President Justin welcomed Rotarians and asked Patty Byers to lead the Pledge of Allegiance using the new flag he donated to the club. Cyrus Hagge led the Message of the Day with two hot-weather “ditties.” One declared it hotter than a baking pie; the other offered a more hopeful thought: “It is too hot to play … I am sure the shade is gifting a breeze, a little relief beneath the trees.” A special thank-you to Larry Gross for taking care of the room setup.

WELCOME! After lunch, Justin called on John Terry to introduce our guests: Assistant Governor Julie Forbes; visiting Rotarian Ray Ward from Sacramento, California; Tony Zeli and Ken Johnson, guests of Tom Talbott;  Wilder Payson, guest of Roger Berube. Finally Sax Carr, son of Jack Carr. We looked up Sax online to check spelling and found this great drawing of him, so we're including it!  

RAFFLE OFF Dee Dee Fusco led the $274 raffle. Art Howe’s ticket was drawn, and he selected the ace of diamonds—a good card, but not the one he needed for this raffle!

DISTRICT FOUNDATION CELEBRATION!  You've heard from our Foundation Chair Jerry Wall on how last year our club members donated over $27,000 to the Rotary International Foundation. You've heard how Laura Young's Outreach visit to India resulted in four Global Grants. Tom Talbott would explain later in the meeting our local district grant of $4000 to Farms For Food Equity. Obviously, the Foundation is an integral part of our club. Well, Sat 10/17, they'll be a District-Wide Foundation Celebration. The focus of this event will be supporting veterans, and you'll hear more about that over the next few weeks. Our club is donating $1000 to that cause, plus we'll be honoring a special Paul Harris Fellow. We're asking for a strong showing of Portland Rotarians to attend this event -it'll be high energy, strong speakers, and yes - we'll be bringing our 250 American flags for a group media photo, a salute to our veterans and USA250. More to come, but let's help to make this something special for all of us. FMI: EVENT DETAILS AND TICKETS

DISTRICT GRANT PLANT! Tom Talbott introduced Ken Johnson from Farms For Food Equity (FFE), who first spoke to the club back in February. Ken explained that nearly 30% of Maine’s planted crops go unharvested because of labor shortages, market conditions, weather, over-planting, or field turnover. FFE raises funds to purchase more of those crops and coordinates with the Wayside Food Program and Preble Street to get the produce out to food pantries. The effort supports farms and employment while helping meet the never-ending demand for fresh food. Tom was impressed enough to submit a District Grant request—and it was approved! Our club will contribute $500, with another $3,500 from the District going to FFE. Pictured here, Justin Lamontagne/Portland Rotary President, Julia Forbes/District Assistant Governor, Ken Johnson/FFE, Tom Talbott/7780DGN, and Jerry Wall, Portland Rotary Foundation Chair. 

THE PREBLE ST. CHALLENGE: 100 Volunteer Hours To put our FFE grant into action, Portland Rotarians are being asked to volunteer at the Preble Street Food Security Hub Kitchen, 75 Darling Avenue, South Portland

  • To volunteer, you need to register. We’re encouraging you, as well as family members and friends to take that step, using this link: REGISTRATION

 • You can watch this 6 minute Orientation Video, or you can sign up for a 1-hour tour of the facility/Orientation. You must do one or the other, there are important food and kitchen and safety rules to know and follow.

• After completing steps 1 and 2, sign up for a shift that fits your schedule. Team up with other Rotarians or bring family members—you manage your time! This is a new approach: rather than choosing one date and time for everyone, members can volunteer when it works best for them.

• Shifts run Monday–Friday, 7:00–10:30 a.m. or 12:30–3:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m. Voluntering can start as soon as you are ready!  

ROTARIANS TO THE RESCUE: Roger Berube needs volunteers to sustain a food rescue project with Hannaford Supermarket. On the third Sunday of each month, from 6:30–10:00 a.m., volunteers pick up food from Hannaford and deliver it to local food banks. Email Roger for details. 

DID YOU SAY PERU? Justin shared a FRIENDSHIP EXCHANGE OPPORTUNITY: a chance to travel to PERU! Join other District Rotarians for a self-funded homestay adventure. Our group will travel to Peru in April, staying with Rotarians there, and then host visiting Rotarians from Peru in May. Jerry Wall said it is a great way to see the world and meet new Rotarians.

