September 7, 2007 Meeting

INTRODUCTIONS

President Helene led a packed room in the Pledge of Allegiance. Meistersinger Marie Stultz led us all thrugh three rounds of the song often associated with the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, Kum Ba Yah, and Len Wilson gave an Invocation on the spirit of the day.

INTRODUCTION OF VISITORS AND GUESTS

We welcomed our speakers today, Abdi Lidonde from Kenya and Tom Maher from Andover, as well as Bridget Sheehan from Lazarus House, Susan Sawyer who is president of North Andover Rotary, ADG Teri Roche, MHL Librarian Jesse Light, many Lawrence Rotarians including Richard Harrington, Wilfred Dionne, and Kay Frishman, Bancorft School Principal Scott Morrison, West School Counselor Liz Roos, and possibly others whom I missed.

CLUB ANNOUNCEMENTS

George Chatson talked briefly about a program he is involved with entitled “Healing the Children.” He showed a picture of one youth who has been helped through surgery and he asks for our consideration of supporting this program. If you are interested in further information about this program that has changed the lives of more than 146,000 children, check http://www.healingthechildren.org/

President Helene points out that Andover Day is on Saturday, September 15th, and the club will have a presence at our “Pavilion” on the park between 10 AM and 3 PM. Please let Helene know when you can drop by to help out. Many exciting and informative events will take place including a performance by Marie’s group, The Young Opera Company of New England.

DONATIONS

President Helene asked Bridget Sheehan to the front where she presented her with a check for $2,500 to support this year’s “Hike for Hope.”

President Helene also announced that we would again be supporting the STOP Bullying program in collaboration with Bancroft and West Elementary Schools.

AUCTION MINUTE

To Mark Spencer’s great disappointment – or was that actually relief – today’s “Rotary Minute” was cancelled so that David Lindsay could talk about the upcoming auction on Friday, November 2nd. The really neat website, designed and improved by our own Bob Troiano, will soon be up. We are all asked to go to it asap and download some donation forms to start getting gifts. With a giant 3 in front of him, David showed how many gifts we had so far. We also have $5,300 pledged from sponsors so far, but we need triple that and to collect something like 200 donations for the auction. Don’t delay, your support is absolutely needed if we are going to be able to support ourselves this year. David has instituted a “monitoring” system whereby auction team members will be calling to ask you to work on getting those gifts. ONLY 8 WEEKS LEFT!

TODAY’S PROGRAM

Tom Maher began by speaking about his involvement in the Beverly School of Kenya. Kenya is a country with over 1,000,000 orphans, many of them orphans because of the AIDS epidemic. Tom has been working with Alice Mudiri, the Head of School, and Abdi Lidonde. Tom said he decided to get involved because it seemed to him the right thing to do. These children have had no voice in their world and their future is dim without access to education and health care. Tom introduced Abdi Lidonde, a native Kenyan who came to this country as a young man and who works for Holy Cross College. Abdi spoke about his dream for this school, the Beverly School of Kenya. He described his own impoverished childhood and how food, clothing, even a place to sleep were problems. Abdi’s father told him that education was the only way out of such poverty and Abdi’s mother, Beverly for whom the school is named, begged the principal and teachers to let Abdi attend school when he was a child. For more on Abdi’s dream, see this article from the Holy Cross Magazine.

Questions were asked and Abdi and Tom explained about the goal to raise $3-4,000,000 for the school.

HAPPY DOLLARS AND DOLLARS OF CONCERN

Bob Troiano gave for the well-attended and enjoyed reception for Cal and Karen Mutti. Teri Roche gave for the Beverly School of Kenya. Susan Sawyer gave to thank Andover Rotary for its support of their fund-raiser, the tickets for the Jimmy Buffet concert. George Chatson gave a very happy ten dollars on the recent birth to his wife Kim of their new daughter, Nicole. Jim Greeley, ever on the prowl for students, followed up with a Merrimack College teddy bear for Nicole. Jim Sutton gave a dollar of concern to say that District Foundation Chair Keith Harris was taken down with a serious staph infection and has been admitted to Mass General for heart surgery. Jim also mentioned his enjoyment in reading to the students in 2nd grade at Bancroft last year as part of the STOP program. He urges others to get involved. Greg Mafcher gave $20 to ask people to attend the wine-tasting “A Touch of Glass” at the Andover Inn on September 27th from 5-8 PM.