Meeting Date:   June 14 2024

Presiding:         President Matt Dodge 

Greeter:            Ryan Anastasi

 

President Matt opened the meeting at 07:30 and Ryan shared a poem called Betsy’s Battle Flag by Minna Irving. 

 

 

 

Guests Names: John Sterritt and Isabella Delgado in person, and Ruth Clough on zoom

Visiting Rotarian’s Names: DG David Saturley and Jim Rumrill

 

●    This past weekend, the Board approved Bow Rotary’s adoption of the Hooksett satellite club.

●    OTH Wifi Password is: 12345678

●    Tanya Frost is hosting the final board meeting

●    Awards Night is next Thursday night 6/20 - 6pm start time for food and drinks. At 6:30pm, the program starts. We are allowed to bring guests, family or friends. We do have a liquor license, beer and wine will be available, yay! Feel free to wear business casual attire if you would like. 

●    Dues - if planning to no longer be a member of the club, please talk to President Matt. If you are on our roster on July 1st, the cub will owe your Rotary International dues for the year. 

●    Dave Farr and Tanya Frost - Concert series sign up. June 27th is the first one, local students and local talent, including Dean Cascadden! 

Birthdays: Dave Scanlon’s birthday is TODAY! We sang to him. He reflected upon the Presidential Primary, and when he testified before the US Senate, he felt like he was on a movie set! June 26th event - family recipes and genealogy event at the Baker Free Library at 6pm. 

Fines: None

Happy Bucks: Cheryl Lindner - GFOA (Government Finance Officers Association) conference in Orlando, she presented about investing for municipalities. Her master’s degree was conferred, she officially has her MBA! 

Judy Goodnow - Last weekend the Garden Club went to her house and did a great job.

Dick Swett and Dave Scanlon - Scooters

Chris Parkinson - went to see Hootie and the Blowfish, he got pulled over for speeding this morning, a young woman was the officer, had to decide whether to say Rotary or radiation treatment, he went with the latter and the officer only gave him a warning. 

Ben Kiniry - Very happy to celebrate 25 years of marriage and his son’s birthday today.

Donna Deos - Beach day yesterday was great. Happy to see Ryan being the greeter and taking notes for the bulletin, also happy to see John S, David S, Jim R, and Bella!

Jim Rumrill - happy to be here and see so many great people, happy to have Bella the exchange student with him today.

Barb Griffin - forgot her pin, upper merrimack river local advisory committee - 3 year appointment - 5 towns, we have 4 seats, 2 are filled, meet monthly, partner with NH state environmental dept. and give recommendations, role is to review permits, residential and commercial with the potential to impact the Merrimack River. Allows citizens to have an impact and have a say in our community. Contact Barb for more info. 

Mike Gula - He was late. His son is in his first relationship, she lives in CT. He talked about the broken family and dysfunctionality he witnessed, he did not realize how good his life is and how good his Mom and Dad made it for the family, he gave Mike a hug. He shared the news with his wife, so nice to see his son maturing. Also, the race in Portland went well, he enjoyed it. 

Gerry Carrier - Market days this upcoming Thursday 6/20 - Saturday 6/22, 10am to 10pm in downtown Concord, check it out at https://www.marketdaysfestival.com.

Final assignments coming out this week, and he gave another buck because he is happy to hear Mike’s great story,. 

Steve DeStefano - He lived in Colorado, traveled around with the women’s volleyball team, went to the Washington Cathedral once, had dinner at the Chinese Embassy with their volleyball team, and that is where he got the USA volleyball shirt he is wearing today for Flag Day.

Dave Gazaway - happy to see Dean Cascadden back in person

Jerry Kingwill - 36 years happily married, and thank you Donna for organizing today’s program.

Dean Cascadden - wants to form a Loon Sanctuary, take over an organization by the lake, he is taking care of himself, bought shrimp and scallops, cooked on the grill, he said he will be ok. Not sure if he will stay in the club. He has good days and bad days.

