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At Cafe Spiga today, Pres. Rob hosted 9 members, including former and now Honorary Club Member, Ed DiNunzio, as well as our guest speaker, Angeline Judex, from the LI Explorium, a Port Jeff gem of a museum/learning center. Rob shared the following information from Debbie, who is a member of the Hope Children's Fund Gala Committee: eleven of our club members will be sharing a table at this event and there is still room for more. The cost: $100 for Rotarians, $200 for guests. Unfortunately, tomorrow is the last day to order tickets. See the announcement below or the information on HCF's website, www.hopechildrensfund.org to buy tickets. Last minute purchases tomorrow can also be made by using this Venmo address: @HopeChildrens-Fund . Jen is still collecting Raffle Ticket stubs and money from our Annual Raffle sales. *** Remember: The Raffle Drawing is Tuesday, August 3rd.*** Al has graciously offered his barn (diagonally across from Cafe Spiga) for the Drawing and celebration surrounding the end of the club's 2021 Raffle Sales. So far, Judi is far in the lead as Chief Raffle Seller, with 236 tickets sold! Sharon has sold 57; Yvette has sold 38; Pat has sold 37; Dennis has sold 30; Michael has sold 20; and the PJ Library team of Kim & Tom have sold 5. There's still time to bring up our sales numbers! Do your best! Plans for our next fundraiser, the Annual Golf Outing- on September 12th- are moving along. The brochures will go out this week. Club participants and benefactors/donors from our past years' golf events are especially invited to renew their efforts at this time and help us create another successful and enjoyable venture. Dennis again shared the invitation to take part in the Annual Greenport/Southold Rotary Golf Tournament on September 1st. The cost will be $225 p/p. Contact Dennis for more info. Dennis also invites us to come to Camp Pa-Qua-Tuck on Sunday, August 8th, for an Ice Cream Social & BBQ and an opportunity to learn more about The Social Brain. The event is free, but donations will be gratefully accepted. Judi Betts and Dale Kuhn hope you'll drop by tomorrow, July 21st, at Judi's home from 2 PM to 6 PM to meet and greet a former Rotary Exchange Student, Elizabeth Rodriguez, who was hosted by both Judi and Dale a few decades ago. The announcement of this invitation brought about some questions and a brief discussion about Rotary's International Student Exchange. How fortunate that Ed DeNunzio was present today to explain the program and answer the questions! While the Rotary Student Exchange program continues in other parts of the world, plans to host and/or become a participant here have become so much more involved/difficult than in the past. Since currently it falls on the club and the District to ultimately take the responsibility for the total success of each exchange endeavor, it has been a while since LI clubs have felt comfortable renewing the Exchange locally. The hope: perhaps the current rules/restrictions/expectations will ease in the near future, and District leaders will resume organizing exchanges here. On behalf of the Executive Board, Rob reminds you that it will hold its monthly meeting via Zoom on Friday, July 23rd, at 8 AM. If you'd like to attend, contact Rob for the Zoom invitation. Rob introduced our speaker, Angeline Judex, Dir. of The LI Explorium (LIE), located on E. Broadway (on the harbor-side, next door to the Village Center) in Port. The Explorium was founded in 2004 at The Chandlery Building by a consortium of scientists, educators, and entrepreneurial residents looking to provide Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) programs for local young people that would encourage their inventive thinking and feelings of empowerment. The LIE was incorporated in NY State as a 501c3 non-profit in 2005. In 2021, it received its "absolute charter" as an educational institution expected to provide cutting edge, innovative, and inquiry-based learning experiences for students- mostly in Pre-K to Grade 8- and their families. It also offers state-of-the-art professional development credit-bearing programs for teachers. Closed during the pandemic, the LIE had a "soft re-opening" in June. The LIE is now open from 1-5 PM on weekends with a capacity of 45 people. Most visitors are under age 12. They come to participate in hands-on projects that are challenge-based; and they are especially encouraged to explore the engineering design process. Team work with problem solving is encouraged. "At the LIE, youngsters enter a world of possibilities, discovery, creativity, wonder, and joy". The theory of constructivism is employed to keep the kids constantly engaged. Their curiosity is truly ignited. They seem to never get bored and stay engaged as they can't in the classroom. Thinking outside of the box is always encouraged. The children learn that failure is not a bad thing and builds their resilience, passion, determination and focus. This "fail forward" concept is successfully employed at the LIE. Challenges are posed with multiple possible outcomes and solutions. While the youngest children play and discover, they are also continually developing social and cognitive skills, they mature emotionally, and they gain self-confidence via museum programs. Visitors are invited to watch the children learn and grow. Programs are also given outside the building, ie., at schools. The students clamor for more. As museums like to be agents of social change, the LIE encourages opportunities for youth to experience racial and gender equity via participation in its programs. During the pandemic, a virtual platform was adopted immediately. The LIE closed on Friday, 3/13 and re-opened virtually by Monday. Fortunately, the museum had a "rainy day fund" that enabled many of its programs to continue running-though at a smaller scale. This fund, of course, is now in need of replenishing. The LIE is heavily dependent on school districts that use its programs to supplement their own. The museum already sponsors a variety of outdoor clubs and activities, a Stem Cafe, a Math Club, and the Port Jeff Rain Garden. Funding comes from many different sources-from hosting birthday parties to receiving large and small organization and government grants. Two years ago, a donor paid for busses for 200 people from Hempstead schools, 5th graders with their chaperones, to take them to Port Jeff and back. The students from the underserved community were first wowed by the harbor and seemingly pristine environs, and then participated in the LIE program specially prepared for them. They afterwards raved that the entire experience was "life changing". The LIE hopes to build upon relationships with all sorts of organizations (ie., the NAACP) and encourages them to also take part in and promote the museum's programs. Angeline explained that these organizations have donors and have raised and could raise funds. The donors are mission-driven and want to have an impact. Unfortunately, the museum's Board doesn't want to ask for money. Recently Decision Women gave the museum a small grant which paid for the creation of a sensory garden. Meanwhile, Angeline is constantly seeking grants of any size ("No grant is too small!"). She is also looking for more adult volunteers as well as new Board members and reminded us that the LIE is a great and necessary community resource. We can look forward to the next Maker Fair, a very popular public event, on the 2nd Saturday in June of next year. For more info., check out this website: www.LIExplorium.org . |
