Greg Mitchell is the Director of Economic Development for the City of Portlandand has filled this role for eleven years. He joined the City in 2010 as the Director of Housing and Economic Development. Mitchell has over 35 years of experience in economic development in public and private sectors including nonprofit work in south Florida and throughout Maine. His present focus includes business recruitment and retention, advocacy of business interests in city government, marketing, lead negotiator with economic development projects and city real estate transactions, and housing development.
Mitchell holds degrees in business administration and economics from Norwich University and Florida Atlantic University.
Proposed Slate of Officers Named for 2021–22
Past-president Amy Chipman, chair of the Nominating Committee, presented the proposed slate of officers for next year pursuant to the Club’s Bylaws. Committee members included Michael Fortunato, Bruce Jones, Bob Martin, Bowen Depke, and Bill Blount. The officers nominated were:
President, 2021–22: Bob Martin
1st Vice President, and President 2022–23: Bruce Jones
2nd Vice President, and President 2023–24: Nan Heald
Secretary: Michelle Disotto
Treasurer: Howie Herodes
Board Members: Jennifer Frederick; Dr. Roger Fagan; Michael Fortunato; and, Bob Clark
The Club will vote on the proposed slate on December 18.
A Rotarian of Action
Nan Heald has been the Executive Director of Pine Tree Legal Assistance since 1990. Her leadership enabled Pine Tree to strengthen and expand legal services to diverse client populations and in new areas of law to make justice more accessible for all the people of Maine. She has encouraged the innovative use of technology to expand access to legal information and self-help tools, starting in 1996 with creation of www.ptla.org, the first legal aid website in the country to include self-help resources. Other programs created during her tenure include the formation of Maine’s first and only children’s law project, expanded support to self-represented family law litigants and victims of domestic violence or sexual assault, and new legal representation projects addressing foreclosure, housing discrimination, and the needs of low-income taxpayers, veteran, and military families. A variety of boards have benefited from her counsel, including the NationalLegal Services Corporation Task Force on Pro Bono, the Maine Judicial Branch’s Advisory Committee on Fees, and the Advisory Committee of Providers to Maine's Justice Action Group. She has been recognized as one of the inaugural Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America (2005) and a MaineBiz “Woman to Watch” in 2010. President Barack Obama called her a “champion of change” and “leader in closing the justice gap” in the U.S. She has also been honored for her work by the Maine Veterans Coordinating Committee, the Maine Judicial Branch, and the Maine Civil Liberties Union.
Nan grew up in Oquossoc in the western mountains of Maine, graduating from Smith College in 1977 and George Washington University Law School in 1980. She has been a member of Portland Rotary since 2015, sponsored and introduced by Don Lowry, and has served on the Board as the Club Protection Officer.
Bits and Pieces
Charlie Frair provided the invocation with a reading from ee cummings:
“i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any---lifted from the no
of all nothing---human merely being
doubt unimaginably You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
Our gathering of 42 on Zoom included guests Jesse Senore, President of the Board of Directors of the St. Vincent de Paul Soup Kitchen, and prospective member Brian Batson.
Michael Nazemetz, a member of the Portland Sunrise Rotary Club and husband of Club President AnnLee Hussey, passed away a few weeks ago from cancer, according to Peggy Blanger, District Governor. “Michael was a wonderful man, dedicated to his life as a veterinarian and Rotarian,” said Belanger. “Michael’s warmth, kindness, and generosity will be forever missed.” Condolences may be sent to annlee001 at yahoo.com, or to 100 Boyds Corner Rd., South Berwick ME 03908
Patty Erickson announced that her attendance would be impacted from January to April as she retires from Bath Savings Institution to enjoy time in Florida. Challenged to attend via Zoom, she responded that golf lessons may interfere.
President Ellen Niewoehner announced that the Board approved the installation of a bench in Rotary Grove along the eastern waterfront in memory of Loretta Rowe. The Club will purchase the bench through the City of Portland who will install it. Contributions supporting the purchase can be made to the Portland Rotary Charitable Fund either online or by check. If paid online, please send Elise Hodgkin an email identifying the purpose of the contribution. Donations to the Charitable Fund are tax-deductible.
President Ellen also announced that the Youth Services Scholarship Award for Portland High Schoolstudents would be renamed the Loretta Rowe Youth Scholarship Award for Portland High School.
Dr. Liz Fagan shared news of the All Hands Hold Books project. She reported that she has been working with the Research Center and the National Library in Kosovo to supply books. The effort to deliver books to them secured through the grant from Scholastic Books has been delayed by the COVID lockdown in place. She is also working with 16 other countries who asked for her guidance in establishing similar programs. Liz said that she has book plates that can be affixed to donated books. Members who wish to contribute books to the effort can request the stickers from Liz. Right now, the Portland Housing Authority is accepting these contributions for delivery to families along with food distribution. She is working with the Long Creek Youth Facility as well, but they only have two bookshelves for residents. Liz said that books of any genre, or for any reader age are welcome.
Dr. Roger Fagan announced that the hearing program in the Dominican Republic had been severely impacted by COVID-19 resulting in a change of focus. Plans are now underway to provide these services to indigenous people in Maine and Canada. Details will be forthcoming.
