On June 22, the Hollis-Brookline Rotary Club met for its annual installation of a new President. President Josephine Jacques finished a successful year and passed the gavel to our new President, Lynne Duval of Brookline. In honor of Josephine, a native of Haiti, the affair was held at the Ansam Restaurant on South Street in Milford, a restaurant specializing in Haitian food. The Club thanks Josephine, a primary care provider in Nashua, for the time and effort she devoted to enable the Club to continue its good work for the Hollis and Brookline communities.

Incoming President Lynne said she is very excited to lead the club over the next year. “I couldn't ask for a better night and a better group of people to welcome me and to collaborate with me. The Hollis-Brookline Rotary Club is truly a group of amazing people who not only do great work within our communities but also support each other within the club and are great friends.” 

As the end of the school year approaches, Hollis Brookline High School (HBHS) students look forward to the future. While seniors have already thrown their caps and gowns, current juniors excitingly await senior year. 

They have a full to-do list ahead: college applications, sports senior nights, prom and graduation. Current junior Gina Anton has one extra task on her to-do list: study abroad in Belgium.

Anton has always had a connection with foreign languages. “I used to live in France for middle school and I speak French with my mom,” she explained.

After returning back to the United States for high school, she has continued to develop her French skills. In an academic setting, she has quickly progressed through the French classes at HBHS and is currently taking AP French Language and Culture, an advanced college-level class. 

With an interest in continually improving, her next step was to go abroad. “I really want to use my French more, so I put countries on my list that I could use my French in for my last year of high school,” Anton said.

Anton decided to work with the Hollis Brookline Rotary Club through their Long-Term Youth Exchange Program. After applying and ranking her country preferences, Anton received Belgium as her destination.

Since she couldn’t return to France, this was a logical alternative. She explained that while part of Belgium speaks Dutch, there is also a significant region that speaks French. 

With this drastic change, Anton knows there will be some challenges. Mainly, she is going to miss her family and her dog, Ollie. “I’m going to miss him a lot because I’ve had him since he was a puppy and he’s my best friend,” she explained. 

Still, she hopes to alleviate part of this challenge by continuously staying connected through methods like Facetime. She takes comfort in knowing that her dog will be here when she returns. 

In contrast, Anton is also very enthusiastic about the upcoming changes in her life. “I’m excited to go to school because it’s a really different school system than it is in America,” said Anton.

Additionally, she has some other plans she is excited about. “My expectations are to make a lot of friends that also speak French, to eat good food, to visit some of my family in France and to go on trips and see more of the world,” Anton said.

Even with so many new experiences, she hopes to revisit some of the activities that she originally did in France. “I used to play soccer when I was a kid, so maybe I’ll get back into that going back to Europe,” she said.

In response to this decision, Anton’s friends were very surprised. “My friends were kind of shocked but they were like ‘Wow this is really cool,’” she explained. 

Her family had a similar reaction. “My family was like ‘This is crazy—kudos to you—we’re going to miss you,’” Anton said. 

‘“Okay sounds good, I’ll see you in a year,”’ Anton said in response, as she gets ready to leave for Belgium late this summer.

The Hollis Fast 5K race took place on June 13th, with nearly 1,200 registrants racing, running, walking, or wheeling! The weather was perfect, and it was another Hollis-traditional fun time for all!

The Four Way Test reads:

“Of the things we think, say or do:

1. Is it the TRUTH?

2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?

3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?”

The brave contestants are all students in Mrs. Marie Salamone's College Composition class. They spent a couple of weeks writing, tweaking and studying their speeches. Each speech was between 5 and 7 minutes in length.

The students who participated are Kaylee Barchard, Caroline Crawford, Anika DiVirgilio, Sarah Hendrickson, John Masiello, Molly Morrissey, Kit Penasack and Genevieve Scales. The first place winner was Genevieve Scales, second place was Kit Penasack, and third place Kaylee Barchard. Genevieve will be a contestant at the semi-finals in Henniker on April 7th.

On April 5, Harbor Care was awarded a $2,000 donation by the Rotary Club of Hollis-Brookline to support its Dignity of Home initiative. The generous gift was presented by President Venu Rao and Treasurer Deb Cobleigh.

The donation will support Harbor Care’s work to house individuals who are experiencing homelessness and provide them with critical supports to ensure they progress from crisis, to stabilization, to success. 

