TORRINGTON – The Torrington Rotary Club held their weekly Monday luncheon meeting on July 15. President Michele Ogburn called the meeting to order shortly after noon where the club opened with the implication, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and Rotarian formalities. 

Before the meeting, Ogburn set up an assembly line for the Rotary Club’s project which was discussed during last week’s meeting. Ogburn announced the club would be making birthday cake bundles to accompany the school backpack program during the July 15 meeting.  

Ogburn then engaged the Rotarians with “Guess the Rotarian” where she read of characteristics of a fellow Rotarian while asking the club members to guess.

Ogburn also gave a brief explanation of the Rotarian flag from 50 Things Every Rotarian Should Know.

“’An official flag was formally adopted by Rotary International at the 1929 Convention in Dallas, Texas. The Rotary flag consists of a white field with the official wheel emblem emblazoned in gold in the center of the field The four depressed spaces on the rim of the Rotary wheel are colored royal blue. The words “Rotary” and “International’ printed at the top and bottom depressions on the wheel rim are also gold. The shaft in the hub and the keyway of the wheel are white,’” Ogburn read. “’The first official Rotary flag reportedly was flown in Kansas City Missouri, in January 1915. In 1922 a small Rotary flag was carried over the South Pole by Admiral Richard Byrd, a member of the Winchester, Virginia Rotary Club. Four years later, the admiral carried a Rotary flag in his expedition to the North Pole.’”

Kim Evezich briefly spoke with the luncheon attendees about the continuation of fundraising opportunities for the club where Evezich announced Rotarians had taken the survey to indicate which fundraising activity they preferred for the club.

“We 22 Rotarians who took the survey, thank you very much,” Evezich announced. “If you have not been experienced in ranked choice voting it’s pretty cool.”

Evezich explained the process to the group.

“The top four turned out to be continue the wine tasting. The second is only do the reverse raffle and the third is the duck-dunk and the fourth is casino night. My guess is we will end up doing some combination of those,” Evezich explained. 

The top choices will be taken to the board, according to Evezich. 

Next, the club moved on to the birthday boxes where Ogburn gave the club instructions on the assembly line.

“I was telling a parent that has the backpack program for four of their kids and they kind of got a little teary,” Ogburn explained to the club. “They thought it was really a cool thing for their kids to have and helps them out too. It was a family that kids get coloring books for their birthdays. Some of us take birthday parties for granted.”

Rotarians quickly jumped into action and began filling the boxes, per Ogburn’s instructions, and the continued until the meeting was adjourned. The club assembled 340 birthday boxes for the Goshen County Backpack program, according to Ogburn.

“I saw this idea on TikTok. It’s a fun birthday in a box. It has the cake pan, soda, frosting, instructions on how to make the cake with soda, birthday card, candles, and a fun happy birthday sign and sticker,” Ogburn told the Telegram. “Not all children have the resources to celebrate their birthdays, and this is a fun way for Rotary to celebrate the youth in our community and let them know they are important to us.”

The birthday boxes were then delivered to the Goshen County Central Administration Office at the conclusion of Monday’s meeting.

“At Rotary, we believe in investing in our community’s youth and showing them that we care about each one of them. Every young person deserves to be celebrated,” Ogburn explained.