Our 6th Annual Wine Tasting Dinner will be help on May 22nd at the Renaissance.  All proceeds from this year's event will be used to purchase a much needed entertainment system for the Francis Asbury Manor nursing home.  Francis Asbury Manor is a non-profit elder care facility that accepts people of all faiths regardless of their ability to pay.  Our project to provide a state-of-the-art entertainment system will benefit all the residents at the Manor.
 
Encourage your friends and family to come and enjoy the magnificent crusiene prepared by the Falco Brothers and Wine supplied by Buy-Rite of Tinton Falls.  We have kept the price to $100 per person.  There will be a Silent Auction as well as a Ticket Auction.  Jackets are required.  Please return your Checks payable to the Rotary Club of Asbury Park by May 15th. 

Download a   Wine Tasting Flyer   here

Event Raises over $10,000 for Cornea Transplants
 

Our brave souls 'plunging' into the freezing Atlantic




















Our fearless leaders, Traudy and Jeff, running for warmth.

   How does Rotary Eye Care work?  Here's a heart warming story that will explain.  Noor Al-Ithawi is a 5 year old girl from Bu’yatha, Iraq, a small village just south of Baghdad.  Noor has been blind from birth with Peter’s Anomaly which scars the cornea creating a glaucoma-like condition. 

During the conflict in Iraq, her father and other family members joined U.S. forces in defending her small village against insurgents.  When 1st Lieutenant Michael Kendrick learned that Noor had been blind since birth he decided to help.  Lt. Kendrick contacted organizations in the U.S. to help arrange for her cornea transplant surgery. 

Tissue Banks international (TBI) was proud to offer the tissue for Noor's transplant with no associated fees.  Through Rotary Eye Rescue her cornea was sponsored by the Asbury Park Rotary Club.  On June 2, 2008, Noor was operated on at the University of Rochester Eye Institute resulting in sight being restored to her left eye. 

As of October 15th our club has 61 members.  Please welcome our newest members, Maria 'Chicky' DiGiovanna of Loch Arbour, Ashleigh Johnson of Long Branch, Bill Askew of Middletown, Sandra Crow of Ocean Grove, Greg Brandimarte of Wayside, and Travis Johnson of Tinton Falls.  Six new member since July 1st puts us well on our way to meeting the Membership Committee's goal for 2008-09 to increase membership by a total of 10 new members. If we go back to January 1st, we actually have added 12 new members.  Let's keep the Rotary excitement going.  Great job by all.

But Chairman Tom says we must keep the guests coming.

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!