Held at Quigley’s Restaurant
573 Columbia Turnpike
East Greenbush, NY 12061
Members Attending (16): Phil Kellerman, Murray Forth, Bill Dowd, Jim Leyhane, Peter Brown, Debbie Brown, Terry Brewer, Pat Bailey, Dean Calamaras, Doris Calamaras, Wells Packard, Debbie Rodriguez, A.J. Amato, Charlie Foote, Kevin Leyhane, Dick Drumm.
Guests (1): Dan Caurabia.
MEETING NOTES: President Phil welcomed members and our guest speaker. … Terry Brewer reported that District 7190 has approved $35,000 to support membership recruitment and retention efforts, $15,000 of which will pay an individual to head up the effort. The District membership is reaching a point at which RI may reconfigure the region and merge 7190 into another district. …
Bill Dowd updated plans for the club’s 60th Anniversary Celebration Dinner, scheduled at the Comfort Inn & Suites for March 5, 2020. He said he has reserved the Berkshire Ballroom there, and hired a caterer, getting the two largest items out of the way. He noted that he has sent an email to all members as a “save the date” request in which he also invited input from everyone on things they would like to have considered as part of the event. … Phil reiterated that he will be selling fair trade coffee specialties during the holidays as a ShelterBox fundraising effort, and that the ongoing Clynk container redemption and recycling program overseen by Bill Dowd also is a ShelterBox fundraiser. …
A reminder that our annual Holiday Party & Themed Basket Silent Auction will be hosted by Murray and Maggie Forth at their residence on Thursday, December 19. Ideas for themed baskets are being put on the club website periodically. (See item at right.) … Anyone scheduled to secure a program for January is asked to get that information to program coordinator Dick Drumm ASAP so we can get it on the calendar. Still not sure what date you have? Just check the chart at the bottom of the website calendar page. … The speaker next week is a man who, despite being on a feeding tube, hiked 270 miles on Vermont’s Long Trail to raise funds for the Oley Foundation. .
PROGRAM: “The Norman Rockwell Museum”
A.J. Amato introduced guest speaker Dan Caurabia, a guide at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA.
Dan is a wealth of information about the iconic American painter and illustrator who used, as he put it, “commonplace people for commonplace themes”; i.e., friends, family, acquaintances and the like as models for his works that have become American icons.
In addition to providing a look at the early life and artistic training of Rockwell, Dan explained the changes in color, technique, and subject matter over Rockwell’s years of painting that ranged from his early teen years until the end of his life in 1978 at the age of 84.
Dan also shared photographs and anecdotes about some of the people who modeled for Rockwell and Dan’s experiences meeting many of them when they made a pilgrimage to Stockbridge to visit the museum. He also invited SRC members to visit the facility on Fridays when he conducts tours.
Information on the Norman Rockwell Museum, now celebrating its 50th anniversary, is available online.
Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club 