Anthony Hollingshead gave the inspiration.
In recognition of Martin Luther King Day, Anthony shared Martin Luther King’s famous quote: “Join with the Earth and each other, to bring new life to the land, to restore the waters, to refresh the air, to renew the forests, to care for the plants, to protect the creatures, to celebrate the seas, to rejoice in the sunlight, to sing the song of the stars, to recall our destiny, to renew our spirits, to reinvigorate our bodies, to recreate the human community, to promote justice and peace, to love our children and love one another, to join together as many and diverse expressions of one loving mystery, for the healing of the Earth and the renewal of all life.”
Guests
Wendy Marcus has three guests, Alan Barry Goer, Sofia from the Harry Kizirian School, and Sayda, her mom.
Announcements
Paul Harris Fellow
President Holy Applegate said she was very honored to award Past President Randy Dittmar a Paul Harris Fellow Plus 3. Randy was not able to be with us today as he is at home recovering from a recent illness. We wish him well and look forward to his return.
She also asked us to send best wishes for a speedy recovery go to Paul Segal as well, who just came home from Miriam Hospital. Get well soon, Paul!
Rotary International Birthday
On February 22nd we will be having an exciting meeting where we will be celebrating Rotary International’s birthday. Save the date, more info to come.
Rotary Little Library Project
Following today’s meeting at the Brown Street Park behind Hope High School, the Little Library Project was dedicated. In addition to Rotary members, representatives of the Brown Street Park Association, the Providence Dept. of Parks and Recreation and Rec Centers and Streetscapes were in attendance. Thank you to Art Norwalk for sending a press release about the project and the dedication. Thank you to Wendy Marcus for spearheading this project.
The Providence Bruins and PC Fryers events – Anthony Landi
The District is running the Providence Bruins event on February 11th at 7pm. Tickets are $20 of which $5 comes back to the Rotary for our fight against Polio. To purchase tickets, contact Matt Long at 401-680-4753. Tell Matt you are wanting to join the Rotary District Event.
On February 23
rd at 7PM at the Dunk, the Providence Rotary is sponsoring approximately 40 seventh and eighth graders from San Miguel school and chaperones to see a PC Fryers game. We need to raise $600 to cover the costs. Rotarians can do this by covering the cost of a ticket (s). Each ticket is $15. Rotarians are encouraged to attend. Donation checks should be made out to the Providence Rotary. Please email Anthony Landi directly for tickets. A link for tickets is on the Providence Rotary
website as well.
Happy Bucks lead by Margaret Kane
- Margaret Kane gave $5 to find out who left the door open in Canada making us so cold!
- Jim Gilcreast gave $1 because he’s happy and another because he has been elected to the Board of Directors for the Special Olympics of RI which is a cause very close to his heart.
- Wendy Marcus gave three happy bucks, one for the love of her life, Alan, who joined her today at Rotary and the other for her guests Sofia and Sayda.
- Anthony Landi gave two happy bucks, one because he’s happy that John McGinn has rejoined as a “friend” to Rotary and the other because his son Anthony was accepted early admission to Bentley College.
- Sofia gave a happy buck because she was happy to be here!
- Cap Willey gave a happy buck for his sister that lives in Montana who gave the tip that when the weather gets into the single digits put a towel on your doorknob before you open it!
Speakers – Wendy Marcus, Sofia(a pen pal), Matthew Buckley and Audrey Bright from Inspiring Minds
Today Wendy spoke about her experience with the Pen Pal program sponsored by Inspiring Minds in conjunction with the Harry Kizirian School. Two years ago Wendy volunteered to be a pen pal and was matched with a young first grader named Sofia. Sofia, in attendance at our meeting today, is now a third grader and they have been corresponding all this time. Letters were exchanged over the past few years at least monthly and Wendy stated that she has proudly watched her grow through the letters, stories and artwork shared as pen pals. For Wendy, participating in the pen pal program has been one of the greatest joys of her life.
Together, they have become authors – they have compiled the letters and artwork into a hardcover book which Sofia entitled, Princess Sofia, Queen Wendy and Their Adventures. A copy was circulated among Rotarians during lunch. She and Wendy are now working on Volume 2!
Wendy shared with us the last letter she wrote to Sofia on Christmas morning. Among other things, she shared that she did not celebrate Christmas, but Hanukkah, and explained the traditions that she and Alan share during the holiday, including the eight days of gifts!
Sofia then read her letter back to Wendy to the club. She shared her experience of getting her first covid vaccine, and asked Wendy had she ever had a burger at Burger King? Wendy surprised her today with a gift certificate to Wendy's! Which is better, Burger King or Wendy’s, is up for further discussion in letters to come!
Wendy concluded by stating that although she and Sofia are undoubtably the best pen pals in the world, they would like to challenge each Rotarian to surpass them by signing up with Inspiring Minds to be a pen pal.
Wendy then introduced Matthew Buckley and Audrey Bright from
Inspiring Minds to talk more about the program. They described the Pen Pal program as a perfect example of what Inspiring Minds is all about – building trusting relationships.
The program involves being matched with a student and corresponding with them once or twice a month. What to write about? What is meaningful to you – which will help to expand the child’s mind with a whole new experience.
They are hoping that more Rotarians will volunteer so that an entire classroom can have a pen pal and a positive role model. If you are interested, reach out to Mary Brewster who is our Rotarian coordinating this project. A perfect project for our snowbirds!
Pictures from the Little Library Installation
More information is on our
website.
