Dan Meaney is a former member of the club who was a member several years ago.  He and his wife Lisa have lived in Strongsville a little over 22 years, and live in Spyglass.  He works for the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission, where he often crosses paths with Brent Painter, Jennifer Milbrandt, and Kevin Kennedy.

 

He has three sons, 24, 23, and 18, so at various stages from last semester in law school at CSU, to a freshman at OSU.  He grew up in Cleveland Heights as one of 8 children, who are now scattered around the country.  He is hoping to have inherited the good genes from his mother who is 97 and living in Florida. 

Our speaker last Friday was Sarah Rintamaki with Connecting For Kids.  She is a fourth generation Rotarian, her great-grandfather having been a member of the Lakewood Rotary, and her grandfather and farther were members of the Cleveland Rotary Club, where she is currently a member.

 

Connecting For Kids is designed so if you are worried about child you can go to them for community resources and support.  They have helped over 25,000 local families since starting 12 years ago, and they field 8-10 calls a day.

 

Last year their most pressing issue was anxiety, which has improved since then, and this year the most pressing issue is learning disabilities, dyslexia, and the new Ohio screening law.  The idea behind the screening is to help identify children with mild learning disabilities who may be able to compensate to some degree so they may not have been picked up otherwise.  The screening is not a diagnosis, but an indication that further testing may be warranted.

 

One reason for the number of calls they field is that the letter that is generated after the screening was written by a lawyer, and says "specific learning disability" rather than naming any, so can be confusing or concerning to the parent.

 

Further resources can be found at their website https://www.connectingforkids.org/