THIS WEEK'S SPEAKER: Margaret Groban - Understanding the 2nd Amendment
Margaret will speak on the evolving understanding of the Second Amendment and right to bear arms. She will also address recent Supreme Court Second Amendment decisions and how they impact Maine’s ability to disarm domestic violence abusers and those who pose a danger to themselves or others.
Margaret Groban is a former federal prosecutor and National Domestic Violence Coordinator for the Department of Justice. In this role she was a critical resource in the Department of Justice’s efforts to implement the criminal provisions of the Violence Against Women Act and to fight the constitutional and statutory challenges to these federal domestic violence and firearm crimes. She currently consults for national domestic violence organizations, provides expert guidance and testimony on gun safety legislation and is adjunct faculty at the U. of Maine School of Law where she teaches a course on the Second Amendment and the Regulation of Firearms. She is a graduate of Bernard Collge and Fordham University School of Law.
BITS AND PIECES | By Juliana L'Heureux
Meeting convened by President Patty Byers at the Elks Club in Portland. Past President Ellen Niewoehner led the Pledge of Allegiance. Message of the Day was led by Juliana L’Heureux who called on the memory of General Douglas MacArthur who is a hero to the Filipino people, in advance of our Past District Governor and Past President Dick Hall’s travel with District 7780 Rotarians, on an international outreach trip to the Philippines
WELCOME: Niki Curtis Morrill introduced Mark Rajotte, guest of Larry Gross, Baxter Academy guests Anna Klein-Christie Executive Director and student guest Zofia Kuzma.
RAFFLE GROWS: Weekly raffle led by Andi Summers where Paul Gore’s name was drawn giving him the opportunity to win $360. He did not pull the required Queen of Hearts from the shrinking deck of cards so the jackpot will increase at the next drawing.
YOUTH SERVICE AWARD: A highlight of our Rotary youth service program is to provide scholarships to an outstanding student from each of the eight Portland area high schools. John Thompson introduced Baxter Academy Executive Director Anna Klein-Christie who gave an impressive background of our recipient, Zofia Kuzma. A stellar student, Zofia has been the co-leader in the Civil Rights Club (9-12 grades) organizing community activities, and helped organize students in their collaboration with the Pine Tree Legal and Maine People’s Alliance. She is co-leader in the photo club, a writer for Baxter Buzz publication, and a Maine Med Junior Volunteer. She studied abroad in Madrid and achieved the Seal of Biliteracy in Spanish. Zofia expressed her gratitude and thanked the Rotarians for the scholarship. She chose Partners in World Health, based in Portland to receive the $100 gift in her name. Tied in nice to our speaker! John, Anna, Zofia, and her parents :)
READING, RYLA, RECOGNITION: Bob Clark is asking for volunteers to become involved in Youth Services “3 R’s” meaning the reading program at the Lyseth Elementary School in Portland, where books are available for the readers to give to the students grades K-3. Second, enrollment for the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) is now open, culminating in a four-day retreat at Camp Hines, Windham, in June. See our club’s RYLA coordinator Bill Ross for more info. The third “R” is the Recognition for youth scholarships- five more upcoming with Deering High School on February 28th. Email Bob to sign up to help or to recommend a RYLA candidate.
CRUTCHES 4 AFRICA: As reported last week, Check the District 7780 webpage and/or sign up with Roger Fagan to help with Crutches for Africa. Loading the shipping containers will take place on Saturday, February 1st, beginning at 9 AM – 1 PM, 128 Saco Avenue, in Old Orchard Beach. Many hands are needed from the district Rotary Clubs and volunteers will meet outstanding Rotarians from the other clubs.
FLAGS FOR HEROES IN THE WORKS: Paul Tully updated the recruitment of sponsorships to honor the Flags for Heroes community project. A beautiful color informational brochure is available to distribute to potential sponsors.
COMMUNITY: Zach Newell reported on the Community Service Committee scheduled and proposed projects.
(1) A U.S.Map Painting project at the Lyseth School in Portland
(2) Volunteering at Partners for World Health – with Elizabeth McClellan, the founder and Director of PWH who is Friday's guest speaker. For more info Click HERE.
(3) Safe Streets / Portland Bayside – A recommendation by Tom Talbott to consider. Click HERE for more info.
(4) Locker Project – Courtesy of Amy Chipman who followed the announcement with an email to club members. Volunteers are needed to pack bags of non-perishable foods at their warehouse on Wed Feb 12th, 1:30pm-3pm,111 Wescott Road, South Portland. Limit of 8 volunteers – so reach out to Amy- Click HERE to email! We’ve done it before, it’s a great time!
CLYNK: Bill Blount updated the community service CLYNK Bags collection. The fund has accumulated $407.51 for the Rotary Club of Portland from donations of recyclable bottles and cans submitted and delivered to a Hannaford collection site. Pick up the free bags and the tags to identify the donations as being from Portland Rotary. All contributions are donated to the Project Heat Telethon.
