Rotary Club of Needham Newsletter November 19, 2019
Volunteer Opportunities
High Tunnel Construction at Needham Community Farm
Saturday November 23rd at 10:00. Bring stepladders (if you have one) and help stretch the skin over the frame of the greenhouse that will extend the farm's growing season by a month at either end.
Needham-Wellesley High School Football Dinner
Monday November 25th at the Wellesley College Club at 6:00pm. Featured speaker: Greg Comella, who played for the Xaverian Hawks, Stanford Cardinals, and the NFL Giants, Titans, Texans and Bucs before becoming a business leader in our community.
Thanksgiving Day Dinner (free!) provided by the Rotary Club of Needham, the Needham Community Council and the Needham Masons
on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 28th at the Masonic Hall, 1101 Highland Ave. Doors open at 11:30 with dinner served at noon. To attend, call: 781-444-2415. Volunteers should register at the Community Council: office@needhamcommunitycouncil.org
Ringing Bells/Collecting for the Salvation Army
Saturday December 7th at Sudbury Farms from 8:00 to 5:00.
Wrapping presents at the Walker School
Thursday December 12th 6-8pm. Seven volunteers are needed to wrap, and we are needed to purchase at least 15 gifts in the $25-50 range for the children.
Construction of the sensory room at Joseph Tynan School
The equipment has been purchased and delivered! If you have painting or construction skills, please reserve time over Christmas Break (TBD) to help us assemble this year's most important community project: the sensory room for the Tynan School in South Boston.
In the Community
Support for the Needham Community Revitalization Trust Fund
The club donated $250 to support the Trust Fund's efforts to enhance Eaton Square in Needham Center. Paul Good, Chairman of the Trust, notes that over $200,000 of community revitalization projects have been approved by the town but await financial sponsorship to be completed.
Rotary Club of Needham Christmas Party
Friday December 13th at 6:30 at Scott and Kathy MacFarlane's house at 147 Fox Hill Road, Needham. Please bring hors d'oeuvres or dessert and a Yankee Swap present ($20-25).
Meeting
Where have we come from? Where are we now? Where are we going?
Our President, Dan Tibma, led a wide-ranging discussion of past, current and prospective club activities, prompted by a list of 27 (see my personally annotated list below) recently completed charitable activities of our club in our local and international communities. Comments from members extended that list by -at least- another five popular activities. Asked to comment positively and negatively on the activities listed below, the members had almost exclusively positive comments on the club's past and current involvement in our town and abroad, and recommended extending these activities into the future.
Out of many comments that were supportive of existing activities, there was one that recommended extending an existing activity to better address the global problem of climate change. Instead of, or perhaps, in addition to our popular, existing tree donations to fourth graders in Needham, where there's some attrition between delivery of the trees in the classroom and the planting of the trees in the children's backyards, maybe we could do mass plantings of trees in Needham's town tree nursery or in a town-sanctioned place? Another comment noted that we haven't had an active Social Committee for the past three years. The comment went further to note that social events allow us to attract new members and more deeply engage existing members by involving their spouses and families. The conversation was so enthusiastic that I'm sure I missed lots of important suggestions. Please forward your additional comments to me at: ddeveuve@verizon.net.