WELCOME NEW MEMBER, MAX REED! Bruce Jones introduced new member Max Reed—the first new member of the current Rotary year. Max grew up in Falmouth and volunteered weekly at Preble Street while in high school. He graduated from Boston University, where he was a member of the BU Cycling Team, and now works in Risk Management Sales at Clark Insurance/Marsh McLennan.  Photo: Bruce and Max

ROTARY MINUTE:  Amy Chipman shared a Rotary Moment. Amy’s father was a member of the club, and Amy first came for his Paul Harris designation. Ellen Niewoehner later invited Amy to visit the club, prompting Amy’s mother to say, “Anyone who is anyone is a member of the Portland Rotary Club.” Amy shared how much she loves the club and reminded us that “you get back what you put into the Club.”

BACK TO SCHOOL BACKPACKS: MORE AMY! Amy reminds us that we're partnering up with the Locker Project and the Boys and Girls Club here in Portland to distribute backpacks filled with back to school supplies to members of the Boys and Girls Club.  The Locker Project will be handing out snacks and food for the kids to bring home. As of right now Dick Hall, Jim Willey, John Terry, Bruce Jones, Ellen Niewoehner, Brian Nickerson, Niki Merrill, Paula & Bill Ross and Mike Fortunato. This should be plenty but if anyone else would like to join us, you are more than welcome. The event will take place on Thursday, September 10th at 4:00 at the Boys and Girls Club in Portland, 277 Cumberland Avenue in Portland. 

TWO PAUL HARRIS FELLOWS: Club Foundation Chair Jerry Wall presented Paul Harris Fellowships to Laura Young (+3) and Tom Nickerson (+5).  Each PHF represents $1000 donated to the Foundation, so that is Laura's 4th, and Tom's 6th. We thank you both for your ongoing support and contributions to support the amazing work of the Rotary Foundation around the world and in our own backyard. Jerry's shirt design is very much intentional and attention getting! Let's be proud of what the Foundation does, and raise awareness for the causes it works to improve. And, let's be proud of Laura and Tom who help keep it going! 

AND A FEW EXTRA BITS….

ART: Bowen Depke presented a $1,250 check representing the proceeds from a painting George Crockett donated to the club before he past away. Just like George, he continues to help.

START: Bill Milliken announced that Lobster Raffle sales will begin the week after Labor Day. Sign-up sheets will be shared soon.

LAST WEEK'S SPEAKER: David Patterson - Taking A Look At Our AI World | By Tom Nickerson

Portland Rotarian David Patterson gave an engaging presentation on what Artificial Intelligence is and how members can start to incorporate it into our daily activities.  David explained that AI operates much like an expert, ultra-fast pattern-matching assistant rather than a conscious mind. When you ask an AI a question, it generates content by analyzing vast amounts of data it has already studied, predicting the most logical next word or phrase based on those patterns. It does not "know" things the way we do; instead, it uses probability to piece together responses that sound coherent and natural, essentially mimicking human conversation based on its extensive training.

In our daily life, this technology can serve as an exceptionally practical tool to simplify routine tasks and save us time. For example, you can take a quick photo of the ingredients inside your refrigerator, and an AI can instantly analyze the image to suggest creative recipe ideas for dinner. It can also act as a personal administrative assistant by organizing cluttered email inboxes, sorting important messages, and drafting thoughtful emails, letters, or complex reports based on just a few bullet points you provide.

David pointed out, however, because AI is designed to be helpful, it has a tendency to always try to please the user, which can sometimes lead it to confidently invent facts or "hallucinate" incorrect information when it does not know the true answer. Additionally, it is important to remember that most standard AI systems use the information and prompts you type into them to train future models, meaning you should avoid sharing sensitive personal data or private financial details. Looking ahead, the technology is evolving into "AI agents," which are advanced systems capable of not just answering questions, but independently planning and executing multi-step tasks for you—such as booking an entire travel itinerary or managing your calendar—with minimal human intervention. There is so much for us to learn about potentially incredible tool. Resources to learn more include Hugging Face, Georgia Tech’s transformer explainer, and AI 2027 futures project. Thank you, David, for stepping up with a very topical and helpful talk.

Does anyone notice something different about this photo? It AIn't real! 

What are the Seven Areas of Focus that TRF addresses? Third is Providing Clean Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene. which creates local solutions to area problems and assures that projects succeed long-term. Access to uncontaminated water is key to success in any project.