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Portland Rotary will meet this week at the
Holiday Inn By-theBay
88 Spring Street, Portland
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Posted by Justin Lamontagne
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 Our presenter this Friday will be Yellow Light Breen, President & CEO, Maine Development Foundation (MDF).
Yellow’s passion is promoting economic and educational opportunity for all Mainers regardless of geography or background. He became CEO of the Maine Development Foundation in August 2015, where he develops strategic direction, integration, and partnerships across MDF’s mission and programs. The MDF is a non-partisan organization that drives sustainable, long-term economic growth for Maine; stimulates new ideas, develops leaders, and provides common ground for solving problems and advancing issues. Yellow is a sought-after public speaker with a diverse background in business, public policy, and law. He spent twelve years as an executive with Bangor Savings Bank, overseeing strategic planning, marketing, online banking, community development, and charitable activities. Prior, he was a senior official at the Maine Department of Education and an advisor to Independent Governor Angus King. Yellow was born and raised in rural, central Maine, a product of Maine public schools, and earned undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard University. He has been an active volunteer in many education and economic development efforts, including the boards of the Maine Community Foundation and Educate Maine. He previously served on the MDF Board and chaired Realize Maine, an ongoing initiative to attract, retain, and support young professionals.
Yellow lives in Holden and loves to hike, swim, and ski with his wife and children.
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Posted by Ben Lowry
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.jpg) Last Friday, at The Clarion, our club was lucky enough to host His Honor, Ethan Strimling, the second elected mayor of Portland since the charter was updated a few years back. While only in office for less than three months, Ethan was able to outline some of the major issues facing the city council, of which he sees himself as the “chairman” to Jon Jennings' role as “CEO” in the office of city manager, implementing the edicts and proposals from the council.
Reciting a bit of his State of the City address, Ethan outlined several of the key areas of focus for his office, the most pressing of which is the housing crisis which has seen the eviction of dozens of tenants recently in what seems to be a push closer to the model of Boston, with an upper class parlayed against those in need of services, with the middle class forced to seek housing elsewhere. The Mayor acknowledged that there is a plethora of new housing going up in Portland, but admits that the vast majority is for upscale residences. The need for moderately-priced housing may force the council to look to zoning changes or to identify public lands suitable for construction. While there is a plan in place to build five new low-income housing developments over the next year, the “housing crisis,” as recently outlined in a Portland Press Herald series, remains of major concern in City Hall.
Another area of grave concern is the status of the city’s elementary schools (Hall, Reiche, Presumpscot and Longfellow), all of which have been designated for state funding, but await a freeze to be lifted before funds are released. Mayor Strimling looks to present a bond question to the electorate in November which will, admittedly, raise taxes by a small percentage, but which could allow the city to begin with the much-needed renovations.
Other areas that need to be addressed include the limited use of the beautiful Ocean Gateway facility, granting aid and education to our immigrants, and seeing the implementation of universal high speed broad-band to the city. Mr. Mayor also defending his request for an administrative assistant, saying he sees himself as a business owner with 65,000 customers, far fewer than the typical state legislator, who does have an assistant assigned to his or her office.
Ethan brought a levity and charm to his remarks, even taking the high road when asked about his relationship with Governor Lepage. While stating that they “don’t agree on the time of day,” he has dined with and made peace with the governor and has agreed to “not do battle in the newspaper,” which, thus far, has been a successful effort.
With Jon Jennings as our city manager and Ethan Strimling as our mayor, Portland seems aptly served as we push toward a new era for “The Forest City.”
(Photo: 2nd Vice President Don Zillman, State Representative Erik Jorgensen, Mayor of Portland, Ethan Strimling and President Bowen Depke.)
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Posted by Marr / Jorgensen
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The meeting of March 11, 2016 began with President Bowen welcoming 39 members, 2 visiting Rotarians, and 5 guests. Then Russ Burleigh offered an invocation and, of course, the upcoming St Patrick's Day was the focus. We learned that "Patty" was kidnapped as a lad and not a native of the Irish sod, but whilst in Ireland, God beckoned him to help his brethren....but the snake banishment is but a tale. However, the delicate shamrock growing aplenty in the land, was seen as the flower of the Holy Trinity and became the emblem of Ireland.