Wintertime can be extremely dangerous if you don’t have a home. Dignity of Home, Harbor Care’s 100-day initiative during the coldest months of the year, provides access to safe, stable housing and helps individuals experiencing homelessness and the often-co-occurring challenges they face in their lives (mental illness, addiction, etc.). Harbor Care’s outreach teams reach people living outside, and in other unsafe and unthinkable places, to get them out of the cold and into safe housing with vital supports. 

Brian Tagliaferro, Harbor Care’s Chief Philanthropy Officer, accepted the award. “We are grateful for the Rotary’s generous support of our efforts,” Tagliaferro stated. “No one should be forced to live outside, especially during the winter. Community support such as this is helping to save and change lives.”

Harbor Care is the largest provider of supportive and permanent housing for veterans and individuals experiencing chronic homeless in greater Nashua and beyond. Since 2020, amidst a pandemic, Harbor Care has moved 246 individuals and families experiencing chronic homelessness into permanent housing, including 92 in 2022. In addition, Harbor Care helped 343 veterans experiencing, or at-risk of, homelessness to access stable housing last year.

Region’s newest community bank's new Hollis branch is now open!

Now in its 17^th year, the Hollis Fast 5K is considered the fastest 5K course in New England, attracting more than 1,000 runners from throughout the region to chase a personal best time. Although the race brings participants from across New Hampshire and beyond to Hollis, it is a treasured community event, and it is the Hollis-Brookline Rotary Club’s single largest annual fundraiser.

“We are excited to be part of the Hollis community, and we are very proud to support the Hollis-Brookline Rotary as presenting sponsor of the 2022 Hollis Fast 5K,” said G. Frank Teas, President of Millyard Bank. “We are a local, community bank in every sense, and we appreciate the important work Rotary volunteers do to help our communities thrive.”

The Hollis-Brookline Rotary Club is an all-volunteer organization comprising business leaders, and other professionals. Money raised through donations and fundraisers, such as the Hollis Fast 5K, is used by the Rotary to support local charities, provide grants to school teachers, fund scholarships, and for other initiatives that have a positive impact on the community and local residents.

“We are grateful to Millyard Bank for joining us as our 2022 presenting sponsor,” said Drew Kellner, CFA, Managing Member, Lumbard & Kellner, LLC, and co-director of the Hollis Fast 5K. “Rotary is a community-focused organization, and with its sincere commitment to working with individuals and businesses within the community, Millyard Bank is a natural fit for this event. We are excited to not only welcome runners from all over back to Hollis this June, but also to welcome our neighbors back for this fun, festive community tradition.”

Millyard Bank opened on December 23, 2019, and was one of only five banks to open in the United States that year. Despite opening its doors just a few months prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the bank quickly became an integral partner to local businesses. With its new location in Hollis expected to open later this spring, Millyard will fill a need for area residents and businesses that count on the services of a local community bank.

The Hollis Fast 5K is a 3.2-mile, point-to-point road race that begins at Hollis-Brookline Middle School on Main Street and ends at the Alpine Grove Banquet Facility on Depot Street/Route 111A in Hollis. The race takes place Thursday, June 9, 2022, at 6:30 p.m. For information about the race, and to register, visit www.hollisfast5k.com.

For information about Millyard Bank, including hours of operation, visit www.millyardbank.com.

• Town Committees and Commission news, including election and candidate information
• SAU 41 and local school information
• Local clubs and groups
• Local business news
• Community events

Hollis Brookline Rotary is pleased to announce the availability of a scholarship in memory of Janice H. McElroy, who served as District 7870 Governor during Rotary Year 2011-2012.  Governor McElroy was instrumental in securing, after the devastation of Hurricane Irene, a Rotary International grant of $412,000 to help southern Vermont to rebuild.

The Janice H. McElroy Memorial Scholarship is made possible due to donations from friends, colleagues, and Rotary Clubs throughout District 7870, covering southern Vermont and southern New Hampshire.

Prior to her death in 2014, Jan McElroy requested that any donations received in her memory be dedicated to establishing a scholarship fund for non-traditional students.

The recipient must be a person who is 21 years of age or older and has completed high school or earned a GED. There must be at least a three-year gap between graduating from high school and full-time college attendance, or a record of part-time college for three years after graduating from high school.

The scholarship funds may be used for expenses at a four-year or a two-year college, or at another type of accredited institution, such as a technical or vocational program. The amount of the scholarship award varies but will be a minimum of $1,000.

