Cogitator Mar 2, 2011

VISITING ROTARIANS

Russ Bertrand, Assistant District Governor from Wakefield joined us.  

GUESTS

Charlie Winkler's grandson Matt was with us as well.  

CLUB ANNIVERSARIES

Mike Balsamo and Jonathan Malone celebrate this week their second club anniversaries.  Betsy DePrimo has been in the East Greenwich club also for two years, but she joined Rotary in 2003 and is a past president of the Portsmouth Rotary Club.  Trailblazing Sally Russell, daughter of club (1963) founder, Howard Russell, celebrates her 23rd year in the club.  Sally was not only the first woman inducted into our club, and she was also our first woman president.  

ANNOUNCEMENTS

-This month's Board Meeting will be held at the United Methodist Church on South County Trail Thursday, March 10th at 7:30am.  All club members are invited to attend.  

-Chianti's Vin Martucci mailed the club 50% off gift certificates, encouraging all of us to bring family and friends to Chianti's for a non-Rotary visit. 

-Jane Boynton reminded us that the Rotary Wine Tasting/Taste of the Town will be held Friday, May 20th, at the Swift Community Center.  Please do your best to invite 6 people to help guarantee another fantastic and successful event.  John Wolcott will be our auctioneer, and Corey Guglietti will emcee.  The Savory Grape will be on hand, and great local restaurant food is guaranteed.  Tickets are $35 per person, but reserving a table of 6 will only cost $190.  

ROTARY INSTALLATION

Mark this date!  Wednesday, June 15th will be the date for Mike Gemma's installation as 2011-2012 East Greenwich Rotary Club's President.  The EG Fireman's Club will be the venue.  Cocktails outside at 6pm.  Wild Harvest will be catering the royal feast.  Another (we hope) peaceful transfer of power.  More details will follow in the upcoming weeks...   

HAPPY BUCKS

(Note:  All March Happy Bucks will go to the Rotary Foundation.)        

Sally Russell was happy to pass around a photo album from her grammar school days in Eldredge School.  In her homeroom picture was none other than a handsome young teacher name Louis Lepry.  (It took Sally a while to stop calling him Mr. Lepry when he joined the club.)

Alan Flynn was in Vancouver, BC, hitting the local casinos while visiting his 93-year-old mother in law.

Bill TenEyck enjoyed a week of skiing in New Hampshire, and noted that business out there does seem to be coming back.  

Mike Balsamo took his young son skiing for the first time at Yawgoo.  Mike also thanked President Elect Gemma for choosing Wild Harvest for his installation dinner.  

Chub Clement had good news all around.  His blood pressure was 110 over 70; his Cedar Ave home received a nice 'facelift,' and his son was sworn in as a lieutenant on the East Greenwich Police force.  That's a good week.  

President Ed said he has one last vice: cigars.  And, in honor of that happy vice, he just accepted a manager's job at Humidor Smoke Shop, located just north of Green Airport on Post Road.   

Judy Pratt gave a good luck buck for daughter Sami, who was playing in a state championship hockey game.  

Bonnie Sauer reported that husband Chuck is back safe and sound from his annual South Carolina mission work with senior high school kids.

Bob Miller also had Lou Lepry as a teacher at Eldredge.  Lou was actually 'the new guy' when Bob was in the 6th grade at Eldredge.  The Spanish American War was over, the Model T was the rage, and American teachers were...what...too far?  OK, sometime between then and the 60's.  How's that?      

Bob Sloan enjoyed 3 great weeks of scuba diving in Florida.

Wil Yoder noted with interest that there was an upcoming special management meeting at RISD on Wednesday night.  More details to come.      

Bob Greene told us that he's exactly the same age as Eldredge School.  Right below the local paper's article (1926) about a new school opening in East Greenwich...was a birth announcement of Robert Allen Greene!  (Helps us with figuring out Dr. Bob's 6th grade...thinking Harry Truman era...) 

Russ Bertrand reminded us about the May 13th to May 15th District Conference in Martha's Vineyard.  All Rotarians are invited, and it should be an especially grand time on the Vineyard.  Russ is also looking forward to seeing President Bob Neff there.  :)

Mike Gemma was happy that his oldest son visited the Dominican Republic with a St. Luke's Church group.  Mike hopes his son will benefit from seeing that most of the world looks a lot different from little old affluent East Greenwich.  In other Family Gemma news, Mike will be relaxing poolside next week in Las Vegas.  (There's a good line in there somewhere...calling Jerry Meyer for help...)

SPEAKER/PROGRAM

Lou Lepry, Educator 

One fine day, during one of his countless days in teaching, Lou Lepry patted a young student on the back and said 'Did you know I also had your mom in my class a while ago?'  The student cheerily said, 'No Mr. Lepry, that was my grandma!' 

All in all, it was a fifty year career for Lou, and you can tell this man loved just about every moment of it.  He always saw new things coming along, and certainly new challenges presented themselves along the way.  Lou credits our speaker of several weeks ago, Jack Sommer, and the East Greenwich Education Foundation, as being one of the best new developments in a while for East Greenwich schools.

Lou cited Henry Barnard who said 'You cannot teach school unless you keep school.'  Attendance is critical.  Truancy and disruptive kids negatively affect schools, and, hurt other kids in those schools in which it is tolerated.  Kids need firmness, fairness, but most importantly, affection.  There should be 'no baloney,' but teachers must remember, always, to show affection too.  

Lou noted that it seems these days that there are too many administrators and teachers who don't have a sincere affection toward kids, and that's a shame.  He mentioned that part of the hiring process should center on making sure that new teachers and administrators genuinely love working with kids.  

The cafeteria was always an important place for Lou.  It was there he could spot good stuff happening with the kids, as well as figuring out which kids were having trouble or being bullied.  

One idea Lou presented for consideration is that of the international independent teaching system.  His daughter now is teaching in Aruba, and she has taught in several countries during her career.  She knows that there's no tenure in Aruba.  Instead, there is an unwritten rule that after 7 years it's time to move on.  This guarantees new teaching faces and new ideas for how best to run a good school.  He also noted that politics and education mix poorly. 

The Great Depression taught Lou's generation to, rather than complain about what they didn't have, revel in what they did have.  Today's American mindset is a long way away from that thinking, and that presents societal challenges everywhere, including in our schools.       

Lou proclaimed a simple fact: good families make for good school systems.  He said he was lucky to work in East Greenwich for so long.  And as most of us know, East Greenwich was lucky to have had such a gem for so many years.