Weekly Bulletin - February 22nd Meeting (Mar 08, 2018)

Opening remarks from the President

Mary toasted to our Clubs 6^th birthday and accomplishments: 5 global Grants, District Grants, for ending Polio, for supporting seniors, high school students & veterans. To many more years!

Happy/Sad

Mary couldn’t be happier to be a part of our Club
Sarlah is looking forward to Spring & happy that case management program is starting March 1^st
Rich is happy for yesterday’s weather, sad for today’s weather. Overall very proud of our Club not in a selfish way but for all the people around the world we are assisting in Malawi, Afghanistan, Dominica Republic, Puerto Rico, Kenya and closer to home
Karin happy for 6 amazing years
Carl proud as well
Steve is sad just came home from Costa Rica and there’s cold weather
Chris shared that Laura is at the Ayer Club, happy to have biked 15 miles yesterday and could ski today
Dana looking forward to ski tomorrow
Carol sad it was 35 degrees colder but also proud of Mary who checked in on Zone Conference and cheered her on! Proud of how many from our District attended.
Jacky had a chuckle at kids learning to ski at Wachusett with so little snow
Bob happy for 5 Global Grants, had no idea that we would become one of the most outstanding clubs in the country. We are small but might. Very proud!
Nanci happy for our 6^th birthday and excited to see daughter in Philadelphia
Don happy birthday – shared that he tried to confirm a meeting in Westfield, got dressed up, drove out there but had the wrong meeting date!
Ray happy birthday to our Club, happy there was an article in Boston Globe about Razia’s Ray of Hope

Updates

District Grant change: Jacky shared that proposals must now be in by June 1^st but rough draft needs to be in by March 10^th. Grants are now not limited to 1/year and no longer limited to $1,500. Criteria will be changing slightly with the biggest change is that grants are no longer sent on a rolling basis but at the same time - decisions based on best use of funds. Examples from the past include videos for Healing Garden, Nature Connection & Cultivate Care build. Please share ideas with Jacky as soon as possible (ideas submitted so far include RFK School and Habitat For Humanity).
To continue tradition of Global Grants every year, please share ideas with Mary. All ideas from all members are welcome
Dogs2Vets (April 29^th, 11am-3pm): Energy is great! Lots of activities planned (disc throwing, obstacle courses, and more). Radio stations are looking for six, $10,000 sponsors for us. Volunteer lists being put together now to fill in, maybe Interact, Lions and Boy Scouts could help.
Service Day (Saturday, February 24^th): some members are participating in Habitat For Humanity Dedication in Fitchburg and others going to Watertown Boys & Girls Club and can choose between 6 projects. May 12^th will be a Service Day in Framingham
Pizza Night Membership Recruitment (March 6^th) at Slaters.
Reality Fair (April 6^th) is a great tradition of ours. Chris passed around a sign up sheet.
Red Sox Opening Day (April 5^th) is another fun day for us to watch the game & have a cookout with senior citizens in Stow
Carl shared work happening in Worcester for urban planning with help from professionals on how to define space that he is involved. The concept is being moved into neighborhoods – cleaning up the land, replace a barrier wall with more appropriate elements, and a community garden. One other main aspect is putting a neighbor-to-neighbor support system to support one another. Interested in helping? Contact Carl or Steve for more details
Applications for RYLA are being accepted now (a total of 3 available). If you know a sophomore please get them an application, we don’t want anyone to say “I didn’t know about that.” See Bob for details.
Ray share that Repair Café is looking for facilitators to help Stow, who has already run a few, and Lancaster who has expressed interest.

Guest Speaker - Jerry Caruso, Comedian
Need some laughs? Watch Jerry Caruso starting around 42 minutes into the video. https://www.facebook.com/NashobaRotary/videos/1587219441367451/