President Marilyn called us to order at noon.
The Four-Way Test was led by Bruce Pacht.
Ernst is back, and so we sang our Rotary Song and “The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night.”
The President’s Thought of the Day:
Singing has been a staple of many Rotary clubs for more than a hundred and eighteen years. Harry L. Ruggles, the fifth member of the first Rotary club in Chicago, made it a regular part of Rotary meetings there as early as 1906, and singing spread to many clubs early on.
Ruggles was a printer and was responsible for printing the first Rotary wheel, but he is probably best known for introducing singing to Rotary.
Ruggles, an extremely moral man, described how he introduced singing to the organization. Apparently, a speaker at the club began a joke that Ruggles knew had an off-color ending, and rather than let the speaker continue the joke, he jumped up on his chair and said, “Let’s sing, boys,” and broke into a well-known and boisterous song. From then on Rotary One, Chicago, sang as part of every meeting, and Paul Harris spread the word to clubs that they should.
Anniversaries:
One year Rotary for Max Jovanovich.
Charities Board:
Bruce Pacht announced that the charities board trustee nomination process is now open. He then asked for a concurrent motion to make $2000 grants to the food shelves at Listen Community Services, Upper Valley Senior Center, the Upper Valley Haven, and Friends of Mascoma Foundation. The motion passed unanimously.
Club Award:
Kelly Drew, past district governor from North Conway, presented a Rotary Club Excellence Award to Past President Ernst because the club reached at least 50% of PP Ernst’s goals for his year as president. We were one of two clubs to receive this award in district 7850.
Speaker of the Day:
Steve Grant introduced our speaker, Aaron Rivkin, the manager of impact and community alliance at the Hopkins Centre at Dartmouth. The HOP has just completed a renovation taking approximately two and one-half years. It serves as the home for all arts at Dartmouth in the center of campus on the Green. The renovation expanded the building by 55% and lowered energy use to help Dartmouth attain its goal of becoming carbon zero by 2050.
Additional renovations include the following:
- One—the Morris Recital Hall, which is exquisite acoustically.
- Two—the Roth Theater, a state-of-the-art theatre that has a sprung floor for dance.
- Three—the Hobson Dance Studio, which has 20-foot windows and sprung floors for dance.
- Four—the Kaling Theatre Lab, funded in part by Mindy Kaling, a Dartmouth graduate who is a successful director and screenwriter in Hollywood.
- Five—our Spalding Auditorium, which has been redone so that there are now 795 seats, all with better site lines than previously. The ceiling has been acoustically tuned.
The HOP will have a huge variety of programs in the forthcoming year beginning in January. A complete schedule is available at the HOP’s website.
Aaron pointed outs that there are a variety of ensembles that make the HOP their home.
Kilton Library Book:
Bill Secord presented a book for the Kilton‘s children’s collection entitled Child of the Flower-Song People, based upon the true story of Luz Jimenez, a member of the indigenous Nahua Nation in Mexico.
Child of the Flower-Song People: Luz Jiménez, Daughter of the Nahua. By Gloria Amescua (Author), Duncan Tonatiuh (Illustrator).
Award-winning illustrator Duncan Tonatiuh brings to life debut author Gloria Amescua's lyrical picture book biography of an Indigenous Nahua woman from Mexico who taught and preserved her people's culture through modeling for famous artists.
She was Luz Jiménez,
child of the flower-song people,
the powerful Aztec,
who called themselves Nahua—
who lost their land but who did not disappear.
As a young Nahua girl in Mexico during the early 1900s, Luz learned how to grind corn in a metate, to twist yarn with her toes, and to weave on a loom. By the fire at night, she listened to stories of her community’s joys, suffering, and survival, and wove them into her heart.
Guests:
Aaron Rivkin, Kelly Drew, and Linda Secord, Bill Secord's wife.
Brags:
- Bruce Pacht bragged that he went to Denver with Laurie to see her daughter Haley get married. He also bragged that his youngest granddaughter just turned eight.
- Ernst bragged One: his sister did an Iron Man in Hawaii at the age of 72 and finished fifth in her age group; Two: He just got back from visiting his son Max in Munich; Three: the postcards he sent to various people and the club have not yet arrived; Four: he will bring his granddaughter Luna to a future meeting to formally present her with a Paul Harris award.
- Hank Clarke bragged that he has custody of his grandson for a week and that that involves getting up at 6 o’clock in the morning so the grandson can get to school.
- Bill Babineau‘s daughter worked on the movie Sinners, which will be shown at the Film Society on October 20. Her name appears in the after-movie credits as location manager.
- Past District Governor Kelly bragged that she was happy to be at our club meeting today.
CALENDAR THROUGH THE END OF THE YEAR:
- October 30: Matthew Garcia, Windsor County Mentors.
- November 6: Susan Cherry—Rotary Foundation Month—Focus on Middle East Peace Center in Turkey.
- November 13: Roy Schlieben, Executive Director, MAXT Makerspace, Peterborough, NH.
- November 2: BOD/Charities Reports +/- Classification Talk—Announce BOD and Trustee for 2026/2027.
- November 27: NO MEETING—Thanksgiving.
- December 4: Mascoma Music Boosters.
- December 11: TBD.
- December 16: Holiday party and Famous Yankee Swap at the Dwinell Room.
- December 18: NO MEETING--Holiday party on Tuesday, December 16.
- December 25: NO MEETING—Christmas.
