November 2008

Rose City BNI donates raffle money to the Norwich Rotary Club
A collected total of $520.00 was presented to the Norwich Rotary Club for their Happy Dollars fund on November 19, 2008 by our chapter President and Rotary Member, Andrew Nollman.

October 2008

Rose City BNI donates $186.00 to the 2008 United Way campaign. We received the following thank you letters from the United Way:

September 2008

Jo Wood of Showhouse Ready joined Susan Hull of HMS Consulting and her fellow travel agents aboard the brand new Holland America Eurodam.

8/28/08: Extra food from the BNI Softball game and cookout is donated to needy families in Norwich. Please read the letter below:

8/27/08: From the Norwich Bulletin...

Norwich: Honorees helping put bloom back in Rose City

Norwich businesswoman Marcy Vitagliano was honored Tuesday night for living her dream.

“I remember my grandmother driving me around the city when I was 6 years old,” she said. “We drove past the Wauregan Hotel, and I told her ‘That’s where I’m going to have my flower shop.’ It took me 34 years, but I finally did it.”  read more...

New Business Group Helps Transform Norwich YMCA's Child-Care Center
- By Claire Bessette

Norwich — The YMCA of Southeastern Connecticut, facing some $3 million in building upgrades to its aging facility on Main Street, just could not tackle the facelift needed in its child-care center.

So YMCA Executive Director Robert Oickle turned to the United Way.The United Way then turned to the fledgling Rose City chapter of the Business Network International, a group that wanted a community project to get itself off the ground.

“This is a testament to the power of networking,” said Dino Tudisca, chapter president and owner of Exterior Solutions, a general contracting business based in Bozrah.

Oickle and even United Way officials were skeptical that the new organization could pull it off. The childcare center was functional, but still looked like the old dingy smoking lounge it used to be decades ago. The woodwork was dark brown, the wall paint faded and smoke-stained and the doors uninviting.

But Tudisca walked into the center with the opposite opinion.The new Rose City chapter of BNI, formed in April, is already the largest in the state with 42 members from throughout southeastern Connecticut. The group really wanted to do its first community service project in Norwich, its host city.

“I'm a general contractor,” he said to the packed house of adults and children at Thursday's grand opening ceremony. “I came in and said, 'Are you kidding me? Is this it?'”

Tudisca rallied his members for a project that took two weekend days in October. A.P. Savage Supply hardware store in nearby Greeneville donated the paint and some supplies. Other businesses contributed volunteer labor, supplies and expertise. Exterior Solutions and Hyde Park Landscape sent workers on paid time to the center.

Now, the two main rooms are painted with bright yellow and aqua colors. The curtains are bright red in one room, bright blue in the next. Overhead beams and doorframes that had been dark are now white. The double-door was removed to provide an inviting wide opening. On Thursday, YMCA balloons decorated it all for a daylong grand opening celebration.

Tudisca estimated the value of the donations at $18,000, but Oickle said it would have cost the YMCA about $50,000 if it had to pay for everything — money the nonprofit didn't have after having just completed its major $3 million building and systems upgrade.

The child-care center has an enrollment of about 60 children ranging in age from 18 months to kindergarten level. Many of the children are from low-income families and their tuition is subsidized by the state or by other programs.

Oickle said that made him more determined to try to find a way to get the childcare center upgraded.

“We wanted to make sure our facility wasn't any less than any other facility just because these families have less,” Oickle said. “That was very important to us.”