President Bowen read some gratitude letters that were received from various groups noting our Club’s participation in a number of events. These included the Portland Red Claws’ “Kids and Claws” event with the Boys and Girls Club; "Meals on Wheels" dinners served to the area senior citizens, who gave thanks to the Cedar Unit of kids at Long Creek Youth Center for making hand-made Valentines Day cards to go with a sweet package that was included with the meal deliveries; science supply purchasing for Lyseth School; our contribution to the Royal British Legion and its “Poppy Appeal”; and, last but not least, the Southern Maine Agency on Aging’s “Vet-to-Vet” program, which matches aging veterans to younger volunteers, who are also Veterans. As if being a fighting Marine in World War II wasn't enough to make you a hero, it seems that our kid-loving leatherneck, Bob Traill, has become a hero to the kids in the fourth grade at Lyseth School....he reads to them with a passion that brings the words alive....that makes him a Champion of CHE, as the children wrote him notes of thanks.
In addition, we had the unexpected pleasure of a note commemorating a toast that was recently made in our club’s honor by the Bromley Rotary Club of England. Bromley, a suburb of London, is maybe best known as the staging area for the Battle of Britain, but it was also the former site of the Crystal Palace, a giant glass building regarded as a 19th Century engineering marvel built for the Great Exhibition of 1851. Cheers back to you, Bromley! It’s nice to be toasted!
While giving thanks, President Bowen recognized the great work and organization of Loretta and the Three E's (Ellen, Emily and Elise)...pulling off the "Leap Into Auction" event that raised $1250.
President Bowen noted that 1st Vice President Laura Young is attending the Presidents-Elect Training Seminar (PETS), where she will be learning the fine details of how to push, pull, cajole and nudge our club to even greater heights in the coming year.
 PP Ben Lowry had a history minute (or five) from 1963, the year he was born. He told us of a time when Portland houses cost $12,000, a car cost $2,000 and Marilyn Monroe’s famous "Happy Birthday Greeting to President Kennedy" was smoldering across the country. We had the Cuban Missile Crisis and the saddest was the end of Camelot, with the assassination of JFK. There were photos in his presentation that showed a bare-bottomed Ben pondering his future on the dock of his family's summer camp, the glowing young Lowry family juxtaposed with images of segregation in the South and John Glenn in the sky. Here in Portland, it was the era of the Dave Astor show (Dave was a member of our club from 1997-2009), and our Rotary meetings were bringing 140 people weekly to the Lafayette Hotel. The Club’s “Operation Fruitcake” raised over $1000 (and someone thought some of the fruitcakes might still be around). Portland Rotary was seen doing Salvation Army bell ringing and speakers that year included Senator Edmund Muskie, Arctic explorer Don MacMillan and a teen-aged Tom Allen.
President Bowen reported that he attended a 90th anniversary dinner of the Westbrook/Gorham Rotary Club, where among the gifts he received was a program from our own Club’s 25th Anniversary. This included a message from none other than Paul Harris. His greeting “visualized the happy gathering of Portland Rotarians” and went on to say that “Portland is responsible for the brand of Rotary that permeates all of Maine.” He concluded, as Mr. Spock from Star Trek would twenty years later, with the line, “Live Long and Prosper.”
The weekly raffle, which was up to $1122, was conducted by Erik Greven with visitor John Holt's name being drawn by our speaker, Mayor Strimling. There was a huge sigh of relief when John was unable to find the Queen of Hearts.
We welcomed Alex St. Hilaire back into our club as a returning member.
(Photo: John Curran, David Small and Erik Greven....part of the team heading to the DR.)
We send our best wishes for safe travels to our Hands-Hearts-Hearing team (3H), which headed to the Dominican Republic on Saturday, March 12th to provide more hearing aids, prosthetic hands, and water filters to the people there, along with the solar lights we helped purchase a couple of months ago (thanks to George Crockett for bringing them to our attention).
