This Friday, President Bowen will wrap up our remarkable 100 years. Well, he will go over the last year in which we celebrated Portland Rotary’s Centennial year! There will be a multi-media presentation, a theatrical trailer, clowns, balloons and gifts. Ok, some of that last statement won’t pass 'The Four Way Test.' Be sure to attend and join in our FINAL centennial celebration.
Mark Bessire has been the Director of the Portland Museum of Art since March, 2009. Previously, he was Director of the Bates College Museum of Art in Lewiston. He moved to Bates from the Maine College of Art in Portland, where he was the Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art. Bessire is a founding board member of the non-profit "Africa Schoolhouse," which is dedicated to building schools in rural Africa. http://www.africaschoolhouse.org/index.html
Mark told us about his friend Josh who died 25 years ago. He left an endowment for his friends to go out to dinner annually on the night before Thanksgiving and view the inflating of the Macy day balloons. One year, at that dinner, Mark and his wife invited the attendees to build a school in Tanzania. The group was founded to build the school, that night. In Tanzania, art is mostly associated with healing, so it was decided to include this concept into the planning of schools. There are now 20 full-time employees of "Africa Schoolhouse." Schools include fresh water wells, a critical need in the area. Mark said if nothing but the well survived, the school would be a success for the village. AfricaSchoolhouse moved away from the colonial school model, and created a school that looks like a village. Classrooms and teacher houses were included in the village. The organization built a health clinic nearby, with education in the healing arts. Traditional and modern medicine work side by side. Both respect the contribution of the other. The organization operates on the belief that schools must be self sustaining when complete, as keys are turned over to the community.
Clay Bessire, Mark’s daughter, spoke next about when the Portland high student traveled to Tanzania in April 2016. She watched students, in a lab, using chemicals. (Later when she shared these photos of her immigrant classmates at Portland High, they were amazed that the school had real labs for girls.) Education for girls is more difficult than for boys. Clay is setting up social media for the school now, and stays in contact with the girls she met. She went to a 2nd school, where there were only 7 girls in the class of 36. Most girls have to stay home and help out. Boys have more time for homework and for playing, as girls do all the work. Empowering girls is so important. Most mothers and fathers have not gone to school. Portland High, Africa Studies Group, has paid all the fees and supplies for three students. Secondary schools are free, but students still have to pay for uniforms, fees, and supplies.
Clay told us when she signed her name to a guestbook, many people were shocked she could do it. Most girls her age cannot read or write. Clay missed out on LaCrosse season, so she brought two sticks. She taught others to play and some boys learned how to pass.
(Photo: Mark, Clay and Aimee Bessire.) The microphone went back to Mark, who told us the first school has 500 students, and the whole cost of the project was $750,000. "AfricaSchoolhouse" has a new focus.....girls empowerment. Pamela Hawkes and Scott Tees, from Portland, donated their time to design the newest school project to support this focus. It has been shown that the longer kids stay in school, the better the opportunities. School prepares them for the better jobs in the cities. Mark’s wife, Aimee, then told us how some girls walk up to 2.5 hours, one way, to get to school. "AfricaSchoolhouse" is planning to build a boarding school to address this need. She told us that some families are happy that their daughters can go to boarding school. Some are very concerned about losing the labor at home. She told us that girls have been assaulted on the way to school. They need a safe place to be at school.
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.
As we receive applications for prospective members to join our Portland Rotary Club, the names of the applicants will be included in our Windjammer. Any information and/or comments you would like to share will be handled confidentially. Please contact Loretta Rowe: lrowe@maine.rr.com. Your input will be appreciated.
PROSPECT BUSINESS (Sponsor) Danielle Conway Dean & Professor of Law, USM (Bowen Depke)
Thomas Saturley Tranzon Auction Properties (Peter Goffin)
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Alex St. Hilaire
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