WE RANG! Tom Ranello announced that we raised $6,146 from both our kettle drive and contributions from club members, best year ever! He showed a slide photo inside the gift room at the Salvation Army building, loaded with donated items! The toys and other gifts were donated and or purchased from the cash raised. The gift cards from Hannaford were purchased at a discount. The oil and rent assistance as well as English as a 2nd language and senior assistance all come as a direct result from funds collected through out the year. Tom noted that the SA does not receive funding from any government agency, so our donations really ring!
SOCIAL NIGHT AT MAINE CELTICS: Our February Social will be to attend a Maine Celtics game at the Portland Expo. Thurs, Feb 13th, Game time 7pm. Tickets are $32 – bring family, friends, we'll have "side center" seats that have backs, we're not in the bleachers! We need to put in our order for the number of tickets by February 3rd!
Tom Talbott will place the order, and you can Venmo or pay when you pick up the tickets at the Feb 7th Club meeting or at the door that night. We've sold 25 tickets so far, so join in!
LET'S CHAT: Organized by ShareForever 7780 Ambassador Dick Hall, Portland Rotary hosted a Fireside Chat on January 27th, at the home of Patty and Reid Byers. Members from the South Portland/Cape Elizabeth and Yarmouth Clubs, join Portland Rotarians to enjoy an evening of fun and fellowship, featuring Celeste Herbert, our Rotary Foundation Major Gift Officer, who shared details about the amazing endowment campaign now underway Photo: (Standing) Reid Byers, Jerry Wall, Bill Dunn (Yarmouth), Larry Gross, Barbara Colby, Dick Hall, Jan Chapman, Bruce More, Katharine Wall; (Seated) Patty Byers, Celeste Herbert. Not pictured: Roxane Cole and Justin Lamontagne.
LAST WEEK'S SPEAKER: Elizabeth McClellan, Partners for World Health | by Bruce Moore
Elizabeth McClellan, Founder/President of Partners for World Health began by showing slides of the global inequities in health care like a child with a broken femur in a bed with rope and a brick holding his leg in place and patients lying on the floor in another hospital. Another area of need is helping young mothers. This year over 14 million young women will become pregnant, over 100 million girls will be married off before the age of 18. She told us how the war in Sudan has displaced over 7 million people and how Partners sent two containers to Africa. In total Partners has sent over 42 million dollars worth of medical equipment in 130 shipments to 38 countries.
She told us of how she came to the idea for Partners. While working in Pakistan as a nurse, she visited a hospital and saw their lack of necessary items for good patient care. After coming back to the U.S. she worked at Maine Med and saw what they threw away when a patient was discharged. She went to management, got permission to collect the discarded items and filled her home with over 11,000 lbs. of medical supplies. Later, Partners was established as a 501c3 non-profit. They now have four warehouses in Maine and two in other New England states and the program is growing. Partners has saved over 3,200,000 pounds of trash from ending up in landfills, a huge financial savings for hospitals.
Partners has a medical Mission program that focuses on Primary Care. The plan is to educate women about the complications of childbirth with a goal of reducing mortality rates of women and babies. Partners has developed birthing kits with everything needed by a midwife to ensure a normal birth. The kits use only $8 in medical supplies. They have given out over 4,000 kits so far with a plan to provide 6,000 more.
Elizabeth then explained all the volunteer opportunities available at partners for World Health. She encouraged us to tour the facilities and learn about the many and varied opportunities available to volunteers.
Photo: Patty Byers, Doreen Rockstrom, and Elizabeth McClellan
Speaker Schedule
February 7 - Michael Shaughnessey, Friends of the Presumpscot River
February 13 - Social Event - Maine Celtics vs Long Island Nets 7pm Game
February 14 - No Meeting
February 21 - Julie Poulin, Animal Rescue League Greater Portland
February 28- George Pullen, Commodity Futures "Space Economy"
Club Executives
President Patty Byers President Elect John Thompson Vice President Justin Lamontagne TreasurerDick Hall Secretary Tom Nickerson Board of Directors Dick Hall,
Margaret will speak on the evolving understanding of the Second Amendment and right to bear arms. She will also address recent Supreme Court Second Amendment decisions and how they impact Maine’s ability to disarm domestic violence abusers and those who pose a danger to themselves or others.
RAFFLE GROWS: Weekly raffle led by Andi Summers where Paul Gore’s name was drawn giving him the opportunity to win $360. He did not pull the required Queen of Hearts from the shrinking deck of cards so the jackpot will increase at the next drawing.
READING, RYLA, RECOGNITION: Bob Clark is asking for volunteers to become involved in Youth Services “3 R’s” meaning the reading program at the Lyseth Elementary School in Portland, where books are available for the readers to give to the students grades K-3. Second, enrollment for the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) is now open, culminating in a four-day retreat at Camp Hines, Windham, in June. See our club’s RYLA coordinator Bill Ross for more info. The third “R” is the Recognition for youth scholarships- five more upcoming with Deering High School on February 28th. 
CRUTCHES 4 AFRICA: As reported last week, Check the 
COMMUNITY: Zach Newell reported on the Community Service Committee scheduled and proposed projects.
attend a Maine Celtics game at the Portland Expo. Thurs, Feb 13th, Game time 7pm. Tickets are $32 – bring family, friends, we'll have "side center" seats that have backs, we're not in the bleachers! We need to put in our order for the number of tickets by February 3rd!
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