Does anyone know Dick Benson?

This morning Brett asked if I would bring his presentation and our projector to his class to share. He set it all up in the living room to make sure it worked first and then put it all together for me to bring. I sent his teacher an email asking if she wanted me to come in and then I checked my email frequently because I knew they had snack at 10:30am and I knew he would be persistent with her. Abby and I went in and Brett shared his presentation. He sat on my lap and answered their questions. One girl said she would have been too scared to talk in front of the Rotary Club, and Brett said, "Yes, you've shared that with me before." I told them that Brett was scared before his talk, but he just did it and that I was really afraid to talk to Mrs. Goodman, but you can't be afraid to help people. Then he asked, "Does anyone know Dick Benson?" One of the girls had a father in the Rotary Club and another boy knew him too.
I took the opportunity in the classroom to tell them that you don't need to have website or raise money to help the world. I said if you are just nice to the people in your classroom you can make the world more peaceful. I enjoyed being in the classroom in that way and thought brett and could possibly inspire other kids in other classrooms.

North Branford Rotary Club meeting

Brett gave his first PowerPoint presentation at the North Branford Rotary Club's dinner meeting at Nataz. He stood at the end of the table, under the screen, in front of about 10 adults. He started out by saying "If anyone has any questions, you can interrupt me." One of the women asked if we are traveling aroun to all Rotary meetings and suggested that we do. Another man suggested getting ahold of the New Haven Register. They were all very kind and supportive of Brett and his project. Thought he may be a future Rotarian.

Skylar's reaction

While I sat with Brett at the computer doing the PowerPoint, Skylar sat at the table saying things like "no one even knows I'm here, and no one cares about me" Eventually it turned into a full meltdown, so I had to really dig deep and figure out how to help her come to terms with the situation. I told her that Bill and I and everyone else know that she is a good and caring person and that she makes good choices and always tries to do the right thing. Brett, on the other hand, has been on the edge of good and bad behavior and this seems to have pulled him over to make better choices especially in school. I thought maybe if she were doing this project and getting all of this attention that he might have decided that she was the "good" one and not even tried anymore.
I also reminded her that after she won the NE wrestling tournament he was so proud of her that he told everyone, including people he just met. She said she tells everyone about Brett's project too. But, I reminded her that he was also very jealous and decided to go to MAWA's and then pouted all day when he didn't win. She is so emotionally mature that she got all of that and was able to relax and get to bed.
Also, she got so much attention throughout wrestling season, no one cared that Brett was there, it was all about her.
From then on, she has handled it very well, she got dressed up to come to dinner without any complaints and seems at peace with it. I suggested maybe she become the treasurer and learn to do an Excel spreadsheet.

PowerPoint

I found out that we did have PowerPoint on Bill's laptop, so we sat down to see if we could figure it out. I was intimidated by the idea, but it was very easy to do. Before we went to the computer, though, I had Brett tell me the questions he wanted to answer in his presentation, then we grouped them together and he decided what order they would come in. I tried to keep it in his words and not change too much. We spent about a half hour for 2 nights to get it done and we were both happy with it. I had nothing to compare it to, so that helped.

Global Awareness Day

St. Andrew's Church held a Global Awareness Day so I asked Rachel Salvo if she thought Brett could get a table there. She forwarded his website to Rich Fisler and he said yes. I asked Brett and he wanted to do it, so we set up a table with his poster, almanac and curly straws and he stood there for 2 hours talking to people about his project. It was pretty impressive considering he had a baseball game at 8am, Opening day parade, and had to leave Jack's house to go there. Jack came with him and we let everyone know that he had donated $50 of his 11th birthday money to Lifestraw.
Everyone was very impressed by Brett and very interested in Lifestraw.

Deep River Toy Company

We brought some curly straws and Brett's poster to Janet and she put them up in the store. It was so nice of her to offer to have them in her store.

Email Brett's website

Within minutes of sending out a mass email, donations started coming in. We were going crazy checking it and seeing it add up.

How Cute

Christine offered to have Brett's straws in How Cute, so we gave her pink and green to match her store. She was so supportive of Brett.

Heard about Causeshare.com

Faye sent me an email that causeshare.com was featured in the e-list this week. I am not sure if I would have read about and decided to look at it, if she hadn't suggested it.