Our club’s centennial is on the horizon, and the committee wants as many voices as possible in shaping it. Members are invited to suggest one or two beneficiaries, along with ideas for how to celebrate and a volunteer activity to mark the milestone.
Email your beneficiary suggestions to Kevin Kelly.
CLUB BUSINESS
Please join us in welcoming Len Labua, who was inducted this week with Frank Bernieri as his sponsor. Len has been coming to the Lakes Region since he was a boy, spent his career in quality management in the semiconductor industry, and has coached plenty of youth basketball, so be sure to say hello at the next meeting.
The board also approved donations to the New Hampshire Boat Museum, Amigos de Honduras, and the new Waukewan Beach mural project.
Next week, Derby tickets go on sale, reservations open for the Senior Citizens Christmas Dinner, and the Lake Winnipesaukee Alliance will join us to talk about its work on the big lake.
A MAYHEW ROTARY CABIN
The club voted to make a pledge toward a new cabin at the Mayhew Program, which serves young men from across the region. Our pledge is a challenge to the roughly 27 other Rotary clubs in the area, which will have nine months to raise the rest of the cost. If they succeed, Meredith Rotary will hold the naming rights, and a display inside the cabin will introduce every young man who stays there to Rotary and to Service Above Self. Peter Saliba will take the project to those clubs, starting with the largest, and progress reports will come back to the club along the way.
SENIOR CHRISTMAS DINNER: GIFT CARDS NEEDED
The Senior Citizens Christmas Dinner is set for Sunday, December 6. Promotion is already underway with a press release in The Laconia Daily Sun and the Meredith News, along with new brochures designed by Daniel Whitney. To enrich the gift bags, please consider donating a $10 gift card for the dinner.
Bring gift cards to Wendy Bagley.
WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENING TO OUR LAKES
Our lakes are worth far more than most of us realize. Dartmouth valued Lake Winnipesaukee alone at $17.1 billion once property, tourism, camps, drinking water, and hydropower were counted together. That value is under real pressure: stormwater runoff, aging septic systems, and road salt have helped reduce water clarity on Winnipesaukee by about 8 to 9 feet over 40 years, and the invasive spiny water flea is leaving some fish so full of indigestible shells that they starve. NH LAKES works statewide to protect all of New Hampshire’s roughly 1,000 lakes through boat inspections, its LakeSmart program, and advocacy at the State House.
Meredith Trick-or-Treating: Saturday, October 31, starting at 5 PM. Avoid Main Street if you can. Haunted Halloween Walk: Saturday, October 31, 4 to 7 PM at Moulton Farm. Food proceeds benefit the Inter Lakes High School prom committee. Tilton Holiday Craft Fair: Saturday, October 31 and Sunday, November 1, 10 AM to 3 PM at the Tilton outlets. New Hampshire Day at the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center: Sunday, November 1. Admission is $10 for New Hampshire residents and free for members. Lakes Region Symphony Orchestra: Saturday, November 7 at the Silver Center for the Arts in Plymouth.
DERBY: HELP SPREAD THE WORD
Derby tickets go on sale November 1, and the town raffle permit application is already in. Harry Reichlen has reached out to about 20 bait shops around the state, and several have asked for posters and brochures. We still have about 75 posters and a couple thousand brochures looking for homes. Save the date for the Derby celebration dinner on February 24.
If you know a business that would display a poster or brochures, please pick up a stack at the next meeting.
A FRESH MURAL FOR WAUKEWAN BEACH
Anyone who has parked at Waukewan Beach knows how faded the old student mural on the wall has become. Meredith Rotary is teaming up with the Greater Meredith Program on an art contest for Inter Lakes seniors, who will design a new mural from February through March 1. The winning student will receive a scholarship and see their work mounted on the wall with a plaque. The mural is modular, so the contest can return every few years with a new design.
