Anxhela Elezai said the finals of The French Open Tennis Tournament last week provided an inspiration relevant to us as Rotarians. The two finalists - Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner - engaged in an epic battle that was more than a display of physical power or strength but was a masterpiece of resilience, sportsmanship and mental strength.

 

Watching this exhibition brought to her mind thoughts of Rotary members. Like these athletes, we too are in a long match in our communities. We face setbacks and we often serve without seeing the results, but like Alcarez and Sinner we keep showing up to fight for something larger than ourselves.

 

Rotary is about service above self and staying committed when the work is hard and the wins don’t come easy. This inspiring tennis match isn’t about excellence but persistence and lifting others up as we strive to win. Just as Sinner and Alcaraz embraced at the net acknowledging each other’s greatness, so we too lift and recognize one another in service. We should carry that same spirit of resilience, respect and commitment into everything we do both in and out of Rotary.

 

 

New Member: Pres. Pete inducted Sherri Hendricks as the 18th new member in 2025. Her sponsor was Anthony Hollingshead.

 

Visiting Rotarian: Karl Kelsen, a past Rotarian from Australia, was driving by the Marriott when he noticed our sign and said to his wife, Pat, "Hey, let's go there for lunch!" So they did.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS
President Pete Brock reminded us that the meeting on July first will be held at The Squantum Club in East Providence and will feature the installation of our officers and directors for the 25-26 year. Please RSVP by June 20.

 

Mary Brewster encouraged members to support the Kizirian School Supplies Project to supply the 32 classrooms at Kizirian School with a box of school supplies. Each box costs about $50 but donations are gratefully accepted in any amount.

 

Emily Bernstein is happy to have a new job at a non-profit.

 

Art Norwalk was happy to thank Bob Morse for his generous donation to the school supplies project, but sad to learn that Bob has cancer which he is treating with chemotherapy.

 

Kris David happy to welcome new member Sherri Hendricks and to see Anthony Landi’s daughter, Francesca, at the meeting.

 

Dave Hamel happy for the recent visit of his children to his Providence residence.

 

Pete Brock happy to participate in the 16th annual fishing trip in Cape Cod to raise money for Tommy’s Place in Falmouth which provides vacation lodging for children with cancer.

 

Anthony Landi happy to have his daughter, Francesca, visiting from college and working in the office with him.

 

Richard Applebaum for the festival to commemorate the sinking of the British ship Gaspee before the revolutionary war.  

 

The speaker of the day was Ted Nesi, politics editor and investigative reporter at WPRI – TV Channel 12. Mr. Nesi co hosts the Sunday TV show Newsmakers and writes a weekly online column Nesi’s Notes. He is the winner of a New England Emmy award for investigative reporting and has several Edward R. Murrow awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association. He is a visiting professor of Journalism at Wheaton College, his alma mater.

 

Ted began by describing how the pace of change in journalism was so rapid that one had to be ready to quickly adapt. In his early career as a newspaper reporter he saw many in that business not adapt fast enough leading to the decline in print media. The challenge in electronic media now is to coordinate social media with conventional news. As an example of this, WPRI is inaugurating a new streaming service called “12 Plus” which is an app subscribers can tune into on their smart TVs at their convenience.

 

He feels that the decline of organizations like Rotary increase polarization in society in that people increasingly only associate with like-minded people while organizations like Rotary encourage people of different viewpoints to come together for a common purpose which “keeps the political temperature down”.

 

In regard to the 195 Bridge issue, Mr. Nesi stated that the problem of public cynicism has been increased by the many contradictory statements of public officials concerning the project. He contrasted this situation with the handling of the 1990 Credit Union crisis by Governor Bruce Sundlun, who promptly appointed a committee to analyze the problem and then issued a clear plan to the public as to what the problem was and how it was to be addressed.

 

He said a current high priority issue he is covering is the dispersal of funds received by Rhode Island from the lawsuit won concerning soil contamination in the Route 6-10 project. RI attorney General Peter Neronha has asserted the right of his office to disperse the funds to The Rhode Island Foundation to address the problem of dental care for children of low-income families, while some in state government believe this dispersal should be controlled by the State Legislature.