Elm City Rotary Meeting
March 18, 2021
Opening Words:
Susan Newcomer: “It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare.” By Mark twain
Yves Gakunde: “Cooking is all about people. Food is maybe the only universal thing that has the power to bring everyone together. No matter what culture, everywhere around the world, people eat together.” By Guy Fieri
Guest(s): Luca Paris (speaker)
Announcements
Susan Newcomer
- We raised about $1200 to provide food to the national guards doing covid-19 vaccination in Keene. Susan thanked everyone for contributing to this effort. We have spent around $800 and the money left will be used to provide snacks or a third delivery of food to the group.
Glenn Galloway:
- Membership meeting was scheduled right after our regular meeting
Yves Gakunde
- The NEPETS training is going well with engaging and inspiring guest speakers. Over 500 presidents-elect and incoming District governors have been meeting over zoom. Sessions are scheduled Thursday-Saturday 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM. Sessions focusing on memberships, leadership, fundraising, national and international projects, marketing Rotary work, just to name a few.
Foundations
Ann Looney: Shared that David’s uncle was Dale Pregent former mayor for Keene that we lost this week and will always cherish the good memories she has about him.
Dick Hamilton: Borrowed the book from the Keene Public Library about the “Swift, Silent Deadly” by Norman Van Cor from Chesterfield who was our guest speaker at our meeting on March 04, 2021. An easy read and he came to realize that Norman is a recipient of the “Navy Cross” (a high honor) and was also a candidate for the Medal of Honor.
Allen Mendelson: paid a few dollars to have Jay Smeltz share about his “front-row-seat” experience this week in front of his house.
Jay Smeltz: On Tuesday at 6:00 AM, he was awakened by loud bangs as he lives across the free Keene church where the incident occurred. About 12 FBI agents dressed in combat uniforms, armed were bringing people out of the “church house” on Leverett St. It was a very scary experience as they could see the “red gun dots” pointed at people in the house. They flew a drone in the building and were at the house until about noon. Many boxes were taken out of the building. It seemed like it was too much force used for a money-laundering scheme. However, maybe the FBI had more information especially that people in that house have lots of weapons. It was a very scary time and not pleasant to witness.
Patty Farmer: Very happy as the Cedarcrest Center has reached the threshold where a good number of staff have received already the Covid-19 vaccination and they can now be in the office without necessarily wearing the mask. She is happy to share the smile and see everyone.
Ted McGreer: welcomed his partner in crime Luca Paris and shared he will be getting his second Covid-19 vaccination and looking forward to what will happen after that. He also mentioned that the City of Keene granted the Pathways for Keene a community event status for the 4on the 4th and that the group will be planning a community event in July. The mentioned that the group may need vaccinated volunteers to assist the day of the event.
John Round: Will be getting his second dose of Covid-19 vaccine in a week, the same day he has a guest speaker and he hopes all will go well. He will be heading to Florida to assist his mother and he is happy that finally after 2-3 months his mother will be back home. He thanked everyone who reached out to check-in how the mother was doing.
Susan Newcomer: had her second dose of Covid-19 vaccine and now Jeff and her can travel to see the grandson over the weekend. Very exciting! She shared that Jeff had fatigue after the vaccination but for her the first day was fine, but the second day she felt tired. Now everyone doing just fine!
Mary Delisle: George and her got their second covid-19 vaccine and thanked Melissa Stroshine for assisting them with getting the vaccination earlier than was planned. They had very mild fatigue but nothing too bad. She was happy to see many familiar faces at the vaccination site.
She shared the Men Who Cook book was sent to the printer and now the group is working on the details for the virtual event to be held in May. Thanks to those who participated.
Bob Englund: Second dose of covid-19 received and now looking forward to going out to the favorite restaurant: Luca’s Mediterranean Café!
Cheryl Belair: Looking forward to signing up for the covid-19 vaccination in a few days as her group will be eligible.
Alan Stroshine: Happy birthday to Kerry Kelley for her 50th birthday!
Marianne McGauley: 3 weeks out for the second dose of Covid-19 vaccine and feeling really good.
Also a “thank you” to everyone who sent money for the “March for Meals” campaign at HCS.
Marti Fiske: Her Father and her 95 years old grandmother both had their second dose of Covid-19 vaccine and she was able to visit them for the first time since October 2020.
