's Martin Gracey Award for Extraordinary Service to James O. Shaw, Jr, MD, the founder of the Lackey Free Clinic.  The Martin Gracey Award is given to persons who not only have high ethical standards, but who have established something that will be of lasting value to the community.

On a Thursday night, September 29th, before a packed house at the Cooper Elementary Magnet School, Immediate Past President John Frantz presented school principal Chevese Thomas with a donation of $12,000 for the Star Achievers Academy.  Star Achievers Academy is a three-way public-private partnership among the Peninsula Metropolitan YMCA, the Peninsula Rotary Club, and Cooper Elementary Magnet School for Technology.  The money donated will go towards programs that improve the reading skills of the students.

On September 24th we (and District 7600) welcomed the GSE team from South Korea with a reception at the home of Jim and Suki Pierce.

On August 24th we had our debut meeting at its new location--in a meeting room at the Hampton Sentara CarePlex Hospital.

The August 10th meeting was held at the Food Bank of the Virginia Peninsula, at its brand new home.  We heard about the Food Bank and saw its offices and warehouse facilities.

On a tolerably warm July Saturday the club added the last component of the picnic shelter at the Newport News Boundless Playground, its floor of concrete paver stones.  For more information and photos CLICK HERE.

At the July 6th meeting we were visited by the new District 7600 Governor Jim Bynum.

This photo shows the new President Elizabeth with the equally new District Governor Jim.

The installation of officers was held June 26th at John Frantz's home.

....and a fine time was had by all.

Our new President Elizabeth McCoury is sworn in by the equally new District Governor Jim Bynum.

The event in late June that installed the new District 7600 officers also gave out the District awards for the clubs.  The Peninsula Rotary Club garnered an unprecedented five awards.

At the end of the June 22nd meeting, President John rang the bell for the last time, making way for President Elizabeth and her team, and the new Rotary year.

On June first, instead of a normal meeting, the club held an "after hours" meeting at The Green Turtle sports bar in Peninsula Town Center.  In the informal atmosphere, a good time was had by all.

On a hot spring day the Peninsula Rotary Club supported An Achievable Dream's "Run for the Dream" event in Williamsburg, helping to man support tables.  In addition, two of us ran in the half-marathon event.  Here, President John hams it up just before the beginning of the race.  He finished in a respectable time, but Rob Jones ran it much faster.

April 13th was our annual Career Day, and we were joined by students from Peninsula Catholic High School.  Members of the Peninsula Rotary Club answered the students' questions about our professions.  The fast-paced program, covering a lot of ground, was led by our own Greg Richardson.

Three Peninsula Club members visited friends in the Rotary Club of Escazu, Costa Rica in mid-March.  They visited ten schools in preparation for a project to provide the schools with purification systems for the incoming water.

While in Costa Rica, we had a chance to visit with Jorge Arman, our all-important first contact in the country.  Jorge lives in California now, but by coincidence was in Costa Rica at the same time as the Peninsula Club.  In this photo are Jim Pierce, Danny Carroll, Jorge, and Ray Spencer.

On February 26th The Peninsula Rotary Club celebrated its 35th anniversary at Charter Night.  The party took place at the Hampton Yacht Club, with the harbor just outside the windows.

At Charter Night, those who have in the past year become Paul Harris Fellows or have increased their PHF levels were recognized.

On December 22nd, at both Patrick Henry Mall and Peninsula Town Center, the Peninsula Rotary Club helped ring the bell for the Salvation Army.  This photo shows Ned Spencer supporting this decades-old tradition by bringing out his entire family to ring--Hilary, Scott, and Noelle.

The club's Christmas party was held December 4th at the home of David and Cathy Miller.  Good place, good food, good fellowship.

John Frantz, Ned Spencer, and Steve Adams present classroom aids to the Star Achievers Academy In Hampton.  The aids are $2,388 worth of guidebooks, workbooks, and other materials aimed at helping a total of 329 students with their reading scores.  These materials were purchased with a combination of club funds and a $1,388 Rotary District Simplified Grant. 

