As of July 1st our club has 56 members.  Please welcome our newest members, Maha Boutrous of Oakhurst and Brenda Skinner, also of Oakhurst.  Both Maha and Brenda joined in June.  That brings us to 6 additions since the start of 2008.

The other 4 members are:  Carol DiCola, pictured on the right, is the Manager for the West Park Avenue branch of Commerce Bank in Ocean.  Carol has been in banking for 5 years and worked for the Essex County Meals on Wheels for 15 years, serving as their director the last of her years with them.  She is quite involved with many local charities and she serves as VP of the Ocean Township Chamber of Commerce.  She was invited to Rotary by Joan Desmarais.   Carol and her husband Tom live in New Egypt.

Susan Pellegrini, shown on the left, is a movie producer and director.  She owns Synergy Productions located right in Asbury Park where she also lives.  Susan spoke to our club a few weeks back sharing  her feature work about the life of Stephen Crane who lived on Fourth Avenue.  Penny McDaniel is Susan's sponsor.

Bob Cohen , pictured on the right, was invited to attend our club by another Rotarian from north New Jersey.  Bob is the Director of Development for Easter Seals New Jersey, located in East Brunswick.  Bob and his wife Paula call Ocean Township home.  A little known fact about Easter Seals is that Edgar Allen and his fellow Rotarians from Ohio founded the Easter Seals organization in 1919.  Read about the History of Easter Seals, it is quite moving.  And more about its Rotary Connection.

Kathy King was invited to attend Rotary by Hunt Parry.  Kathy is the daughter of a former club member Bob Deeves.  Kathy is Vice President of Business Development for Central Jersey Bank in Sea Girt.  Kathy and her husband reside in Interlaken.

Congratulations for joining the best Rotary Club in Monmouth County.  Let's all welcome our new members and make them feel at home.

Asbury Park Rotary Club has pledged support to the Rotary Eye Rescue Project championed by our own Traudy Grande officially launching Rotary Eye Rescue East.  Rotary Eye Rescue is a collaboration between Rotary Clubs, Tissue Banks International (TBI) and surgeons, who team up to provide cornea transplants to indigent patients in medically underserved countries with no cost to the recipient.   Traudy joined our club because she was impressed by the generosity of California Rotarians in funding the Rotary Eye Rescue West.

Traudy's husband John is on the board of the Tissue Banks Inter-national and donates much time to the cause.  Our club is proud to be part of this effort.    Pictured are Tom Price and Sandy Brown officially presenting a $2,000 donation to John And Traudy Grande thus starting Rotary Eye Rescue East.

The Honorable Larry Lawson, born and raised in Neptune, was our speaker on February 13.  Judge Lawson shared with us the many  improvements to the State court system.  Renee and Larry have been friends since high school.

Photos by Lori Anne Oliwa

Claire Pavlinec, the reigning Mrs. New Jersey for 2007-2008, spoke about the Mrs. New Jersey America pageant and her charity called Maternal Wings.  Through the connections made at the meeting on January 16th, several families in Asbury Park have received much needed aid from the Maternal Wings.  

The Mrs. NJ organization is also making an inquiry to hold this year's pageant in the Paramount Theatre.

We Have Moved!  Rotarians and friends, we have moved our lunch meeting to a new location in Ocean Township.  Our weekly meetings are now at The Renaissance catering hall, located at the Ocean Township Italian-American Club on Valley Road in Ocean just off Route 35.  

We have our own private meeting room.  Lunch is served buffet style with entrees changed weekly.  There is plenty of parking and the location is easy to get to.  The Renaissance is located just behind the old Hinck's Turkey Store and just North of Wegman's.  Here's a map.  See you there Wednesday!  Visit Falco Brother's Catering.

Tom Price, club president, and Joan Desmarais, our Dictionary Project coordinator, accept Investors Saving Bank generous gift to completely fund this year's Dictionary Project.  Penny McDaniel, Branch Manager, and Rose Haydu made the presentation on January 2nd.  Every third grader attending any of the public and private schools in our service area will receive a free dictionary to help them with their school work.      Thank You ISB!        Visit Investors' website.

The last meeting of the year is set aside to honor our Scholarship winners.  We were fortunate to have all four awardees, along with family members, join us for lunch on the 26th.  Starting from the left is Carly Lyster of Ocean who is attending Wagner College; Darren Cunningham from Asbury Park attending Montclair State; Natalie Ulysses of Asbury Park attending Georgian Court; and Jasmine Jackson from Neptune who is attending Hampden University.  Congratulations to our winners!