A Word From Our President
Dr. Lisa Wisotsky

What a year it’s been! When I reflect on the hardships and restrictions we endured due to the COVID pandemic, I am amazed at all we accomplished in Englewood and internationally through our partnerships. This is a testament to the strength and commitment of the officers and members of our club!

Internationally, we helped fund nursing students in an underserved area of Haiti, helped artisans in Mexico impacted by COVID, partnered with the Fair Lawn Sunrise Rotary Club to support a Honduras Water project, and supported the Rotary Foundation’s polio eradication program.

Locally, we worked to help combat food insecurity in Englewood with our bins at ShopRite which we empty regularly and donate to the Center for Food Action. Rotarians continue to assist Chef Dion in preparing and packaging meals for Englewood residents. Additionally, most of our grants this year went to combat food insecurity in Englewood.

We focused on our youth with the first ever Rotary Club of Englewood Teen Peace Program which brought together students from all 5 Englewood middle schools, public and private. This program’s culmination ceremony will be held around Englewood’s first Peace Pole, donated by our Rotary Club! After a one-year hiatus due to COVID, we participated in The Dictionary Project and will soon be distributing dictionaries to all 3rd graders in our city.

Our Mackay Park community wide clean-up in honor of Earth Day was a huge success and a highlight of the year!

Thanks to ZOOM, we brought in speakers from as far away as Germany with participants from all over the world. We had presenters from Portland and will soon welcome speakers from Iowa and Minnesota. We have made new friends and truly appreciated the wide reach of Rotary.

We will finish this Rotary year with the same energy and excitement with which it began, transitioning to hybrid and in-person meetings. We look forward to dedicating a commemorative bench in memory of our beloved member George Milne at the Englewood boat basin, and our upcoming celebrations culminating with the induction of our incoming President, Jacqueline Guttman, and the 2021/2022 Rotary Board members on June 29th.

I want to thank the Rotary Club for the opportunity to serve as your President this year. What a wonderfully productive and successful year it’s been, and I am proud of all we’ve accomplished together.


Join us on Tuesday June 8th at Noon for a Special Presentation by

Rotarians Anthony Conn and Dr. Yogi Reppmann

Keokuk Rotary Peace Letters


The year is 1931. The results of the global economic crisis have an impact everywhere. Nationalism and ideologies that violate human dignity are on the rise. In the midst of this, the Rotary Club of Keokuk, Iowa sends out 496 letters in late December. The Rotarians of this small city on the Mississippi extend their hand to their Rotarian friends around the world.

Eighty-nine years later, this same Rotary Club repeats the gesture, sending out letters specifically to the Rotarians who responded to its mailing in 1931. These peace letters symbolize international friendship and understanding.

Speaker Anthony Conn: Anthony Conn is a field agent for the Knights of Columbus Insurance as well as president of Conn Communications, Inc., a wireless communications agent in Iowa and Missouri. He served 10 years in the United States Army as an officer in the Corps of Engineers, stationed at posts in South Korea, Germany, and United States. Anthony is a graduate of St. Ambrose University, B.S. Mathematics. He has served on many civic organizations in his community and currently board member of Keokuk Area Community Foundation and RC Keokuk, Iowa, USA. He is President and co-founder of Peace Pipe Proposal, llc., a non-profit organization that promotes world peace and international understanding. 

Speaker Dr.Yogi Reppmann: Dr. Joachim "Yogi" Reppmann was born in Flensburg, State of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, in 1957 (bordertown to Denmark at Baltic Sea – north of Hamburg). He matriculated at the University of Kiel, where he studied history, American literature, and philosophy. In 1978 and fueled by his fascination with America from reading wild west fiction novels he traveled to the United States to learn everything he could about our country. He has written several books on notable Schleswig-Holstein emigrants and the mass migration to the United States; served as a professor of German at St. Olaf and Carleton Colleges in Northfield, Minnesota; and chaired several conferences. The Steuben Society of America’s History Award, 2014, has been presented to him for his research on the 1848 movement’s democratic impact in Germany, and the USA.  www.moin-moin.us


Please click here for the agenda for the 6/8 meeting
Here is the link for the Spoke for the 6/1 meeting

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85327525274?pwd=OTNXZ1A1N3pnRlgrSXJGeEx1a251dz09
Meeting ID: 853 2752 5274
Passcode: 352511

Rotary Club of Englewood is recognized in the Rotary Magazine for Germany and Austria
One of the benefits of virtual meetings is the ability to connect with Rotarians and friends around the world! The presentation, Rotary in Germany and Austria from the 1920's to the 1950's was one of the highlights of the year.
Our meeting was covered in the Rotary Magazine for Germany and Austria and the article can be read by clicking here. Rotary Club of Englewood is also referenced in the blog of the researchers of this project, and can be found by clicking here.

If you would like to support the future work of the research initiative, please send a check to Rotary Cub of Englewood, PO Box 412, Englewood , NJ 07631 and write Understanding of Nations Project in the Memo. To purchase a book for $20, please email Rotarian Anthony Conn.

Over 160 people registered for the presentation, but technical difficulties with ZOOM interfered with the start, so 75 people were able to join this outstanding presentation. Special thanks to Donovan who did a wonderful job editing the video. If you haven't heard the presentation, it is certainly worth viewing!
Join Us!
Monday June 7 at 6 PM
Rotary Club of Englewood participates in the City of Englewood Memorial Day Ceremony
Monday May 31, 2021
From L to R: Councilman Dr. Ken Rosenzweig, President Dr. Lisa Wisotsky, Bergen County Sheriff Anthony Cureton, Past President Aleta Frezzell, Membership Chair Joyce Grossbard, Assemblyman Gordon Johnson, Past President Scott Reddin, Mayor Michael Wildes, Past President Walter Young
A Look Ahead....
Monday June 7 at 6:00 P.M.- Peace Pole Celebration at Veterans Park: A Culmination Ceremony of the 2021 Rotary Club of Englewood Teen Peace Program
Tuesday June 8 at Noon- Keokuk Rotary Peace Letters, Tony Conn and Yogi Reppmann
Tuesday June 8 at 1:30 PM- Rotary Board Meeting
Tuesday June 15 at 2:00 PM- Rain date June 22nd.
Dedication of Commemorative Bench at the Englewood Boat Basin in Memory of George Milne.
June 12-June 16, 2021- Virtual Rotary International Convention: Register here:  https://convention.rotary.org
Tuesday June 22- No meeting. Rain date for Dedication of Commemorative Bench in Memory of George Milne.
Wednesday June 23 6:00-10:00 P.M.-Rotary District 7490 Banner Exchange, RSVP no later than Friday June 18
Thursday June 24 at 6:30 P.M.- Rotary District 7490 Conference
Tuesday June 29 at 6 PM- Induction of President Jacqueline Guttman!
Dr. Lisa Wisotsky, President,Rotary Club of Englewood
LisaWisotskyRotary@gmail.com

For Membership Inquiries please contact Joyce Grossbard, Chair of Membership
Joyce.grossbard@gmail.com