Co-President Charlie opened the meeting by reciting the the pledge, and grace by Rev. Tom Carney of the United Methodist Church in Babylon Village. In addition to Rev. Carney, today’s guests were Pat Brennan and RYLA student Jordan Fuentes.

 

Joint RYLA Project – Jordan Fuentes proposed a joint RYLA/BRC project to help clean up the grounds and waters of Belmont Lake State Park. BRC leadership will follow up to work out details with Jordan.

 

 

October Food Drive – Our next food drive will be held the weekend of 10/13 & 10/14. If you can help for a couple of hours on either day, please sign the volunteer sheet at next week’s regular meeting.

 

Rotary Leadership Institute – All who aspire to a club leadership role, want to learn more about Rotary, and/or would like to interface with interesting Rotarians from many other clubs, are encouraged to attend the next session of the Rotary Leadership Institute, to be held at the Melville Marriott on Saturday, October 27th. The BRC will pay your registration fee for this rewarding, all-day event. To register, go to www.rlinea.org; indicate that you will pay by check, and get your check from Treasurer Chris Cunningham before the event.

 

Food Drive Management –We need a couple of volunteers to organize the monthly food drive project, solicit and coordinate food drive volunteers. If you can help with these very important tasks, please contact Charlie Spencer (Charles.spencer@dignitymemorial.com) or Scott Lockwood (swlockwood@cs.com) NOW.

 

New Fundraising Ideas – Several new ideas are being explored for new BRC fundraisers. Among them are Circle Around Argyle Lake, Dog (or pet) Walk, Talent Show, No Energy (zero entropic) Fundraiser. If you have any thoughts on the subject, please contact Scott or Charlie asap.

 

Board Meeting – A BRC board meeting will be held next Wednesday, October 10th, 11:30 AM at the LIYC; all BRC members are invited to attend.

 

 

Dr. Michael Beck gave a talk on “The Healing Power of Touch” (retitled just prior to his presentation to “Good Touch and Bad Touch”) .

 

He began with a case study where many young children in a facility practicing sterile, non-contact care, died prematurely through psychological neglect, and how their life expectancy dramatically increased when caregivers adopted more “hands-on” practices.

 

Mike described other studies illustrating that, in general, people who were raised in loving homes, with a great deal of positive emotional contact, fared much better in later life than those deprived of such a caring, early environment.

 

Emphasizing the importance of caring, parental guidance in younger life, Mike cited several sources confirming that many, if not most, who were neglected or abused in their youth, will neglect or abuse their own children.

 

Referring to current events, Mike cited positive and negative aspects of recent stories involving Trump, Oprah, and the Kavanaugh/Ford controversy. He also described the concept of objective identification, a psychological process whereby the subject assimilates an aspect, property, or attribute of the other and is transformed wholly or partially by the model that the other provides.

 

Mike concluded with an expanded Q&A session, including a soliloquy by Dr. Gujavarty on the physiological and socio-economic impact of early-stage parental abuse and neglect.

 

 

No formal program is scheduled for our next regular meeting on Wednesday, October 10th. Unless a surprise speaker emerges, we will hold a Fellowship Meeting where we’ll discuss results of the day’s board meeting.