An overflow lunch group meeting was convened by President Patty Byers with the gavel bell at 12:15.
Jim Vicenzi led the opening Pledge of Allegiance and Larry Gross presented the message of the day. November 22, 1963 tragic day in Dallas, Texas; but the date is also the birthday of his granddaughter. A reflection on the stanza of a poem by Portland Maine author Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “A Psalm of Life”: Lives of great men all remind us; We can make our lives sublime; And, departing, leave behind us; Footprints in the sands of time.
WELCOME: Amy Chipman(photo) introduced Rotary guests: Arnold Rosario guest of Charlie Frair; Sophia Segal and Jenna Segal, from Cheverus High School; Richard L’Heureux guest of Juliana and Andrew Digan Cheverus High School Counselor.
RAFFLE: Mike Ross led the raffle drawing for a chance to win $320. Ellen Niewoehner tried to pull the lucky Queen of Hearts but was unable to claim the prize. By the way, Mike and his wife Taylor are expecting their second child any day!
PORTLAND TREE HAS ROTARY ROOTS: PDG and PP of Portland Rotary Dick Hall made the front-page news in the Portland Press Herald when he generously donated a 40-foot blue spruce from his yard to be the 2024, Holiday tree in Monument Square. Dick made a Happy Dollars donation because the news coverage included showing him wearing his Rotary emblem winter hat. A video clip from WMTW8 is on line at this site here.
GIFT IDEA: President Patty Byers suggested joining her in donating a Holiday gift in the name of someone who is “hard to buy for”by giving to the Portland Rotary Club Tree Fund to help continue the community services tree planting projects around Portland. The Bayside Trail tree planting project is near completion.
YOUTH SERVICES: Youth Services Jim Willey introduced the Cheverus High School scholarship recipient Sophia Segal and her mother Jenna Segal along with Guidance Counselor Andrew Digan. Sophia received a $1,000 scholarship from the Portland Rotary Club for demonstrating service over self. Sophia dedicates services to help others through her volunteer work with the Cheverus Key Club, Maine Needs, and other organizations. Congratulations to Sophia! In addition to the scholarship award, the Rotary Club donated $100 to the charity of Sophia’s choice and she designated the gift in her name be made to Marine Mammals of Maine.
BY-LAWS PASS: By-Laws update, review and vote: David Ertz thanked the by-laws committee members Dick Hall and Roger Asch for work on updating our club's by-laws to be consistent with Rotary International and to support current club policies. As required, the by-laws were circulated at least 10 days before bringing to a vote of the members. Dick Hall made a motion to accept the revised by-laws as sent out to membership; Patty Byers seconded the motion. The motion to accept was passed unanimously by all club members who attended the November 22, 2024 meeting.
JAN’S 4TH PHF: Paul Harris Award presented by Foundation Chair Gervin Kah to Portland Rotarian Jan Chapman, with gratitude for her dedication to community services, the Portland Recovery program, club service and international services projects. Congratulations and a standing ovation enthusiastically recognized Jan’s humanitarian leadership and generosity! This is Jan’s 4th PHF. Thank you Jan, with Gervin, Col."Bill" Clynk, and Patty.
COLONEL CLYNK: Community Service Rotarian Bill Blount recreated a character from the television series Hogan Heroes to capture the club’s attention for donating returnable bottles and cans in a Clynk bag. A Rotary donation tag is available to attach to the bags. The goal is for every Portland Rotarian to have a Clynk bag available to fill up and donate.
HEAR HIM: Roger Fagan reminded club members who help circulate the hearing aid donation boxes to place in visible locations where used hearing aids can be dropped and repurposed to donate to the Hearing, Hands and H2O international services project in the Dominican Republic.
COMMUNITY SERVICES: Zach Newell announced a committee meeting will be held on Friday December 6th. As of December 1, the International Exchange Student Antonio, from Valencia, Spain has a new home for the next two quarters of the year.
THANKSGIVING MEAL: A Community Service reminder from Nannette Ranger-Duncanson, serving at St.Vincent De Paul’s Soup Kitchen will be Wednesday November 28, with the sign up lists to prep, serve and clean up filling up with names. Thank you to all for over 35 plus year of providing this service to support the staff at the Saint Vincent de Paul Soup Kitchen.
JOIN JOHN: President-Elect John Thompson invited club members to join him in attending the Rotary International Convention in Calgary, Canada, June 21-25, 2025. This year’s convention is closer to the U.S. than others in recent years. A group attending from Portland Rotary would be a great chance to meet and have fun with Rotarians from around the world.
Zack Newell Nannette Ranger-Duncanson John Thompson
RESPECTS: A memorial service for Phil Rhinelander was held last week at the Cumberland Club, Portland. Phil joined Portland Rotary in 1990, and passed away on Feb 9, 2024. Larry Gross officiated at the service, that was well attended by family, friends, and many Rotarians. Phil was an active member of our club, and we send our thoughts and prayers to his family.
WELL READ: Our reading program is underway at Lyseth Elementary School. As a special bonus this year, we are including a Rotary Bookplate in each book that is given to our kids to keep and take home. This is a great way to inspire a love of reading and a source of pride, and it's a great example of ways we can increase our public image in the community.
Top photo - Rotarians Doug Packard, Penny Harris, David Small, and Andi Summers, read to the third grade, and under that we see Bruce Moore, Jan Chapman, Amy Chipman, and Bob Clark who read to second graders.
