Outgoing President Donn Londeree gave his reflections on the previous year and appreciation to members who helped make it so successful. “Thanks to the current Officers and Board as well as acknowledging all of the accomplishments from the past year and the people who helped make it such a successful year.

It was an honor and privilege to serve as the Club President for the 2018-2019 Rotary Year. He expressed his sincere gratitude to each of the members and their families for their contributions that resulted in a truly amazing trend setting year.

I want to thank the Officers and Board Members:

• Henry Ferguson – President of the Fund and his Board for their service in managing the funds set aside for the Club’s projects.
• Vanesss Havener, our President-Elect who worked as our District Liason and Chair of the Foundation.
• John Burford as chair of Speakers and Programs Chair and Vanessa providing entertaining and informative programs.
• John Mollica, our Treasurer, kept track of all the financials.
• Debbie Davis our Club secretary Chair of Helping Hands committee. Policy and Procedures documentation, Youth Government Day and as a member of both Boards, created various forms to air in our overall organization.

And, a special thanks to Claudia Dubois for her tireless efforts working with all of the projects and all of the members in countless way to help and grow our club.

I asked all of you to consider how you could help better service our club.

• Debbie Davis said she would be the beginning of a series of job descriptions and forms creation that aided in planning our year. To properly prepare a calendar each committee chair needed to outline a yearly timeline and was required to document it with our proper policies and procedure that everyone in the future could follow. Now we have the start of our policy and procedure manual.

• Bob Bruchian said he would like to create our new website that would make it easier to showcase all of our events and help Claudia handle various Club payments easily. Bill Riddick volunteered to work on the software and system design, and with Bob recently finished the first phase of the development of the new website. Everyone is encouraged to take a look at it.

• Julie Vianale agreed to Chair the Future Stars Performing Arts Competition and enlisted Sponsorships from Roy Moore, Kris Klemetsmo (Paradise Bank) and Charlotte Robinson and secured a team of Bob Burchian to video every performer, Bill Riddick handled production and music quality for the night of the show. Gary Hildebrand managed the front of the house and the ushers. Doug Giordano managed the performers back stage. Andria O’Rourke, Rick Zimmer, Mariana Oprea coordinated the judges and the scoring. Julie along with her team secured a site for the auditions, Pinecrest School, organized the auditions, worked with the City of Boca Raton and AIG, the lighting and sound company and documented the entire production with a calendar timeline with proper Policies and Procedures.

• A special thanks to David Jackson, Chair of the “2019 Rotary Club of Boca Raton Pirate Run.” The race had over 420 registered runners. He commented, “On Sat. Feb. 2, 2019, Spanish River Park experienced a Pirate Invasion sponsored by RCBR.” Special thanks to our generous sponsors: Scott Van Wyngarden (Presenting sponsor PurePoint financial) and David’s Pirate Run Team of Rick Zimmer, Doug Giordano, Rachel Huerta and Spencer Siegel. David said, “The event would not have happened without the participation from our Club members. As always, the members of our Club are the best.” PurePoint Financial and Scott Van Wyngarden have both agreed to be presenting sponsors for the 2020 Rotary Pirate Run.

• Neil Saffer and his team, Jan Savarick, Spencer Segel, Diane Shawcross, Pat McCarthy, Bob Burchian, Robert Sclafani and the entire family at Multi Image Group started planning OPAL.

• A special thanks to Bobby Campbell, Arthur Adler, Ron Galatin, Arbey & Sally Strul who helped coordinate with other organizations to help RCBR raise over $220,000 for scholarships. The committee formalized the OPAL Society to recognize Past OPAL Honorees and donors. The first meeting was graciously hosted by Bobby Campbell who also pledged $50,000 for OPAL 2020 along with Arthur Adler who pledged $44,000 from the Boca West Charity Foundation and Rotarian Edith Stein who pledged $10,000.

• Doug Giordano, who chaired our Community Service committee, along with Orin Rosenfeld organized the ?? project. Doug created all the signs, banners and artwork for all of our events and projects. Good job. Doug and Orin Rosenfeld, Doug Giordano, Johnathan Rainear and Lee “Sonny” Tannenbaum started our Young Rotarians Committee in Boca.

• Sonny also chaired our Sunshine Committee to work with our reach out to members who were ill or missed multiple meetings. It was noted his encouraging remarks were always appreciated. Richard Zimmer and Diane Showcross worked on our membership committee to expand our membership.

• Pat McCarthy reviewed & finalized all the contracts for our special events that included food & beverages.

• Our Newly formed Public Relations Committee was chaired by Silva Alexandrov and aided by Bob Buruchian in various press releases. Silva also compiled a list of OPAL honorees and donors so we could keep a record of our most important donors.

• Pia Giannone chaired our Scholarship Committee and was aided by Debbie Davis, Dennis Frisch, Bill Riddick, Scott Weber, Rick Zimmer and helped students achieve their dreams with scholarships and mentoring.

• Gary Hildebrand coordinated the Mall Holiday party for our community to feed those who may have been forgotten during the Holiday season.

• Bill Riddick chaired our Social Committee with Brian Jackson, Scott Van Wyngarden, Bonnie and Gary Hildebrand and Orin Rosenfeld hosted our events.

• Abby Ehrman-Klayman in cooperation with the Rotary District has run the Dictionary project at local elementary schools for over 17 years, and the “I Like Me” project to teach self-esteem to the students.

• Michael Gora serviced as our Photographer for our events.

• The Holiday parade was coordinated and organized by Peter Sullivan, Chuck Marchitello, Doug Giordano and was aided by the entire club.

• Thanks to Henry Ferguson and Rachel Huerta, the fence for the Florence Fuller Children’s History Museum was constructed and installed.

• On a personal note, I would like to highlight Myron Yudkin for his 63 years of perfect attendance.

I appreciate the honor I was given to serve you as you President. I look forward to our new President Vanessa Havener serving us in 2019-2020.

The following received Service Above Self Awards but were unable to attend the Installation event:

• Debbie Davis for her help with so creating so many policies and procedures.
• David Jackson – Service Above Self
• Diane Shawcross – Service Above Self
• Chuck Marchitello – Service Above Self
• Henry Ferguson – Service Above Self
• Abby Ehrman-Klayman – Service Above Self
• Jon Burford – Service Above Self
• Silva Alexandrov – Service Above Self

Comments by Vanessa Havener, the new 2019-2020 Club President:

“Donn, we’ve had such a successful year thanks to your leadership and vision.   I look forward to continuing to serve with you in the coming year. We honor you tonight with a special award for serving the Club for the past year.

From Vanessa: “Welcome to Club Rotarians & guests to the RCBR Installation Ceremony & BBQ!  A special welcome to County Commissioner Bob Weinroth & Pamela Weinroth for joining us this afternoon and Rotary 6930 District Governor Donna & Carl Gaiser.  DG Donna, thank you for traveling from Okeechobee to preside over the installation of new officers.

“I would also like to welcome the following guests:  Michelle Burke, Jennifer Bates-Richey, Troy Mailloux, Bruce Johnson, Frank Beaton and Anna & Chris Owens.  We hope you have a great time tonight and we look forward to getting to know you better and sharing what Rotary is all about.

Finally, thank you to my parents, Michael & Tricia Owen who traveled from Arizona to be here as well as my husband John.  I love you all very much.