Goodwill: One of the Most Inspiring Companies
By Ben Lowry
With a re-introduction by Bowen Depke, the Portland Rotary Zoom group got a chance last Friday to say hello to an old friend of the club, former member Rich Cantz, who reluctantly left the club two years ago after rising to the position of CEO and President of Goodwill of Northern New England. With an area covering all of Maine and New Hampshire and parts of northern Vermont, Rich has been busy leading the venerable 118-year-old institution as it expands and copes with all of the adversities created by joblessness, the opioid crisis and, this past year, by COVID-19.
With 1,800 employees and 30 stores in the region, the reach of Goodwill is vast and its work includes much more than the retail outlets so familiar to us all. Rich gave us an overview and explained why Forbes Magazine has named Goodwill “one of the most inspiring companies” three years in a row, a fitting accolade for the work done by so many good-hearted and hard-working people within the footprint of the international parent company.
In Maine, Goodwill NNE provides healthcare and residential living opportunities in 23 residential homes, where 123 people with brain injuries and disabilities get the support they deserve. After the closure of the Pineland facility in New Gloucester decades ago, Goodwill jumped in and picked up the slack with these housing options. Through a partnership with Maine Medical Center, 400 to 800 patients with acquired brain injuries are seen annually on an out-patient basis in Goodwill neuro-rehabilitation facilities in Lewiston and Scarborough. The organization also maintains five locations providing day services in local communities, including a thriving full-service commercial property maintenance and cleaning company with contracts as substantial as the one with the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, where Goodwill employees clean and maintain the grounds and the expansive network of buildings. Other services include workforce programs in career centers where folks can receive job coaching, and another counseling program where families impacted by the opioid crisis can seek guidance and support. Rich reported that over 10,000 households receive some form of “stability support” from the organization.
In 2014, the University of Vermont provided research to Goodwill in an effort designed to focus organizational goals, resulting in the creation of the Job Connection Program, which delves more deeply into the lives of individuals. This innovative program pairs a social worker with a career advisor, or “life navigator,” with those impacted by domestic issues, food insecurity, or substance use disorder, and helps them work toward a healthier, more productive life. With funding coming from retail store sales as well as grant monies, the goal is to provide stability for just about anyone who may ask for help.
Rich, in a thoughtful response to a query from Jim Willey about a young man who had lost his way and ended up taking his own life, promised our group that any of us can contact him with any such issue or need and he would take charge to find help or guidance for such an individual. With peer mentors on staff, Rich stated, Goodwill can provide just about any type of aid that may be needed to jumpstart the life of someone who may feel lost or marginalized.
This was an inspirational look at a staple of our community, and an eye-opening overview of what lies behind those storefronts and donation centers we have all grown accustomed to over the years. While we miss Rich being a part of our weekly meetings and helping with our projects, it seems he has found his place in our state and region, a place that allows him and so many others to show the compassion, care and desire that make us all so proud to have Goodwill an integral part of our lives.
Moment of Reflection
Snow
by Louis MacNeice
The room was suddenly rich and the great bay-window was
Spawning snow and pink roses against it
Soundlessly collateral and incompatible:
World is suddener than we fancy it.
World is crazier and more of it than we think,
Incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion
A tangerine and spit the pips and feel
The drunkenness of things being various.
And the fire flames with a bubbling sound for world
Is more spiteful and gay than one supposes—
On the tongue on the eyes on the ears in the palms of one's hands—
There is more than glass between the snow and the huge roses.
December 18 | Greg Mitchell, Economic Development Director, City of Portland
December 25 | NO MEETING
January 1 | NO MEETING
January 8 | Craig Freshley, Makeshift Coffeehouse
January 15 | Heather Paquette, Hannaford
January 22 | Steve Hewins, Hospitality Maine
January 29 | Sarah Hansen, Greater Portland Landmarks
February 5 | Joey Spitz, Kinotek Software
February 12| TBD
February 19 | Karen Nason, Ghost Karen’s Kitchen
February 26 | Peter Vigue, Cianbro
March 5 | Caroline Croft Estay & Nona Yehia, Vertical Harvest
March 12 | Brian Corcoran, Shamrock Sports
March 19 | Stefanie Trice Gill, IntWork LLC
and has filled this role for eleven years. He joined the City in 2010 as the Director of Housing and Economic Development. Mitchell has over 35 years of experience in economic development in public and private sectors including nonprofit work in south Florida and throughout Maine. His present focus includes business recruitment and retention, advocacy of business interests in city government, marketing, lead negotiator with economic development projects and city real estate transactions, and housing development.
ovative use of technology to expand access to legal information and self-help tools, starting in 1996 with creation of www.ptla.org, the first legal aid website in the country to include self-help resources. Other programs created during her tenure include the formation of Maine’s first and only children’s law project, expanded support to self-represented family law litigants and victims of domestic violence or sexual assault, and new legal representation projects addressing foreclosure, housing discrimination, and the needs of low-income taxpayers, veteran, and military families. A variety of boards have benefited from her counsel, including the National Legal Services Corporation Task Force on Pro Bono, the Maine Judicial Branch’s Advisory Committee on Fees, and the Advisory Committee of Providers to Maine's Justice Action Group. She has been recognized as one of the inaugural Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America (2005) and a MaineBiz “Woman to Watch” in 2010. President Barack Obama called her a “champion of change” and “leader in closing the justice gap” in the U.S. She has also been honored for her work by the Maine Veterans Coordinating Committee, the Maine Judicial Branch, and the Maine Civil Liberties Union. 
