August 3, 2022
Reporter: Loralyn Light
Wednesday’s meeting:
Douglas MacQueen, infectious disease specialist
Cayuga Medical Associates
St. Catherine’s Community Center and on Zoom
Join the Zoom meeting
WELCOME & TRADITIONS
President Mary Kane began with “Of the things we think, say or do,” followed by all present Rotarians responding: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build good will and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
Our guests included Jorge Cuevas from the Finger Lakes Independence Center and Jessica Wickham from Tompkins Weekly, both guests of Ron Provus. Our other guests were our two outbound exchange students and their family members and friends.
And we’d like to thank Mike Katz for bringing in some amazing chocolate-covered strawberries!!! Help yourself.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Sherrie Negrea shared three quotes about volunteering:
- “Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in democracy. You vote in elections once a year, but when you volunteer, you vote every day about the kind of community you want to live in.” ~ Unknown
- “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” ~ William Shakespeare
- “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” ~ Anne Frank
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- President Mary announced that the next board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, August 16th, 5–6:30 PM.
- Mary also thanked the skeleton set-up crew of Brad Carruth and Harlin McEwen, and hoped that we get more people to help! We had the “perfect storm” for technology today in that Brett Bossard was not able to attend; Chuck Bartosch stepped up to help the President, along with Angela Sullivan.
- We have a full slate of speakers for September, thanks to Geoff Dunn. And as of today, Angela announced that all of the remaining months have been assigned!
- Mary Berens recapped that the Rotary Road Rally raised $1500 for the Community Grants. The three prizes awarded are in the form of grants from our DAF to be given to local nonprofits: Fishing for Kiwis donated their $500 first prize to Planned Parenthood; Survivors of Italy with Sherry Haefele and friends awarded their $250 second prize to the Youth Farm Project; and the Thunder Monkeys with Mary Berens and Jean McPheeters donated their $250 random prize to our own Community Grants in honor of Kelly Buck who has chaired both the Community Grants and the Rotary Road Rally for many years!
- Jorge Cuevas is here to talk about the 26th annual World of Skills Job Fair (a program of FLIC) scheduled for Wednesday, August 31st from 9 AM to noon at Hotel Ithaca. Last year he signed up 38 employers to recruit candidates for employment, but only had 18 job seekers attend! Jorge said that they are posting it on the buses and hope to get the word out in every newspaper. Last year one seeker did secure a job! Ron Provus and Ray Brisson have a signup sheet for volunteers, and Jorge will email us with all of the job possibilities once he has our emails.
THIS WEEK’S PRESENTATON
“Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE): Outbound Students and Program Update” *
Linda Brisson and Paul Martin are chairs of the Youth Support for Learning and Doing committee. Paul began the presentation with a list of seven people that he would like to thank: Linda Brisson, co-chair; Linda Pasto, liaison to Lansing HS; Claudia Miettunen, IHS teacher and liaison to Ithaca High; Dave Martin for quality brochures and posters for the high schools; Juliet Gibbs, counselor for our incoming exchange student from Italy; Ray Brisson, counselor for our incoming exchange student from Brazil; and Mary-Lynn Cummings who arranges travel for orientations, etc.
Guests of RYE included Angela Palumbo, Paul’s wife who was a short-time exchange student in the day; Charlene Bouron, Angela’s former host sister; and Meryl Phipps.
We have two inbound exchange students coming to our area. The first is a male student from Recife, Brazil who will be attending Lansing HS; his special interests include swimming and tennis. The second is a female student from Ossopo, Italy who will attend LACS; she is an accomplished harpist and also plays piano. Note that some host families are still needed for these two students!
During our “Rotary World Café” meeting, club members indicated that they want to see the RYE program grow. We used to have far more students involved, but there are many factors that make it a bit complicated. Linda and Paul hope to grow the program. Members also indicated that they want to have opportunities for “bite-sized” service in this area.
Our club has two outbound exchange students attending today’s meeting. In September, our first student will be going to Málaga, on the southern coast of Spain; it is the capital of the “Coast of the Sun” on the Mediterranean and famous for its music. Her first host family lives about ten minutes outside the city, and she will attend one of two schools shown. She hopes to travel while there, but is not expecting it—although she has dreamed of going to Morocco!
Our second outbound student hopes that she will be understood—she was at the dentist to get a root canal this morning! From Ithaca, she is seventeen and went to LACS. She showed photos of her family, her dog, and a sister. Her most recent job is as a lifeguard at Treman State Park. She began a business last summer, making scented soaps; she goes to pop-up markets and leaves some in offices. She has hopes and dreams for her time in Mexico: learning Spanish, traveling in the country, and being in the midst of her culture.
In summary, Paul outlined their needs: host families for current inbound students, including a 2nd family in the Lansing school district to host the male student from Brazil and a 3rd family in the ICSD to host the female student from Italy. They also need people to fill several support positions: an IHS liaison, a Lansing liaison to cross train with Linda Pasto to take over next year, and a Youth Exchange Officer to cross train with Linda Brisson to take over next year. Then there’s a variety of bite-sized committee roles to be filled!
Overall, the committee needs assistance recruiting host families and with social and cultural support for students, including 1) transportation to Rotary meetings/activities and lunch mates for students attending our meetings, and 2) taking students on occasional outings (e.g., movies, dinner, plays, hockey games, etc.).
How often will they come to our meetings? Linda Brisson said twice a month.
And to keep abreast of our club’s activities, see the Calendar in ClubRunner.
* Note that due to privacy concerns, considering the age of the students, the editor has deleted the names of both the outbound and inbound exchange students.
THANK YOU ROTARIANS
Newsletter Reporter: Loralyn Light
Photographer: Mike Brown
Newsletter Editor: Loralyn Light
Set-up/Tear-down: Brad Carruth, Harlin McEwen, Steve Johnson, Heidi Goldstein, Richard Kops, Dave Martin
Set-up Zoom: Chuck Bartosch, Angela Sullivan
Recording Archive: Paul Martin; click here
Club Service Facilitator: June Losurdo