Stories

On Tuesday, Feb 6^th, 2024, the Rotary Club of Westfield hosted Past District Governor Dr. D. Michael Hart who told the story of how Rotary started.

Paul Harris as a young lawyer, started the first Rotary club in Chicago in 1905 with three other business colleagues. Since they rotated the meeting place between their offices, they decided to call themselves the Rotary Club.

At that time, the United States did not have federal protections for consumers. The free market operated as “Caveat Emptor”, which is Latin for “Let the Buyer Beware”. If you bought a bad product, you could not return it or get a refund. It was hard to decide which business people you could trust. Paul Harris decided that the club would consist of one ethical, trustworthy person from each profession: one lawyer, one butcher, one coal vendor, etc. The club would have an ethical code. He focused on the owner or head manager of each business. It became very prestigious to be invited to join the Rotary Club. This was a group of highly ethical business people you could trust.

The autobiography of how Paul Harris started Rotary is detailed in his book “My Road to Rotary” published in 1945.

After more than 125 years of service to the community, The Woman’s Club of Westfield is passing on their legacy to the Rotary Club of Westfield to continue their longstanding scholarship program.

The Woman’s Club of Westfield started in 1895 with 40 women members. Miss Emma Bridges was the first president. In 1896, the Club joined the New Jersey State Federation of Woman’s Clubs and the General Federation of Woman’s Clubs. They purchased a building in Westfield on Euclid Avenue for their meetings in the 1950’s, but sold it in the 1990’s as membership began to decline.

On Tuesday, November 14, the Westfield Rotary Club heard a speaker about the terror of Polio. We all saw how fast another virus- COVID - spread around the world in just a few months. Polio was the most feared infectious disease in the 20th century. The Polio Virus infects the nerves going to muscles of young children, and paralyses them.

Entire hospital wards were filled with children in “Iron Lungs” to help them breathe. The song “Just a Spoonful of Sugar” in Mary Poppins was written about the polio vaccine being administered in sugar cubes the 1950’s. The board game “Candy Land” was created for children who were stuck in Polio wards for years.

On Tuesday, November 7, 2023 Marla Itzkin, the Associate Director for Communications and Development of the Westfield Area Y, spoke to the Rotary Club of Westfield about the history of the Y in Westfield over the past 100 years.

The Rotary Club of Westfield was 3 years old when the Y Board decided to build the structure on Clark Street. The Rotary Club helped raise the funds to build the Y, and met there for probably about 80 years. The Rotary Club has a close relationship to the Y, and provides community grants to them every year.

On Saturday, Oct 14, 2023 the representatives of six Rotary clubs delivered needed supplies to the homeless veterans living at Lyons VA Administration, building 53, in Lyons, NJ. This Rotary program was started by Westfield Rotarian Burim Regjaj, and has been running for 4 years. The program is designed to help homeless military veterans, and five other Rotary clubs have joined the effort.

Rotary International President Gordon McInally has made addressing mental health a priority for Rotary Clubs this year. Past District Governor Dr. Michael Hart feels that as a society we have an obligation to take care of our veterans whose health has been damaged by their service. These men and women put their lives at risk to protect our freedom. More than that, they put their health at risk, and now may be damaged mentally with PTSD.

On Saturday, October 7, 2023, the Rotary Club of Westfield collected 69 bicycles and 4 sewing machines to send to the developing world. Saturdays collection will be divided between Togo in West Africa, or Belize, in central America.

This program was started by an American working with the Peace Corps in Ecuador. He noticed that a carpenter with a bicycle was a lot more productive than another carpenter who had to walk and carry his tools everywhere. This gave him the idea to start shipping used bikes to the third world. A bicycle will enable a person to get to work easier or produce more, if they run a small business. Children may be able to ride longer distances in order to attend school. When a person gets a sewing machine, they could start their own small business, and be able to support a family.

Brendan Bertsch , Director of Speakers of the Rotary Club of Westfield Rotary announced that Gerry Cooney will be the club's lunch time speaker on Tuesday, May 9.

Cooney, a resident of Fanwood, was the number one ranked Heavy Weight Contender in 1981 and 1982. Cooney was born in New York City and resided in Huntington Long Island, NY.

