The Rotary Beacon - Archive  Jan 30, 2004

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January 30, 2004

Happy Dollars – 

• Steve Pelletier spoke to his daughter Shannon in Chicago who had just received a Chicago Ballet apprenticeship;
• Greg Villa’s son had a boy named Samuel, 9’8oz;
• The president of Ogunquit Rotary spoke about the Valentine’s Dance that will be held on Saturday, February 14^th at the Dunaway Center.  There will be a swing band.  The event will be b.y.o.b.;
• Jud Knox gave a happy dollar that Mary Andrews was in Augusta trying to keep the Baldacci administration from taxing hospitals;
• Mike Lee’s daughter just received her driver’s permit;
• Bob Hayward spoke about the raffle for Superbowl Sunday; 
• John DeStefano’s oldest son was hired by the Gillette Corp. security department.  He is going to the Superbowl to do security and will be previewing Playboy Superbowl Calendar women!

Birthdays – Tom Simpson, Tony Mont, Jim Bartlett.

No makeups – many

Lates – Loretta Prescott, Dave McElwain, Kevin Webb, Bill Anderson.

Raffle - #745 – Ray DeFeo.

Steve LaPointe spoke about the rotary emails received this week.  There are discount tickets to the Fleet Center for certain events available to Rotarians.

Ann Washburn from Junior Achievement is looking for someone to help her out with a school program to help young people get going in business. If interested please let Steve know.

Rotary is trying to get a postage stamp.  If you are interested, please e-mail your congressperson.

February 24^th – Rotary anniversary event in Portland.

Doug Gray – York High School has an auction on 4/3/04.  We discussed whether to raffle the hot tub at the high school’s auction or at the Rotary dance.  The high school was selected.

Greeters for next week – Russ Peterson and Loretta Prescott.

Next week’s speaker – Susan Poke – Wells Nature Preserve.

Speakers – Mary Ann  spoke about latest grant - $30k.   Service Learning Award.  This is a federal grant administered through the state over a three year period.  Patty Wolfe, a fourth grade teacher, is the service learning coordinator surveying the community to identify needs that have a connection to the curriculum. 

Susan Williams – Tech Prep coordinator for southern Maine.  Tech Prep is very instrumental in helping high schools.  The MELMAC Education Foundation is a $65k grant to increase the rate of seniors who enroll in college.  Today, most jobs require some training above and beyond high school.  Currently, 20% of jobs are in the professional sector of the economy.  This statistic has remained the same for the past 50 years.  The number of skilled jobs has increased exponentially.  80% of the jobs that today’s Kindergartners will perform do not exist today!  Tech Prep’s goal is the attainment of an associate’s degree which will translate into jobs.  The average high school senior knows 150 professions, which is only a small fraction of the jobs that are available.  It is always amazing to have graduates of a high school come back and talk to students still at the high school.  YCCC holds a “College Acceptance Day” at YHS for undecided seniors.  Another goal of the project is the administration of the PSATs to all sophomores on a school day rather than a Saturday.  Students taking the PSATs tend to feel that they are on the college tract. 

Steve presented Susan and Mary Ann each with a York Rotary pen and a book will be donated to the library in their names.

Meeting adjourned.