Rotary Club of Needham Newsletter December 17, 2019
Volunteer Opportunities
Construction of the sensory room at Joseph Tynan School
The equipment has been purchased and delivered! On December 30th our volunteers will assemble the sensory room for the Tynan School in South Boston.
In the Community
Wrapping presents for the Walker School
On Thursday December 12th, our volunteers wrapped and gave presents to the children.
On Thursday December 12th, our volunteers wrapped and gave presents to the children.
Christmas Party
Many thanks to Scott and Cathy MacFarlane for graciously hosting this year's Christmas Party on December 13th. (See picture below).
Rotary District 7910 Service Trip to Guatamala
We're sending Jim Dietel to Guatemala to participate in our district's service trip there, focused on installing and training the users of water purification systems.
Meeting
Speaker: Norfolk County Sheriff Jerome McDermott (see photo below)
In December 2018, Governor Baker appointed Jerry McDermott to fill out the remaining term of departing Sheriff Michael Bellotti. Most recently, Jerry was Chief of Staff at the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance. Previously, Jerry was State Director for former U.S. Senator Scott Brown, and he served as a Boston City Councilor for six years. He also held leadership positions with Eversource and South Shore Habitat for Humanity. He served as co-chair of the Allston-Brighton Substance Abuse Task Force.
The Norfolk County Sheriff's Office operates a safe, secure and humane correctional facility located in Dedham. Offenders arrested by the police of the 28 towns comprising Norfolk County are sent to the Dedham correctional facility. Of the 445 men currently residing there, about 80% have dual diagnoses: mental illness and addiction. With an average stay of about 3.5 months (ranging from 1.5 months to 2.5 years), the correctional program is focused on re-entry: sobriety, treatment and obtaining an employable skill. Norfolk County's female offenders (currently 33 women) are sent to the Massachusetts Correctional Institution-Framingham. The Dedham facility's original design capacity was 320 inmates. Societal changes, like the movement to de-institutionalize persons challenged by mental illness, result in chronic over-capacity utilization of the prison as that population is now frequently incarcerated.
Sheriff McDermott described volunteer opportunities at his facility that included activities like coat drives for the inmates' families and teaching courses like "Intro to Law".
