PLEDGE: President Joan
PRAYER: Gerri Lewis
SONG: Bill McLaughlin
BRENT'S FLIM/FLAM: High hand won by Stan Niemerski
RAFFLE WINNERS: RYLA attendee Joe Ferrantelli, Rick Beck, Bill Suits and John Donnelly
HAPPY $s: Brent for story about golf balls, Many happy for guests, several happy for UCONN
girls 1 point win last night, Bill Suits with a football story and also scolding us to sit at
different tables each week, Pete Corbett for daughter Mimi - a guest today and a good bye
dollar since he leaves for florida tomorrow, John Donnelly for a visit to New London High
School and saw their student Naval Reserve group perform drills and a wonderful singer
doing our national anthem, Bill O'Shaughnessy for moving Veteran's Day ceremony.
GUESTS: Mimi Bibble, Pete Corbett's daughter. Speaker Valerie Wells and RYLA students
Joe Ferrantelli and Tenzin Wangchuk.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Treasurer Paul reported the Foundation value was up from last month.
Marty urging us to sell tickets to the Wine Tasting and get table sponsers if possible.
The Fred Astair dance studio will have a pair of dancers and there will be a demonstration.
Donations and gifts should be given directly to Gerri ASAP for logging in.
Music will be provided by Jon, Andrew and Katie - same as last year.
Carrol Bowser will hand out lists at end of meeting of potential busines to contact for
donations.
Gerri announced our Christmas dinner meeting at Water's Edge will be $35 per person and
she'll be sending around a sign up sheet in the next few weeks.
RYLA STUDENTS:
Joe Ferrantelli says the most important thing he got out of the conference was that failure is
an option in your endeavors, if you learn and gain from it and that too much emphasis is
placed on the feeling that winning is the only thing.
Tenzin Wangchuck said that he learned that leaders have differing traits and that individuals
should use their own skills to develop their own leadership style.
PROGRAM: Pete Corbett introduced his daughter Mimi who is on the Board of Directors of
the Family Re-Entry program, and the director Valerie Wells who spoke on the program.
Valerie is located in the Fairfield area, but the program covers the whole state. It's purpose
is to provide guidance, help and encouragement to persons who are being released from
incarceration. The program is aimed at securing employment for these people so they
can start to earn a living for themselves and their family. Living and survival skills are
taught so these floks can transition back into a society they may have left years ago.
These people are coming from an environment where their every minute is managed 24/7.
They now have to do all these things on their own. They are mentored and trained in basic
entry level jobs in varying occupations from food services to landscaping and many more.
Their programs are titled "Fresh Start", "Fresh Cut" etc. The Fresh Cut program does the
landscaping at the Saybrook Point Inn! The Family Re-Entry program also has an anger
mangement component to help abusers. There also is a one on one mentoring program
to counsel school age kids so they can better adjust to the academic environment and
hopefully keep them from dropping out. They have unique problems msot children don't
have. The goal of the program is to re-introduce their clients back into society and to
keep them from being re-incarcerated. They have a better than 50% record. They claim
that for $4K per person per year they can keep their clients out of a $42K per year
prison stay. The program is funded 65% from Federal and State funding, and 35% from
public donations. The racial mix of their clients is 40% African American, 36% Hispanic
and the rest Asian and caucasian.
asl
