Cogitator 10/4/21

An invitation from the East Greenwich Lions Club.
The Lions celebrate their 75th Anniversary, May 8th at the East Greenwich Yacht Club.   At that event they will be honoring Dr. Bob Miller.  Social hour at 5:30 pm...tickets are $30.  Tables of 8 available. Rotarians are invited to be part of this event honoring Bob and to help celebrate this accomplishment by the Lions. 
If interested contact George Cooper    886-8070 X 110 (work)  787-5855 cell or e-mail GCooper@OTFunding.Com

Our club will be 50 in three years.  Incoming President Ed Neff has appointed Pat Lenihan  to start planning, aided by Honorary Chairperson Gill Thorpe.  Gill is a charter member of the club.   Please reserve April 20, 2013 for the celebration.

Friday....Scholarship Committee meeting---7:30 m---at Dave Iannuccilli's office.

SERVE...SERVE...SERVE--Saturday --7:30 am.--Christ Church.  Takes an hour..is fun..counts as a make up.

After helping at SERVE...get over to Goddard Park to be part of History at the 10th annual Scott Carlson Memorial Road Race for ALS.   Get there by 7:30 or 8:00 at the latest.  Registration opens at 8:30.   (Judy, her family and any other volunteers, will be at Goddard Park at noon on Friday to decorate the Carousel Building.)  As of today we have 420 registrations.  (Also counts as a make-up.  With SERVE, you could earn two in one day.)

Wine Tasting Event moves closer.   May 20th is the big day.  Jane is asking members to try to move 6 tickets.    If you have auction items please get them in by the next meeting, and please bring your checks at the same time.

Put May 12th on your calendar for the Million dollar meal.  We will be meeting at the new East Greenwich Police Station.

Janet Essex was President of our club 10 years ago.  She never got a Past Pesident's Badge.  She was presented one to mark the event.   Don Anderson never go one either, so to keep him from whining the club got him one as well.

With April 15th now well past, Treasurer Bob Petrucelli has returned to active duty and gave us a short original speech enttled "Free at Last, Free at Last, thank God Almighty I'm Free At Last".  It was very moving.

Lucky Mike Westerman.   Former member Mike joined us on Wednesday, wearing a huge smile.  He recently sold his mother's house and as some sort of celebration boought a scratch ticket.  It turned out to be quite a scratch, as the ticket was worth $65,000.  Even after taxes he is very happy.  


      Beth DeGerlia  invites us to join  RHS at Crestar Gallery & Framing Studio for the Opening Reception of the RHS's 75th Celebration Alumni & Faculty Art Show & Sale. 
Celebrating works by Rocky Hill School Alumni/ae, former faculty & current faculty members.  Also featuring student portfolio artists and a live preview of the spring online auction class art projects.
     The exhibit hours are Saturday from 1:00 - 8:00 p.m. and Sunday from noon - 3:00p.m.
    A portion of art show sales and auction procedds will support RHS arts programs.
    Your chance to get a preview of the setting for our Wine Tastiing Event.

A note received from the Rev. Dr. Donald Anderson

On Saturday, May 1^st, I will be climbing Mount Washington to Tuckerman's Raven to raise money that will be used to support groups working in the area of domestic violence.  Would you be willing to make a contribution to support my climb?  Checks in any amount can be made out to "Annette's Climb" and sent to me at the address below.  I will turn them in on the day of the climb.  If you would like to know more about the climb and the organizations supported by donations you can go to www.annettesclimb.org   I will be happy to provide pictures to prove that I make it up to Tuckermans.

  Thanks  

Rev. Dr. Don Anderson
Rhode Island State Council of Churches
100 Niantic Avenue
Suite 101
Providence, RI   02907
401-578-0388
E-mail    danderson@councilofchurchesri.org

Some sources believe that if he reaches the top he will be handed 5 more commandments.  He is very influential.

FROM my02818.com

 Former East Greenwich principal Lou Lepry will soon become the second person with an East Greenwich connection to be inducted into the Rhode Island Interscholastic League High School Athletic Hall of Fame.

Like the other inductee with a local connection, Arthur Kershaw, Lepry didn't grow up in East Greenwich. He is from Warwick, and was an All-State long distance runner at La Salle. In his junior and senior years, Lepry was known as the best mile runner in New England. In fact, he was such a good runner, he earned an athletic scholarship to Notre Dame University.

"Back in the day, he was one of the fastest runners in the East," said East Greenwich resident and former Providence Journal sports writer Dick Lee, who ran with Lepry at La Salle and Notre Dame. It was Lee who nominated Lepry for the Hall of Fame. "I take the prize for chasing Lou over the finish line more than anyone else."

While Lepry is being honored for his abilities as a high school cross country standout, in East Greenwich he is known as the long-time principal of, first Cole Junior High, and later East Greenwich High School.

"No one didn't like him," said another former East Greenwich teacher, Roger Allard. "The students loved him. He was like a guidance councilor, always helping them with their problems. With Lou, the kids always came first."

Lepry is modest about his reputation, but he recalled a story that gives insight as to how he got it.

"There were two boys who were about to get into a disagreement," he recalled from his tenure as the assistant principal of East Greenwich High School. "I called them into my office and told them that their punishment was going to be that they had to eat lunch together for the next two weeks. One of those fellows came up to me a few years ago and told me they became best friends after that."

While Lepry retired from the high school in 1988, he began his career in East Greenwich education at Eldredge in 1953. He was hired by another East Greenwich education legend, Archie Cole.

He taught sixth grade at Eldredge for three years before becoming a junior high science and math teacher for eight years. Then, he became the assistant principal of Eldredge, which at the time served students from kindergarten through eighth grade.

"I wanted to run my own school," he said. "I saw things that I wanted to change."

In 1967, when Cole Junior High was first opened, he became the principal there. In 1980, he became the assistant principal at the high school. When he first got to the high school, Lepry recalled that the school didn't have the best reputation. And he worked hard to change that reputation. 

"One way to combat that was to be observant," he said. "If you see a kid eating alone, you know he doesn't have any friends, and you should help him."

He added, "I worked hard. I was in the hallways, I was in the bathrooms. I ate with the students. I greeted them at the front door of the school every day. I didn't know all their names, but I knew who each of them was, and I knew how they behaved."

Lepry is 81-years-old now, but he still stays active. He sails in the summer, and cuts his own wood in the winter.

He and 11 others will be inducted into the Interscholastic Hall of Fame on May 5, at a ceremony at the Crowne Plaza. He said the best part about the honor is that all six of his children, some of whom are travelling from as far away as Colorado and Aruba, will be there to see him enshrined.

But his family won't be the only people there to see him. Allard said a number of former East Greenwich educators - like Don Fredericks, Joe Militello, Stephen Coppinger and himself - have reserved a table for the event.

"He deserves every bit of it," said Allard.