INSPIRATION
Steve Hug gave a spirited ad lib, quoting Groucho Marx: Why should I care about future generations? What have they done for me? A native American Proverb: We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. Also funny quotes from the Three Stooges like “I once shot an elephant in my pajamas (but don’t know how he got there)!!”
ANNOUNCEMENTS, Etc.
President Anthony Hollingshead welcomed all of our guests today. He thanked Rob Black and Jim Gilcreast for checking everyone in. He also thanked greeters Priya Banerjee and Patricia Ogera and welcomed Margaret Kane back!!
Another enjoyable and successful Paint-off last Friday, with more than 60 members and friends enjoying food and wine as they watched the artists work. Live and silent auctions, plus corporate sponsorships, raised thousands for the Providence Rotary Charities Foundation.
Sergeant at Arms Parker Smith introduced Visiting Rotarian Ed McDonough, Past-President of the Warwick Club, who is now an Assistant Governor, replacing Richard Applebaum who has served for 3 years.
Wendy Marcus, chair of the Environmental Committee, gave an Earth Day presentation, beginning by asking everyone to sing: We got the whole world in our hands!!! We raised our glasses of clean, pure water to toast our world, our earth, our planet. Wendy has initiated our yearly litter pick up!! She has collection bags available and asked us to take photos of us collecting full bags of litter!!
President Anthony talked about the upcoming Multi-District Conference later this week in Providence with a wonderful opportunity to meet and hear Rotary International President John Germ. There are 15 members signed up for the Friday night dinner.
There is a Million Dollar Meal on May 15, 2017 at the RIPBS studios.
Providence Rotary is now on Twitter, thanks to new member James Scott. Follow us & share @PVDRotary
HAPPY BUCKS
Peter Brock did the honors starting with three of his own: one for the return of Margaret Kane, one for Easter and Passover celebrations and one for the end of Lent and Jack Daniels’ return.
Jan Feyler gave $20 Happy Bucks for her recent trip to Italy.
Sharon Garland gave a Happy Buck for Geoff who has worked so hard on the Paint Off.
Cy Wyche gave a Happy buck because he is happy.
Priya Banerjee is happy that she is staying at her job in Providence. She has a job opportunity in New Orleans that she declined.
Kris David gave a Happy Buck because of an Ellis Island Medal of Honor awarded to her father.
Mary Cullen gave a Happy buck for her return to RI from her time in Jupiter, Florida.
Jane Kratsch gave a buck because she is happy, too!
Richard Applebaum gave 5 Happy Bucks because of a wonderful weekend in Albany, NY with his life partner, Hillary. Also as a plea to all to support the Paint off and the upcoming District Conference.
Bill David gave a happy buck only because Kris took all this money for her hair appointment.
Margaret Kane gave 50 bucks because she is glad to be back and to let us know that she is not going to run in the Boston Marathon.
Don Saracen gave 24 Happy bucks to celebrate with Assistant Governor, Ed McDonough who joined the Providence Rotary at the same time, 24 years ago. Also Don was happy that his grandson, Jack is one of the lead actors in a new movie with Ed Asner.
Anthony Hollingshead gave 4 Happy bucks for Ed McDonough here as a visiting Rotarian, for Priya for staying in RI, for not getting into another car accident and for a front row seat at an Olivia Newton-John concert.
Paul Borrelli brought a flag from the Rotary Club in his snowbird hideaway of Bonita Springs, Florida.
SUSTAINABLE METHODS OF
COPING WITH URBAN STORM WATER
Wendy Marcus introduced our speaker, Colgate Searle, Jr., an educator, practitioner, designer and mentor. He has been in the Landscape Architectural Profession for 40 years as principal of Searle Design Group LLC, a member of the American Society of Landscape architects and a Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design. He has an undergraduate degree from RISD and a master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from Harvard.
His talk was about “urban stormwater” infrastructure with enhanced ecological functioning to serve as a civic asset rather than an environmental liability to cope with rising sea levels, intensity of storms with increased frequency. He talked about the environmental impact of hard engineering versus soft engineering. How do we marry hard and soft engineering?
He helped design and build a RISD Rain Garden. He also was involved in projects in Seattle, Washington and Portland, OR.
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