Finally, Jim Willey noted that the monthly Long Creek Youth Center's gathering included pizza and green shamrock shakes, which were an especially big hit with the residents. He added that all are welcome to come on these monthly trips to show support for these incarcerated kids. Role models are crucial.
The meeting announcements were concluded with a plea: if you sign up for an offsite “road gig” at Rotary – such as our recent trip to the Kotzschmar Organ – and you fail to show up, the club pays anyway. So if you say you are going to go to one of these places, please follow through (or at least contribute the cost of lunch). Either you eat lunch, or the Club eats the cost. We offer the 4-Way Test.
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Portland Rotary is hosting a "Taste, Tour and Celebrate With a Paul Harris Fellow" event at the Allagash Brewing Company.
Tuesday - March 29, 2016
Tickets: $15 in advance; $20 at the door
Bring your favorite friends, relatives and neighbors! Space is limited to 80 people in their tasting room, so get your tickets NOW at Portland Rotary's home page: portlandrotary.org....on the right side under "Club Events," click on "Allagash Brewery Event" or simply click HERE.
Watch your emails for a copy of the flyer!
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Check out the details of our 5th Annual Maine Outdoor Challenge....our largest fundraiser of the year, click HERE.
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Invocation: Tom Nickerson
Program Reporter: Erik Jorgensen
Bits & Pieces Reporter: Julie L'Heureux
Registration/Greeter: Leonard Scott
Sell Meal Tickets: Loretta Rowe
Raffle: Tom Nickerson
Badge Box: Travis Parker
Collect Meal Tickets: Megan Devlin
Rotary Moment in History: Bob Traill
Song Leader: Janelle LoSciuto
Pianist: Kathy Grammer
Sgt-at-Arms (Early): Charlie Frair
Sgt-at-Arms (Late): Travis Parker
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If you would like to mark your calendars, we are
at the following locations through March 2016:
2016:
Mar 18 - Holiday Inn By-the-Bay
Mar 25 - Holiday Inn By-the-Bay
Apr 1 - The Clarion Hotel
Apr 8 - The Clarion Hotel
Apr 15 - Holiday Inn By-the-Bay
Apr 22 - Holiday Inn By-the-Bay
Apr 29 - Holiday Inn By-the-Bay
May 6 - Holiday Inn By-the-Bay
May 13 - Holiday Inn By-the-Bay
May 20 - The Clarion Hotel
May 27 - Holiday Inn By-the-Bay
Jun 03 - Holiday Inn By-the-Bay
Jun 10 - Holiday Inn By-the-Bay
Jun 17 - Holiday Inn By-the-Bay
Jun 24 - Holiday Inn By-the-Bay
Blue BOLD dates are scheduled Board meeting days.
Any questions, please contact Loretta at: lrowe@maine.rr.com
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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(S)
Patty Erickson Bath Savings Rob Chatfield
Jennifer Frederick Bath Savings Rob Chatfield
Richard Burbank Evergreen Home Perf Peter Goffin
Nick Lotfey Lotfey Dennett Ins Rusty Atwood
Thank you.
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Read more...
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Posted by Bill Blount
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ROTARY DOUBLES TENNIS LEAGUE
Winter/Spring Session 2016
Now that we are halfway through the season, It’s time to start thinking about our annual celebratory post-season event. We had a great time at Kathy Grammer’s last year. Would any of you consider hosting the event this year? Please let me know.....thanks, Bill.
Week ten scores - a three-way tie for first place!
| TEAM 1 |
TEAM 2 |
TEAM 3 |
TEAM 4 |
TEAM 5 |
TEAM 6 |
| Thompson |
Blakeslee |
Gross |
Bourdeau |
Seddon |
Barns |
| Ingram |
Blount |
Noyes |
Ray |
Moore |
Hall |
| Herodes |
Asch |
Putnam |
Nickerson |
Chipman |
Jorgensen |
| St Hilaire |
Houghton |
Burleigh |
Grammer |
Carr |
L.Young |
| 10 |
15 |
9 |
15 |
11 |
15 |
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