Click here to download an application form that may be printed, completed, and mailed to arrive before the cutoff date of April 15, 2019.

This week's Four Way Test Speech Contest was a great success. Thirteen HBHS students presented 5-7 minute well-prepared and impactful speeches on a wide variety of topics from self-respect to euthanasia, from parenting programs to honor killings, and many others, all through the lens of Rotary's Four Way Test.

The contest winner, Sarah Scott, will go on to our District's semi-finals in Henniker in April. The top three speakers at the semi-finals will present their speeches at our District Conference in May. All levels of participation include financial awards.

We are grateful to the students who participated and to Mrs. Marie Salamone for her championing of the contest through her curriculum. Thanks, also to our friends at the Rotary Club of Merrimack for their help with this event.

Join us on Wednesday, October 24th at Fulchino Vineyard in Hollis as we celebrate Rotary Week / World Polio Day. We invite you to share the evening with us (5:30 - 7:30pm) as we enjoy a light dinner buffet, wine tasting courtesy of Fulchino Vineyard, and an informal presentation of Rotary's involvement in Brookline and Hollis communities and around the world.

Brian Holroyd, Henri Boudreau, Marshall Coutu, Emily Sartell, Lauren Ingraham, Elizabeth Bonnette, Ellianna Jordan, Maren Anderson, Larissa Stamm, Jared Sanborn, Lauren Dattis, Oliver Hugh, Cole Lorig and Nik DiRenzo (in front).

Thursday was a very productive day for our Hollis Brookline Rotary Interact Club. We worked on posters and collection boxes for our first global project, Soles4Souls; we cut out 800 cards for the ChemoCare Package project to be held on November 17th at RMMS, and we snapped, folded and packaged more than 50 bags for The Stork Project!

Conducted again on New England's fastest 5k course, the 18th running of the Hollis Fast 5k road race, sponsored by the Hollis Brookline Rotary Club, took place on June 14th with a turnout considerably up from last year!  People of all ages and abilities from walkers, first-time 5k runners to world class athletes enjoyed our gentle downhill course featuring the quintessential New England community of Hollis, New Hampshire.  Here is a link to many more photos.

Members of the Hollis-Brookline Rotary Club are leading a project within District 7870 to provide an emergency solar power solution to Puerto Rico. These Solar Outreach System trailers are not only serving the people of PR in their time of need, but they will be redeployed to other areas of the world in response to future disasters when emergency power is needed.

Many thanks to the Milford Rotary Club for their generous financial support and to a number of other clubs that have joined in the effort. Working with the great team at ReVision Energy has been inspiring. Huge thanks to them for Making a Difference in the world and for the opportunity to be partners in that.

Three members of the club gathered with the team at Revision Energy last Friday for a send-off of the first three trailers.

Read the full story here.  

The FIRST team also presented one of its gears to the club (especially since their gear is extremely similar to the Rotary logo!) and we were thrilled!  Best of luck this year in your competition!

If you'd like to learn more about the team, or learn how to support them with a donation, here's their website.

Exchange students unlock their true potential to:

• Develop lifelong leadership skills
• Learn a new language and culture
• Build lasting friendships with young people from around the world
• Become a global citizen

If you'd like to learn more about the school-year-long and summer-weeks-long Rotary youth exchange opportunities through our Hollis-Brookline club, email exchange@hbrotary.org.  See yourself on an international adventure with youth exchange!

The Hollis Brookline Rotary Interact Members ended their summer by, once again, volunteering at the Nashua Soup Kitchen. They helped distribute backpacks (that were filled with school supplies) to children in need. Our members spent the day on Monday by walking the children and their families through the process of hand picking their own backpack, along with additional notebooks, lined paper and a special gift. This is the second time many of our Interactors have volunteered for Backpack Day at the Nashua Soup Kitchen, which says something about their dedication to improving the life of others by making a difference.

Dick, Venu and I are here in Atlanta for a Rotary International convention,  it  has been fun.  The event is well attended with delegations from nearly every country on earth! 

We were able to meet for dinner one evening -- enjoy the attached picture from this.

An enthusiastic contingent of Hollis-Brookline Rotarians, partners, and the Club's exchange student from France, participated in the 2017 Rotary District 7870 District Conference, held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nashua.

