Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club

Tue, 03/21/2017 - 9:15am

Welcome to new members

President Tony Curulla and Membership Committee co-chair, Judy deGraw welcomed two new members on March 16: Bob McCarthy and Griffin ("Griff") Winthrop. Bob was a past member of our club for 14 years and we rejoice that he has rejoined the fold. Griff was a Rotarian in Canandaigua, New York before he moved to the Boothbay region.

Rotary Leadership Training

Jonathan Tindal extolled the excellence of the recent Rotary leadership training in which he participated. He was impressed by the professionalism of the other Rotarians in attendance, as well as by the caliber of the program. He recommended that all Rotarians consider signing up for one of the many leadership training opportunities that exist at the District level offered by Rotary and by the Rotary Foundation. Most of these are available within an hour or so of the Boothbay peninsula. Consult the Rotary.org website for leadership training opportunities.

Member news

We received heartening reports on the recoveries of Bob Pike, who is currently staying with his son, and Bill Kaufmann, who is recuperating well from a recent fall. We applauded the recent birthdays of Debbie Graves and Vivian Daniels.

The role of a special education teacher

Each Rotarian has a professional category on his/her name badge. Laurie Zimmerli gave a wonderful "Category Talk" about what it's like to be a professional in special education. Laurie has two master’s degrees and a doctorate in the fields of special education and educational leadership. She is currently the director of special education for Lincoln Academy. As she thought about what a special ed. teacher does, she summed it up in one phrase: problem-solving. This may be why she feels so at home at Rotary, she said, quoting the Rotary Mission Statement: "Rotary is a global network of 1.2 million neighbors, friends, leaders, and problem-solvers who come together to make positive, lasting change in communities at home and abroad." Teaching special education requires much more than tutoring, she explained. Many students she has worked with over the years were struggling or at risk from households in which parents are in jail, on drugs, or families who are homeless. She gave a number of recent examples of the kind of problem-solving she does: She bought groceries for a student. She took a young lady shopping for a prom dress because her parents weren't around to do it. She picked up a parent to take them to an important school event in which their child was participating.

Laurie pointed out that all children want to succeed, but things happen that affect their ability to learn and to excel. They all want to do the right thing and they all want to be loved. But they may be suffering from a physical disability, or a brain injury, or have parents who are drug addicts. The fact that they can't read or write up to their grade level is usually a symptom of other issues. Laurie is passionate about her profession and her commitment to helping each student reach his or her full potential.

The biggest challenge faced by professionals in the field of special education, Laurie said, comes from government. She recommended that we all look carefully at the current proposed budget and education legislation. The proposed legislation will eliminate protection for children with special needs in both elementary and secondary schools.

Laurie closed her talk by emphasizing her commitment to serve in her local community in the Boothbay region.

 

Supporting the Rotary Foundation

 

March 16 was "check-writing" night for donations to the Rotary Foundation. The money we donate to the Foundation is used for both international and local District-level projects. Rotary Clubs all over the world support service projects locally and globally. Members of the Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club donate generously to the Foundation each year. Rick Elder gave a demonstration of how to donate to the Foundation online at the Rotary.org website, including how to set up recurring donations, every month, or every year. He also reminded us that there is a Rotary VISA card, issued by Bank of America, for which BofA donates $100 per new card to the Rotary Foundation and every transaction you make on the card sends a portion of the credit card fee to the Rotary Foundation. So it's a way of giving that doesn't cost you anything. Rick also recommended that Rotarians sign up for Smile.Amazon.com, through which a small percentage of each purchase through Amazon will go to the charitable organization you designate, which, of course, can be, the Rotary Foundation--another painless way to give.