District Governor Andy Glazier will be visiting our Club this Friday. Andy has been a Rotarian in his heart since he started hanging around the Rotary Club of Kittery in 1991. After accompanying his significant other of twenty-nine years to more Club, District and RI functions than he can count, he finally became a legitimate dues-paying member in 2012.
Professionally, Andy has served as an active and reserve officer in the Army Corps of Engineers and has a successful career managing building construction, as Glazier Builders, Ltd.
Two of Andy’s significant “Rotary ‘aha’ moments” were a 2013 District trip to Guatemala and a 2016 District trip to Cuba, where he and Pam experienced beautiful people living in extreme poverty – families who, in spite of their dire circumstances, exuded determination, cheerfulness and optimism. These were very grounding, value-restructuring experiences. Andy urges all Rotarians to take advantage of Rotary opportunities to travel to and participate in service projects in developing nations.
Pam and Andy have three adult sons and three grandchildren, dispersed about the country, which provides a perfect excuse to travel.
With wit and wisdom, our 106th President of the Rotary Club of Portland, Amy Chipman, took to the podium to share her vision for our upcoming Rotary year 2019-2020. "Honored and excited" to lead, she began by recognizing the leadership and stellar job of outgoing President John Curran, eliciting a standing ovation from the audience. Amy specifically noted the birth of the Opioid Task Force for the training of recovery coaches and community education on the issue, as well as the New Mainer's Initiative helping immigrants getting a start in Maine as two strong new programs that began this past year, and will continue during her tenure.
Every Rotary year has an international theme, and Amy took a few moments to tell the story behind this year's banner inspired by our new Rotary International President, Mark Maloney. Amy met Mark, an outgoing, friendly Alabama gentleman, who told of his experience during a 6-hour delay at JFK Airport. As he walked with his wife past rows of terminals, his first thought was "this is like Rotary" with all the different people and countries represented all in one place. However, he quickly identified the contrast, because he saw that the different nationalities were not connecting or engaging with each other. He saw each group heading back to their own "island," isolated from each other. Compare this with Rotary, where the global community connects with each other in a "deep and meaningful way." Mark noted that "Rotary connects us with our communities, to professional opportunities, and to people who need our help." Our RI theme for the year thus became, "Rotary Connects The World," and is reflected in the creative and colorful design on the banner.
Outlining her goals, Amy stressed the importance of having all our members, current and future, to feel engaged and excited in our Club. "Fun and irresistible!" One of the keys to this will be to introduce small monthly service projects followed with a social event, essentially teamwork and fellowship.
You'll see some of these fun tweaks in our weekly meetings too. While we continue to have high-profile members of the business community in to speak, you can now look forward to programs that offer the arts and music. In addition, and with a nod to Mark Maloney's "island" imagery, Amy projects that we will team up more frequently with other clubs, both in service projects as well as weekly meetings.
Rotary's "People of Action" theme inspired Amy to work on further developing our local "brand" and public image. It will likely begin by updating the look and feel of our website. Another idea was to create a new video, to aid in our recruiting of new members. Amy wisely tapped PP Bowen Depke to be our Membership Chair, who was highly successful in his term at increasing membership.
Even with the retirement of the highly successful Maine Outdoor Challenge, Amy spoke confidently of the club's fundraising programs, under the chairmanship of Mike Reed. The Cornhole Tournament is poised in year two to grow under fundraising maestro PP Kris Rosado, and the dynamic duo of Charlie Frair and Paul Tully raised everyone's attention with the new “Flags For Heroes” program. (See more info in Bits & Pieces this issue.)
Amy concluded by announcing her committee chairs for the year, a strong and highly capable group that will power our club to another great year of service.
Last Friday at The Clarion, our new Club President Amy Chipman welcomed 44 members, 3 guests, and 1 visiting Rotarian, notably the current Sunrise Club President and Past District 7780 Governor Ann-Lee Hussey. Paul Tully's guest was his 11-year-old-birthday-boy Cooper Tully, his grandson.
