President Bill Message for 4/25/2016

 

A big thank you to Mark Nahorney for arranging last week’s meeting at UNE.  For those of you who could not make it down there, President Ripich did a great job describing what a fantastic asset we have in our own backyard.  The University of New England has become a respected undergraduate and graduate school with proof that the education acquired there has real value for its students.  At the same time the economic impact of the school to the local economies will exceed $1 Billion this year.  Obviously that is huge!  Such local success stories are great to hear.

 

    I was able to attend the first session of Red Ribbon week at Thornton Academy with Jim Godbout, Naomme Paris, Fausto and Andy Greif.  The session was supposed to be on the effects of marijuana.  We had thought it was going to be for an hour and a half and in reality they were cycling through all of the high school students so each session only lasted about 25 minutes including the time to funnel the students in and out.  The first session that we saw was not very effective, but we were able to provide them with some feedback before the second session started.  They were very receptive to the feedback, and I hope the next two sessions were more impactful.

 

    Please try to attend one or more of the sessions this week to show support for the students and the Red Ribbon Committee’s efforts, but if you can only go to one event please attend the Community Kickoff Event starting at 6:00 PM in the Garland Auditorium at Thornton Academy on April 26th.  We will have some great speakers, including our own Jim Godbout, lined up to talk about a variety of issues surrounding drug misuse and addiction.  

 

    Please get your Bingo tickets and sell them before the Bingo fundraiser on May 7.  Also, please plan on attending the May 7 Bingo event from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM at the Rochambeau Club. You have a chance to win some money and support Polio Plus and our other charitable efforts at the same time.  

 

    Finally, if you are looking for a fun time and the chance to pick up some incredible deals, please consider attending the Thornton Academy auction event this Friday, the 29th starting at 6:30 in the Thornton atrium and dining commons.  There is great food, lots of silent and live auction items to bid on and it is a huge fun cocktail party.  Yours truly will be the auctioneer.  It is Thornton’s largest fundraiser and a good time so please try to attend.  You can purchase your tickets for $20.00 apiece at the door or you can go online and order them ahead of time.  

 

Thanks Bill