Newtown Rotary Welcomes New President At Changeover Ceremony

NEWTOWN, Pa. — The Newtown Rotary Club welcomed a new president, awarded a scholarship and recognized its Rotarian of the Year during a change of leadership Happy Hour at La Stalla.

Kyle Davis, a member of the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors, officially handed the leadership gavel to Mick Petrucci, a seven year member of the club and Newtown area district justice.

“This is a special night for me. I am very excited to take over the presidency,” said Petrucci. “I am very excited to take on this new role, to grow our club and to do the many things that we do in our community and beyond.”

The club also used the occasion to award its annual Rotary Club Scholarship to David Wenger, a 2022 graduate of Council Rock High School North.

Rotarian Rick Rogers, the club’s liaison with the high school’s Interact Club, presented the $500 scholarship to Wenger for submitting the winning essay, in which Wenger wrote about Rotary’s Four Way Test.

Wenger will be continuing his education at Penn State University where he will be majoring in nuclear engineering. His goal is to help create clean energy through nuclear fusion. “But that’s a long way down the road,” he told the Rotarians.

The club also honored Rotarian Danielle Wittig with this year’s Rotarian of the Year Award for working behind the scenes as a member of the club’s NextGen group.

Wittig was instrumental in planning the group’s first block party held in 2021 on South State Street, this year’s hugely successful Hope on the Vine fundraiser and has hosted numerous meetings of the group at Triple Sun, where she works as the general manager.

“Danielle is one of our newer Rotary members, but she jumped right in, kicked butt and has been a huge participant in everything we have done this year,” said Davis.

Danielle has also accepted the role of club secretary for the coming year.

In a surprise presentation, U.S. Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick presented flags flown over the U.S. Capitol building to Davis and to incoming president Mick Petrucci.

As his first duty as newly-installed president, Petrucci presented Davis with a plaque for leading the club during the past year.

“Kyle, you did an amazing job,” said Petrucci in making the presentation.

Davis took over the leadership of the club a year ago from Dr. Jerry Agasar had led the club through the pandemic.

Under Davis’ watch, the club began to emerge from the pandemic bringing back its highly successful Hope on the Vine fundraiser. It also launched a fundraising campaign for Ukrainian refugees and took over the organization of the community’s Easter Egg hunt.

“Thank you for all your support this past year and all that you do. This club wouldn’t work without the great team that we have,” Davis told the club. “And I want to thank Mick for stepping up and taking over for the coming year,” said Davis.

Petrucci is bringing a wealth of experience to his new position having served as president of the Newtown Business Association. He has also been a strong local advocate for Shop With A Cop, helping to organize the annual event aimed at giving local children facing difficult circumstances a happier holiday season.

“I’m a big believer in strength in numbers - more hands means less work for everyone else,” said Petrucci. “My goal is to build our subcommittees, appoint committee chairs and build on that nucleus and bring a different level of organization to the club.

“We’re also planning a major push on membership,” he said. “We had a tremendous year coming out of the pandemic with new members joining. I am going to continue that momentum by building on our social media presence and getting our name out there into the community.

“In addition to building our subcommittees and membership and continuing with our community events, what I am super excited about is our 70th anniversary,” said Petrucci.

In February, the Newtown club will officially mark its 70th anniversary.

“I'm looking to build on that, maybe coming up with a new insignia memorializing the anniversary or maybe we will tie the anniversary into one or more of our big events,” he said.

Motivated by three key words - Service Above Self - the local club organizes such events as Pedals for Progress, a highly successful used bike collection drive held every fall; Hope on the Vine, a fundraiser supporting local causes; the town’s Easter Egg Hunt; an annual golf outing supporting
Pickering Manor; food collection drives for the Wrightstown Food Pantry; a block party raising funds for local causes; support for Ukrainian refugees; and lots more.

The Newtown Rotary Club meets every Wednesday at 12 p.m. at the Temperance House, 5 South State Street in Newtown.