The Inspiration was given by Holly Applegate.
“My Fellow Rotarians you have this power - the power to use language to share your ideas, to touch hearts, and to bring about change in the world. As Rotarians we have the power to speak and share, to explain and educate, to inspire and influence. It is our responsibility to share our talents and ideas and to find meaning in other people’s messages. May we use our skills to provide service to others less fortunate and help them to be self sustaining. May we continue to grow as Rotarians so that we stand in our community as a symbol of those willing to freely put service above self and make our community and the world a better place to live."
Announcements
Pete Brock advised he narrowly missed a serious accident last week as he drove from his New Hampshire residence to RI College to attend a meeting when his brakes totally failed as he pulled into the parking lot. All ended well as AAA promptly responded and his policy covered the long tow to Topsfield, MA for repair.
Pete expressed the gratitude of the Club to
Anthony Hollingshead for leading the Membership Committee to the great achievement of recruiting 15 new members in the past year.
Jane Berkowitz advised that the meeting on Wednesday at 4:30 at Books On The Square to package books for delivery to Kizirian and West Schools needs some more volunteers to help as several who were coming are now unable to.
Happy Bucks
- Liz Messier is happy that her daughter, Katie, is recovered from her injuries and has begun a new job as Vice President for Development at The YMCA in Pawtucket.
- Anthony Hollingshead for a week of vacation in Florida where he visited with former Club member Connie Donnelly.
- Mary Brewster $5 happy reflecting on the great service to the community by Club member Marion Avarista who is no longer able to attend meetings but still hosts the Book Club. Marion had many contributions to community service, most notably as a leader in The Travelers Aid Youth and Homeless Services and holding leadership posts at Crossroads RI.
- Holly Applegate $5 happy to complete many weeks of rehearsal for the play Into The Woods for performance at Barker Playhouse.
- Bill Applegate also $5 happy for Holly’s completion of rehearsal.
- Kevin Oates happy to be back at Providence Rotary after Florida vacation.
- Pete Brock $10 happy for waking up today and deciding to be happy.
Speaker
The speaker for the day was Matt Weldon, Director of The Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training (DLT). Mr. Weldon has served in several branches of State Government for 25 years and has been Director of DLT since 2021.
The DLT has a variety of responsibilities including workforce development, temporary income support, and workforce protection offers job training services and educational services. It protects the workforce by enforcing labor laws, prevailing wage rates and workplace health and safety standards. A particularly successful DLT Program has been “Real Jobs RI”. Prior to this program, a lot of the job training given was not geared to actual jobs available. Real Jobs RI is a business led workforce development initiative which involves work-based learning, and, hence, results in large amount of the training leading directly to actual employment.
Weldon pointed out that the 2024 unemployment rate for RI was 2.6 %, the lowest in RI history. Recent significant employment increases have been in Hospitality and Construction. A recent trend in employment statistics of concern is that the percentage of young people in the workforce has been significantly declining - from 58% in 2014 to 38% in 2024. Another current concern of DLT is connected to its administration of Unemployment Insurance which is totally funded by the Federal Government, which has not provided adequate funding for current needs.
Apologies to members on Zoom last meeting. We are working to fix the issue.
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