Known as "Gentleman Gerry Cooney," he was not so nice to his opponents in the ring. Cooney's Professional Boxing record was 31 total fights, 28 wins, 24 Knock Outs and 3 defeats.

Cooney boxed Larry Holmes for the Heavy Weight Crown in 1982, which Holmes won and retained his title.

At the regular Rotary meeting on Tuesday, noon, April 11, 2023, the members of the Rotary Club of Westfield heard about how a young man is making a difference to help people.

John El-Maraghy was a student at Rutgers and noticed that during covid, the men’s shelter in New Brunswick shut down the showers. He and his wife decided to do something about that to help the homeless men in New Brunswick. They started a 501c3 to provide a mobile van which offered the homeless men the ability to take showers. It also includes a barbershop. They started in New Brunswick once a week, but have expanded to include Newark once a month, and hope to expand to Hoboken and Orange. After the shower, they offer a care package including socks, T shirts and toiletries.

On Tuesday, April 4, 2023 at a regular Rotary Club meeting, Breakfast with the Bands event chair Barbara Frantz bestowed the Golden Pancake Award to Rotarian Warren Rorden.

This award is given every year to the individual who exhibits dedication above and beyond normal expectations for the annual Rotary fundraiser called Breakfast with the Bands, formerly called Rotary Pancake Day.

The proceeds of this fundraiser go to college scholarships and community grants. Musical groups form Westfield High School, Roosevelt Middle School and Edison Middle School performed. Last year the Rotary Club of Westfield awarded $117,400 in college scholarships and $26,000 in Community Grants. The Club has been running this event every year since 1967. Approximately 400 people attended the event this year.

The Rotary Club would like to especially thank the sponsors of the event: Mary Ellen O’Boyle - Prominent Properties Sotheby’s; Children’s Specialized Hospital; Fanwood Animal Hospital; Phelan, Frantz, Ohlig & Wegbreit, Esq; Dr Shruti Shukla, DDS at Great Smiles General Dentistry; Westfield Area YMCA; Raymond Kostyack, Wells Fargo Advisors; Steven Lowe; Maxwell’s Furniture Restoration; Northfield Bank; Spencer Savings Bank; Star Painting; Warren and Ginny Rorden; Westfield Financial Planning; and David & Shuang Wroe.

On Tuesday, April 4, 2023, at a regular meeting, the Rotary Club of Westfield inducted two new members: Vincent Luongo and Michael Kaufman.

Rotary is an organization of successful local business people who want to “give back” to the community. The Rotary Club of Westfield has projects to address local hunger issues, help homeless veterans, collect used bicycles for the third world, raise funds for Ukrainian refugees in eastern Europe, accept exchange students from Brazil and Australia, provide scholarships to Westfield college students and community grants to other local organizations.

On Tuesday, March 14th, 2023, at a regular Rotary Club of Westfield meeting, Westfield Fire Chief Michael Duelks and Battalion Chief Brian Piccola spoke to the members about fire safety and the various roles the fire department plays in town.

Police Chief Christopher Battiloro spoke to the Rotary Club of Westfield on Tuesday, February 14, 2023, about issues in Westfield. The number one crime issue in Westfield is car thefts. His advice is to lock your cars, take your keys inside and lock your house.

According to the chief, thieves will typically enter Westfield in a stolen car with four or five occupants, including minors. They go up and down the streets, checking door handles for unlocked vehicles. They do not break into cars, and do not “hot wire” them. When they find luxury cars open with the key fob inside, the thief does not need to find the fob - they just push the start button, start the car, and drive off. There have also been incidents where thieves used an unlocked vehicle with no fob inside, to open garage doors gaining access to the home for theft of the keys and vehicles. Due to the combination of a large concentration of luxury vehicles and easy access to highways, Westfield is the perfect place to steal cars according to the chief. He said that Newark is the center of the car thief rings, where the cars are brought and loaded onto ships to be sent overseas for sale.

Chief Battiloro says that he has taken measures to reduce car theft. First is public awareness- he asks residents to lock their cars and houses. Next, the town has mounted 15 license plate readers around town, which are able to scan the license plates and report stolen cars coming into town to the police department. Since they started this process, the car thefts have dropped by 50%.