Logo for: Rotary Old Saybrook

OS Rotary Meeting 5/27/15

Pledge: Pres. Bill O'Shaughnessy
Prayer: Gerri Lewis
Song: Bill McLaughlin
Brents Card Game Winner: Gerri Lewis

Sergeants Report: Pete Zucco
    Raffle Winners: A guest, Officer Sam Barnes, Gerri Lewis
    Happy Bucks: There were HB for our many guests, the successful golf tournament, the beautiful day, the DARE Kids in attendance, Rick Beck for almost getting a hole-in-1, the police officers in attendance including the Chief Michael Spera who was happy for the club's long support of the program, John was happy for attending the awards ceremony at New London HS for future naval and air force prep training.

Meals on Wheels: Ken Roche

Program: Gerri Lewis introduced Old Saybrook Police Chief Michael Spera
    Michael started by personally thanking the club for supporting the DARE program all these years. Today was a special meeting because we got to see and hear from the police officers who taught the classes and heard winning essays read by the kids. They talked about what they learned from DARE. The goal of the program is to "teach good decision-making skills to help them lead safe and healthy lives". Its a prevention program teaching fifth graders about alcohol, drugs, coping skills to help with bullying, and generally learning important things early in life to make the right choices. D.A.R.E. stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education but the program is really more than that. There were 10 lessons that amounted to 10 hours often telling kids things they already knew and building on that. 

    Following the essays, the police were presented with a check for $3,000.


Following the meeting, Chief Spera stayed to answer any questions concerning the town, the new police station (very happy with it and thrilled to be back in the center of town) and other issues particularly the news stories we've been seeing concerning policing in other parts of the country. These media reports have had an impact on officers and may have understandably influenced some of their decisions. Chief Spera talked about the issues of body cameras and relayed some of his opinions. He is more concerned about the younger officers and changing behavior out of fear of becoming a news story.   

md