Cogitator July 7, 2010

Visting Rotarians-none

Guests-- Frida Bonaparte, guest of Ed Neff, joined us all the way from Argentina. Frida is moving to East Greenwich, and her daughter was in a past Group Study Exchange. She is considering joining a Rotary club in Rhody, and Ed is trying to make sure she joins the best one, right here in EG.

Corey Guglietti, guest of Past President Bob MacKenzie, is operations manager of the Kent County YMCA.

Steve Lombardi, guest of Pat Lenihan, is the new Executive Director of the East Greenwich Chamber of Commerce. Steve is also a former director of the Providence Civic Center. (Steve and the new Cogitator editor share the difficult task of following in Jerry Meyer's footsteps.)

No birthdays this week.
Anniversaries--
Paula and Harry Buckheit celebrate an anniversary every July 7th. (Now there's a good date to get married...lucky 7's.) And Bob and Marilyn Greene celebrate each 12th of July for their anniversary.

Club Anniversary-
Chuck Sauer, past president, former Rotarian of the Year, and current Community Service director, joined Rotary this week 15 years ago. (Nice work, former member Tom Thompson, for sponsoring Chuck way back then!) Chuck is still out of action due to his knee replacement surgery, and we all wish him well.

Reminders-
--Board Meeting, Thursday, 7/8, 7:30am, United Methodist Chuch Hall, Route 2. All Rotarians are invited.
--District 7950 Governor, Charlie Murphy, will join us next week 7/14.
--Saturday, Rotary SERVE, 7AM, Christ Church, Cedar Ave/Post Rd. Bob Sloan mentioned, in absentia, that he'd like to soon pass the baton to a new SERVE leader. Please see Bob for more details.

Happy Bucks-
--Paula Buckheit's daughter will attend William and Mary College.
--Richard Waterman managed to turn a simple hot dog cookout into a fresh-caught lobster dinner, with help from his son's (recovered) lobster pots.
--Jane Boynton threw a big 4th of July bash. There were over 60 people, some of whom had such a good time they decided to sleep outside on her stone wall. This may be incorporated into next year's wine tasting.

Program-
Seth Wilson, Classification Talk

New member Seth Wilson is the Director of Sales and Marketing of SeaScape Lawn Care, Tree Solutions, and Christmas Lighting and Décor. Seth lives on Great Road in East Greenwich with his wife Jeni and 3-year-old son, Jake. Born outside of Chicago, he grew up in Horseheads, near the New York Finger Lakes area. He's been in RI for 17 years, so he claims dual citizenship.

He graduated from Syracuse University in 1992. Upon graduation, he made a bet with his future wife and fellow Orangeman (or in this case, Orangewoman) that they would settle into the location of either's best post-graduate job. Good news for Jenny that Rhode Island was the winner, since this is from where she hails, but also good news for Seth, since he landed right on his feet at SeaScape.

Seth has helped, over the past 15 years, build a small 3-employee company which had 100 customers into the 65-employee company of today which services over 6,000 customers in three states (RI/MA/CT).

Seth is also a big-time boater/fisherman, with a 35' Express fishing boat. April to October, Seth is Captain Quint, chasing sharks around Block Island Sound. However, when his son, Jake, is around, he has as much fun jigging in Narragansett Bay for blues and stripers. Apparently, Jake is catching the fishing bug at an early age, and he is happily manning the family dinghy already. The Wilsons' Express has properly recovered from a lightning strike earlier this season.

Seth is also an avid hunter, and has mentioned that he has so much venison (not to mention fish) in his freezer, that he could help Vin Meola with 10 Million-Dollar-Meals. Now there's an idea.

Finally, Seth's connection to our club's efforts to defeat ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) is a personal one.  He lost his mom to ALS back in 2004.  Seth and his wife have been supporters of our race over the past years.  Seth looks forward to being part of the ALS 5K Committee's continued endeavors, and he also looks forward to lending a hand in all of the East Greenwich Club's terrific projects throughout each year. 

Welcome, Seth!



Notes from July 8th Board Meeting

Ed Neff successfully conducted his first board meeting, and oversaw the club's approval of a $2500 donation toward the 2010 East Greenwich Summer's End Concert. The concert will be held, as always, on Labor Day Weekend. (Wait, didn't our summer just get going?)

-GC