Weekly Bulletin - April 20th Meeting
Posted by Leigh Carpenter on May 01, 2017
Sophie Wadsworth, Executive Director of The Nature Connection,
Introduces Video, Funded by Rotary District Grant
Guests and Visiting Rotarians:
- Steve Jones-D'Agostino, Auburn Club
- Gino Frattiloni, Littleton Club
- Mike Sullivan, Speaker
- Sophie Wadsworth, Guest
Announcements:
- Rich is doing well!
- Ray provided update on Razia Jan fundraising efforts – in review stage and expecting it to be approved by end June
- Incoming Board was approved by a Club vote (Chris moved to accept nominations/Ron seconded):
- Mary, President
- Jacky, President Elect
- Leigh, Secretary
- Leigh, President Elect Nominee 2019
- Ron, Executive Secretary/Treasurer
- Howard, Assistant Treasurer
- Chris, Immediate Past President
- Laura, Past President
- Bob & Nanci, At-large
Upcoming events:
- Friday, 4/21 Sock Hop for W. Boylston Club
- Bolton clean up on Saturday, 4/22. Leave trash bags at the end of your driveway to be picked up. On Sunday, a volunteer group helps clean up by liquor store off of 117
- Wine Tasting: Thursday 4/27, 6-8pm. Unsold tickets and money due to Carol ASAP
- Volunteers still needed to help at the door
- Reminder that our club gets 50% of sales from tickets we sell
- Reality Fair 4/28, 7:30-11am
- Jacky saw an article in the Bolton newspaper calling for volunteers
- 5 more volunteers needed (contact Laura)
- Saturday, 4/29 is Stow cleanup day; free bags & gloves will be available at the common
- Repair Cafes:
- Saturday, 4/22 from 9-12 at Stow's new community center. The Christian Science Monitor will be coming to do a story
- MIT Fix It Fair is also on 4/22 (Ray attending). Difference between our Repair Café is students encourage people to fix items on their own with some guidance
- Bolton Repair Café on 5/20
- District Conference in Providence on 4/28-30
- Bike workshop on 5/11 7:30-8:30am (contact Ray to volunteer)
- Springfest 5/13 (parking and traffic volunteers requested)
- Paper shredding hosted by Boy Scouts @ Hale Middle School on 5/13 from 9a-12p
- Million Dollar Dinner: Thursday, May 25, Worcester to celebrate centennial of The Rotary Foundation. Register at Rotary7910.org. $75/ticket.
- Guest Table Community, Friday, June 2 - volunteers needed 6-8pm (6/1 meeting cancelled)
- Discussed possible clean up days in community for seniors/disabled. Other ideas let Chris or Mary know.
Happy/Sad Fines:
- Leigh – happy/sad that police caught the man from Princeton
- Howard – going to England with Ellen
- Jacky – had a wonderful Easter, loves the weather but sad rain on the way
- Nanci – had a nice Easter with 50 friends & glad to have a full meeting this morning
- Ron – will be at a workshop in Denver next week, daughter starting to look at colleges
- Catherine – happy her son was home, went out on the boat. Also happy to hear about all the great work the club is doing
- Chief – announced Domestic Violence event on 5/8 & Run For the Woods 5k
- Gino – happy to be here with so many people, we need more chairs now
- Katie – looking forward to bringing RFK to our club, building will be under renovation starting in June
- Fatima – happy to have seen friends and family in Brazil and happy to be back home with Richard
- Richard – happy Fatima is back, looking forward to having seen/seeing both sets of grandkids
- Bob – took care of 18-month old granddaughter over the weekend
- Glen – enjoyed Easter with 30 people
- Ray – happy Rich is back & enjoyed having all 6 grandkids together at the same time
- Rich – happy to be here & see buds on the trees
- Mike – guest speaker, thanks for inviting me to the meeting
- Carl – happy his friend Steve is with us from Auburn & blessings for both daughters who will be at University of Delaware together next year
- Steve – guest from Auburn Club, shared that they are dedicating a horse in honor of Officer Tarentino who was killed last year. Dedication on 5/6
- Mary – grateful to have Rich back home, enjoying the week off and looking forward to retiring in 4-5 weeks
- Chris – enjoyed biking on his last trip
Speaker:
Mike Sullivan from Shoot Out For Soldiers:
- Lacrosse: in 2012 a group kids in Baltimore played 24 hours straight to raise money for charity. Now has expanded to 12 cities and has raised over $1million for wounded veterans. Started in Boston in 2015
- June 23-24, 2017 at UMASS Lowell
- How it works: ask lacrosse teams to come out & play – like to start out with veterans team. Last year 3 Vietnam combat veterans played (one even brought his old helmet & wooden stick!)
- Goalie lost his left leg in Afghanistan; played with prostatic limb & is fantastic!
- After veterans game, they play lacrosse for 23 consecutive hours!
- 76 teams in a perfect world, 1-hour games
- Started in Harvard and moved to UMass Lowell last year
- Teams come from all over New England
- One team played 4 hours straight and raised $10,000!
- Showed video clip
- Don’t keep score for each game, add total to blue/red (at end of 24 hours last year, they had a 174-174 tie!). It’s about having fun and connecting veterans with the community through the game of lacrosse
- Ask team of 20 to raise $750; everything done online. They are also collect sponsorships from businesses
- 98.5 FM will be at the event this year and will help recruit groups
- Mission is to use Lacrosse as a platform to support American veterans (active duty too)
- Right now data shows 22 million veterans, 400,000 have PTSD, 200,000 are homeless & 20-22 suicides a day
- This event is a way to address that problem and to find a way to reintegrate veterans back into the community, using social media to spread the word
- Supports 4 charities: Gary Sinise Foundation, Team Red White & Blue, Semper 5 Fund & Army Rangers Lead the Way Fund. Then they support two local ones. In MA they choose Fallen Heros & Operation Delta Dog
- Last year, it cost only $1500 to run the event (UMass Lowell donates field & lights!)
- Boston Cannons, MA professional team, will be at the event
- Tufts is also a part of it and will do free clinic to the youth team who raises the most money, as is UMass Lowell
- Live music, charities will be there for people to learn about their missions and for families to get assistance, etc.
- Needs help getting the word out! Heavy on older adults & light on youth teams
- Bedford & Concord Carlisle High Schools committed
- Several of us offered to make connections at area schools
- Volunteers do everything from trash to physical therapists!