Rotateller Rotary Club of Owego, NY
Tuesday, July 29, 2008 Gary Williams, Editor

“ The sun dries without prejudice the garments of the rich and poor.”

Visitors and Guests: David Alamo, Endwell Rotarian; Nancy Glasgow, Tioga Opportunities; our speaker for the day, Bob White and his wife, Alyson White.

Music: God Bless America, loudly and clearly

Announcements:

Bike Tioga: if you volunteered to mark the routes for the cyclists, please have markings complete by Monday, August 4. Thank you. The bike event is August 9 and 10.

Tornado/flood area school supplies request:

Five-mile Run: The Schenevus-Worcester Rotary Club is organizing a 5 Mile Run and Block Party in the town of Worcester on August 23rd. Entry forms and additional information may be found on the District 7170 website under the "events" column.

Good-bye party for Mati, leaving for Germany the next morning, at Jody and Paul’s home, 32 Armstrong Pl. Owego, Friday August 1st, 7 p.m.

Future Programs: Next week’s program will be announced soon. August 12th – Don Curtis from the Tioga County Boys and Girls Club; August 19th – Ed Kang, from North Korea, talking about Korea.

Fines: Orv quizzed us with a team-building exercise on the latest Rotarian Magazine. We did pretty well with the answers but a lot of money was collected anyway.

Happy Dollars: It was a happy lot today. Some highlights were Maria’s thanks to those who came to the Relay For Life, and especially to Carol Cavataio, who also worked in the Relay shop, as did Maria. Mark presented the trading banner from the Soldotna, Alaska Rotary Club they visited recently. Carole was happy about bunnies and hawks and Carolyn reported that Dick Kelly was happy while “on the road.” He’s been in New England and is headed out West before making his way back to Florida. He’ll see us in the spring!

Al Sunderwirth introduced a mystery guest, Charles Pumpelly Avery, as our speaker for the day. You might know our eloquent speaker better as Bob White, author, retired from ministry after many years in England, neighbor of Al and Carol and, by the way, a former Rotarian who tried to introduce women into Rotary in the 1970s. (It didn’t work then, but we’re glad to say that’s changed, although it took another full decade and lawsuits to make it happen.)

Charles Pumpelly Avery came from a long line of judges from Connecticut, originally from Devon, England. Charles told his audience some of his own story, which centers around the Owego area. Charles Pumpelly Avery is the main character of Bob White’s recent nonfiction work, Yours Truly, C.P. Avery, which is a companion to his historic romance, Susquehanna Scandal.

From a recent interview on WSKG, “White has searched through the family history of C.P. Avery, all the way back to 14th century England. Ancestors arrived in America starting around 1630 and the family was established in New York State by the early 1800s. The Averys of Owego built a fine home around 1807 and it still stands today on Front Street. Charles was a lawyer and, at age 29, the first elected judge in Tioga County and a historian of the county. He was handsome, popular and an eligible bachelor – just the kind of man stories might circulate about.”

Of course, the books are readily available at Riverow Bookshop!

50/50: Carole LaPlante

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