District 7980 Happy Hour Speaker Series

Friday Night Speaker Series 

Every Friday at 5 PM on Zoom

The link
Happy Hour Speaker Series Friday at 5 PM


May 29 Marty Peak Helman
Marti helped start a virtual Rotary Club of past RYLA participants. She was one of my trainers and is a great speaker.

Martha Peak Helman has been a member of The Rotary Foundation’s Rotary Peace Centers/Major Gifts Initiative Committee for the past two years; this year she serves as vice chair of The Foundation’s Peace/Major Gifts Initiative.

Marty has been selected to be a Training Leader at the 2018 International Assembly; she served as Trainer for the Governors-nominee at the Zone 24-32 Institute (2013 and 2017), for the Zone Rotary Future Leaders (2016), as well as for D-7780 Governors-elect (2015-16 and 2019-20). She has been a President’s representative (2016); she frequently facilitates at the Rotary Leadership Institute (since 2009) and Northeast PETS (since 2013). She started and continues to edit the Zone 24-32 monthly newsletter (2013-present). Marty currently serves as District 7780’s Foundation Chair (2015-18); she was a “Peace Through Service” District Governor in 2012-13.

She and her husband Frank are multiple Major Donors and Bequest Society members, and through the corporate support of the Otto and Fran Walter Foundation, they are Arch Klumph Society members. Marty and Frank are members of the Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club in District 7780, which they joined in 2003.

Marty graduated from Connecticut College cum laude and holds her master’s in teaching (secondary) from Pace University. In her professional career, she has been both a writer and an editor; she has put that experience to good stead in her Rotary work, authoring “Rewriting the Future,” about a literacy support organization in Guatemala, and most recently, editing “String of Pearls,” a book about and fundraiser for the Rotary Peace Centers. 
Her blog
Marty's Blog on Travel
May 22 Jeffry Cadorette-Rotary Director
Fabulous Speaker see  Jeffry Cadorette-A Rotary Prescription

The Link
Zoom link

Zoom Conversation with Jeffry Cadorette and District 7980

Director 2018-20 
Rotary Club of Media 
Pennsylvania, USA 

Jeffry Cadorette had a 25-year career as a physical therapist in private practice as president and CEO of Physical Therapy Associates of Delaware County in Pennsylvania until merging his practice with Riddle Memorial Hospital to form the Riddle Rehabilitation Institute and Riddle Sports Medicine. He is now associate broker and executive vice president at Media Real Estate Co., where he is active in all phases of commercial real estate sales and leasing, tenant representation, and new project development.

A Rotarian since 1977, Cadorette has served RI as a committee member, Council on Legislation delegate, international training leader, seminar trainer, and president’s representative. He was worldwide coordinator of Rotary Foundation alumni coordinators from 2010-11.

Cadorette is a Foundation Benefactor and Major Donor and has received the Citation for Meritorious Service, the Distinguished Service Award, and RI’s Service Above Self Award.

Jeffry Cadorette-A Rotary Prescription

May 15 Marilyn Lowney of the Haitian Health Foundation-District 7980 has a long history of helping the HHF. 

For nearly three decades, HHF has been providing exceptional health care to people of all ages, backgrounds, and life circumstances. Under HHF’s comprehensive services, members in the Jérémie community can access primary and preventive health care, dental services and mental health treatment provided in a compassionate, respectful, and professional manner.


May 8 Nikki Mederos

Public Image

Nikki Mederos-Public Image Coordinator for Zone 32 and great storyteller.

Niurka “Nikki” Mederos District Governor

North Hudson Rotary Club

401 Gorge Road, Cliffside Park, NJ 07010

Mobile: 201-956-1667 Email: nikkimederos7490@gmail.com

A lifelong resident of Hudson and Bergen counties, Niurka “Nikki” Mederos is the Director of the External Affairs/Outreach Community at Hackensack Meridian Health Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, NJ. During her 35-year tenure at the medical facility, Ms. Mederos has worked within local communities to promote the hospital’s services, build community partnerships and provide healthcare outreach programs to local residents. Additionally, she has organized dozens of community health fairs and health screenings to connect with thousands of members from the community.

May 1 Mike McGovern

And Mike will award the Rotary Polio Service Award to Robert Herber of the Ridgefield Rotary club

Speaker Mike McGovern-RI Polio Plus chair and former VP of RI

Michael K. McGovern

PolioPlus Committee
Chair, Rotary International

Michael K. McGovern is current Chair of the Rotary International PolioPlus Committee and Past Vice President of Rotary International in 2007-08.

Mike joined Rotary in 1986 as a member of the Rotary Club of South Portland-Cape Elizabeth, Maine, USA. He has served as club president, district  governor, district foundation chair, Rotarian Action Group chair, international training leader, RI committee member and chair, director of Rotary International and vice  president of Rotary. He has served in numerous other positions at the district, zone and international levels and has attended numerous councils on legislation in various roles.

Mike holds the Rotary classification of “Town Government” as the full-time appointed town manager of Cape Elizabeth, Maine. He was previously president of the Maine Municipal Association and has served on regional boards for the United Way and the American Red Cross. Mike is a Major Donor to the Rotary Foundation and a recipient of the Rotary Foundation’s Citation for Meritorious Service.

April 24 RYLA Directors
Our speakers will be the RYLA directors. High school students who didn't get to run the RYLA this year.
They will tell us about themselves and about RYLA and what it means to the students.

Kate Nelson April 17

Kate Nelson | Rotary Foundation Global Scholar

We had the pleasure of welcoming Kate Nelson to our 5 March 2019 meeting. Kate talked about her experience as a Global Scholar while studying Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Global Scholars in London 2018-9

Name : Kate Nelson EMail : scholar.kate@rotaryinlondon.org Home District & Club : 7980 Westport Connecticut USA Sponsoring Club : Westminster International Counsellor : Maria Novella Vitucci Interests : Running & Photography/Design Studying : Epidemiology at LSHTM

April 3, 4:15 PM Our Speaker spoke at the Rotary International convention in Toronto

Anja Nikolova

2015-17 Rotary global grant scholar, Yale University
Anja Nikolova, a Rotary global grant scholar, graduated in 2017 with a master’s degree in environmental management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the Yale Center for Business and the Environment. Raised in five countries (and fluent in as many languages), she studied biology in Italy and Switzerland and is a National Merit Scholar. Nikolova manages sustainable products at L'Oreal. She interned at the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition — an initiative to accelerate action on climate change — and attended the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris as a member of the Macedonian delegation.

April 10, 5 PM Alex Epstein

Alex Epstein

MPhil student

Alex studied Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology and Chemistry at Yale, where he also worked in the Pollard lab. Alex joined our group as an MPhil student in October 2018. He worked on in vitro aggregation of tau. Alex went on to do a PhD at the Rockefeller in New York.

Alexander Epstein

Alexander Epstein

Alexander Epstein is majoring in molecular, cellular and developmental biology and chemistry. He has been awarded both the Paul Mellon Fellowship and the Rotary Global Grant Scholarship for study at Cambridge.

In his spare time, he enjoys teaching math and science to elementary school students, and exploring his hometown of New York City. Epstein will be pursuing an M.Phil. at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, studying the structure of the clumps of protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease. After his time at Cambridge, he plans to obtain a Ph.D. in the biological sciences and to build a career studying the biology of human aging.