Newsletter Date: July 19
Meeting Date: July 13
Reporter: Erica Busillo Adams
INSPIRATION
Barbara Harris shared the poem On Children by Kahlil Gibran beginning:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you….
ANNOUNCEMENTS , Etc…
Holly Applegate is looking for speaker ideas for meetings. If you wish to join this committee, please contact Holly!
Mary Brewster on the Summer Fun(d)!: The club will be purchasing literacy enrichment kits for distribution at Providence city parks where children gather to receive meals. Each kit contains a copy of Highlights magazine, crayons, stickers, etc… Staff members from Providence PlayCorps will show the children how to enjoy the variety of fun and educational content in Highlights.
The Providence Rotary Charities Foundation will contribute $5,000 from the Childhood Literacy Initiative to purchase 1,000 kits.
Rotarians—and friends!—are invited to make donations with a goal of raising an additional $2,500 to send out 500 more kits. You can donate to the Summer Fun(d)
HERE or mail a check to the Foundation. More than $800 has been raised as of July 18!
DG Charlene Jarest shared that 300 face masks will be coming to Providence Rotary from the District for distribution.
Ben Hadsell shared that Polly—Stanley Sorentino’s daughter—let him know Stanley passed away the morning of July 13 at 92. The club had a moment of silence in Stanley’s honor.
His funeral will be held at Swan Point Cemetery on Tuesday July 21 at 12:00pm. Due to COVID-19, it is restricted to family and a small Rotary Honor Guard. If you’d like to take part, check first with Rob Black to see if space remains.
Those wishing to express their sympathies can send them to Stanley’s daughter
Polly Cardea, 6 Cherry Lane, Rehoboth, MA 02769.
Anthony Hollingshead introduced guest Abra Kleinberg, who is interested in exploring club membership. Abra is very involved with domestic violence prevention and supports Sojourner House.
JULY BIRTHDAYS
Wendy Marcus shared our July Birthdays: Susan Fabrizio, Pete Brock, Mary Brewster, Bob Murphy, Mary Cullen, Donald Ross, Marion Avarista, and Connie Donnelly !
HAPPY BUCKS
Margaret Kane: $5 happy bucks for antacid flashbacks, instead of “acid flashbacks”! Margaret will donate $100 in Stanley Sorentino’s memory to the Summer Fun(d).
Don Saracen: $5 sad bucks for Stanley Sorentino – a great Rotarian who will be missed.
Walter Adamowicz: $5 happy bucks for his son who had been ill but is thankfully COVID-19 negative.
Jim Gilcreast: A sad buck for Stanley Sorentino – our Rotarian of the century. Jim will donate $100 to the Summer Fun(d) in Stanley’s memory.
Phil Gossel : $5 happy bucks for his daughter, Nicole, who passed her boards and graduated as an RN!
Anthony Hollingshead: A happy buck for enjoying his vacation in Maine, where he never left his vacation home!
Art Norwalk: $10 bucks in honor and memory of Stanley Sorentino. Stanley was Art’s sponsor when he joined Providence Rotary.
Bill DiBiasio: In memory of Stanley Sorentino, plus $45 happy bucks for his 45 years in Rotary this month!
Bryan Cook: $10 bucks in honor of Stanley Sorentino, a fellow Colby graduate.
Mary Brewster: $5 bucks in memory of Stanley Sorentino and $5 bucks for the momentum of the Summer Fun(d).
DON WILSON’S FOUR “A” WORDS
TO SELF-IMPROVEMENT
Don is a mortgage industry veteran of 20+ years and spoke to the Club about his book “What’s YOUR Woobie?: Simple Strategies on Your Uncomfortable Path to New Opportunities.”
Don’s Woobie, Toby, is a stuffed dog that his grandmother bought for him the day he was born. For Don, his Woobie represents comfort but also the thing or things in our lives that are preventing us from growth and new opportunities.
Don used the following four “A” words to explain how you can identify your Woobie, move past fear and discomfort, and make way for self-improvement and new opportunities:
- Awareness. If you don’t know what your Woobie is, you won’t know how to give it up! Don explained about the importance of discovering your “stretch zone,” where learning past your comfort zone—the “Woobie zone”—can happen.
- Acceptance. We need to learn how to accept the good, the bad, and the ugly about ourselves and be aware of the conscious and unconscious messages we are telling ourselves. How might you be undermining yourself? Meditation, performance coaching, etc… can all help with this. What we resist, tends to persist!
- Action. Meaningful goal setting is key. 92% of New Year’s resolutions fail because there is often no meaning behind these resolutions and they are not structured for successful implementation.
- Accountability. Don explained that accountability is essential, but as it is attached to potential failure and consequences, many people have trouble with this “A” word. We will all fail and have adversity. But failure and adversity can become allies and we can grow and evolve in unexpected ways during moments of challenge.
Don has adopted a new word for what he thinks we should all do in response to the current COVID-19 crisis—“pandevolution.” We can’t be afraid to embrace change, to evolve, and to see opportunities in adversity.
Don encouraged all Club members to take action on something today to create positive change in their lives!
You can purchase Don’s book
here.
