President-Kris David presided over the meeting.
Emily Bernstein led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Inspiration
Past President Don Saracen gave the Inspiration. Don was pleased that President Kris Davis held a strategic planning meeting and gave a few examples of our many community projects and members who led them. Our club has a unique blend of members with a wide variety of backgrounds, professional experience, and expertise coming together for a common local good.
Some examples are: Past President Mo Gaebe who bought a small business school and turned it into an internationally respected Johnson and Wales University. Cy Wyche, a long time member, Paul Harris Fellow, and Stockbroker, flew 44 Combat missions during WWII and was awarded Distinguished Flying Cross. Our first female President Elaine Carroll, President of Katherine Gibbs School for Young Women and Editor of Glamour Magazine in New York City, was the first woman to chair our Charities Foundation.
Current Board members Cap Willey and PJ Fox are third generation members.
Guests
We had Gabby Bello from Family Service of RI. She will be taking Steve Hug’s membership with Providence Rotary; Marcus Mitchell, past member of our club; and Melissa Ricou, a Rotarian from Louisiana.
Members on zoom
Mary Cullen, Lew Hassel, Cap Willey, Steve Hug, Ben Hadsell, Troylynda Williams, and Art Norwalk.
Announcements
Get well wishes go out to Nondas Voll, who is in Hospice Care at Wingate; and Bob Huseby, who is in Memory Care in Dedham, Ma.
President Kris announced upcoming President-Elect training on Feb 10th, Rotary Leader Institute on March 23rd, and Providence Bruins Game on March 24th at $22 per person for Polio Plus.
The Gold Bowls donations go to our Rotary Charities Foundation to benefit local organizations.
Thank you to Art Norwalk for organizing volunteers to putting labels on 500 books for the vending machine at George J West Elementary School.
Past President Randy Dittmar will be moving to Georgia to be near his family there. Randy has served as the Treasurer for many years for our Charities Foundation. His replacement will be announced soon. The Gala letters for donations will be sent out shortly.
Rotary Day of Service will be May 18th. Kris mentioned that we will be working with Cranston and North Providence Clubs for an environmental project for shredding documents. She is looking for volunteers.
Happy Bucks
(Kris set up “Super Bowl” for Kansas City or San Francisco)
- Peter Brock gave 10 Happy Bucks because he woke up and was Happy. Some people think that happiness is an entitlement, but Pete believes Happiness is a decision!
- Michael Durand is happy because he has occasional senior moments like many of us. He was listening to his favorite Smartless Podcast with Paul McCartney as a guest and was asked if he loses track when he is singing. He said that he has help from a teleprompter, but one time when he was singing Eleanor Rigby, he was thinking about how hungry he was and what he was having dinner that night.
- Jane Berkowitz gave a Happy Buck in honor of our speaker, Paige Clausius-Parks from RI Kids Count.
- Past President, Mike Kelly gave a Happy Buck because he is proud of his grandson who plays goalie at La Salle Academy and got his third shut out against the number one team at Prout.
- PJ Fox gave 5 Happy Bucks for our speaker, Paige Clausius-Parks today. He was looking forward to her talk.
- Kris David gave a Happy Buck for Joni Mitchell’s wonderful performance the The Grammy’s as a polio survivor. Another Happy buck is for her husband, Bill for his first day of driving from his garage to the mailbox and back.
- Past President Art Norwalk gave a Happy Buck for the volunteers who are helping put the Providence Rotary labels on books at George J. West Elementary School on Tuesday afternoon.
Speaker
Jane Berkowitz introduced our speaker, Paige Clausius-Parks, executive Director of RI Kids Count, a statewide children’s policy and advocacy organization that works to improve the health, safety, education, economic well-being and development of Rhode Island’s children, with commitment to equity and the elimination of unacceptable disparities of race, ethnicity, zip code, immigration status, disabilities, neighborhood, and income.
Paige has an impressive resume with Batchelor of Arts from Providence College, Master of education from Harvard, and RI Education Certification in Secondary Social Studies and Teacher/Advisor for Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center in Providence. She has a family Rotarian history. Her mother was a Rotarian in Newtown, CT who inspired her to become the founder and President of the Interact Club, a high school branch of the Rotary Club at Trumbull High School from 1996-1999. She also was former Director of Books are Wings. Paige brought with copies of the annual report, 2023 Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Factbook. It is a national model. The next Factbook will be released on May 6, 2024.
This is RI Kids Count 30th Anniversary. They have a laser focus of their mission to improve the lives of children throughout our state. They provide a comprehensive clearing house of data information for their advocacy and policy makers. There is good data on health insurance for 98% of our children. They also work with the media with the release of important data to help with the well-being of our children.
Tent Suppers
Mary Brewster, who is coordinating the Tent Suppers, sent the following update.
The Tent Suppers have begun! Holly and Bill Applegate gave the first one on Saturday night this weekend. The money for these events will support a clean water project in Ghana.
We still have single openings available at the suppers on the 23rd in Narragansett and the 24th in Lincoln, and it would be great to fill those slots.
In addition, we have 2 new suppers to fill in Providence on March 8th, and in Barrington on March 21st.
So, if you have been traveling and will be back then, this is for you! Please email Mary Brewster if you are interested.