Last Week's Speaker: Curt Dale Clark, Maine State Music Theatre | by Juliana L'Heureux
Doreen Rockstrom introduced Curt Dale Clark, Artistic Director of Maine State Music Theatre (along with many other lifetime creative accomplishments). While she was researching how to contact him, it turns out she learned he is a member of the Rotary Club of Brunswick, Maine!
Curt gave the Rotarians greetings from the Brunswick Rotary while he entertained the club with his life story. Upon learning about the voluntary effort to collect used hearing aids, he quickly offered to place a box at the Maine State Music Theater office in Brunswick.
He grew up in the small town of Pecatonica, in Illinois where his high school graduating class was 37 students. He has a college degree from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, majoring in Spanish, speech communications, sales and marketing.
His career in theater began in Chicago. But, his acting career began after the theater he managed in Chicago was purchased to build a Wal-Mart. He found his way to Brunswick when the MSMT production of the musical Beauty and the Beast needed to quickly find a lead actor. He was experienced with the show having been with the traveling company, so he accepted the opportunity to perform in the MSMT production.
Since accepting the position to lead the MSMT, he divides his time living in Maine and in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Curt is the fifth director to lead the MSMT since the theater was founded in 1959 by Victoria Crandall, affectionately known as Vicki. She lived in Wiscasset, and opened her summer playhouse in the Pickard Theater on the Bowdoin College campus in Brunswick, with a production of The Song of Norway along with 9 other popular musical productions. She was ahead of her time in bringing summer musical theater to Maine.
Although the Theater at Ogunquit often produces big name musical shows a little ahead of when MSMT is able to obtain the rights, the two performing arts organizations try to work collaboratively to bring quality professional summer theater to Maine.
Curt described how he travels to many U.S. College campuses to audition talent to recruit performers for musical productions. He does not visit the same campus twice in a five -year cycle. He requires for each of the students he auditions to have talents in singing, dancing and acting. He also auditions in New York City.
MSMT is a 501c3 corporation. In addition to the theater company, the organization also offers travel tours to visit theaters in London, Lancaster, PA, New York City and Chicago. The theater Brunswick performers are housed in several residential homes purchased by the company and rented to private individual during the months of September thru May 1st but, must be available for the performers to live in during the months of May thru August.
Curt gave a brilliant poster presentation to highlight the shows scheduled for the 2025 summer season, i.e., four Mainstage musicals, three performances in the concert series and the family theater productions.
He concluded his presentation by telling some short and amusing “behind the scenes” stories.
New Member Notification -First Notice:
Bev Uhlenhake has applied for membership. She has over twenty years of Rotary experience as a member in Bangor having served on the Board and as a former President. She is a Government Affairs Consultant at Pierce Atwood in Portland where she also resides. Roxane Cole will be her sponsor. Her name will be published a second time and then her application will be voted on by the Board of Directors.
Speaker Schedule
December 6 - Jordan King -Ass't Manager, SeaWeed Company (Cannibis)
December 12 - Thursday Night Social
December 13 - No Club Meeting
December 20 - Chris Kuchuris & Jazz Quintet Portland Conservatory Music
December 27 - Happy Holidays - No Club Meeting
January 3 - Julie Poulin -Director Development, Animal Rescue League
January 10 - Stephanie McFeeters, Deputy Director, The Maine Monitor
January 16 - Thursday Night Social
January 17 - No Club Meeting
January 24 - Elizabeth McClellan, Founder/Pres, Partners For World Health
January 31 - Margaret Groban - Understanding 2nd Amendment
Club Executives
President Patty Byers President Elect John Thompson Vice President Justin Lamontagne TreasurerDick Hall Secretary Tom Nickerson Board of Directors Dick Hall,
WELCOME: Amy Chipman(photo) introduced Rotary guests: Arnold Rosario guest of Charlie Frair; Sophia Segal and Jenna Segal, from Cheverus High School; Richard L’Heureux guest of Juliana and Andrew Digan Cheverus High School Counselor.
PORTLAND TREE HAS ROTARY ROOTS: PDG and PP of Portland Rotary Dick Hall made the front-page news in the Portland Press Herald when he generously donated a 40-foot blue spruce from his yard to be the 2024, Holiday tree in Monument Square. Dick made a Happy Dollars donation because the news coverage included showing him wearing his Rotary emblem winter hat. A video clip from WMTW8 is on line at this site 
BY-LAWS PASS: By-Laws update, review and vote: David Ertz thanked the by-laws committee members Dick Hall and Roger Asch for work on updating our club's by-laws to be consistent with Rotary International and to support current club policies. As required, the by-laws were circulated at least 10 days before bringing to a vote of the members. Dick Hall made a motion to accept the revised by-laws as sent out to membership; Patty Byers seconded the motion. The motion to accept was passed unanimously by all club members who attended the November 22, 2024 meeting.
COLONEL CLYNK: Community Service Rotarian Bill Blount recreated a character from the television series Hogan Heroes to capture the club’s attention for donating returnable bottles and cans in a Clynk bag. A Rotary donation tag is available to attach to the bags. The goal is for every Portland Rotarian to have a Clynk bag available to fill up and donate.
RESPECTS: A memorial service for Phil Rhinelander was held last week at the Cumberland Club, Portland. Phil joined Portland Rotary in 1990, and passed away on Feb 9, 2024. Larry Gross officiated at the service, that was well attended by family, friends, and many Rotarians. Phil was an active member of our club, and we send our thoughts and prayers to his family.
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