"Helping YOU Take Center Stage"!

"I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion". Mia HammAmerican female soccer player. Sabrina is my little Soccer Star! This weekend Sabrina played with her Saugus Youth Association - U-10 Girls Wildcats Team for the Danvers Invitational Memorial Day Tournament at the Danvers High School soccer fields. http://www.saugusyouthsoccer.net/ The Wildcats played two games on Saturday May 24th (tying one and losing one) and two games on Sunday May 25th (winning one and losing one). Sabrina scored goals in three of the four games (no one scorded on the tying game). She is such a natural athlete and I am so proud of all of her efforts she displayed to help the TEAM!! But this tournament was different - this time each soccer coach was to pick one girl from the other team and award her with a "sportsmanship" medal after each game. ANY parent would want their own child to g...

“Refuse to be average. Let your heart soar as high as it will.” A.W. Tozer I am posting the Toastmasters District 31 International Speech Contest results which was held on Saturday May 10, 2008 at the Best Western Royal Plaza and Trade Show http://www.rplazahotels.com/n District 31 Covers Eastern Massachusetts and the entire state of Rhode Island we have Seven Divisions - A through G. D31 Open Ceremonies – With our Conference Host Ivan Jusino, if you ever need a young, upbeat, personal, friendly host who always smiles and brightens the room please ask my friend Ivan – he did an excellent job at keeping the conference moving! ivan.jusino@gmail.com Parade of Banners by Hank Fleming Immediate Past District 27 Governor, Aref Dajani, DTM sang the National Anthem and Region Vii International Director, Kristin Nicholson, DTM gave a great Keynote Address. First Timers Meeting Round Tables Lunch in the Courtyard Communication & Leadership Award Michaela J. Gagne – what an incredible stro...

“ A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom. ” Robert Frost How Exciting another one of my poems was published in the Spring 2008 Endicott Review, Volume 25, Issue 1. I Love You The Yellowiest By Sherri Raftery, M. Ed. I love you the yellowiest, Sabrina like the soft pedal of a GIANT SUNFLOWER, Like the golden, blond, highlights, of a spinning prima ballerina I love you as sweet, as the honey, that drips from a honeycomb. I love you as wide, As, the tallest cornfield, I love you as sharp, As the yellow jacket’s sting, I love you as bright, As a firefly at night, I love you As warm as, the sun, With all my MIGHT! Love Mama ====== I wrote I Love You The Yellowiest in 2004 when I was in graduate school at Endicott College in Beverly, MASS earning my Masters Degree in Education with a concentration was in Arts & Learning and my daughter Sabrina was in pre-school. http://www.endicott.edu/servlet/RetrievePage?site=endicott&page=Home Professor Dan Sklar asked the class to write a p...

"The mother-child relationship is very paradoxical. It requires the most intense love on the mother's side, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother and become fully independent". - Erich Fromm To all the Mothers who are biological, surrogate, adotive, step, foster and any other motherly type - Happy Mother;s Day! Today is the celebration of Mother's - Mother's Day - for many years Mother;s Day was a very emotional day - during the past ten years I have been a MOM - and I wouldn;t want to miss this opportunity to be Sabrina's MOM! I have experienced the infant years, the toddler years, the childhood years and now I am being challenged with the TWEEN Years - Sabrina stands about four feet ten and ten inches tall - I stand about five feet and two inches short! Can you image how it feels for each of us when I need to discipline her? At times we both just laugh. This is a new phase in our relationship - she is trying to assert her indep...

"This is the sweetest victory of all. This is a victory for the true believers; the people who, in difficult times, have kept the faith". (On election victory) Paul Keating # Elections , Winning , Belief , Support , Faith Quotes This is a quick post and probably the shortest one that I have ever written - because I am still at the District 31 Toastmasters Conference at the Fun Night Event - with host Past District Governor, Aref Dajani. I am using the Best Western Royal Hotel and Plaza Computer to announce that I am the District 31 Toastmasters - 2008-2009 Lt. Governor of Education & Training!! http://www.district31.org/ I will post more 2moro on MOTHER's Day! ------- FACTS An election is a decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold formal office. This is the usual mechanism by which modern democracy fills offices in the legislature , sometimes in the executive and judiciary , and for regional and local government . This process i...

2008 District 31 Spring Conference "What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals." -- ' Zig Ziglar, Speaker and Author http://www.igroops.com/igroops/d31/files/download+SprgConf_RegForm.pdf Tomorrow is my Toastmasters District 31 2008 Spring Conference. I have been making preparations all day. I am speaking for two minutes during the Distinguished Club & Educational Achievement, DTM Ceremony (that’s toastmasters talk for Distinguished Toastmaster – which I am as of February 2008!). In addition to the Gorgeous Plaque that Toastmasters International – World Head Quarters –WHQ (hhhaa when I say WHQ – I think of old Batman and Robin Show – with Commissioner Gordon!) we get more recognition at our conferences with a DTM Medal! There are a bunch of us this year – at least three from my advanced club – Leading Speakers. The District 31 Governor asked us each to write up a DTM bio with a photo for the co...

" Teacher : Student is a symbiotic relationship in which the teacher must always be willing to learn and the student must always be willing to share." Copyright © 2003 Barbara E. Olsen (Pennsylvania) I was asked to sub for Professor Troy on Thursday May 1, 2008 his aunt passed away in New Jersey. I gladly agreed to help. The first class was Youth Worker . Professor Troy and I are Toastmasters and members in an advanced club - Leading Speakers - Saugus, MA, suggested that I let the students know about my Orphan Train Trip and connection to The Home for Little Wanderers . I brought in pamphlets, books, newspaper clippings and other materials to share and plugged how children need Youth Workers like them that they can look up to and I even made this personal by saying that I remember many of the Youth Workers who helped me along in my life. I gave about a 45-minute presentation explaining how the book Plains Bound Fragile Cargo connected Charlotte Endorf and me. I used many of...