Club Assembly

The meeting was opened with the Pledge of Allegiance, a song, and an Invocation led by Pastor Dave Stechholz. Happy Bucks were collected by Sharon Pommerville.

The Club's first order of business was the Induction of Tom Martin. Joining Tom in the front of the room was Steve Alexander, his sponsor. Welcome to Rotary, Tom!



Tom was born and raised in Livonia, class of 1980. In 1998 he applied to be a Rotary Exchange Student, sponsored by the Rotary Noon Club. Tom was sent to Syberia. He later joined the Noon Club since they sponsored him as an exchange student.

Our Club approved the challenge to the District 6400 selection of Scott Collier as District Governor Nominee - Designate 2027-28. The official Challenge with another candidate, Therese Maggioncalda, was approved. We are awaiting Ballots that will come out shortly.

This Saturday, February 8th, from 1-4, is our work with Forgotten Harvest. 15000 W. Eight Mile Oak Park (Greenfield and 8 Mile Rd.). Come out and help.

Deanne Gaffney, a member of the Livonia Noon Club, will be our speaker next week. She will talk about the history of Rotary in Livonia.

President Dave passed around a list of the numerous projects that our Rotary Club has completed this Rotary year, beginning July 1st, starting with The Big Picnic at Greenmead and ending with this Saturday's Forgotten Harvest service project. To see our List of Accomplishments, click HERE. Mind-blowing the things our small club has accomplished. Club members were reminded that we are not required to do all these activities, but to do something.

Pat Zucal was invited up for a big announcement about the Carnival. Wade Shows has 3 weeks available and Sears agreed! This is our major fundraiser, so the club is overjoyed with the news. Our weeks will be Monday, May 19 – Sunday, June 8, 2025.

Pastor Dave was invited along with others from the community to see the progress that is going on with the Senior Wellness Center. Things are moving along with the expected completion December 25, The Mayor views this as the catalyst to Livonia Vision 2021. The completion of the Senior Wellness Center will be the first phase of our New City Center, (NOT DOWNTOWN). Pastor Dave reminded members to drive by the Rec Center to see what is happening there. More information can be found at LivoniaBuilt.org. The New City Hall, Police Department, renovation of Fire Dept, and the Library are planned. Mayor Maureen Bosnan will speak to our Club on February 26th about The City Center. President Dave reminded members this would be an excellent time to invite prospective members.

The Giving Committee's report was given by Bill Friske who shared the committee's recommendations. Two were given. Breaking Barriers for Kids and Families asked for one thousand dollars to stock the food cooler and pantry at Clarenceville HS. Discussion occurred and this recommendation was placed in motion and approved. The other recommendation from the committee was for $500 to purchase Children’s books for the City Center Library. Motion was made and passed. A third grant request was reviewed requesting a donation toward the California wild fires effort. This recommendation was from Rotary District Calif. It was discussed and a decision was made to pause this request since we have a huge request from the City to help raise funds to replace the pavilion.

The pavilion replacement was discussed. The City wants the two Rotary Clubs to participate in the funding for this project. We will discuss this later. We will seek donors for this project along with funds from our club.

Tammy Bonifield talked about the LPS foundation Dinner. The featured speaker, Maria, is an author and gives away books to children. We would like to have her bring her trailer filled with books to Touch a Truck. Could our Club also collect books? This is in the discussion phase.

RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards), will be held at Camp Copneconic in Fenton May 2nd – May 4th. Two students from each of the Livonia schools can attend. $250 per student. Applications need to be in by March 01, 2025. The Churchill HS Interact students can pay for one of the students since they did so well with Touch-A-Truck. Stevenson HS and Clarenceville HS will pick their students that will participate.

Susan Paluchniak