We were saddened by news of the passing of former member George Crockett on Saturday, August 17, 2019. We don't have any details, as yet, but will advise as they become available.
Craig Lapine is the founder and executive director of Cultivating Community. Cultivating Community grows sustainable communities by expanding access to healthy, local food; by empowering youth and adults to play diverse roles in restoring a local, sustainable food system; and by modeling, teaching, and advocating for ecological food production.
Since 2001 Cultivating Community has run programs that use a food justice lens to build leadership, civic engagement, and environmental ethics among teens. It supports garden-based education for elementary and middle school students throughout southern Maine. The organization leads and administers the City of Portland’s community garden network and operates a network of farm-stands across four of Maine’s five largest cities (Portland, South Portland, Lewiston, and Auburn) that are accessible to customers using SNAP and WIC benefits. Cultivating Community offers a Citizen Gardener Workshop Series to create and empower home and community gardeners, and its New American Sustainable Agriculture Project (NASAP) is Maine’s largest land-based farmer training program.
Craig serves on Portland's Parks Commission. He is on the network team for Food Solutions New England—the UNH-based entity that convenes New England’s annual Food Summit and that published the New England Food Vision. He also currently holds seats on the Portland Food Council and the Cumberland County Food Security Coalition. He is a past president of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and past chair and treasurer of Maine’s Eat Local Foods Coalition.
Hans Brandes from Falmouth was our speaker. A former BIW engineer in retirement he has been devoted to a project in South America: a home called Corazon de Esperanza in Trujillo, Peru. It is a program for orphans who are aging out of the Peru orphanage system.
These kids have been abused, trafficked, homeless, and their experiences have been hard. When you turn 18 in Peru, you leave the orphanage system and are very likely to fall into trouble. Hans’ family has gained considerable perspective from travels to Latin America, and these trips led to involvement with the organization – his brother knew the founder, and the rest is history. He started as a volunteer, and after 9 trips to Peru, now serves as treasurer. The organization is headquartered in Colorado, but the services all occur in Trujillo, where 18 girls are currently in residence. They also help boys, but they don’t mix them.
Trujillo is a city of 1.3 million in Northern Peru, south of the equator, at high altitude, where breathing can be a challenge: “It’s like sucking air through a straw,” said Hans. The organization offers lots of opportunity for service – they can accommodate groups (such as visiting Rotarians) and can always use volunteers. They can also use direct contributions – money comes from individual donors, youth sponsors, grants, and churches.
He then introduced Heydi Yajaira Sánchez Bracamonte (in photo at right), a resident of the home, who has been in Maine to speak about her own experience as a resident. Hans provided running translation as Heydi described coming from a badly broken family and entering the orphanage system in 2008. She aged out of the system at the age of 18, and now Corazon de Esperanza is providing safety, support, predictability and some critical backing, allowing her to study for teacher certification at a local university.
This, according to Hans, is exactly how the program breaks the cycle of poverty that afflicts so many of the children in the Peruvian system. “You gotta be there,” he said. For anyone interested in learning more about the organization or to make a contribution, go to https://corazondeesperanza.org/.
(Photo L-R: Hans Brandes, Heydi Yajaira Sánchez Bracamonte, and President Amy Chipman.)
President Amy Chipman opened the meeting by greeting 44 members and 2 guests on a beautiful Friday afternoon.
PP Cy Hagge recalled some recent losses in the community and led the invocation with a World War I era poem about the flower of youth. Meredith Small led us in ‘My Country Tis of Thee.’
Many members have been travelling – Dick Giles is just back from Alberta, Canada where he visited family; Christine Force has also been with her extended family in Europe. PP Ben Lowry and Erik Jorgensen met up in Montreal to watch the Rogers Cup tennis tournament.
The Club was circulating a card for Jesse Harvey, to let him know he has our support and was in our thoughts for a speedy recovery .
Justin LaMontagne provided a 'Rotary Minute' – and he spoke about inspiration and his Rotary experience. He cited a number of members who have been selfless and generous and provided him with inspiration: PP John Curran’s international work; Jesse Harvey’s difficult work in drug rehab; Roger and Liz Fagan and their work in the Dominican Republic, to name a few.
PP Larry Gross made a pitch for new “vocational minutes,” through which he hopes to recruit people to speak briefly at meetings about their work. He also spoke about his efforts to “reform” the listing of retired folks, so retirees will still have note of their professions even after retirement. Look for that change in next year’s roster.
Jerry Angier(on right in photo) led the raffle, and Alan Levenson(on left in photo) came close, with the king of hearts -- but not quite close enough to win the pot of $787.
Gracie Johnston made a pitch for the Club’s Preble Street food service (4th Wednesday each month) – Rotary’s ongoing program for which volunteers are always needed. She also announced that next Friday a new Rotary Community Service project will happen, as we assemble backpacks of materials for the students at Saccarappa Elementary School. Be ready next week during the meeting to help with the backpacks and to send good wishes to the kids in the form of cards!
Mike Fortunato spoke about a possible “Harvest Moon Dance” at Sprague Hall in Cape Elizabeth – this is conceived as a fundraiser-fellowship event featuring square dancing. Should be an easy event -- and fun. Looking at a Saturday in October. He polled the members present and got some positive feedback.
Finally, Charlie Frair spoke about the “Flags for Heroes” program starting on September 11. We have 25 or more people as paid sponsors. Over $3,000 pledged for flags. The next step is to identify and sponsor honorees. He asked each Rotarian to find one non-Rotarian to sponsor a flag at $100 each. For more information, contact him: cfrair47@yahoo.com.
Invocation: Bruce Jone Program Reporter: Jake Bourdeau
Bits & Pieces Reporter: Alan Nye
Photographer: Paul Gore Registration/Greeter: Jake Bourdeau Sell Meal Tickets: Jennifer Frederick Raffle: Jan Chapman Collect Meal Tickets:Jan Chapman Sgt-at-Arms: Mac Collins
The following items are needed on an on-going basis. Please feel free to bring them to a meeting where we will collect and distribute them to the appropriate projects.
Crutches4Africa - Crutches, canes, folding walkers and wheelchairs to be shipped to Africa. Contact: Erik Greven at: egrev95@gmail.com
Toiletries for the Shelters - Collect those tiny bottles of toiletries you are paying for during your next hotel visit and bring them home for members of our society who find themselves staying at a shelter and in need of personal hygiene products.