Westport Rotary Club

Another GREAT LobsterFest!! THANK YOU TO Sponsors, Volunteers and Everyone that attended !!

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Another GREAT LobsterFest!! THANK YOU TO Sponsors, Volunteers and Everyone that attended !! 〰️

THANK YOU !

To Sponsors - Volunteers and attendees!

The weather didn’t stop a great event!

Our Centennial Gala was a resounding success as we celebrated 100 years of the Westport Rotary Club.

LEARN MORE ABOUT BECOMING A SPONSOR

All funds raised at LobsterFest are donated to local and international charities. Giving to the Westport Rotary Club is “one-stop shopping”. Donations supports a wide range of both local non-profit organizations and many international humanitarian projects. The Westport Rotary Club Charitable and International Giving Committees vet each grant application determining suitability and the greatest levels of need.

LobsterFest Elite Sponsors 2023

Titanium Sponsors

 

Platinum Sponsors

 

Gold Sponsors

WESTPORT ROTARY CLUB INVITES YOU TO JOIN A MEETING

Rotary Meeting Schedule: MEETING SPEAKER SCHEDULE

Meetings are held every TUESDAY except the last Tuesday of the month In Person at 12:00 pm For more information please contact the club president or member chair.

In person lunch meetings are held at: Greens Farms Congregational Church 71 Hillandale Rd Westport, CT 06880  

President Kenny Epstein : President Elect Goldie James

Member Chair: Audrey Demetres

Pettengill Award

Westport Rotary Club received the Best Club in the District Award on 3/19/23

WESTPORT ROTARY LUNCH SPEAKER

September 5, 2023

Wheel It Forward is a unique lending library that has only existed in Fairfield County for two and a half years. People who need Durable Medical Equipment (DME) and related products can go there to borrow them at no cost and people who have lightly used DME can easily donate them to benefit others as well as the environment.

Ed Spilka, the Wheel It Forward Board Member who came to speak at the Westport Rotary Club lunch meeting on September 5, 2023, talked about the huge impact of this organization. It improves mobility and quality of life for hundreds of people per month, saves them a huge amount of money, and also keeps large quantities of still useful DME out of local landfills.

It’s encouraging to see that local people are always coming up with new ways to help others in our community.

Over 50 Westport Rotary members and guests attended our monthly social event on August 31, 2023 at the beautiful home of Rick and Totney Benson near Compo Beach in Westport. The party was held on a two-level patio with a magnificent view of Long Island Sound and a roaring firepit as the sun went down.

This was our first club Pot Luck Dinner and it was a resounding success. The food was plentiful, varied and delicious, the group was spirited and happy and a birthday cake was brought out for Goldie James, our President in-waiting. A fun evening!

Photos by Dave Matlow and Ellin Curley

Westport Rotary will be hosting a graduate student from Kenya from August 2023 through May 2025. Sponsored by a local Rotary Club near Nairobi and hosted by Westport, he will be taking a two-year Master’s Program at the Yale School of the Environment. Yale gave him an $80,000 scholarship and the Rotary Foundation gave him $30,496 for tuition, fees, books, supplies and a new computer. Some of the funds were supplied by Westport Rotary and District 7980. Yale has also given him a loan to cover the balance of his expenses. Over the last several years Westport Rotary has sponsored three local students to study abroad with Rotary Foundation Scholarships, but this is the first time we will have hosted one in Connecticut.

The student is Jimmy Musili, a biologist and conservationist back in Kenya. He is 36 years old and has left a wife and two children in Kenya to get his Master’s Degree here. He plans to go back to Kenya in 2025 and continue working in the Kilui park system he left to pursue his degree.

Westport Rotary is doing more than just handing him a check. Rick Benson and Lyla Steenbergen of Westport Rotary, met him at JFK airport and took him to New Haven to help him get settled into the Yale housing he will share with other international students. They also helped him procure a bicycle so he can get around New Haven and are looking for other Rotary members to take him on interesting outings in New England and New York City since this is his first trip to America.

“Serve to Change Lives.”

— Shekar Mehta - Rotary International President —

About Rotary

Rotary is an international organization that brings together local leaders in order to provide volunteer humanitarian services, encourage high ethical standards, and help promote goodwill and peace in the world. There are 34,000 Rotary clubs and more than 1.4 million members worldwide. Members of Rotary Clubs, known as Rotarians, usually meet weekly for breakfast, lunch, or dinner as an opportunity to organize their leadership activities aimed at improving their communities and the world.