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Bulletin Editor
Salin Low
Speakers
Jun 10, 2022
Food Security
Jun 17, 2022
Canton Scholarship Receipients
Jun 24, 2022
Update on FAVRAH
Jul 08, 2022
Installation Dinner
Jul 15, 2022
Ukraine Update
View entire list
Executives & Directors
President
 
President Elect
 
Immediate Past President
 
Secretary
 
Treasurer
 
Membership
 
Sergeant-at-Arms
 
Foundation Chair
 
Board Member-at-Large
 
Board Member-at-Large
 
Interact Chair
 
Club Information
Rotary of Avon-Canton - Founded 1973
Avon-Canton
Service above Self
Fridays at 7:30 AM
Golf Club of Avon
160 Country Club Road
Avon, CT 06001
United States of America
Fax:
(860) 760-6364
All meetings are hybrid both in-person and Zoom available
DistrictSiteIcon
District Site
VenueMap
Venue Map
 
February 4, 2022
New Director of Gifts of Love
Ryan Pettengill, Executive Director
 
The meeting will be held on Zoom. 
Watch for an email from the club.
We are now using a recurring ID, etc.
 
Sergeant-at-Arms Report 
 
 
Members Present: 30, Total Present: 33
 
Visiting Rotarians: Dave Tedeschi, Assistant District Governor & Newington Club, Paul Mikkelson, Simsbury Club  
Non-Member Guests: Sean McCarthy (speaker)
Happy Moments: More valuable when they are shared
Raffle Winner: No Raffle. No Winners. No Losers.
 
Fines: None today.
 
Birthdays:
Debbie Altschwager 1/24, absent.
 
Steve Morris has been a member of Rotary for about five years. About the time he joined the club, he met with Nancy Nation and Paul Mikkelson at Starbuck's to discuss a grant from Rotary to FAVARH. It was a cold day but very bright. A young boy with Down Syndrome was playing right outside the window where they were sitting. The boy put his hand up to the window, and Nancy put hers right up to his. It was a magical moment and the beginning of a marvelous journey of Rotary and FAVARH together. The pledge of $150,000 has recently been completed, and both groups are stronger for the relationship.
 
Happy Moments
 
Debbie Stanwood was cleaning a closet when she found a pen that had belonged to husband John's father. It was a Rotary pen from Lebanon, Oregon. She loved the sense of connection through Rotary.
 
Peter Vignati was happy to be going to Hamburg, Germany, in July. Wife Suzanne's mother will be 80 and a group of eight family members will be there to help her celebrate. He was also happy about Edward Jones's 100th anniversary and the celebration in St. Louis.
 
Robin DiNicola was also excited about the Edward Jones anniversary celebration. She is on the Fun Committee and talked about some of the plans, including sending 100 M&M's to each branch. She thanked Peter for getting her to Edward Jones and said she couldn't be happier.
 
Gary Roman thought when he retired he could rehab and flip houses like Bob Cave. He completed one house in January and found out it is truly a seller's market. However, wife Angie was nearly ready to threaten divorce by the time the house was done. It may not be a long-term prospect.
 
Brian O'Donnell was back from Mexico, which may or may not have made him happy. We were certainly glad to see him.
 
Paul Mikkelson was with us and remembered the story about the meeting with Steve Morris and Nancy Nation. He was really glad how the relationship has developed. He then told what he described as a Larry Sullivan joke about a man in a bar with a picture of his wife. You had to be there.
 
Announcements
 
Don Bonner talked to the group about Kevin Colvin's death. He was actually a member of our club twice, and was an Early Riser scribe for a while, but said Rotary was too tough for a strong introvert who was very quiet. He was a counselor before he sold real estate with his wife Sylvia. Don had known him for 25-30 years. We are very sad about his death and send our thoughts to Sylvia.

Induction of New Members
None this week.
 
Awards
None this week.
 
Community and International Service Grants
None this week.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
PRESENTATION
 
Peace Corps to FAVARH
Sean McCarthy
 
 
 
Steve Morris introduced Sean McCarthy, who is now the Director of Development for FAVARH,replacing Ronelle Cipolla who was with FAVARH for 17 years. Sean was an intern with FAVARH in 2013, before he decided to join the Peace Corps. Sean is from Bristol studied English at Marist College. A friend was considering joining the Peace Corps and asked Sean's opinion. In telling the friend all the good things about the Peace Corps, Sean managed to convince himself to apply, and he was quickly accepted.
 
