Rotary Club Meeting September 18, 2008

New Canaan Rotary Club Meeting
September 18, 2008

Acting cooler than Hank Paulson trying to use his credit card at an ATM
last Thursday, David Rucci presided with grace and confidence as he
took the club through its paces for Lobsterfest Weekend. [Update:
Everyone pronounced the Lobsterfest a huge success except for the
lobsters who were unavailable for comment.]

Among the guests in attendance were John Murphy, the veteran Gridiron
performer and husband of Town Councilwoman Tucker Murphy (who refers to
John as her "First Dude") and the always elegant Ditte Riefsnyder of
the Board of Education whose daughter Danielle last year entertained
the club with her stories of traveling through Russia as a Fulbright
Scholar.

Scott Hobbs spoke about his emails with Thomas Baker who is stationed
at NATO Headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan. The chaplain at the NATO
base has identified the desperate need for children's shoes this winter
and
wondered if the Rotary Club could go easy on the stuffed animals and
send shoes instead. The club will be looking into this further.

Our speaker was Dr. David Abbey, the Superintendent of Schools. He
related how New Canaan students are coming in first in about every
standardized test including the SAT's where the average score is a
phenomenal 610 Math and 590 Verbal!

Two new initiatives adopted by the Board of Ed this year are Spanish
language classes starting in the First Grade (where children learn such
conversational phrases as "Do you have a Green Card?") and an expanded
performing arts program at the Middle School and Modern Dance at the
High School. This is in addition to the two years of Chinese offered
at the high school (where students study the life of General Tao).

Sincerely, Todd Palin

Rotary Club Bulletin - September 4, 2008

New Canaan Rotary Club Bulletin - September 4, 2008

A rather light turnout of members at the Country Club was supplemented by the welcome presence of Master Christopher McClain, age three and a half, who had the good sense to bring his own peanut and butter sandwich just in case. 

The members are still just getting use to being at the Country Club.  Ad, for instance, was glad to find out that he could get as much salad as he wanted without being charged "green fees". 

Yours truly introduced the guest speaker, Jim Himes, who is running for Congress on the Democratic ticket (or as Rush says, the "Democrat" ticket).  Himes grew up in Lima, Peru until age ten when his parents got divorced and his mother moved him and his two siblings back to New Jersey.  He a graduate of Harvard and has an M.Phil. from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.  He worked for Goldman Sachs for twelve years, and for the last six years has worked at a non-profit organization which helps charitable groups build affordable housing projects.  He spoke about some specific issues which interested him and had a lively back and forth with some of the members, however not Christopher McClain, who left just as Himes started speaking.  Apparently, Christopher had already watched too much convention coverage in the last two weeks to bear any more discussion of politics. 

Speaking of scholarships, Frank reported that Elizabeth Dahill, the Rotary Scholar we sent to Africa, has experienced a harrowing time trying to get settled at the University of Ghana.  Everything that could have failed logistically has failed.  Currently, she is residing in a dorm which does not have running water.  Instead, the water is brought in by pail.  Help!  You can get the grim details at http://elizabethhill.blogspot.com.  Hope her parents will still talk to us.

Joe Biden 

 

 

 

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