Happy Dollars Moments:More valuable when they are shared
Raffle Winner:No Raffle. No Winners. No Losers.
Prospective Member: Shanée Hoyt
Welcome to Avon-Canton Rotary! We look forward to getting to know you.
Fines:None
Birthdays:None
Happy Moments
(The scribe experienced a technical glitch just as happy moments were beginning. If your moment is omitted, she begs your forgiveness.)
Robin DiNicola was more or less happy to have her son home studying in the basement as a result of Covid.
Heather Pantano was happy to thank Katelyn Kaplan for organizing the Rotary festivities the night before. Heather was the big winner and gets two bottles of wine. However, she always observes a dry January and will not imbibe until later. She and her husband were taking a half-day off and taking their kids skiing, although they would not take the lift at Sundown after an accident this week. Heather's daughter was quite excited that Friday was slippers day at her school.
Gary Miller was happy that the skiing had been great at Sundown. Because he's on ski patrol, he is considered a first responder and eligible for the Covid vaccine.
President Alicia was happy to announce that Yvonne Gardner is the new chair person of the International Service Committee.
Gary Roman was happy to announce that he is fully retired. He reminded the club that he has a new email to be used for Community Service grant requests and other club matters: groman0580@aol.com
Rick Heath was not happy about the outcome of the college football championship. His alma mater Ohio State lost its best running back on the first play, and the game went down hill from there. He did think Ohio State players had good looking uniforms. Rick commented that Urban Meyer is now headed to the Jacksonville Jaguars, returning to Florida, probably because he knows the Heaths are back, too.
Announcements
Alicia Canning reminded folks about the January 20th Foundation Dinner at 6:45-8:00. Online registration is required.
Alicia reported that she had spoken to Linda Pendergast who hopes to return to club meetings when her chemo treatment is complete in about six weeks. The side effects have limited her participation.
Michael Mezheritskiy had seen former member and past president Kay Kellogg, who sent a hello to the club.
Phil Ferrari introduced Tim Goodwin, who has 28 years in education in both teaching and administration. He has been involved in various schools and not for profit organizations, including the Community Farm in Simsbury. In 2012-2015 he headed the culinary arts magnet school in Hartford and helped improve test scores and attendance, as well as other metrics.
Tim said he drafted the plan for the Community First School while sitting at a table at Giv Coffee in Canton. He knew there were very different outcomes between Hartford and suburban schools. He didn't think it was that city kids aren't as smart or didn't have parents who wanted to help them. He thought the surroundings of the school were very important, because he wants the students to spend time outside the school learning to appreciate the world around them. They take a large number of field trips to see what their surroundings are about. He considered setting up a charter school in Hartford, but at the time he was planning the school, charter schools were out of favor with the state government. Therefore, Community First is a private school which receives no government support. It relies on individual and corporate donations.
The school is located in North Hartford in a building on property that was formerly the Swift Factory. The main building for business, and the school is in a small house on the property. It is located very close to Keney Park, which provides many opportunities for field trips. Tim sees field trips as a chance to have hands on experience in a variety of areas. He thinks that the students will do better when they consider the context in which they are learning before they are filled with the content of a standard program. Other groups such as Two Coyotes and Ebony Horsewomen lead some of the fireld trips, which allows the students to learn from different adults and gives Community First teachers a break.
The school started with a kindergarten class. Each year the plan is to add a class through fifth grade. The students should be able to perform at or above grade level, which would give the students opportunities to follow several different paths, whether in Hartford or in an exchange with a suburban school.
The relationship with parents is very important to the school's plans and philosophy. Parents were involved in planning for the school during the five years before it opened. It's important that the school and parents cooperate, because family support is hard to come by in poverty areas where there are many single parent households and many parents working second and third shift jobs. In these neighborhoods 50-70% of students have experienced some trauma, while only 20% of students in schools like Simsbury experience such events. Families are also important, because the school needs as much volunteer support as possible, since parents are asked to try to pay $40/month for each child. The school provides three meals a day to students, which helps parents who are struggling with their finances. Groceries are also provided once a week.
Tim has had quite a vision for a different sort of program to help students from North Hartford to succeed. If they do, there is bound to be more interest in duplicating the program throughout the city and beyond
Special Announcements
None this week.
Mail Bag
None this week.
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?
