Joe Moreshead reminded us of the meal packing volunteer Opportunity on May 11.
Don Pilon will be launching a mini golf fundraiser.
The scholarship committee will be meeting Tuesday, 30 April, at 3 o’clock at Bangor Savings on Main Street in Saco.
Sarah Curley won the 50-50 and contributed it to the red ribbon committee.
Sergeants at arms - Sarah and Fausto
Happy dollars were received from Sue G. who has a new granddaughter born on Easter Day, Dr Joe is happy to be back in Maine after visiting New York City, Brenda is happy to be visiting the Teen center, Marty is happy with his new job at E2Tech, Sabine is happy to have received a new vintage rotary iron, Reegan is happy that her son’s little league merged with Saco, Fausto is happy his mom got the Jean Nate gift he sent, Jeremy is happy that the jumpstart reading program has been fully funded in August.
This week our meeting was held at Westbrook’s my teen place. We had our lunch in their café and had a delicious gourmet meal cooked for us by their chef Christian. Then we heard a presentation from its director, Donna Dwyer, as well as receiving a tour of the facility.
Donna was excited to share with us what has been accomplished in Westbrook and is being used as a model to be replicated hopefully in Biddeford by July 2020.
The café in which we were seated is used to feed up to 40 kids dinner every night during the week. Not only are the children fed delicious meals they are also trained to work in the kitchen and taught valuable lessons in social etiquette during their dining experience.
Donna also introduced us to Christian, the chef, who used to be the chef de cuisine at Fore Street in Portland. He left that post to work at the teen center and follow something that was near and dear to his heart. We also met Mark Woodbury, who is responsible for public relations and marketing for the teen center.
Donna estimates that 90% of the population using the teen center has experienced some sort of trauma, hunger or poverty. The goals and philosophy of the teen center is to give these kids not only a wonderful safe space in which to spend their afternoons but also to show them on a daily basis that they are cared for and loved. The entire place is very well appointed in stark contrast to many of these kids’ home surroundings.
The center also has a washer and dryer to accommodate not only laundry needed to run the place, but also for kids who are finding themselves in between permanent housing. There is a shower as well for those who need to use it.
The center has 10 paid staff and and relies heavily on a core of volunteers, who have participated in spending 6000 volunteer hours last year. That also partner with UNE and USM so students of those universities can work directly with the kids at the center.
After Donna‘s presentation and our tour of the facility, much discussion ensued as to how we can move forward with next steps to be able to bring the similar program to Biddeford.
The Biddeford-Saco Rotary Club has honored winners for its 24th annual essay contest. First-place winners, from left, are Lizzie Johnson of Loranger Middle School, Mackenzie Day of Biddeford Middle School, Marielle Rue of St. James School, Antonia Farago-Dumsch of Saco Middle School, and Jack Tripp of Thornton Academy Middle School. SUBMITTED PHOTO
SACO — “Ohana means family, and family means no one gets left behind or forgotten” A quote from the Disney Classic Lilo and Stitch was how first-place winner Lizzie Johnson started off her essay quote about “What the Word Family Means to Me.”
This was the prompt for the 24th annual Biddeford-Saco Rotary Club essay contest where eighth-grade students from Biddeford, Saco, and Old Orchard Beach were asked to write a 500 word essay and were judged on the relevance to the topic, quality of composition, creativity, and grammatical and spelling accuracy. Three winners were selected from each school with the first place winners receiving a medal and $100 prize as well as being invited to read their winning essay to the Biddeford-Saco Rotarians.
“Our goal is to promote the significance of family. Families are the compass that guides us and points us in the right direction,” said Rotarian Brenda Pollock.
Rotarians enjoyed listening to the group of winners talk about why family is important to them and the different ways family has supported them. From loving moments, to sticking by their side on the darkest of days, it was clear to hear the love and passion that the students put into words as they each read the winning essays.
The first-place winners in this year’s Biddeford-Saco Rotary Club Essay Contest are Mackenzie Day of Biddeford Middle School, Lizzie Johnson of Loranger Middle School, Antonia Farago-Dumsch of Saco Middle School, Marielle Rue of St. James School, and Jack Tripp of Thornton Academy Middle School.
Other students also received $75 or $50 prizes for their essays including Camryn Blatchford and Alex Nguyen of Loranger Middle School, Casey Ouellette and Ivy Turbide of Thornton Academy Middle School, Olivia Toppen and Alexyia Talarico of Saco Middle School, Madisyn Ayers and Rose-Mary Blake of St. James School, and Brittany Baumgardner and Cecelia Keller of Biddeford Middle School.
For more information about how to become involved with the Biddeford-Saco Rotary Club, visit www.biddeford-sacorotary.org
We finally voted on a slate officers at last week’s meeting. One of the highlights was that Alicia G was nominated for a director’s position on the Board and she accepted. I am proud to announce that we have a slate officers for the 2019/2020 Rotary Year. The list is as follows:
President: Fausto Pifferrer
President Elect: Don Pilon
Vice President: open
Treasurer: Sue Gajewski
Secretary: Julie Villemaire
Past President / Board Joe Moreshead
Directors:
Heather Gendron
Conrad Welzel
CJ Cote Dubois
Alicia Girard
Haley Thompson
Thank you to all, especially the folks who have stepped up to assume stewardship of our great club. We still need a Vice President though. It is my goal to have someone in the role before my term ends this summer. The strength of our club is us, it is us who determines the future of this club. Think about serving for a year, think about your commitment to service- maybe this is a way of achieving your own personal goals developing leadership skills, communication skills, building a network of friends and peers all while stewarding a great organization and getting a firsthand view of how important this club is to our local community, statewide, nationwide and global communities as well. It all starts here in the Biddeford Saco Rotary Club.
Our Club is in first place of 10 Rotary Clubs who participate in this program!
Total Raised: $2,503.50
Containers CLYNKed: 45,514
Energy: Saved enough energy to light 63.4 lightbulbs—24 hours a day—for a year.
Emissions: Saved the emissions equivalent of driving a car 11,999 miles.
Volume: Diverted enough containers to fill 460.4 lobster traps.
Fill up those green bags. If you need more bags and/or labels, just let Julie Villemaire know and she can hook you up…no charge!
Simple fill with returnables and drop off at any Hannaford.
Alternately, if you already have a CLYNK account of your own, you can designate you funds as a donation. Hit the Donate button and search for Rotary and you'll find our account.
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