Visiting Rotarian
Per Jannersten
Uppsala Glunten, Sweden
Officers & Directors
President
Paul R. Borrelli
President-elect
Michael E. Kelly
1st Vice President
Anthony Hollingshead
Secretary
Elizabeth R. Messier
Recording Secretary &
Newsletter Editor
Arthur D. Norwalk
Treasurer
Richard A. Kaplan
Asst. Treasurer
Peter M. Loescher
Sergeant-at-arms
Kevin M. Oates
Past President
Jenny Miller
President, Rotary International
Gary C. K. Huang
Governor, District 7950
Valerie Perry
Directors
to June 30, 2015:
Paula M. Jacobson
Gary S. Kaufman
Wendy S. Marcus
Marcus Mitchell
Nondas Hurst Voll
to June 30, 2016:
Marion F. Avarista
T. Bryan Cook
Kimberly C. Hadsell
Benjamin Longtin
Wascar F. Montilla
Executive Administrator
Jeremiah H. Cannon
INSPIRATION
Marion Avarista quoted from a Grenville Kleiser inspiration including: "Today is the day in which to...use your God-given abilities for the enrichment of some less fortunate fellow traveler. Today you can make your life significant and worthwhile."
ANNOUNCEMENTS/REMINDERS
Walter Adamowicz invited Committee members to arrive at 11:30 Monday in preparation for the Sophia/San Miguel Holiday Party.
John Folan is heading up the Coat Drive and will be collecting coats through December.
John is also scheduling bell ringers for the Salvation Army.
Bill DiBiasio asked members to consider giving to the club's Foundation and the Rotary International Foundation. Funds that are donated to International during the period are returned to our district in greater ratio than normal.
Randy Dittmar said he had approximately ½ the needed volunteers to distribute the dictionaries, but needs 13 more.
Barbara Harris said the club’s Paint Off will be combined with a high-end Wine Tasting and on April 30 at Providence Picture Frame. She indicated that the event committee can use more help.
Today’s program was presented by Peter J. Thornton and Jean Ciborowski Fahey PhD, Illustrator and Author of the book “Make Time for Reading”. Jean is an accomplished author and in 2014 was selected as the Massachusetts Literacy Champion. The picture book was written to help parents and people who work with parents prepare babies and young children for reading and school success.
Peter began the program by explaining how he and Jean Collaborated on the creation of the book. Although they both felt it was a special book and did not fit into the normal niche of children’s books, publishers were not willing to support the book. Believing strongly in the project, Jean started a campaign to raise funds and self-funded the project which took 10 years to develop a year to publish.
Jean explained her passion for the book and shared interesting statistics as to the importance of exposing children to books and reading at the earliest age because:
66% of third graders are not reading to grade level nationwide.
From birth to two years of age, the brain triples its weight.
By age three, a child’s brain grows to 85% in size
The book is meeting with great success as evidenced by the fact that the Women and Infants Hospital has purchased 1000 books and another Boston Hospital has purchased 7000 copies which are often given to parents at no cost.
Happy Bucks
George Burman arrived at the Marriott by dogsled, demonstrating that Canadians are tougher than Americans.
Paul Borrelli, Jim Williams, Paul Segal and likely a few other snowbirds proved George's point by staying in FL.
Phil Gossel was happy that Brown students were enjoying year-round outdoor tennis.
Mary Brewster said her roof load calculations were all checking out better than the one at Brown.
Bill Sequino was thrilled not to be running a municipality anymore.
Jim Gilcreast said not a flake of snow dared to fall on the Boston College campus.
Jean Patiky did a lovely watercolor called Snow Day (really).
Anthony Hollingshead was happy to have an extra week of preparation for his debut as presiding officer.
Richard Leone said the city was doing a bang-up job for his business.
Jan Feyler is wondering if it's safe to come home next week.
And finally, Liz said she's never seen anything Messier (all groan).
Rotary Club of Providence, 27 Dryden Lane, Providence, RI 02904
Today’s program was presented by Peter J. Thornton and Jean Ciborowski Fahey PhD, Illustrator and Author of the book “Make Time for Reading”. Jean is an accomplished author and in 2014 was selected as the Massachusetts Literacy Champion. The picture book was written to help parents and people who work with parents prepare babies and young children for reading and school success.