Marion Lefrancois: Can’t wait for the covid-19 vaccine on March 22.
67 letters were sent out to invite kids to join Interact club. Several kids who graduated may stay in the area and could join Rotaract. A follow-up soon.
Scott Ansevin-Allen: While taking a walk on Tuesday morning, he was not sure what was going on after seeing the FBI group and the fire rescue at his family friend’s house. He was heading that direction to help a 95 years old friend who had fallen down the night before and had broken some bones.
Marty Barnard: We should explore “meet and great” for Rotaract and Interact clubs maybe sometime in May Marion Lefrancois to follow up.
Speaker: Gianluca Paris – Executive Chef and Owner of Luca’s Mediterranean Café. He opened the restaurant in Keene in 2000 after moving to Keene. Luca earned a degree in Hotel/Restaurant Management from Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island where he met his wife, Lindy Paris, a Swanzey NH native and fellow Hotel/Restaurant Degree holder. They both owned and operated an Italian gourmet shop and catering business in New York City at the age of 22 and worked in a fine dining restaurant in Westchester County, New York for several years. Awarded the “Chef of the year award” in 2014 by NH lodging and restaurant association and has received many other awards. He has been on Cheshire TV for eight years for his TV show- culinary journey with Luca Paris. Some radio jobs, his show on a DVD, and he is very proud of the scholarship program he established at the Cheshire Career Center for young folks going into the culinary field. We know Luca as well through his community work.
Luca Paris
He is involved in Keene Community because he is very fortunate to have many good mentors, some of which are part of the Elm City Rotary club. His daughter is part of the Interact Club and the family is very proud to be part of this community.
Luca initiated the Monadnock Restaurant Project as a response to the Covid-19 effects on the restaurant industry. The shutdown of the businesses has affected many restaurants. Back at the beginning of the pandemic, he learned to adjust, even if it was by doing the silliest thing like giving toilet papers to his clients. He mentioned that during the normal times January to April, the restaurant business is very slow where income could decrease from $20K/Week for large-scale restaurants to 10K/week in March.
Adding Covid-19 effects to the slowest time of the year for the restaurant business, he knew it was going to be very hard for many local restaurants. Back in December 2020, he gathered a few people to talk about how to stimulate the restaurant economy by injecting some money to attract people to go to the restaurants when safe to do. By using his funds, he bought 10k worth of gift certificates and worked with a task force to gather about 700 gift cards from 24 local restaurants.
The idea was to motivate other people to invest in our local restaurants by using those gift cards to go out and spend a little more money in the next two to three months. People were going out and spending at least 2-3 more dollars than what he invested meaning about 20K to 30K going into the local restaurants. This motivated many other community members to buy gift cards from local restaurants meaning more money being added into the community. Some of the organizations that have invested in this include the Richards Group, Douglas Cuddle Toys, Heaven Hair Salon, the Insurance Source, the Saving Bank of Walpole, Clark Mortenson Insurance Company, the Monadnock Broadcasting Group, the Keene Sentinel, and many individuals such as the new person from the Recycled Percussion team.
Luca mentioned that many individuals are now supporting restaurants are very grateful. Luca added “it is not just to support restaurants but to support the economy as the money is touching everyone involved.” Luca mentioned that this effort is also helping with promoting and marketing restaurants in the area to the point around 80-90K will be injected into the local economy by the end of the year.
Some questions asked:
Susan Newcomer: How can people make donations to Monadnock Restaurant Project? Any local crowdfunding?
Response: Yes the local crowdfunding Monadnock is available. https://monadnocklocal.org/
Luca is interested in marketing and promoting restaurants to assist during these hard times so that we don’t lose any restaurants in the area. If people can afford to go out safely to eat, please do.
Patty Farmer: Cedarcrest Center received gift cards from the Richards Group. Clark-Mortenson Insurance is also providing more gift cards for those who did not receive them in the first round.
Yves Gakunde: How far out of Keene the project is getting gift cards from?
Response: As far as Peterborough but with intention of going way out to Walpole with the help from more volunteers to assist with running the program.
Cherryl Belair: Insurance Sources did go out and bought gift cards per Ryan’s recommendation. A very fun project meeting with local restaurants people and seeing how people are so appreciative of the project.
Ken Jue: Thanked Luca for joining the club and share about the project.