On November 4th there was a brief item in the news about a landslide in Central America that killed 23 people and made many more homeless.  The item quickly disappeared from the news, but in the Peninsula Rotary Club we had noticed that the slide was in Escazu, Costa Rica--home of our friends in the Escazu Rotary Club.  Within a few days, the Peninsula Club had raised $1,000 from members and sent it to the Escazu Club.  Since one of the critical problems was that those who had lost their homes had nothing to cook meals in, the Escazu Club used our donation to purchase cooking pots and pans.  Above, the photo on the left shows a Costa Rican policeman beside a house destroyed by the landslide.  On the right is Mario Gil of the Escazu Rotary giving a set of cooking pots to one of the slide victims.  In all, 50 families received pots.  For more information and more photos, see the photo album on this website.

On November 4th the Peninsula Club won the bowling trophy at the first annual Rotary charity bowling event at CineBistro, in Peninsula Town Center.  The event included dinner, movies, and bowling, and was held jointly by the Peninsula Club, the Warwick Club, and the Hampton Club in support of the Rotary Polio Plus campaign.

When conductor Joann Falletta spoke to us October 27th, she found out that she was a favorite of the Peninsula Rotary Club.

The 2010 Tennis Ball, co-sponsored by the Peninsula Rotary Club for the benefit of An Achievable Dream, took place on November 23rd.

The venue for the Tennis Ball was changed this year--to the Hampton Roads Convention Center.  This photograph shows the automobiles for sale positioned near the front entrance.

Tennis Ball attendees circulate in the silent auction room.

Work on the Boundless Playground shelter continues.  Here the almost-completed shelter, lacking only shingles and pavers, is shown with its completed sister shelter being used in the background.

On a beautiful October day, Richard Blackwell trims sheathing boards, Al Roosendaal manages the electrical cord and checks the cutting line accuracy, and in the background Ned Spencer cuts another board.

The GSE team from Germany visited our club on October 13th.  "GSE" stands for Group Study Exchange--it is a program funded by the Rotary Foundation that gives young businessmen and professionals the opportunity to see how their jobs are done in a foreign country.  Above the meeting photograph, Frauke and Marion try out the cockpit of a DC-9 during their tour of the Virginia Air and Space Center; above them is Marc, an architect, visiting a construction site in Newport News.

At our October 6th meeting, the new officers of our Interact Club at Peninsula Catholic High School were officially installed.

Work on the second Boundless Playground picnic shelter continues on July 17th.  Above, Ned Spencer, John Frantz, Richard Blackwell, and Rick Machamer are at work.  The photo on the right shows the shelter under construction with the first shelter in the foreground.  In the photo below, we are packing up after completing the framing

On July 11th the Installation of Officers was held at Colonial Downs.  We have met at the racetrack before, but this time we were in an air conditioned "skybox" with a great view of the field.  The officers and the Board of Directors was sworn in by District Governor Jayne Sullivan.

Work continues on the second picnic shelter at the Boundless Playground.  Here, on a hot June morning, Richard Blackwell secures a roof rafter while Adrian Marshall and Alex Penland look on.

On November 30th the Christopher Newport University Rotaract Club held its annual Summerville Leadership Seminar.  The CNU Rotaract Club is co-sponsored by the Peninsula Rotary Club, and the seminar is named after a distinguished Peninsula Club member.  Above is shown Peninsula Club member Diane Hagemann flanked by the Rotaract Club co-presidents, Ashley Barmer and Tana Medina.

At our annual career day on April 28th we had a record number of Juniors from Peninsula Catholic High School.  Greg Richardson moderated, and members of the Peninsula Rotary Club answered the students' questions about their professions.

At our April 21st meeting we were joined by Liz Pfeiffer, our candidate for a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship.  She is shown here with President Al Roosendaal, International Service Committee chair Ray Spencer, and President-Elect John Frantz.