LYNNFIELD — Thursday might not have been the best day in terms of weather, but inside the Four Points by Sheraton in Wakefield, it was a beautiful day.
At a meeting of the Lynnfield Rotary Club, community members and Rotarians alike gathered to hand out awards to some deserving recipients in Andrea Early and Christine Guido, both of whom received funds from the club. Early has spent six years working as a nurse while Guido has spent nearly 50 years in the profession.
The nurses each received $2,500 from a post-pandemic raffle. For Guido, these funds were especially needed. The veteran nurse said that with a family member going through a tough time, some of these funds will go towards helping them.
“This is actually coming in handy,” Guido said. “I have a dear loved one that is having some financial problems right now so I’m going to pass a good chunk of this along to her. This is like an unexpected blessing.”
Also in attendance was Harlee Priestley, who was the winner of the Rotary Club’s 2020 Lynnfield High School scholarship. Priestley didn’t get to attend the event last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and described Thursday as an amazing opportunity when she received the second installment of her scholarship.
Both of Priestley’s parents have been active Rotarians, so she said she has known about the club since she was a young kid. Priestley is studying horticulture science and business in college.
“(Horticulture science) kind of like botany, but more business related,” Priestly said. “I’m going in for plants and hopefully one day I’ll be able to own or run a nursery or something like that.”
As president of the Rotary Club, Jack Moynihan said that he was humbled to be able to hand out these awards.
“At the same time it’s humbling and rewarding,” he said. “It was the reason that I joined the Rotary (Club), because of what they do. Their whole motto is “service above self,” and that’s what we do.”
