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At our meeting of June 27, our Club was pleased to welcome into membership two new Rotarians, Scott Secrest & Forrest Musselman. Scott, who currently resides in Worcester, comes to us from the Rotary Club of Wellesley where he previously served as Club President. An electrical engineer, Scott is VP of Engineering, CE Power Engineered Services, and serves as the chair of the Executive Committee for the Boston Chapter of IEEE's Power & Energy Society. Scott is a member of the New Sound Assembly Barbershop Chorus and enjoys skiing and golf. Scott is pictured with Assistant Governor Kathy Wilfert, Past President Gerry Gross and Membership Chair Gary Kelley.
Forrest resides in Southboro and is the CEO and creative director for MindBrew Creative, a brand strategy and design agency specializing in web, print and social media for a broad range of corporate and non-profit entities. In addition to his work with MindBrew, Forrest has volunteered with a number of charitable organizations and has made humanitarian trips to both Haiti and Guatemala. Forrest is shown center stage in the photo at right with Jason Camuti, Kathy Wilfert, Gary Kelley and Club Treasurer Paul Reilly.
We're excited to have both Forrest and Scott as part of our Rotary family!
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The 2018 District 7910 RYLA Conference took place June 22nd - 24th at Fitchburg State University. A record 202 graduating High School Sophomores representing over 50 communities in Central Massachusetts attended this year's conference. The RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award) Conference is one of the premier, nationally recognized leadership conferences which provide the students who participate with a life-changing leadership experience. The Westborough Rotary Club was proud to have sponsored ten Westborough students to this year's conference. Thanks go out to Harold Pinkham, our Club Chair for this event, and to the volunteers who assisted at the conference, including Betsy Moquin, Deven Hughes, Sue Abladian, Paula Carlson, along with Harold and his wife Michelle. Thank you for making a difference! In the photo here, Club Members meet at Chick-Fil-A with our RYLA students before the conference to learn what they should expect. Thanks to Mike Lawson for hosting..JPG)
Recently, this writer and his wife Reina had a lovely dinner at longtime Rotarian Ron Goodenow's home. Over pleasant conversation, delicious paella prepared by Ron's wife Carol and a few glasses of wine, Ron related the story about how the unique shirt he had chosen for the evening's attire was made specifically for him while in Africa by a craftsman who went by the name of Pinot Noir. Of course, we questioned the veracity of Ron's tale, wondering if perhaps the wine was contributing to an embellishment of his story. The next day, to allay our suspicions, Ron forwarded the photo shown at left, showing him in Africa, some 45 years ago, in front of the shirtmaker's shop. Apparently, we misinterpreted the spelling of this talented local artisan's name. And how about Ron? What a "cool dood" (and of course, there's another story behind that name as well!).
At its June meeting, the Board of Directors of Westborough Rotary voted to donate $10,000 to Westborough High School's Rangers on Track athletic fields renovation. Consistent with the Club's mission of supporting the community, this donation will help meet the Rangers on Track committee meet its fundraising goals to cover project expenses not funded by taxpayer dollars.
Greg Topakian joined us at our meeting on June 13 to explain the basics of mindfulness practice and led us through two exercises - a body scan and a breath meditation. Greg is a long time educator and actuary, having taught economics at Boston University and serving as Actuarial Director at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. Over the past thirty years, Greg has balanced his professional life with a daily practice of yoga and mindfulness meditation, and now Greg devotes his time to teaching mindfulness. He'll begin a new series of classes at the Westborough Public Library on Tuesday, October 2. He taught us that mindfulness trains the mind to be more aware, awake and alert, and allows us to choose how to react to emotions when they arrive. Members left our meeting happy, relaxed and ready to do good in the world. For more information on Greg's upcoming series, contact the Westborough Library. 
