August 2014 President's Letter

President's Letter August 2014

Dear Fellow Rotarians,

The first six weeks of the Rotary year have been busy ones for Hopkinton Rotary. We ended the 2013-14 year in June with a successful golf tournament at the Concord Country Club raising over $10,000 for graduating Hopkinton High School student scholarships. We are looking forward to volunteering and participating in the upcoming Contoocook Carry Triathlon on September 6 to benefit the local Wood-for-Warmth program which we have also supported with sponsorship dollars. We are now "gearing up" for our second annual Mount Kearsarge Hill Climb bike race on September 27 hoping to build on a very successful first year! This summer we have seen significant growth of our Flags over Hopkinton program and have targeted an ambitious goal of 250 flags by 2015, the Town of Hopkinton's 250th anniversary. Following this will be the big push to finish and sell our 2015 Hopkinton Rotary calendar which will also feature the Hopkinton's 250th anniversary theme.

We are happy to welcome Laura Beaudoin, our first new member this year. Laura has a strong interest and experience in utilizing social media and we look forward to her help in instituting this communication tool in our club. If all goes well we hope to add 4 more new members this fall through the diligent work of Bill Chapin, jr. our membership chair. I would encourage each and everyone of us to simply invite a friend to a meeting. When visitors experience the positive energy of our meetings it makes joining an easy sell!

This July we had the honor of a visit from new District Governor Rich Berryman. The board met with DG Rich the Tuesday night before our Wednesday morning meeting, discussing our club goals for 2014-15. DG Rich then presented to the club the district's goals for the year emphasizing the theme of "Light up Rotary" as we strive to get the word out of the good work that we do.

The board also has also engaged in much discussion around the topic of supporting the Rotary Foundation. It is through the Foundation that truly big projects such as polio eradication can be accomplished. Hopkinton Rotary has always been very generous in our Foundation support and I am hopeful that 2014-15 will be the best ever. I would like to see every member of our club support the Foundation. Pete Powers, our Foundation chair, will be presenting regular updates on Foundation activities and where we are in our support.

I am very pleased that on August 27,at club assembly, I will be awarding my first Paul Harris recognition to John Watson. Well done John! We have a number of other members close to this distinction so hopefully John will be the first of several this year.

Thank you for all you are doing. It does make a difference. Sincerely,

Eric Schlepphorst, MD Hopkinton Rotary President