06/17/16 Bits & Pieces

Posted by Alan Nye 
 
President Bowen welcomed 72 members and guests to the meeting and David Small gave a thought-provoking invocation about the recent tragedy in Orlando and noted with sadness that President Obama had to make remarks about mass shootings for the 16th time during his presidency.
 
 
Laura Young then had us pledge to the flag and we sang a patriotic song. President Bowen introduced 2 visiting Rotarians and 7 guests, making a special note of the 10 Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA) students that we are sending to Camp Hinds – 5 of which were at our meeting.
(Photo: RYLA Leader, Bill Ross and 5 of the 10 youths our Club is sponsoring in the RYLA program.) 
 
Alex St. Hilaire gave us our 'Rotary Moment in History' focusing on the year 1984. At that time Ronald Reagan was just ending his first term as President and getting ready for his second term. The U.S. marines sent to Lebanon as part of a multinational peacekeeping force left Beirut that year. In addition, lots of interesting things were happening in the field of science, as this was the time the first space shuttle mission landed at the Kennedy Space Center. The domain name system was widely adopted during this year and is still in everyday use today. In our own club, Naj Lotfey was President of Portland Rotary and Alex told us about several interesting speakers, including one who predicted that the 21st century would require only a 20-25 hour average work week. No such luck!
 
President Bowen then read a couple of nice letters, one from former member Ray Farrell who moved to Ireland and started a Rotary club there. He passed on his congratulations for our 100th anniversary celebration. He also read a thank you letter from the Friends at Long Creak Youth Center thanking us for our gift of $5000 that they will use to provide furnishings to parting residents starting over from their transition center. President Bowen also read aloud (for those who may have missed it in the Windjammer), the fine article written by Bob Martin about the recent meeting held at City Hall. Great job, Bob!
 
 
With Russ Burleigh on the keyboard, Alan Nye led the club in singing “You’re A Grand Old Flag” and many were pleased when the song ended.
 
The raffle ($370) was conducted by Leonard Scott with Ben Lowry doing the honors – and drawing the 2 of diamonds.
 
Eric Greven urged us to help out at the Preble Street Soup Kitchen on June 22nd and asked that you contact him directly about volunteering this week: egrev95@aol.com
 
 
Kris Rosado invited those at the meeting to attend a presentation on Autism led by Dr. Matthew Siegel of Maine Medical Center on July 13th. Dr. Siegel is a leader in the field of Autism and will speak about new research and treatment options. Contact Kris directly for more details and to let him know if you’ll be attending: kris.rosado@morganstanley.com
 
 
Laura Young introduced our newest Portland Rotarian: Elizabeth Banwell, from Banwell Consulting. 
 
Not to be outdone, Jim Willey then introduced our even newer Portland Rotarian: Janet Butland, from People's United Bank. 

Welcome Elizabeth and Janet!
 
 
President Bowen announced that the Club had won a 'District Governor’s Citation' (suitable for framing) and admitted that he had no idea why. He was proud to announce that we’d also been the only Club in our District to win a 'Gold Presidential Citation' – won no doubt due to all our Club's accomplishments during his Rotary year. He also noted that the 'Service and Memorial Fund' has officially terminated and the 'Portland Rotary Endowment Fund' envisions a lofty endowment of one million dollars for Portland Rotary.