Liz Messier has found Inspiration in the quotes of Paddington Bear, one of her favorites being “I’ll never be like other people, but that’s alright because I’m a bear “. Addressing Mr. Bear, Liz said “Mr. Bear you will be happy to know that at the Rotary we think alike - one of our key principles is valuing unique qualities and fostering an inclusive culture where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. Paddington Bear, welcome to Rotary!”
Announcements
President Bill advised that the September 2 meeting would be devoted to packaging school supplies for donation to the Harry Kizirian Elementary School. The lunch at this meeting will be plated.
Don Saracen advised that the drive is under way to obtain sponsorships for the October Legends for Literacy Gala. Sponsorships range from $500 to $10,000. An MVP $10K sponsorship has been received from The Squantum Charitable Trust and a $5K Super Bowl Champion from The Applegate Foundation. Other sponsorships have been received from The Loescher Charitable Trust, Art and Mary Norwalk and Don and Cheri Saracen.
Pete Brock announced the Club would be conducting a Fall Coat Drive in collaboration with Ocean State Job Lot Charitable Foundation. The coats will be for both youth and adult. Anthony Landi and Sheri Hendricks volunteered to assist in the project.
Happy Bucks
- Pete Brock is $10 happy to have completed his summer school courses to complete his degree requirement at the University of Colorado. The session was quite difficult in that it condensed 15 weeks of instruction in the regular academic year into 5 weeks in summer session.
- Liz Messier is $5 happy for her recent cruise to Bermuda.
- Jane Berkowitz is $5 happy for today’s speakers.
- Cap Willey is happy for his wife’s birthday but sad at the passing of astronaut Jim Lovell who he met some years back and had an interesting conversation about the theories of Einstein.
- Richard Applebaum is happy for recent vacation in Florida and Georgia.
- Bill Applegate is $5 happy for attending the RI Football Club game last Saturday at which The Club furnished tickets to a group of students from San Miguel School and is also happy for an upcoming trip to Charleston, South Carolina to see Wendy Marcus.
Speakers
The speakers of the day were R. W. Alley and his wife Zoë Alley. They are professionals in the field of Children’s Literature, Zoë being an author and R. W. being an illustrator, both of Zoë’s books and others, most notably being the "Paddington Bear" series by the UK author Michael Bond.
Zoë is the author of “There’s a Wolf at the Door” and “There’s a Princess in the Palace”. She has collaborated with her husband on a four-book series based on the puppy Enzo from the popular novel “The Art of Racing in the Rain.” R. W. Alley has illustrated over 150 books for children and has most recently written and illustrated a 3 book series “Breezy Valley” about anthropomorphized animals inhabiting the title town. His newest book will be “Firefighters to the Rescue”.
The Alleys presented a slide show illustrating their works.
R. W. Alley commented on the issue of the children reading or having read to them the books as opposed to the movie version of them stating that the reading experience has aspects different from the viewing experience in that the reader uses their imagination and controls the pace of the experience. He noted that the sales of Harry Potter books declined after the movie versions came out which is a sad trend in his opinion.
