Rotary Bulletin
Wednesday, April 5, 2023
President Heidi opened the meeting at 6PM with the pledge and prayer.
Guests and Visiting Rotarians: Iain MacLeod, Elaine Good
Did ya know that the world’s largest waterfall is underwater, dropping nearly 2 miles down in the Nordic Sea?
Announcements:
- Thank you letter from the Lakes Region Food Pantry for the $1000 donation.
- Fishing Derby Meeting sometime in April. Mike Pelczar will send an email.
Program: Iain MacLeod, Executive Director for the Squam Lakes Science Center was our speaker. He gave a very engaging and informative talk about what is going on at the center, complete with amazing animal photo ops.
- Animals winter over as they are native to the area and are comfortable with the weather. Though closed for the winter, every weekend they have a guided walk on the trail with snowshoes and the animals like to come out and see people in the winter.
- Fishers (Not Fisher Cats as they are commonly known) from the weasel family name comes from an old English world for polecat. Doesn’t eat fish. Has a reputation for being vicious with loud screaming but this is not so and they don’t make much noise. Were reintroduced into the state to control the porcupine population.
- A new baby bear arrived in November from South Carolina and they are working on introducing him to the old female. They also have two new mountain lions after older ones passed away.
- They haven’t had a lot of field trips since Covid but hoping to get back to close to normal this year, which is 20,000 children. They get to hike the trails with a naturalist. They also have lake cruises with guided tours and chartered cruises. They expanded the Blue Heron School which is a Montessori based school for pre-school and kindergarten. It’s full with a waiting list. The motto is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing and they want kids to be comfortable in the outdoors.
- They put solar panels on the school and a big solar array in the parking lot. Designed to off-set a 100% of their electrical use.
- The Fishing Derby and the Science Center have had a relationship for twenty years as the Rotary donates all the fish to them. Then the Science Center has a fish chopping day creating meal sized portions in the freezer. The fish feed several animals, particularly the otters and bald eagles all year. Most animals will get some fish to change up their diet. Iain concluded with, “so long and thanks for all the fish!!”
Happy Dollars: Carl for he and Tom Fairbrother being back!!! Bob for a trip to see cherry blossoms and bike riding. Tom…it’s great to be back. Chuck pinned Tom Fairbrother as a Past President. Elaine left last week and never paid her bill…so she paid tonight. Heidi for her daughter getting married. Jim for U. Conn’s victory and for Elaine paying her bill tonight. Bruce for end of ski season and for Tom and Carl being back.
50/50: Carl is the biiigggg winner!
President Heidi led us in the 4-Way Test and meeting adjourned at 7:07 PM.
Respectfully submitted, Erin Apostolos
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