 

Program: DG David Saturley introduced Jim Rumrill and Bella 

Jim has been involved with youth exchange for 26 years. From the Ludlow, VT club. David has had the honor of soaking up some of his knowledge. Jim will share the magic of youth exchange. 

 

Jim - Rotary clubs have been involved in youth exchange in the 1930s, started in California exchanging with European clubs in early 30s, stopped during WWII, then restarted in the mid-40s.  8,000 students worldwide participate today. 

 

District 7870 here, our program shrunk during the pandemic, shrunk by 50%. Learn a different culture, language, share themselves, works both ways, USA to another country and vice versa. Rotary districts started from scratch 2 years ago coming out of the pandemic. Jim has been on a tour around the district, there is a need for this coming school year, ESSEX (Eastern states student exchange) there were some clubs that had committed but now some clubs have backed out, so there is a shortage, need housing for 2 students, 2 women from Italy and Spain coming to the US. Once you get through the paperwork/documentation stage, it becomes a great opportunity to exchange culture with another. We have a challenge engaging youth in Rotary, the youth exchange is a good opening. Learning about young people, how we can help the high school and how they can help us. Becomes an opportunity to spread the word about Rotary. Opens up an avenue to connect with exchange students and people from around the world. 

 

He was in Brazil in April, attended the college graduation of a girl who he and his wife hosted at their home and got to meet her Mom. It was a great experience. 

 

His main ask of us: Bow rotary, please consider hosting an exchange student here. 

 

Bella - Rotary Exchange has changed my life and my exchange friends. It has been the experience of their lives. Having lifelong friendships, they will be her brothers and sisters for life, you become part of a community and family, it is beautiful, now she has two homes, one in Venezuela and one in NH. She was the first from Venezuela after COVID to participate in this exchange. She said sure, what can go wrong? They offered her the chance to go to the US. She thought of CA and Miami and shopping malls at first. The she found out she was going to Claremont NH, the winter months were hard, but she saw snow for the first time, it has changed her life, opened up her perspective. She thought she would stay in her country for college, now she wants to go to college in the US. She may take a gap year, just becoming fearless going through the airport alone, leaving your country, it is an amazing experience and has changed her life. You meet awesome people. Thank you for hosting us and for making this possible. 

 

Jim - this happened because the Claremont Rotary club said yes they will do it. Rotary International - an important part of it is this exchange program. Share our American culture and learn about other cultures. Jim complimented Donna on her hard work, thank you. 

 

We are reaching out today because we need help. We need a club to set up a committee, work with school, it is not a whole year, just a 3 month span. 

 

Q: Do host families have to be Rotarians? 

A: No, they do not. They have to live within the school district. You need to have the willingness to open your home, and the club has to appoint a club councilor and youth exchange officer to help the student and the host family. Check in at least twice a month. Develop natural relationships. Include the student in rotary meetings and events! 

 

Q: Any concerns now about how late it is to approach the school board now in June?

A: Yes, concerning, but we have connections in schools, we have small towns, and hoping for exceptions for this 

 

Q:Did Bella enjoy moving from house to house each month? 

A: Yes, she liked experiencing different perspectives, like one house had dinner at 5:30pm, another house ate dinner later, and the lifestyles were different. Different numbers, some were single, some had large extended families.

 

Q: Can you talk about your jacket? 

A: Bella - Yes! We have pins representing different countries, Romania, Spain, Belgium, Brazil etc. - she always gets pins wherever she goes.

 

Bob Couch hosted 3 times and his daughter went to Chile for a year. Bob encourages us to consider helping out with the youth exchange. 

 

Ruth on zoom - she has been doing youth exchange at her Bethel club since 1974, 50 years. 

 

Jim complimented Chris Parkinson on a great event at Lake Placid years ago, he remembers that, Chris is an international celebrity, Jim encourages us to refer to Chris as such.

 

Jim thanked us for our time and consideration.

 

 

President Matt closed the meeting with a toast to Rotary the world over.

Respectfully Submitted, 

Ryan Anastasi covering for Michelle Olivier