Dear Fellow Rotarians, last Friday we had a wonderful meeting with our speakers John Skypeck and Carol Howland. John and Carol were from The Western Massachusetts Chapter of SCORE. SCORE provides FREE, confidential counseling to small business entrepreneurs at 7 locations in our area. We also had a few special guests visit our club. Steve Jablonski’s daughter, Laurel, always brightens up our meetings. Also visiting us was Rafael M. Aria, cousin of John Perez from Puerto Rico. Rafael wanted to thank our members personally for their donation to his family after Hurricane Maria. He lives in Canovanas Puerto Rico with his wife and one son. Our donation helped him and his family with the extra cost of food and fuel after the hurricane.
This Friday May 17th, our speaker will be Neal Freyman, son of Rotarian Ellen Freyman. Neal is the chief editor at Morning Brew, an online daily newsletter focusing on business topics. Neal will talk about the expansion of Morning Brew and what it takes to deliver it to your email every day. For more info or to read the latest newsletter go to https://www.morningbrew.com/latest/
Thank you to Jack Toner, our Rotary Foundation Chair for the latest update. Our club has raised to date a little over $5,762 and had an 85% participation rate! Thank you to Jack and all our members who donated to the Foundation and Polio Plus this year.
The 2nd Annual Chalk It Up event is only a few days away on Saturday, May 18th! Fingers crossed for good weather! After the soggy week we’ve had, we’re due for some sun (I hope)! Steve Jablonski and Jack Toner are looking for volunteers for that day. Please call Steve or Jack to sign up or for more information.
Don’t forget to “Save the Date! “ on June 18th. It is our Paul Harris Awards Dinner when our club will be giving away $10,000 in grants to area non-profits. You won’t want to miss it. See the bulletin for more details.
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.
It's goal 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 http://www.miraclemarcfoundation.org.
THIS WEEK’s Speaker will be Neal Freyman, son of Rotarian Ellen Freyman. Neal is the chief editor at Morning Brew, an online daily newsletter focusing on business topics. The newsletter was started by Alex Lieberman as a way to keep busy during his senior year of college. Today they have over 1 million subscribers and he and his partner, Austin Rief, are members of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Class of 2019. Neal will talk about the expansion of Morning Brew and what it takes to deliver it to your email every day. Neal grew up in Longmeadow and graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in History in 2013. He has a master’s degree in Urban Studies from Temple University in 2017. He presently works in Manhattan and lives in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Last week Carol Howland (l) and John Skypeck (r) shown here with Rotarian Jack Toner (c) were our speakers fromThe Western Massachusetts Chapter of SCORE. SCORE provides FREE, confidential counseling to small business entrepreneurs at 7 locations in the area. Businesses receive free advice from local experts to help start or grow their small business. It was interesting to learn that a well know candle company was one of their clients many years ago.
Chalk It Up!is this week- Saturday May 18th. 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 at steve@jdarchitects.com or Jack at jtoner@sumnertoner.comfor more information.
SAVE THE DATE” June 18th, 2019 at 5:30 p.m. will be our Paul Harris Dinner. In addition to recognizing this year's Paul Harris recipents, and because of everyone’s hard work this year on our fundraisers, we will be able to award $10,000 in community grants to area non-profits at the dinner. If you would like to help out with this wonderful event please contact Jack Toner at jtoner@sumnertoner.com.
We had a couple of visitors last week Laurel Jablonski is always a welcome addition to our meetings. Dad Steve Jablonski was happy she could lower the average age of our members. Thanks Steve!
We also had Rafael M Arias, cousin of John Perez, visit us. Rafael and his family live in Canovanas Puerto Rico and were greatly affected by hurricane Maria.
He thanked our club for our donation which helped his family with the extra cost of food and fuel due to not having electricity and the extensive road damage around them.
Rafael gave our members a blessing. He is one of the founding members of the Ministerio Cristiano Gracia y Paz, which assist Pastors from diverse denominations preach a message of Grace.
Thank you Rafael, it was our pleasure to help assist you and your family and we are happy to have met you. Many blessings to you and your family.
As most of us by now may know, Jim Russell's daughter Michelle passed away recently after a long illness. Michelle was also well known to many members of our club, having attended our meetings with her Dad from time to time. Shiva for Michelle Russell Tsiotsias will be held Thursday, May 23 at 7:00 p.m. at Jim's home, 108 Bel Air Drive in Longmeadow.
The family will have a private burial.
A memorial service will be held Sunday May 26th at Twins Hills Country Club with more details to follow. All are welcome to attend.
National Pack Rat Dayis observed annually on May 17. A “Pack Rat” holds on to, collects or hoards (often unneeded) items. Advanced Pack Rat behavior leads to hoarding.
HOW TO OBSERVE: Consider cleaning out desk drawers of unwanted and unneeded items. If you need to, call a friend with a dumpster to help you get started. Once you clean out and clean up, you will feel good about what you have accomplished! You could use #NationalPackRatDay to post your accomplishments on social media...or just keep it to yourself, like a true Pack Rat.
Dene Kimball could use a little help with displaying our Rotary flags at meetings (as Richard Fulkerson is doing in the attached photo). 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
