Rotary Log for Meeting of May 19, 2016
by Jon Flagg
Photos by Tube Loch
 
 
Your log writer was annoyed even before our meeting started. It’s tradition that I am the last one in the door at every meeting. That has worked out well for 20 years. Last week I show up just before the bell rings and there is a line out the door! I had to say the pledge of allegiance in the hallway! Apparently next year I will have to plan accordingly for the Scholarship Awards.
 
Gordon Allen gave his usual wonderful invocation which went something like this… (I am paraphrasing here.)
 
May Your grace shine upon all of us this day.
 And may You grant me the grace to accept yet a 4th week in a row of winning the raffle. Amen.” 
 
Donna Harvey and Frank and Sarah Nappo were our guests today. There were a whole lot of proud parents, too.
 
 
Ben reported on a very successful lobster bake for 65 Air National Guard members from around the country.  Great work, Ben!!
 
 
Today was all about the kids. What an impressive group came before us to accept their scholarships. It must have been a very tough job for the Committee to narrow down their choices. Fourteen kids shared $35,000 in scholarships. Those scholarships, as Chair Cindy Shanley notes, are the product, in part, of countless hours selling Christmas Trees. Here are the student’s stories in brief.
 
 
 
Wiley is President of Interact, plays soccer and is on the Executive Board of the National Honor Society. We are going to help her pay for Boston University…Robbie is in AP Physics and an “extraordinary thinker” according to his sponsor. Yet he forgot to tell us where he is going to attend college. He came back up to the podium to tell us. Some university called Princeton…Erica plays three sports, is a member of Interact and on the Student council. She makes significant contributions to her community…Audrey is a dancer and volunteers as a mentor to kids. She will attend Butler University in the fall as a  
Dance major.
 
 
 
More outstanding kids came to the podium Mia volunteers at the Salvation Army and a local nursing home. She also participates in Interact and will double major in engineering and business at UNH…Ava built a robot! She studied artificial intelligence in high school and will go to UNH to study mechanical engineering…Joe Shanley’s aunts presented scholarships in Joe’s memory to Katie. All she does is rise at 4am to study. Katie also raises funds for the homeless and is a Special Olympics volunteer. She will attend Quinnipiac University…Kalia, despite all kinds of challenges, is a member of Community Leaders of America and FCCLA. She will double major in Holocaust Studies and Criminal Justice at Keene in the fall.
 
 
This is only a sample of the outstanding young people we got to witness last week. One thing they all had in common: volunteerism in the Rotary tradition. These kids clearly “got” the concept that giving back to your community is what it’s about. Congratulations to all!
 
 
John Lyons won the raffle. He immediately handed his proceeds over to Cindy Shanley to donate to the Joe Shanley Scholarship Fund…Now THAT is what Rotary is all about!
 
Respectfully submitted,  Jon Flagg
 
 
 
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