Sean was assigned to Uganda, Jolly Lux's home country. Uganda is approzimately the size of Oregon and has a population of 45 million people - many more than Oregon. The median age is 17 years old. There are a number of languages, the most common of which is Luganda.
 
 
Sean saw a lot of his time in Uganda as clearing up misconceptions about the United States. The image of our citizens is that we ride horses and eat cheeseburgers. He tried to tell the people he met that there is great diversity in our country, which is a strength even though it may lead to misunderstandings.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The picture on the left is of the Peace Corps volunteers arriving at the same time as Sean in 2015. The picture on the right is of the group of volunteers who completed their two years in Uganda. Only about 1/3 made it to the end. This can be for various reasons, including a mismatch or health issues.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
There were about six weeks of general training and six weeks of language immersion before the volunteers began their assignments. Sean could get along in the local language while he was in Uganda, but he has lost most of the language since returning to the U.S.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Sean taught young adults at a Primary Teachers College. These students were not able to go to university. They may not have done well enough in their entrance exams, or they couldn't afford the tuition. The program at the teachers college is two years and trains the students to teach.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Most of the work the college students do is what we call student teaching. They practice teaching with supervision. They are expected to have a number of activities for their students. One of the trainees organized a spelling bee, which was a great success. They also learned about alternate behavior strategies - less paddle and more talk or extra chores.
 
 
 
 
 
Sean emphasized that becoming part of the community is an important part of the Peace Corps expectation. He found the people in his town very friendly. They were able to help him with cooking and in different social situations when he was unfamiliar with local customs.
 
 
 
 
One project was to develop and improve the local library with the help of an NGO in the area. In addition to adding books, it was also important to cull inappropriate books that were probably donated. For instance there were 60 copies of the biography of Lassie.
 
 
 
 
 
Sean had a chance to see other areas of the country and appreciated the beauty of the country as well as its amazing wildlife. He saw a Mountain Gorilla which is a species that is native to only three countries.
 
 
 
After his time in the Peace Corps, Sean taught in Japan for awhile. Then he went to graduate school at Duke, studying public policy. However, the emphasis was on high level involvement, and Sean wanted something where he could be directly involved with people. He returned to FAVARH and loves seeing clients every day. He is excited about what FAVARH has accomplished. The independent apartments they have created are getting national attention, and they have spawned eight other programs in CT
 
 
Sean ended with a Uganda saying, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."
 
In the question and answer period, there was a question about support from the Peace Corps for volunteers. Sean said that has changed with the advent of the cell phone. For instance telemedicine is now possible with volunteers. He actually felt he received more support from the community. The Peace Corps wants volunteers to have a college degree or extensive experience, so while the majority are 21-30, there are also volunteers as old as 70. They are paid comfortably and receive housing in the field. They receive a re-entry bonus to allow for buying a car, etc. Don Bonner commented that his daughter's Peace Corps experience in the Dominican Republic was quite similar.
 
Special Announcements
None this week.
 
Mail Bag
 
A Note from George Pavlakis in Germany:
 
"TUM (Technical University of Munich) is definitely a very different experience from West Point, and one I still sometimes can’t believe I’m actually experiencing! I have much more free time, but also more work for graduate level courses, as expected. I’ve made some good friends here and have been able to travel a bit around Germany and Europe. I’m one of five Americans in my 150-person year group, so its definitely a good way to meet and interact with people from all sorts of backgrounds. I’m working on a term paper right now related to the Taliban’s use of social media during the offensive last summer, and if it goes well I think I’d like to work with the professor to try and publish it! I’m also supposed to do some training with the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Italy in March for two weeks, but I have a feeling that could be canceled when Russia likely attacks Ukraine in the next few days or weeks. Fingers crossed it doesn’t come to that."
 
Photo Credits
Scribe's screen grabs.
 
Technology Credits
Zoom platform management expertise by Mike Mezheritskiy.
 
Editor's Notes
Submission Deadline: Members are kindly encouraged to submit all materials for each week's Early Riser as early as possible. Please note that some editions may be published and distributed as early as the Saturday following our meetings, and during those weeks further contributions to the Early Riser will be included in the subsequent week's edition.
“The FOUR-WAY TEST of the things we think, say or do”:

1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all Concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?