Meeting of July 18, 2019
Announcements:
On July 20th is the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the new police station. We will be there as part of the dedication presentation.
The global grant in Bulgaria has finally gotten off the ground. We have committed to supporting this project, which will provide them with a much-needed neonatal clinic, and will be donating $1000 towards the project valued at almost $100,000. Lots of other clubs are also helping.
The Healthy Children Brighter Futures project in Zambia for which we raised funds through our last Geography Quiz Night is turning into another global grant and we will be taking the lead in that one. Lonny Hackett, the young man who was inspired to create this program, will be speaking to our club at the August 1 meeting to update us about this project which trains teachers to also be health service providers.
We are still trying to organize an electronics recycling fundraiser. President Jeremy is determined to get one going this year.
We will be hosting a much-needed Red Cross blood drive in the September/October time frame.
Club members Lena Ugren and Brandon Elsemore have begun to plan increasing our social media presence.
We hope to improve signage about Rotary for those driving through town.
The new District Governor will be at our club August 15th.
We netted almost $1500 for scholarships from the lobster rolls sales at Strawberry Festival.
Speaker
Robin Wheeler invited her sister, who is visiting from Arizona, to be our speaker of the day. Kelly Emmet's professional journey began in the corporate world, but then kids came along and motherhood led her to refocus and consider where her passions and skills could be used best. She worked part-time in a pre-school and discovered she wanted to become an elementary school teacher. She went back to school while also raising a family where her husband worked in a career that required a lot of travel. But super-mom Kelly, a mother of twins, learned of a scholarship available to mothers of twins and was granted that scholarship and graduated from a degree program in education at the top of her class. She landed a position teaching 4th graders in a fantastic elementary school and has been a teacher for 6 years now. She recounted the various challenges she has encountered in this school so close to the Mexican border. The student population is extremely diverse and includes ELL's (English Language Learners), students with various special needs, families that are dysfunctional, and not enough communication about her students coming from school administration and/or family members. Nevertheless, she connects with each and every student, showers them with attention and affection and encouragement, and the result is that her students surpass all expectations. This past year her class of supposed underachievers earned the highest test scores in the region and maybe the state, and mainly because of having a teacher who truly cares about them. In her view, in the long run, students will not remember the specific lessons a teacher taught them, but, rather, how that teacher made them feel. We are so grateful for gifted teachers like Kelly who understand that the children are our future.