Pledge/Prayer: President Peter
Song: Andy
Brents Card Game Winner: Andy (rather thin pot)
Sergeants Report: Gerri
Welcome Guests: Matt Vogt
Raffle Winners: Mike V., Marty, Lee
Happy Bucks - congrats to Gerri for landing a new job with the Town of Westbrook (Zoning Dept.)
Announcements:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JOAN CAMIRE!
D.A.R.E. Graduation at St. Johns School is Wed. April 9 at 6:30pm. If you'd like to attend, let Peter know.
The club has been invited to march in the Memorial Day Parade on Mon. May 26. We must inform the town by April 15 if we plan on participating.
Happy Bucks for today is being donated to the DG's water project, World Water Day which was March 22.
Brent will name the new teams for the golf tournament next week. We will be combining the Red & Green teams and Blue & Lavender teams.
Board of Directors meeting tomorrow at 7:15 at the L&M office building
Program: Ron Scott
Ron Scott is in his 50th year of Rotary having joined in 1958. Everyone knows that Ron was an educator and Superintendant in his professional life. Today Ron is still busy - working as a school van driver for kids with mental and physical challenges such as mental retardation and cerebral palsy. Ron has "retired" no fewer than 3 times only to find a need and then get involved - he wants to continue to do this as long as he can drive well and safely. Looking back on his life, Ron grew up in a mixed neighborhood during the Great Depression. One day, Ron stood up for a kid who was being bullied and wound up sustaining a serious back injury that required him to be hung from his head for 12 hours. He then had to sleep on a wooden board for 6 months. The boy Ron helped went on to become a doctor and the boy's siblings were equally successful. Ron recovered fine from the back injury.
Ron became involved with special needs kids early in life, getting them to overcome their fear of water and then teaching them how to swim. One day Ron was seen by a man from the Humane Society who then recruited Ron to work with their organization mostly dealing with deaf children and teaching them to read lips. He taught them to swim by communicating with them in ways they could understand. Ron was also responsible for getting the local Big Brother chapter started which he ran for 10 years. The late police officer from Old Saybrook, Officer McMurray participated and was an excellent Big Brother. He also used his police connections to help with background checks for perspective Big Brothers.
In his present job of driving special needs kids to school, Ron has come up against some behavioral problems but has learned to deal with them. Part of his route is driving out to Wethersfield and taking a child to Hamden. Drivers are hard to find which is why he drives so far.
Ron has always been impressed by Rotary International and the way it gets involved in so many worthwhile programs particularly programs that train kids to be productive members of society. He calls the current group home system a much better one than the previous institutioinal one because kids receive personal attention and are much more likely to lead normal lives in our society.
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