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!