Pledge/Prayer: President Peter Manley
Song: Andy
Brents Card Game Winner: Ron Scott
Sergeants Report: Gerri
Welcome Guests Matt Vogt, Marilyn Giuliano, Students, Teachers and Administrators
Raffle Winners: Donna, Stan, Gene
Happy Bucks
Announcements:
PM: Notice from St. Johns School that there will be a Community Leadership Appreciation Day Wed, May 7 from 9:30 to 11
PM: Happy Birthday to Paul Moore
PM: Outreach Committee meeting following the regular meeting.
Brent: The teams have been reconfigured. Go to your team leader for last years sponsors
Gerri: Details on our evening meeting of April 30: $15pp catered by the Tiezzis. A Paul Harris will be awarded
Andy: Bob Antoniac is recovering from an injury at a jobsite.
Andy: Spoke of the Interact Club at OS High School and their work in serving a luncheon every 5- weeks at the First Congregational Church. Last Saturday they served 110 meals. Great Job!
John: Talked about progress made in expanding schools and opportunity in Ghana
Students of the Month - Music
Lyme-Old Lyme: Robert Mercurio
Westbrook: Danielle Aspinwall
Old Saybrook: Chris Walonski
Program: Gerri introduced our State Representative, Marilyn Giuliano
Marilyn talked about the growing problem we face in this state of the exodus of young people in the 22-32 year old age group. Connecticut is losing this age group faster than any country in the US. Our children grow up and receive their educations here but are moving out of the state in high numbers mostly due to the high cost of living in this state in general and the lack of affordable housing in particular. Combined with the fact that our population is aging, we face a shortage of people who can work in our businesses and volunteers in our towns. The town of Guilford has just gone to a paid fire department because it could not get enough volunteers.
To help fix this problem, Marilyn has started an intiative called "Learn here - live here". Under this plan, a student who graduates from a Connecticut college, can bank their state income taxes in a special account for 10 years then use the money as a down payment on a house.
Marilyn passed out legislative survey results on ten issues including immigration, property taxes, energy policy to name a few and took questions.
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