Greetings fellow Rotarians! Our speaker today was Pat O’Connor, the founder of Little Fenway, Little Wrigley and Little Field of Dreams.  Pat originally constructed a ¼ square replica of Fenway Park in his backyard to be used purely for recreational purposes by his friends and family.  Shortly after the events of 9/11, Pat and his family helped organize a WIFFLE ball tournament to raise funds for the New York City relief effort.  Not surprisingly, that event was a success which made Pat and his wife Helen realize that this venue in their backyard could be used to do a lot of good.  They have since partnered with the Travis Roy Foundation, a charity named after a Boston University hockey player who became a quadriplegic after hitting his head in a game.  This foundation not only raises money for research of spinal cord injuries, but it also provides assistance to individuals who sustained such injuries but can’t necessarily afford the care they require.  Each August, this facility hosts a world-class WIFFLE ball tournament that raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Travis Roy Foundation.  This year alone, the event raised over $585,000.00 for this cause!  As the event has grown over the years, so has the scope of the operation.  In order to accommodate more teams, Pat has expanded the venue by two more WIFFLE ball fields.  In addition to Little Fenway, teams now compete on Little Wrigley and Little Field of Dreams. It is worth noting that the efforts of Pat and his wife Helen were recognized by our Club in 2013 when they were both awarded Paul Harris Fellowships at our annual Service Above Self dinner that year.  For more information about this facility and the work done by Pat and his family, please visit its website at:  http://littlefenway.com/site/

 

 

            The “Ten Best Days of Summer” are now in the books and so is the Corn Booth!  The weather was perfect for selling corn and by all accounts, everybody had a great time. We should have a final report on numbers in the next week or so, but early indications are that our total sales are up from last year which means our overall profit should also be larger.  Thank you to all of the Rotarians, friends and family members who donated your time to this event and thank you to all of the Rotarians who purchased Corn Dollars to help out with our bottom line.  A special thank you goes out to Ray Allaire, Mike Dimitroff and the other members of their corn booth committee for their hard work in making this year’s event a big success!

 

 

            Do you use Amazon for your shopping needs?  If so, you can now make donations to Rotary every time you utilize that service to make a purchase.  Here is how it works:  every time you make an eligible Amazon Smiles purchase, 0.5% of the purchase price is donated by Amazon to the charitable organization of your choosing.  This is actually a very easy way for members to donate to the Rotary Foundation or to the Club itself.  To learn more about this amazing opportunity, please visit https://smile.amazon.com/  A special thank you goes out to Jim Bessette for discovering this and bringing it to our attention!

 

 

            The next opportunities to volunteer at the food shelf will be on September 28^th and October 26^th. Please let Sharon Dettenrieder know if you are able to volunteer for any of these shifts.

 

Upcoming Meeting Schedule:  September 13, 2017 – Our speaker will be District 7850 Governor, Eric Denu.

 

For the complete list of upcoming speakers and information about the Club, please go to our website at www.essexrotary.org   Be sure to also follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EssexVermontRotary , on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/essexvermontrotary/ and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/essex_rotary

 

 

       Yours in Rotary,

 

Jason Ruwet