Happy May!!!! We had a great meeting last week with our District Governor, Kate Sims. Kate filled us in on the District’s newly formed Opioid Task Force with some eye opening statistics on this crisis. Kate also extended an invitation to a FREE BBQ at her home on 5/19 from 1-5pm. I hope many of you will join me in attending. Please see the bulletin for more details.
This Friday May 3rd, our speaker will be AnnMarie Harding, Public Relations Director and Event Planner at Max’s Tavern at The Basketball Hall of Fame. AnnMarie is a survivor of open heart surgery and is passionate about promoting Baystate’s Health Heart and Vascular Program. AnnMarie invites us all to “The BIG Cocktail Party”, a benefit for the heart and vascular program on Thursday, June 6th. AnnMarie has learned how rewarding philanthropic efforts can be, and how they make a difference in our community.
The 2nd Annual Chalk It Up event is less than three weeks away on May 18th.There is still time to sign up sponsors or make a donation to the event. Steve Jablonski and Jack Toner are also looking for volunteers for that day. This is a great opportunity to have your business associated with Springfield children/schools, Art, and Rotary. A real trifecta! Please contact Steve Jablonski or Jack Toner for more information.
Please invite a friend, co-worker or family member to join you and find out more about Rotary and what our club is doing.
Drowning is the 2nd leading Cause accidental death in children under the age of 5. This hits home for me as my son Marc was pulled lifeless from a pool on his first day of camp. After twenty-five minutes he was resuscitated and rushed to the hospital. He miraculously survived. He is now living with brain damage as a result of the non-fatal drowning. It was so painful to know that my son will never be the same and I promised myself that this should not happen to any other child again. So, I started the Miracle Marc Foundation.
The Miracle Marc Foundation mission is to raise awareness about water safety, provide support to families to access swimming lessons, and most importantly, advocate for change of legislation and policy. Our mandate will be that, “the rates in child drowning decrease in the next decade.” We can do this! It all starts at home in our community. We do this by providing scholarships for children to attend free private swimming lessons. On November 1st, 2018 the first class of Miracle Marc swimmers started lessons with Water Wonders Swim School. Families can apply and learn more by going to our website www.miraclemarcfoundation.org
THIS Friday, our speaker will be AnnMarie Harding, Public Relations Director and Event Planner at Max’s Tavern at The Basketball Hall of Fame. AnnMarie is a survivor of open heart surgery and is passionate about promoting Baystate’s Health Heart and Vascular Program. AnnMarie invites us all to “The BIG Cocktail Party” on Thursday, June 6th, a benefit for the heart and vascular program at Baystate. Flyer attached with more info.
we had a great meeting with our District Governor, Kate Sims. Kate shared with us some alarming statistics regarding the opioid crisis in this country. Rotary is trying to do something to combat this terrible disease and our District has formed an Opioid Task Force. The District has joined forces with the Lions club and with the help of pharmacies will start handing out “Deterra bags”. What are deterra bags? They are bags that pharmacies will give out with every opioid prescription. When someone has leftover pills, they can put them in the bag where they will dissolve. This prevents unwanted/unused opioid pills from being used by people they were not prescribed for. As Kate told us, it only take 5 PILLS to get an opioid addiction. Getting used pills out of homes will be a start to combatting this crisis.
Kate also invited all of us to the 1st District Barbeque & Social at her home in Manchester, CT on 5/19 from 1-5p.m. This is a celebration of our district and also an opportunity to learn more about the District's Opioid Task Force. What’s been done to date and what the “next steps” are for clubs. I hope you can join me in attending. There is NO COST to attend. Flyer attached with more info. Please RSVP to Kate directly at klsims59@gmail.com
The Springfield Rotary Club is scheduled to serve Dinner this Thursday May 2nd at the Friends of the Homeless Shelter , 755 Worthington Street, Springfield, MA from 4:15 to 5:30 P. M. If you can help out, please email Mike Rzepka at mrzepka@dowd.com or by text.. 413-531-4104.. Thank you.
Just in time for Mother’s Day! Gardening The Community’s Annual Plant Sale on Sat May 11 from 9am-1pm at 200 Walnut St, Springfield. Plus free workshops from 10am-12N. For more info visit http://www.gardeningthecommunity.org
Chalk It Up! less than three weeks away on May 18th. There is still time to sign up sponsors or make a donation to the event. Steve Jablonski and Jack Toner are also looking for volunteers for that day. This is a great opportunity to have your business associated with Springfield children/schools, Art, and Rotary. A real trifecta! Please contact Steve Jablonski steve@jdarchitects.com or Jack Toner jtoner@sumnertoner.comfor more information.
The District Assembly is Wednesday, May 15 and is not only for Presidents, President-Elects, Treasurers and Secretaries. It is for ALL Rotarians interested in learning more about Rotary for the upcoming year. The club will pay the $40 registration fee. There will be a full breakfast. It will be a morning of brainstorming and sharing ways and methods for setting and achieving goals for our club. I promise you, you will learn things that will help you in your professional life as well as feeling more fulfilled and empowered as a Rotarian. What do you have to lose? Please sign up today at https://bit.ly/2LcxwnN
SAVE THE DATE” June 18th, 2019 at 5:30 p.m. will be our Paul Harris Dinner. Because of everyone’s hard work this year on our fundraisers, we are able to award $10,000 in community grants to area non-profits at the dinner. Please share this link for the application below with a non-profit that you believe should be supported. Thank you to Alicia Garcia for taking the lead on the grant submission process. We are also looking to form a committee to help iron out the details. If you would like to help out please contact Jack Toner at jtoner@sumnertoner.com.
May 3rd is Garden Meditation Day! Meditation is all about learning how to relax while having your attention focus on just one thing, such as on breathing. Today the focus of meditation is on gardening! On this day, people go to their garden and leave their troubles outside of it. They concentrate on tilling or pulling weeds, and this allows them to relax, just as if they were meditating while they were sitting still. The day was created by C.L. Fornari, who runs GardenLady.com.
Dene Kimball could use a little help with displaying our Rotary flags at meetings. Dene is planning some extended vacation time soon and would like a few Rotarians to volunteer and put up the flags while he’s away (or give him a break now and then). The flags are stored at Max’s and only take a few minutes to put up or take down. Please talk to Dene about helping out. And thank you for your participation in helping to display our flags!
Do you have some news or information that might be of interest to fellow Rotarians? Please send it to Gillian Palmer at gpalmer@baypath.edu by Monday of each week for inclusion. Our weekly Bulletin goes out to more than 70 local leaders every week and is a wonderful way to spread your message. Subject to approval.
Did you know you can easily reach the Rotarian Magazine, Rotary International, the District website and our own club website right from this bulletin? Well you can! Just check out the links under "ROTARY ONLINE" on your left.
Club Information
Rotary Club of Springfield - Meeting Fridays-12:15 PM
Service Above Self
We meet Fridays at 12:15 PM
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
1150 West Columbus Ave.,
MassMutual Room
Springfield,
MA 01105 United States