The Hollis Brookline Interact Club made approximately 450 pins to be worn by attendees of the Bedford First Responders Appreciation Comedy Show/Dinner on Saturday, June 3, 2017. More information to come.

There will be daytime events on June 3rd, at the Bedford Mall from 10am to 2pm. Stop by for raffles, 50/50, safety demonstrations, k9 dogs, food and vendors.

All proceeds go to the Bedford Fire and Police Benevolent Association.

From left to right: Connor Russell, Isaac Connelly, Brian Holroyd, Megan Coutu, Nik DiRenzo, Marshall Coutu, Oliver Hugh, Lauren Dattis, Delaney Weimer, Paige Kipp, Natalie Coutu, Noah Doran and Emily Sartell. Missing: Amy Ryherd and Zoe Taylor.

Rotarians learned today that their long-time colleague Basil Harris, has passed away after years of courageous struggle with debilitating health issues. In his memory, and in accordance with the wishes of his family, the Hollis Brookline Rotary now honors his years of Service Above Self and his dedication to our Club by creating the Basil Harris Memorial Fund, to be funded by donations in his name. Proceeds will be used exclusively to benefit one or more areas of service to which Basil was committed during his years in Rotary.

To donate in his memory memory to the Basil Harris Memorial Fund, please click here. You may pay with any major credit card or, if you have an account, with PayPal.

 Link to his obituary in the Telegraph

Four members of the Hollis Brookline Rotary Club went again this year to the Merrimack HS to judge the Four-Way Test Contest run by the Merrimack Rotary Club. Peter Bennett coordinated the Hollis Brookline support team, which, in addition to himself, consisted of Erika, Deb and Krishna.  Steve was there as a time keeper.  The student presentations were very engaging, as they had selected some very difficult, and some very personal, topics.  Their presentations were excellent, and in several cases exhibited maturity beyond their years in the handling of difficult subject matter.

Hollis Brookline Rotary will soon conduct its own Four-Way Test Contest, supported by the Merrimack Club.  We hope that our first foray into this event at HBHS will be just as good as Merrimack's has been over the years.

Sarah Marchant and Krishna Mangipudi, President of Hollis-Brookline Rotary Club, originally from Mysore, India.

Over the summer, Nashua aldermen voted to make Nashua a sister city with Mysore, India - a city 100 miles southwest of Bangalore.

Now, a local Rotary Club is sending a group of four Americans there.  

Krishna Mangipudi, originally of Mysore, is a local Rotarian behind the venture. He said the goal is to forge business, education, and cultural partnerships between the two cities of Mysore and Nashua. Sarah Marchant, Nashua’s Director of Community Development, is one of the people traveling there.

Marchant said she plans to “talk about Rivier, talk about some of the amazing tech industry that we have here.” She departs next week.

Marchant said possible positive outcomes include encouraging foreign investment, international students and tech workers to come to Nashua. Marchant also said she hopes to return with a better understanding the lives of the many Indian Americans living in Nashua already today.–

Left to right:  Brian Holroyd, Jared Sanborn, Isaac Connelly, Lauren Dattis, Oliver Hugh, Patrick Salisbury, and Dante Bertolami.

As summer comes to a close, these Hollis Brookline Rotary EarlyAct Club members came together to celebrate the end of an incredible year. This amazing club contributed more than 400 hours of volunteer time, including time spent with the Nashua Soup Kitchen, Special Olympics, Hunt Community, Beaver Brook, and Andres Institute. As we look forward to planning our next adventures, we celebrate our group of hard-working, kind-hearted teenagers, and we want them to know how fantastic they are!!

— For the Club, Susan Holroyd and Erika Cross MacDonald, Hollis Brookline Rotary EarlyAct Liaison

What happens when The Nashua Soup Kitchen asks for help? These 5 amazing teenagers from the Hollis Brookline Rotary EarlyAct Club say, Yes! They arrived at NSK at 4:00 to hear what their tasks would be, all a little nervous as none of them had been there during dinner time. All 5 had previously helped to stock the pantry, clean the floors, unload trucks and help with handing out donated school supplies. This night would prove to be a night to remember. They greeted guests, kept tables clean, helped bring meals to tables, remained on trash duty, and mopped floors. They really stepped it up!!

Left to right :  Jared Sanborn, Brian Holroyd, Isaac Connelly, Hailey Tiner and Brooke Robbins. PS  Isaac is not really that much taller than everyone else!