The Ken April 3
Attendance: Dick Hanaburgh
Split Club: Brian Ahern
Invocation: Larry Coon
Fine Master: Jim Prichard
The Ken: Jeff Markarian
Mike began our meeting with the Pledge. Barb led us in “God Bless America” and Larry gave our invocation. Funny thing, there were a lot of customers at my store when I got back after Rotary thanks to Larry’s kind words. There were many visitors today that included Christine Koch – Principal of Kenmore West and Big Picture, Anne Blenk – Big Picture coordinator, Chris Watson, Big Picture Internship coordinator, Melinda Roth Sanderson, NYS mentors with Lynn Marinelli and Nancy Mueller White, Harold’s daughter in law.
Rick Graham has us all real excited about perhaps beating the record of 2013 Wine Event‘s revenues. There are many sponsorships sold. We still need more baskets and seats sold. Please drop the baskets off with a brief description to Elmlawn. Scott is also on track with Shred-It. Please help Scot and volunteer for an hour. There is a signup sheet or contact Scott at smason@realtyusa.com. Pat brought in lawn signs. MandT bank has a large electronic sign advertising this event. Thank you Rene. Mike thanked me and Gretchen for hosting the gift gathering party. We love having this group at the house.
Jim Prichard was fine master today. Paul was pleasantly pleased that we had several varieties of pies at the gift gathering party that he matched dollar for dollar to anyone who admitted to having a piece of pie at the party. Jim fined Rick for interrupting.  Appropriately with all this giving back to the community that has been going on and with the Variety Club telethon just ending, Jim quizzed us on fun facts relating to Variety Club. We learned some neat trivia and raised some money.
Ron Levea won the split club and, yes, John Coogan picked the Ace, with many cards still in the deck I might add. Chuck Patterson won the first loaf of Brian’s bread and Jim Prichard won the second. FYI, half of my family prefers this bread thinly sliced and toasted the others like it thicker. Either way it sure makes mornings exciting.
At this time Larry introduced half of our program. As I am sorting this all out, it appears Brian’s wife Pat introduced Melinda Sanderson of NY mentoring (more on this later) to Brian. That got us thinking about the Big Picture Program. Big Picture is a very specialized High School in the Ken-Ton district. They are in their 5th year. There are 15 kids per grade 9-12 in the program.  All though these kids are self-motivated, they don’t feel comfortable in a large school setting. The students participate in core content classes 3 days per week and also learn in a real-world setting through internships 2 days per week. The internships provide valuable learning experiences for the students and help to identify avenues for students to pursue as a long term career.
This sequad into Brian introducing Melinda Sanderson who is with NYS mentoring. Children today spend on average 7 minutes alone time with an adult per week. In 1984 Mario Cuomo started this program and put his wife Matilda in charge. It ended in 1995. In January of 2015, Andrew Cuomo, in honor of his father, started this program back up. Mentees are 46% less likely to start using illegal drugs. Mentees are 52% less likely to skip classes. Mentees are more trusting of their parents or guardians, and less likely to lie to them and feel more supported and less criticized by peers. Brian and Larry are aggressively trying to get 6 club members so that we can be mentors. They are shooting for Wednesday’s at noon. Let’s try it out soon and get familiar with it before summer recess. Any referrals. You do not need to be a Rotarian. Please contact Larry at 870-9721 or Brian Ahern at 847-372-3633.
Another great meeting. Meeting adjourned