N.B. There has been a noticeable lack of good, old fashioned sensible humor and simple, clean, wholesome family values in the last several dozen Meals On Wheels essays. I have strayed from my original purpose of producing these little stories for the sole purpose of informing and entertaining with a lot of humor dashed with just a little pathos and an even smaller tweak to Club involvement as drivers for this very worthy project. I have the sense that the "pathos" has gone a little too far at the expense of the humor. To paraphrase Samuel Clemens, '...there is humor in the essays, but for every laugh there have been five blushes, ten shudders and a vomit. The laugh is too expensive.'

I spent a delightful hour this past Wednesday in the front seat of my car with a Beautiful Woman.  My wife knows all about it.  Most likely her husband knows about it at this point, too.
 
It all began innocently enough at the last Paramus Rotary Club Foundation Board meeting.  Scott Lippert, Esq., chairman of our Club’s Foundation, had called a semi annual meeting in his office to discuss 2010 scholarship allocations, investment strategies and the like.  
 
Our Club has a considerable Foundation corpus spread out in 11 or so funds and endowments that exceed $400,000 in value.  The Board meet to determine what will be given out each year for scholarships based on investment performance, without compromising the principal.  Scott’s office is in an 80’s large glass and brick modern in downtown Hackensack, nearly across from the Bergen County Court complex.  He is always a gracious host and provides the Board with an excellent continental breakfast in the boardroom.  I recommend the fruit, of course…

         This month fellow Paramus Rotary Club member Mike Paisner wanted to ride along with me.  He called and said he wanted to see what this “Meals on wheels thing” was all about - maybe he wanted to get involved.  I really wanted to be alone, so I told him it was intensely boring and I am a dullard, but he has a suspicious nature and a Boston accent and this only piqued his interest and made him even more determined to find out for himself.  He insisted.  I did not want his company.

“Who are you!?” the small, furiously smoking woman in a red windbreaker shouted at me just as I sat back in the open hatch of the Prius.  She had been pacing along the edge of the lot when I pulled in and froze, fixing a tilted stare at me as I double parked and prepared the car for the food containers.  She had the aspect of a strange, frothing dog as it stares at you just before charging.  Had I invaded her territory?  Why was she now sallying across the lot, arms pumping akimbo, like a billowing Mississippi steamboat reaching upriver at flood-tide through the Cairo bend?

Another clear, early fall day with a high blue dome that went on out over earth’s subtended arc!  Atlas grinned down on us as Erin and I were at it again.  This was the last time she would help me before school’s grimly closing doors swallowed her alive.

The route this time was short - 7 stops, but a with a new one thrown in.  New things thrown in means change and change means thinking.  I like contemplation much more than thinking so I passed on the thinking part and asked Erin to figure it out.  Meals On Wheels is a Zen thing for me - I zone out gliding from house to house watching the interesting cracks in the road and what grows or crawls in them.

And the winner is ... The Paramus Rotary Club’s annual $20,000 Cash Raffle was held on June 11, 2009 at the Paramus Elks Club Hall.

This annual event raises funds for Scholarship Awards, The Rotary Gift of Life Program, and several other Rotary Club projects.

Pictured are Paramus Rotary Club’s Cash Raffle event Chairperson Ray Hough and event master of ceremonies Mike Kuzawski. Assisting with the selecting and tallying of raffle numbers are Linda Port, “Rotary's Vanna” Jennifer Padolina, and treasurer Arthur Fowler IV.

Dear Club:

I would like here to describe my first experience driving for Meals On Wheels today. Although this is but one small project and many members in our great Club do so much more than me, I will try to describe this new avenue of service and give the least offense...

Who Should Apply?

• You or a family member interested in pursuing a graduate degree anywhere in the United States or in the world
• An undergraduate entering his or her junior year in college majoring in journalism, assistance to people with disabilities or environmental studies
• Rotarians in District 7490 or their family members
• Anyone living in Bergen, Passaic or Hudson Counties

On Thursday January 22nd, 2009 the Paramus Rotary Club, in conjunction with Community Blood Services held a Rotary Club blood drive in memory of recently deceased members Bob Alison and Ken Chazotte. Pictured in front of Seasons Banquet and Catering is the Blood Service's Blood Mobile and many of the generous Rotary Club members who participated as blood donors. This event is just one of many examples of how Rotary is a service club who's business is mankind, who's product is service, and who provides service to both local and international communities.

Erin Leslie & I go to Eva’s Kitchen @ 393 Main Street in Paterson from 10:30 to 1PM to help feed 255 down-on-their-luck people. Parked in their main lot off Main. Had a little pep-talk with the manager of the kitchen, Mike, who set us on to the procedures and how to set out the place settings. The 10 or so regular volunteers helped us and worked with us too. Set out rolls, buns and cakes with napkins, cups and forks. The doors opened at 11:30 and 255+ people shuffled in from the entry court in groups of 8 per table, closely monitored by Mike and his wife. One of the clients said a short grace and they quite quietly had lunch. Erin served plates of pasta and vegetables with chicken parm. off a rolling cart while Les worked at the steam tables with Diane to dish this on styro plates. I was water boy going around the 30x8 tables filling pitchers. Erin pitched right in and was unflappable in the face of the 130 ‘down-on-their-luck’ people she saw directly as she served their food (Jessie saw the other 130...). Very proud of her as this was a very new thing for Erin, especially at 12... Both Jessie & Erin worked the wet mops and did the floor of the cafeteria at the end.