8/07/15 BITS & PIECES

Posted by Bill Blount 
on Aug 10, 2015
 
President Bowen called the meeting to order at the Clarion Hotel where a packed house of 59 Rotarians and 6 guests were in attendance. Bruce Jones researched his invocation, reading a poem by a charter member of our club, John Calvin Stevens. His circa 1917 poem had a pertinent refrain, “He profits most, who best serves fellow man.” Paraphrased from Rotary’s motto adopted in 1911 that led up to the more familiar Rotary motto, "Service Above Self," adopted in 1950. Kathy Grammer led us in the patriotic song.
 
We recognized and sang to our club’s members whose birthdays are in August.
 
Bob Traill recounted a bit of Rotary history covering the Roaring Twenties. At the time, our relatively young members, in the less than a decade-old club, marveled at early 20th century inventions like talking movies, airplanes and Thompson submachine guns. We were a fun-loving club with pranksters. Bob told a story where a woman greeted a member at the bachelor’s table with several children in tow. She said “Hi, husband!” to one of the bachelor’s embarrassment. The woman turned out to be a male member of the club in flamboyant women’s clothing, with borrowed children from the Boys and Girls Club.

President Bowen reminded us of the great work being done by Christine Force, soliciting donors for the Centennial Gala, coming up soon on September 12th. We are shy of our $30,000 sponsorship goal. Please sign up now and ask your local contacts to attend or help sponsor the event. Senator Angus King is our Keynote speaker.
 
 
Laura Pawlendzio conducted the weekly raffle ($407), with Gracie Johnston drawing the King of Clubs, so the pot grows for our next meeting.
 
 
President Bowen remarked that there was an absence of Rotarians in the news, except for 2nd Vice President Don Zillman, whose name appeared with about 6000 other runners participating in the Beach-to-Beacon road race. Way to go, Don!

 
What’s the biggest club in district 7780? Portsmouth, NH at 160 members, now plus 5 said President Bowen. He and the club president of Portsmouth have challenged each others clubs to a membership drive. We should be able to bring in more members this year with the attraction of this being our 100th anniversary! Invite a friend to our meetings and let’s see that Portsmouth bears the consequence (yet to be determined) of coming up short.
 
 
Alex St. Hilaire invited club members to support the United Way initiative “Book Buddy.” Portland ConnectED pairs up first graders with volunteers. Training is provided. This ties in nicely with Portland Rotary’s CHE initiative 'Childhood Hunger and Education.' Contact Alex for more information at: alex.st.hilaire@td.com or 689-8185.

 
 
 
John Curran announced the Dominican Benefit Concert happening on Friday, Aug 28 at Brunswick Landing. This supports the club’s International Service initiatives in La Romana, Dominican Republic. We're looking for Rotarian volunteers to help at the event, as well as donations and sponsorships to support the cause. For more information or to volunteer, contact John at: curraj1@mmc.org or call him at 232-5478.

 

 
Gus Karlsen announced that we have almost enough funds to sponsor one boat in this weekend’s MS Regatta on Saturday, August 15, 2015. Portland Rotary has helped with this initiative for many years. Contact Gus if you would like to help support this cause, or would like to 'crew' on a sailboat: karlsen@prodigy.net or 239-1568. For more information on MS Harborfest and the Regatta, go to: http://eventmam.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Special/MAMGeneralEvents?fr_id=26096&pg=entry

President Bowen asked for volunteers that are needed for the Boys and Girls Club 'Steak and Burger Dinner' on Thursday August 20, 2015 at USM Sullivan Gym. For volunteering, contact Bob Clark at 874-1069 or bclark@bgcmaine.org
  
 
Janelle LoSciuto announced that Jim Willey has donated the much-coveted Captain Underpants book series in our CHE book donation initiative. Do you think you can outdo Jim? To donate youth books for this project, please contact Janelle at:  jlosciuto@marchofdimes.org or 831-4113.