Inspiration - PJ Fox
PJ inspired us with the following quote which he felt was representative of our Rotary Club and the work we do: "Don’t judge the day by the harvest we reap, but by the seeds we plant."
Announcements
Our speaker next week, thanks to Jim Gilcreast, will be the new executive director from the Special Olympics, Ed Pacheco.
Don Saracen announced new sponsorships for our upcoming Legends for Literacy gala: Conference Sponsor, Herb Altman and two new Game Sponsors, Rob and Mary Brewster and Jim and Mary Gilcreast. Please reach out to Don and his team with your sponsorship pledges. Feel free to share the brochure outlining the various levels of sponsorship with your friends and business contacts. Individual tickets are now available on the Providence Rotary website.
Kris David thanked everyone for their help last week with assembling the school supplies - 26 boxes were delivered to the new principal. She looks forward to working with us and learning about all we have done to date for Kizirian School.
Our Good Works Committee announced their September service project - Good Night Lights on Friday, September 30th. Fellowship will be held between 5:30-8:15 pm at the Narragansett Brewery. We will be lighting up the sky at 8:30 pm for Hasbro Children's Hospital with flashlights. Please sign up to participate. There will be six to seven Rotary Clubs participating with us and our parking locations are TBD based on participation numbers.
Welcome Kento Suzuki - our new Rotary International Global Grant Scholar
Bill Applegate introduced Kento Suzuki who received his Rotary International 2022-23 Global Grant scholarship through Rotary District 2710 in Hiroshima Japan. His sponsor club is the Kure Rotary Club. Bill and Holly will serve as the local host and mentors for our club.
Kento will pursue his masters degree in Public Health with a Mindfulness Concentration from Brown University. He is familiar with Providence since his undergraduate degree was in Public Health and Anthropology at Brown. We are excited to welcome him to the Providence Rotary Club.
September Birthdays
Happy Birthday to our September Rotarians:
Margaret Kane - September 6th
Don Saracen - September 14th
Ron Hoak - September 14th
Tony Mendez - September 24th
Happy Bucks
- Rob Black - $5 for grandson who turned 5 on Saturday
- Anthony Landi - $2 - one for daughter turning 16 and the other for his son beginning his first year at Bentley College
- Jim Gilcreast - $1 to welcome our new Rotary Scholar, Kento Suzuki
- Bill Applegate - $10 for Kento Suzuki for whom he will serve as mentor
- Holly Applegate - $1 - she's excited about Kento Suzuki being here and hopes she and Bill will build lasting friendships with him
- Alan Hurst- $5; one dollar for his wife’s birthday, one dollar to welcome Kento and 3 dollars so that we won't "Boo" him during his speech today!
Speaker
Alan Hurst joined us from the East Hampton Rotary Club in Connecticut.
Alan is a past District Governor, has served as Club President and recently received the coveted Service Above Self award from Rotary International. He has been a Rotarian since 1988. Early on, he participated in a Rotary Youth Exchange Orientation for young people at a local high school which lead to his becoming passionate about the project, leading to his becoming Chair and District Chair for Rotary Youth Exchange. He is still in contact today with more than 50 of the youth Rotarians he worked with over the years. Some of his favorite accomplishments as a Rotarian include his involvement with the Haitian Health Foundation where he was instrumental in raising money to purchase a Toyota Land Cruiser to be used as an ambulance to transport pregnant women to the medical center. To date this vehicle has made more than 4600 trips bringing folks in need to the medical center. He reminisced about trips internationally with his wife to help immunize students against polio.
He asked us to think about why we choose to be Rotarians. Whether to be a better person, to become involved in your community, to hear and learn from our weekly speakers, to make a difference ... Alan left us with these thoughts:
Do whatever you can, no act of service is too small or insignificant to those who benefit. Rotary takes ordinary people and gives them extraordinary opportunities to make a difference.