July 3, 2024 Breakfast Meeting Notes
Guests today included 4 RYLA students, 2 recipients of transition grants, and two fellow Rotarians from Mass who also own a home in Rumney.
The 50/50 was won by Alex.
Lora won the draw for the card game but pulled the 3 of diamonds. The game continues.
The students from RYLA spoke first to tell us about their experiences. The four are Ellie, Sydney, Amanda and Maddie, and will be juniors this coming year. The weekend started with Icebreakers, which they described as a lot of fun but more complicated as more students arrived. Students enjoyed getting together and meeting each other. Other sessions involved meeting in a very cold room, which made it hard for them to sit still for a long time. They split up into groups and each group came up with its own name.
The first activity was True Colors. The students ranked themselves by the traits they exhibit, and this helped them to determined their own individual leadership style. Styles ranged from the emotional/sensitive of the Blues, cerebral planning of the Greens, and the spontaneity of the Oranges. Next they separated into groups of all one color as well as a mixed-color group and did exercises that allowed each of them to contribute. They noted that it was easiest to come up with a plan when they were all of the same leadership color, but there was more variety in the mixed-color groups.
The students also did field games including Chuck the Chicken and the Italian Toss There were multiple dance parties to break up the day. They also had to play Simon’s bridge, in which groups of students had on hour to which to build a bridge but they were not allowed to speak during this time. Some groups were able to do this and others weren’t. Then they did a service project for Rise against Hunger, setting up stations to make a rice, soy, and veggie meal and package them up.They made over 10,000 meals in 1 hour and 13 minutes. Saturday night was a talent show, including a finale of YMCA. All of the students were given certificates of attendance.
Next we heard from our two transition grant recipients.The first to speak was Mia, who works for the YCC (Youth Conservation Corps, part of the forestry service). She has done work on the discovery trail up in Lincoln to make it more senior-friendly. Yesterday she was with the archaeologists digging up pottery shards and metal shrapnel; these artifacts will be bagged and dated. The YCC does surveys for plants, bird migrations, and trail work; they will visit the Mt Washington observatory soon. She will use her gift card to buy better boots and a new backpack.
Tyler was the second recipient of a grant. He will be going to Lakes Region Community College in the fall for the marine tech program which is 8 months long. He will be certified in electrical work and basic boat maintenance. He took the auto program at PRHS and he loves to be on the water. He already has plans to retire and live on a boat! He is employed at Irwin Marine in Laconia, working full time. He started apprenticing but at this point he is mainly working solo. He is pulling out stern drives and inboard/outboard motors, doing oil changes, and will soon be pulling engines. He will be spending his grant on tools and paying for school.
We received a thank you card form Eliza Foote, one of our scholarships recipients, as well as a thank you from PSU for our donation to TIGER to repair their van.
Finally we got to Tony’s famous NH trivia, Happy July 4th edition.
The Family Fun Fair this weekend at the ballfields. Volunteers are still needed, especially for the afternoon shift.
Pac-a-Pac is coming again this year. We donated $250 last year and Rotarians helped stuff the packs. You can make donations through August 16 at Whole Village. Items needed are pens, pencils, mechanical pencil, highlighters, markers, crayons, erasers, notebooks (single and multi-subject), folders, rulers, binders, index cards and other useful school items.
Bruce Wiggett (a longtime member of this club) passed away last weekend.
Tonight the fireworks will be held in Ashland. Tomorrow is the parade in Ashland and per Denise it is superb. Alex does a red, white and blue breakfast in the courtyard leading to the Common Man the morning of the parade. Breakfast starts at 7 am. The event is never on July 4 because the price is 50% less on other days!
Greg also noted that it’s easy to injure yourself and lose eyes, limbs etc. with fireworks. Please have a safe holiday.
Happy dollars were shared by Lora, Denise, Sharon, Tommi, Beth and Tony.