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2025 Citizens Who Care

Our 27th annual Citizens Who Care, Educator & Student of the Year Gala was held on Thursday, May 8th at the Andover Country Club where 300 guests gathered to celebrate 14 amazing community heroes.

The 2025 honorees are:

Ellen Arvidson
Ajita Bhat
Donald Cooper
Mary Beth Ellis & Eric Olson - The Sidney Mae Olson Rainbow Fund
Amy Janovsky
Martha Mahoney
Susan K. McCready
Shawna M. McCloskey & Kristine A. Arakelian
Mark Morgan
Buzz Stapczynski

The 2025 Educator of the Year is Julie Diehl, and the 2025 Student of the Year is Sofia Duran-Clark.

The Gala was a spectacular evening, featuring a lively cocktail hour with entertainment by the talented Andover High School Orchestra, a delicious plated dinner, inspiring award presentations, an exciting 50/50 raffle, and an impressive selection of over 100 silent auction items. A heartfelt thank you to our generous sponsors, the many silent auction donors whose contributions helped us achieve our fundraising goals, Andover TV for their exceptional videography skills in capturing the evening’s highlights and our guests. Stay tuned for highlights available from Andover TV and honoree bios which will be available soon!

Is there an unsung hero you’d like to nominate for next year’s honors? Share their story and help us celebrate those who make a difference by contacting Ann Ormond.

MEETING LOCATION

Our weekly meetings take place every Friday at 7:30 am at the Lanam Club, 260 N. Main Street, Andover.

Breakfast will be available starting at 7:15 am.

We welcome new members throughout the year and look forward to connecting with you! If you'd like to attend as a guest, please contact Al Timm at al_timm@yahoo.com

Where Your Donations Have Made A Difference

During Fiscal Year 2023-2024, the Rotary Club of Andover's Charitable Trust Committee consisting of Gail Ralston and Jean Leider, Co-Chairs, Jamie Lyman, Joel Leider and Alan Michel worked diligently to review many grant applications against the grant criteria to present to the Club's Board of Directors for approval.

Though our biggest fundraiser of the year, Citizens Who Care, donations from members, and District Matching Grants, we were able to award over $60,000 to:

Andover Projects: $14,591
Youth Projects: $13,688 (including three scholarships totaling $9,000)
Merrimack Valley Projects: $12,500
Rotary/International Projects: $19,500

For a detailed list of Grants which were awarded: CLICK HERE

Rotary Raises Over $1550 for The Salvation Army

On Friday, December 20th, not even the snow could stop about 30 Andover Rotarians, family and friends from ringing the bell in front of Old Town Hall for the Salvation
Army of Lawrence. For seven consecutive years, the Andover Rotary had collected the most amount of donations in one day for the Salvation Army. This year, we almost beat our rival, Free Christian Church, but fell short coming in at second place raising over $1550. We are a bit disappointed for not being able to defend our title but overjoyed that so many generous individuals stopped to make a donation.

Or ... were they stopped by Andover Rotarian Doug Mercurio who jumped into traffic with his snow brush to clean off windshields and then ask for a donation? Doug truly embraces our motto of "where doing good is serious fun".

Pictured Above: Rotarians Paul Mercandetti, Mark Spencer, Amy Salant, Doug Mercurio and Claudia Soo Hoo.

Partnering with the Andover Farmers Market

For the past two years, Andover Rotarians have been volunteering to help at The Andover Farmers Market (Market) which is held

mid-June to mid-October at South Church in Andover. The Market is more than just fresh food, it’s a vibrant hub connecting local farmers who practice sustainable farming, artisans and the community through the joy of local food.

In addition to the weekly vendors, they also host rotating vendors and community partners who showcase their specialties, feature entertainment and support local food pantries by displaying a donation bin. In addition to food donated by market patrons, vendors often donate the leftover produce at the end of the market day.

Andover Rotarians help with set up, greeting patrons at the welcome booth, answering questions at the information booth, distributing SNAP benefits and assisting with the breakdown. The Andover Rotary Charitable Trust also assists the Market through a grant to the SNAP Market Match program which provides SNAP customers with a match of up to $25 per week.

WHAT IS ROTARY?

Rotary is a global network of 1.2 million neighbors, friends, leaders, and problem-solvers who see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change – across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.

Solving real problems takes real commitment and vision. For more than 110 years, Rotary's people of action have used their passion, energy, and intelligence to take action on sustainable projects. From literacy and peace to water and health, we are always working to better our world, and we stay committed to the end.

Learn more about our structure and our foundation and our strategic vision.

What we do

Rotary members believe that we have a shared responsibility to take action on our world’s most persistent issues. Our 35,000+ clubs work together to:

Promote peace
Fight disease
Provide clean water, sanitation, and hygiene
Save mothers and children
Support education
Grow local economies

Get involved

Our mission

We provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through our fellowship of business, professional, and community leaders.

THREE WAYS TO JOIN ROTARY

Are you ready to make a difference in our community? In addition to our Traditional Membership, we offer two flexible membership levels.

1. A Service Membership has fewer meeting requirements, lower membership fees, and participation in all Rotary service projects.

2. A Corporate Membership is very similar to our Traditional Membership option. The principal corporate member gets all of the benefits that are included with a traditional membership, along with the flexibility to send a designee/associate to meetings that he/she is unable to attend each month. Corporate members may also bring associates to help at Rotary service projects. We encourage all of our principal corporate members to attend at least one meeting per month.

To learn more about Andover Rotary, please contact Membership Chair Lois McGuinniss with any questions about these great options for busy local business leaders ready to join a great service club helping to improve our community.

Ready to apply for membership? Download an application here.

ANDOVER CARES

The Andover Cares Fund, part of the Rotary Club of Andover Charitable Foundation, is seeking grant applications.

Andover Cares and the Andover Cares Fund were established in fall 2015, inspired by several members of the Rotary Club of Andover who lives have been touched by the heroin epidemic plaguing our community, our state, and our nation. Andover Cares has, as its goal, to raise funds to battle this epidemic by providing awareness, education, and intervention.

Click here to learn more about Andover Cares

Follow Andover Cares on Facebook!