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Russell Hampton
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Speakers
Aug 23, 2019
Aug 30, 2019
Sep 06, 2019
Sep 13, 2019
Rotary Foundation
Sep 20, 2019
Sep 27, 2019
Oct 04, 2019
Oct 11, 2019
Oct 18, 2019
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Executives & Directors
President
 
President Elect
 
Vice President
 
Treasurer
 
Secretary
 
Immediate Past President
 
Director Term End 2020
 
Director Term End 2020
 
Director Term End 2021
 
Director Term End 2021
 
Club Admin/Coordinator
 
Club Protection Officer
 
Community Service
 
Communications - PR External
 
Communications - WJ Bulletin Editor
 
Constitution/ByLaws Chair
 
Fund Raising Co-Chair
 
Fund Raising Co-Chair
 
Good Cheer Chair
 
International Service Chair
 
Invocation Chair
 
Meeting Day Chair
 
Membership Chair
 
Music Chair
 
New Mainers Initiative Chair
 
Program Co- Chair
 
Program Co-Chair
 
Opioid Task Force Co-Chair
 
Opioid Task Force Co-Chair
 
Rotary Foundation Chair
 
Sergeant -At-Arms
 
Web Administrator
 
Web Administrator Assistant
 
Youth Service Chair
 
Friday, August 23, 2019
Welcome to the
Rotary Club of Portland, Maine!
Portland Rotary
Service Above Self
We meet Fridays at 12:15 PM
The Clarion Hotel
1230 Congress Street
Portland, ME  04102
United States of America
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Passing of Former Member
 
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.
Rotary This Week
 
 
 
Portland Rotary will meet 
Friday, August 23, 2019
at the Clarion Hotel
1230 Congress Street, Portland
*08/23/19 Craig Lapine, Exec Dir Cultivating Community
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.
 
08/16/19 Hans Brandes, Girls' Youth Home in Peru
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.)
08/16/19 Bits & Pieces
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.
Volunteer Opportunities

Following is a list of our Club's volunteer projects. If you know of other opportunities, please contact Loretta: lrowe@maine.rr.com

 
Project
When
Who to Contact
Preble Street
Resource Center
Soup Kitchen
4th Wednesday ea month
3:30-6:30 pm
Contact Gracie Johnston
Game Night
Long Creek
Youth Center
 
3rd Tuesday ea month
Mike Fortunato
or Jim Willey
This Week's Duty Assignments
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
Rotary Meeting Locations

If you would like to mark your calendars,
we are scheduled at the following locations
through
 2019:

2019
Aug 23 - The Clarion
Aug 30 - 
NO MEETING - Observance Labor Day

Sep 06 - The Clarion
Sep 13 - The Clarion

Sep 20 - The Clarion
Sep 27 - The Clarion

Oct 04 - The Clarion
Oct 11 - The Clarion

Oct 18 - The Clarion
Oct 25 - TBD

Nov 01 - The Clarion
Nov 08 - The Clarion

Nov 15 - The Clarion
Nov 22 - The Clarion
Nov 29 - NO MEETING - Thanksgiving 

Dec 06 - The Clarion
Dec 13 - The Clarion

Dec 20 - The Clarion
Dec 27 - NO MEETING - Christmas

Blue BOLD dates are scheduled Board meeting days.

Any questions, please contact Loretta at: lrowe@maine.rr.com
 

Ongoing Item Donations Needed
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.