Haverhill YMCA Expands

The Haverhill YMCA has undergone a major $7.5 million facilty renovation in the last year. Under the new leadership of Tracy Fuller, and with expanded programs and services, the YMCA has more than doubled its membership in 2007, growing from 1,700 members in 2006 to 3,800 members in 2007. The Haverhill YMCA is having a significant impact on the Haverhill community. Beth Francis, Chief Development Officer for the YMCA of the North Shore will be our speaker this week. She will be sharing facility photos and program impact stories that highlight the direction and future vision of the Haverhill YMCA. This talk is rescheduled from a December 18th snow day.

February 26, 2008

We've got about half the guys we need to form a good team. See Steve Goddu or send an email to sign up for the Haverhill Rotary Club's winning team.

Ten games will be played either on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening. Five home and five away. The Lawrence club has used this opportunity to reel in some younger members and designated each game a meeting makeup. We could use some ringers and younger members so let's use this activity to our best advantage.

Spiro Pappadopoulos - Evenfall Restaurant
Spiro was inducted by Past District Governor Donna-Lee Young Rubin. Donna had glowing words about Spiro and his family and had him recite the four way test. Make sure you introduce yourself as he is running around assuring our luncheons are prepared and served so well. Maybe if we are really nice to him he will ask Greg DiBurro for Pat's tenderloin recipe just for old time sake.

Proposed New Members
Jim Rogers - Owner of Clean Machine Car Wash located in Ward Hill
Proposed by Dale Rogers

Rotary Sports Raffle

Drawing was held February 21, 2008
And the winners are:

FIRST PRIZE - won by Erica Davenport
Four Celtics Tickets, Friday, February 29th, value $600
SECOND PRIZE - won by Janice Gosslin
Two Celtics Tickets (with parking), Wednesday, April 2, value $350
THIRD PRIZE - won by Bernie Clohisy
Two Bruins Tickets, Tuesday, March 4, value $203
FOURTH PRIZE - won by Jimmy Cleary
Two Celtics Tickets, Friday, February 29th, value $140
FIFTH PRIZE - won by Linda Sundell
Two Celtics Tickets, Monday, March 24, value $70
One Hundred Dollar gift certificate won by Fred MacDonald

Keep up with what's happening in Rotary District 7930.
You may download a copy of the January Newsletter or visit the web site:http://www.rotary7930.org

The Council on Aging is hosting local commentator, historian, and Rotarian James Vanderpol on Tuesday, February 26, 2008, at 2:00 p.m. at the Haverhill Public Library in the Milhendler Room. Mr. Vanderpol will speak on The State of the Union: Dictatorship versus Democracy. He will speak on life under the Hitler regime from personal experience as well as the state of our educational system, poverty in the United States, and illegal immigration.

US Representative Niki Tsongas addressed the Rotary Club of Haverhill at our weekly luncheon last Thursday. Representative Tsongas offered some insight of her first few months as a member of the house. "Congress is a very divided house both physically and philosophically." She explained that there is not much interaction between the different parties. Culturally that interaction is not encouraged and based on the tone of her talk it is obvious that she is a partisan Democrat. More surprising to her is the amount of walking that is required. On her first day she voted on eight different bills. That required eight walks from her office to the house floor and back. Measured by a colleague at five miles it no wonder running shoes aren t more common. She occupies the rather grand  office vacated by former Congressman Marty Meehan who left to become the chancellor of U-Mass Lowell. Since she was elected mid term there were not the usual shuffling of offices as is common. Senior members generally get preferential choice of office space and it is unusual for a freshman representative to be granted such palatial accommodations.

Besides her trip to the floor Representative Tsongas has visited the Mexican border at both Texas and Arizona and has also completed a trip to visit the troops in Iraq. While in Iraq she met with soldiers from Massachusetts who described the situation as much safer since the surge has been put in place. She told us General Patreaus makes a good case for a more stable war environment with the addition of troops but is concerned that the real crisis is in the politics of the Maliki government. There is no indication that once we leave the government will remain stable. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee these trips give her fist hand accounts of the military concerns that face our nation.

Haverhill's Superintendent of Schools Raleigh Buchanan asked what her thoughts were on No Child Left Behind. Tsongas supports the concept but says that the real problem is funding. The president recently submitted a budget that is 85 billion dollars short of fully funding the program according to Tsongas. "Likely the only way we will get this program funded fully is with a Democratic president."

Tsongas is a super-delegate for the Democratic National Convention but remains neutral on her choice for the presidential nominee at this time.

February 21 - Niki Tsongas Congresswoman for the 5th Congressional District
February 28 - Beth Francis, North Shore YMCA Development Director
March 6 - Rich Hamel, Getting the Most Out of Your Cell Phone
See John Cuneo if you have an interesting speaker for our meetings.