Weekly Bulletin - October 8, 2015 Meeting

Posted by Richard Garcia 
on Oct 25, 2015
 
"Gunner" Mann speaks about the Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps Program at Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School
 
 
Guests:
  • Jody Marchand, prospective member
  • Randall “Gunner” Mann, speaker
 
Announcements:
  • The next Repair Café will be held at the First Parish in Bolton, October 17.
  • The inaugural Wine Appreciation Fellowship will be held on October 21; see the district web site for details (www.rotary7910.org).
  • Purple Pinkie Day:  Rich sent to Jackie the letter for the bank and the template for the labels. Our club is one of the leading clubs in the district for fundraising to end polio.
  • The Masquerade Ball sponsored by Acton-Boxborough and Littleton clubs is coming up on November 7. The theme is The Roaring 20s.
  • On November 12 we are having a joint meeting, with the WPI Rotaract club; also invited are the Worcester and Marlborough clubs and the Marlborough Rotaract club.
  • Next Wednesday (Oct. 14) is the District membership forum.
  • October birthdays: Rich (October 12), Chris (October 31).
  • Cyndi King has relocated to a club in Florida, but was still on our mailing list; she sent a nice response to our last invitation.
  • The first ever Interact Advisor Training Seminar will be held on November 16; see the District web site for details.
  • The Marlborough club will be holding an electronics recycling day on October 17.
  • Razia Jan, Duxbury Rotarian, CNN Hero, Founder of Razia’s Ray of Hope will be presenting two times in District 7910 in  October. The Rotary Club of Concord is hosting her event on October 28th at the Nashoba Brooks School in Concord and the Rotary Club of Weston-Wayland is hosting her event on October 29th at the Wellesley Middle School. Both events are FREE – and both of these events offer a special opportunity to invite a non-Rotarian to a free event to be inspired by how one person in Rotary truly can change the lives of so many people.
 
Happy/sad fines:
  • Ron: has taken a position as a financial planner with New York Life.
  • Jody: The Live for Liv event (organized by Karin) was successful.
  • Laura: has served her first stint as a Bandey-Heffler host; and tomorrow is leaving for Savannah to pick up Chris, after his cross-country bike ride.
  • Carol: glad that there are only two countries where polio exists; and happy that she has new teeth, and that her cast has been cut.
  • Mary: her Bandey-Heffler guests are coming tomorrow.
  • Nancy: sad that her husband is in California; and happy that her husband is in California.
  • Jim: happy that this is opening night for the Bruins.
 
Program:
 
Randall "Gunner" Mann spoke about the Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (MCJROTC) at Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School. MCJROTC is a rewarding program for students run during the regular academic schedule. The program’s focus is reflected in its mission statement, “To motivate young people to be better citizens.” It prepares high school students for responsible leadership roles while making them aware of their rights, responsibilities, and privileges as American citizens.
 
This is a year-long program, not a single class. There’s no expectation that the students will join the marines. The only requirements are interest in service, community involvement, and patriotism. As a service organization, students volunteer their time for service projects in the communities. Most students devote 4 hours or so to service; one girl, however, gave 172 hours.
 
The program also has 11 competition teams that compete on a national level. One is academic; students are taught to stand up proudly and answer questions confidently. Another is cyber security. All the top companies are at the competition; they meet the kids, who get career ideas. The winning team gets a $25,000 scholarship. And there’s a physical fitness competition. One event is to build a bridge across an obstacle, cross it, and take it down. Assabet’s team did their first practice bridge in 40 minutes; the last one took 9 minutes; they expect to have it down to slightly over 6 minutes by the time of the competition. This year, there’s also a marching band competition.
 
The MCJROTC program is the largest organization at the high school, with 120 students taking part. A parents’ auxiliary provides support, logistics, money, transportation, and chaperones.
 
Being a technical high school, the students have a lot of talents that they can donate to the community—plumbing, painting, woodworking, for the Hudson senior center, for an organization in Worcester, for anyone who needs help.