04/10/15 Bits & Pieces
EDITORIAL NOTE: Regretfully, the first two important stories were omitted from our newsletter last week and we apologize for their omission.
One of the highlights of a Rotary club is bringing in a new member. On Friday, April 3rd, Loretta Rowe took the podium as Jim Willey's proxy to introduce our newest member, Laura Pawlendzio. Laura is the Marketing Manager/VP at People's United Bank in Portland. She currently lives in Newport, NH with her husband (Stan) of 40 years, is in the process of moving to the Portland area, has three grown children and 2.5 grandchildren (that means 2 grandchildren + 1 on the way).
Dick Hall presented a Paul Harris Fellow award to Roxane Cole. A lead from Roxane at a Rotary meeting in the spring of 2008, almost immediately resulted in Dick’s current job and he is extremely grateful to her for recommending that he check it out. Dick noted that Roxane is a dedicated Rotarian having been a member since 1991, including being past president of the club in 1999-2000, a visionary behind Rotary Grove on the Eastern Prom, is now serving as a District 7780 Club Visioning Facilitator, and the Team Leader last fall when the Portland Sunrise Club was visioned. Roxane received a Paul Harris pin with 4 stones, showing this is her 4th PHF.
Amy Chipman, our club Foundation Chair, then presented Dick with two pins, one as a companion to Roxane’s award and one for his 'Circle of Five' giving to the Foundation.
Foundation note: It only takes $500 to award a Paul Harris to someone special, as the club will match the $500 donation, bringing the donation to $1000.
Supporting the Rotary Foundation allows you to change lives and be:
- a part of the eradication of Polio;
- a partner in creating peace;
- a person who supports clean water and sanitation;
- a supporter of worldwide education;
- someone who believes that all babies, children and mom's should have good medical resources, micro-credit and equal rights.
- a person that is fighting Aids, Malaria, Ebola and other diseases
For more information and how you can participate in a "Circle of Five," contact Amy Chipman, Foundation Chair at: amy.chipman@rbc.com
President Kris opened our meeting last week by welcoming everyone and asking Bruce Jones to provide our invocation. To read Bruce's entire recitation on "Who's The Smartest?," please see type in blue below. We recited the pledge and Russ Burleigh played keyboard backup to our singing a patriotic song.
Charlie Frair conducted the $949 raffle. Our speaker, Chris Sauer, drew Harold Crabill's name to try and find the Queen of Hearts from the 21 remaining cards. He drew the four of Hearts. Will the pot exceed $1000 next week?
Bill Blount was called upon to be the song leader. Our pianist, Russ Burleigh, chose "Viva Le Rotary."
President Kris again welcomed the 46 club members, 1 visiting Rotarian and 2 guests; then read a thank you letter from Helen Gray-Bauer, the Youth Service Award recipient last week from Waynflete.
Ellen Niewoehner announced what you can do to support the Spring auction, "May Madness" coming up on May 1st:
- solicit gifts....preferably new or gently-used items with a minimum $15 value,
- ask for gift certificates from your frequented retailers,
- bring a friend to Rotary on May 1 to support our auction,
- bid often, and
- contact Ellen, Emily or Loretta with donated items or ideas.
Loretta Rowe took the podium to announce that a new Rotary year is fast approaching and you have a chance to select which committees you would like to help with. Completed committee preference sheets were due to be turned in today. You can still email them to Loretta ASAP (by Wednesday 4/15), if you have not done so already. You may be assigned to committees where you are needed, so please be flexible.
Please also go to the club website (portlandrotary.org) and check your personal information to be sure it's correct. The information that goes into our roster is collected from the website, so wrong information on the website means wrong information in the roster. If you need your photo taken or updated for the roster, please see Loretta or Russ.
Mike Fortunato announced that we are looking for support for the Maine Outdoor Challenge (MOC)...mainly, volunteers who would be willing to work in small groups, going door-to-door to businesses in the old port area, requesting items for our MOC auction that could help us raise $1000 in items to be auctioned. It would only take 2 hours of your time on a nice Spring walk. Please contact Mike if you can help: michael.k.fortunato@gmail.com
Who's The Smartest? (as told by Bruce Jones during his invocation)