Weekly Bulletin - July 23, 2015 Meeting

Posted by Richard Garcia 
on Jul 28, 2015
 
Karin Gaffney Receives Paul Harris +3 Fellowship Award from President Jim Stone
 
 
Guests
  • Kimberley Adams, All Girl Challenge
  • Iman Kiio, Winning Team Member, All Girl Challenge
  • Dan Kiio, Iman’s dad and driver
 
Announcements
  • Birthdays: Cyndi (today) and Ron (a week from today).
  • Left over from Jim’s inauguration as president, was an award for the start of the WPI Rotaract Club. As Club Advisor, Carl was given a Rotaract t-shirt.
  • Mary was recognized for her sponsorship of Donna McCullen as a member.
  • Rotary Foundation (Chris) “Every Rotarian every year” is our goal. Our club has received $60,000 in Foundation grants for our service projects. We would like to contribute back to the Foundation at least $25 for each member. Also, Karin was recognized as a Paul Harris +3, which she attained by automatic charges to her credit card. Finally, it was announced that there are expected to be less than 25 cases of polio in the world this year, thanks to the Rotary Foundation.
  • Spirit of Hudson Food and Brewfest: Members were asked to put up lawn signs in Stow and Lancaster for the August 15th event. The advertising brochure (printed by Action Unlimited—Thank you, Carol!) will be in the Hudson and Stow issues of the paper.
  • Ray announced the passing of John Balco, a member of Bolton Local and one of our corporate members.
 
Happy/sad fines
  • Bob: brochures for the Bolton Fair and Bolton Access TV are available.
  • Carl: happy to be back.
  • Carol: it was fun to put out the Brewfest brochure.
  • Mary: happyto have known Cyndi, who is moving to FL
  • Cyndi: her husband turned 70 in June, which they celebrated with a Viking River cruise; they met friends in Prague and Nuremberg and had a wonderful time together. For Cyndi’s birthday, her husband is buying her a Porsche Boxster GTS. They sold their house in May, before their move to Florida. She’s thankful for the Club, and for the fellowship she’s enjoyed, and she’s in awe of the people in this Club.
  • Ron: went to the Gardner Rotary Club to talk to the new Interact Advisor. Although it’s small, the Club is the home of two past district governors.
  • Chris: will be riding the Pan Mass Challenge, as he’s done for the past 27 years, and has raised $150,000 for the Jimmy Fund.
  • Kimberly: is happy to be here.
  • Ray: is sad about John’s passing, but happy to have enjoyed time with his grandkids.
  • Karin: sad that Cyndi is leaving and that her daughter is moving to Denver; but happy that the Ride for Liv went well on Sunday; she also is happy to have gone to the Montachusett Area club, where Nanci spoke about the Healing Garden.
  • Natascha: her daughter is starting her first professional job this week; and she’s glad that Cuba has opened its embassy.
  • Nanci: there’s only one day left to vote for the Healing Garden in Enterprise Bank’s “20 Weeks of Giving” contest for the “best non-profit.” Healing Garden is neck-and-neck with Fitchburg Access TV.
  • Jim: sad about Cyndi’s leaving and John’s passing; happy to have been at Woodman’s in Essex; and happy at the birth of Richard’s daughter’s twin babies and Fatima’s granddaughter.
 
Speaker
 
Our speaker, Iman Kiio, was from All Girl Challenge, a competition of middle school and high school girls to solve social problems using STEM (science, technology, engineering, math).
 
Iman , who is going into seventh grade, was a member of this year’s winning team. Their design was for the W-Pad, a tablet computer that can be used by persons in a wheelchair. It consists of two smaller tablets held in place by a tray table, which has magnets in the top that attach to magnets in the bottom of the tablets. The tray and the smaller tablets are stored easily on the sides of the wheelchair
 
The W-Pad includes voice controls, which can control appliances, phone calls, TV, the directionality of the wheelchair, and more. It also comes with a waterproof case and touch ID, which make it quite durable and secure.
 
They incorporated advice from experts and professionals, including those who are wheelchair-bound. The placement of the tray, the waterproof case, the touch ID system were all suggested refinements. They also thought about the most difficult things people have to do, then set out to solve them.
 
“We learned that what we think is easy in our everyday lives is harder for people in wheelchairs. People in wheelchairs make it seem easy to do these things, but it’s actually very difficult. If you put all of your effort into an idea, you can make a simple idea into something great.” (From Iman’s slides.)