Newsletter 8-7-12

                                                            Rotary Club of Needham 
                                                                  August 7, 2012
                                                                     Newsletter

President Charles led us in the pledge of allegiance. Bob Cox led us in singing ‘America’ and Lois led us in prayer.

Announcements:
* Crutches for Africa- Karen reported that the collection is still going on and will be through the end of August..
* The ‘Bandy Hefler’ exchange program with Rotarians from England is in need of hosts. Give Karen a call.
* Kathy Whitney has ended up at the Hebrew Rehab Center at 1200 Center St., Roslindae MA 02131. She will be there for up to 3 weeks. We wish her the best, and suggest you send a card.
* We hope to have discussions with the Needham PTC to discuss them selling tickets to the Pancake Breakfast, and to split the proceeds.

Upcoming Events:
* 8/11 NBA Sidewalk Sale
* 9/23 5 K Raod Race to benefit the Charles River Center
* 9/29 Malboro MA Rotary 90th Club Birthday
* 10/26 Beth Israel Hospital Gala
* 11/3 Our Pancake Breakfast
* 11/17 7 pm Needham YMCA Dinner

Birthdays: None to celebrate this week.

Happy Dollars:
Many happy dollars for Ali Riesman and the Olympic Games!.
Doug George’s son got engaged; Many for great vacation weeks;
Kathy Lozano-for completion of the Mansard roofing on the ‘Y’ is complete;

Guests:
Ms. Brenda Diaz from Wingate, a prospective member.

Humor:
Lois said “I have a joke; it’s just not funny”. Well that gets a mention in the newsletter, but not the joke.

50/50: Scotti had the lucky number, 521, but picked the Ace of Spades, not the queen of diamonds. The pot is $127.00.


Guest Speaker:
Our guest speaker, Maeve Pages, is a graduate of Needham High School Class of 2011 and has long enjoyed being part of the Needham community. During her senior year at Needham High School, she was accepted early decision to the NYU Silver School of Social Work. However due to the cost she was not able to afford to go there. She decided to take a gap year in order to earn some money and gain real work experience before college. Rather than work at a typical full time job she applied to work for AmeriCorps. She has spent the past year working as a tutor coordinator for a Non-Profit tutoring agency called The Boston Learning Center. BLC provides tutors for low-income and at-risk youth throughout MA at no cost to the students. Her job was to secure tutors for the students in different towns, CORI them, and then assign them to students based on their education and areas of expertise.

Maeve also participated in an international youth summit called One Young World; where she was able to meet inspiring people such as Desmond Tutu and Bob Geldof. This is where she was first introduced to Global Dignity and their mission to empower people with dignity.

At the end of this summer she will be attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst as an anthropology and political science major.

Her presentation centered on her activities with these two groups, and how she hopes to be able to extend them into her college years.

Maeve is a fine young woman who is motivated to really do good in this world, and it will be interesting to see where she ends up making a difference.

See:              http://www.oneyoungworld.com/
                     http://www.bostonlearningcenter.org/home.php