PP Alan Nye read a homespun poem entitled “Summertime” and Gracie Johnston led us in a rousing rendition of “God Bless America.” The July birthdays were acknowledged and the July anniversaries were applauded, including 40 years in the club for Alan Levenson.
We took a moment to bow our heads for the passing of Dave Snow, a longtime member, who had passed away on July 9 in the company of his family. (See separate article this issue.)
President Amy took a moment to welcome back member, Jon Young (photo at right), returning after some medical issues kept him from our meetings. Welcome back, Jon!
President Amy paid a special thanks to an anonymous gift from a club member of $5000, that was presented to help those immigrants and refugees seeking asylum in Portland.Jake Bourdeau oversaw the raffle, offering a chance at $637, but PP Peter Goffin could not pull the Queen of Hearts, so the pot will grow for our next meeting. (Photo: PP Peter Goffin and Jake Bourdeau.)Gracie Johnston asked for volunteers to help serve meals at the Preble Street Resource Center on Wednesday, July 24th. Please think about giving up a couple of hours of your time for this great cause. New and existing volunteers can go to the following site to either create an account or log into their existing account and sign up for meal shifts that fit their schedule:
Michelle DiSotto and Mike Anderson (Photo at right) took to the podium to announce that the “Rotary Minute” segment of our meetings will be revamped. Please reach out to either of these folks, if you’d like a chance to share a little something about yourself at an upcoming meeting.Our 8th annual Maine Outdoor Challenge (MOC) has come and gone, with the event providing gross revenues of $42,000, with half of that amount coming to our club. According to PP Kris Rosado, with slow and steady monetary decreases and with the event losing some steam after so many years of effort by us all, the time has come to say goodbye to the MOC. Instead, we will turn our focus on the upcoming “Maine Cornhole Tournament,” which is coming up at North Yarmouth Academy on Thursday, August 1st and provides our club with a fresh fund-raising event. (For more information, go to: NYA.org/cornhole) With competitive, as well as recreational, league play, entry fees as low as $100 for a team of two, this fun event promises to become a “must attend” party/athletic endeavor (depending upon skill level and desire) and one that is sure to grow over the next few years, with the hope of having 50-70 teams this summer. Terri St. Angelo and Patty Erickson are looking for help with teams and providing volunteers, so please hop aboard and give us a hand! And thanks go out to Gracie Johnston, who has been able to obtain some marketing help from her employer, The Portland Radio Group.
And speaking of fund raising efforts and our plans to overcome the loss of the Maine Outdoor Challenge, Paul Tully and Charlie Frair (photo at right), with the help of Dick Giles, Paul Gore and many others, brought a new and novel idea to us for discussion: “Flags for Heroes.” While we are used to seeing Paul and Charlie work hard on the annual Veteran’s Day luncheon, this event is unrelated, but one that brings out yet another side of our club’s patriotic pride. This week-long event will provide an opportunity for people to publically recognize and acknowledge an individual who has made a difference in our community and/or been a hero for them in their life or in the lives of others....be it a nurse, first responder, veteran, fire fighter, business owner, volunteer, etc. A $50 donation will purchase a plaque that will be placed at the base of an American flag and flown in the rotunda of The Maine Mall for one week, beginning on September 11th of this year. At the end of the week, during which 100 flags will be flown, the “hero” will receive their special plaque. Paul and Charlie have been researching this for about 6 months and our initial goal will be to raise $1000. In offering a second area of donation, folks can purchase a flag that can be re-used each year ($35 per flag or three for $100), so the profits should jump up quickly in year two. Rotarians quickly responded at the meeting to launch this event and help it become a major focus of our club. Combining an effort to strengthen community with an ability to raise funds sounds like a winning proposition and one that we can all stand behind.
Before we adjourned the meeting, President Amy wanted us to pay special notice to just how relaxed Immediate Past President John Curran was, now that he was able to re-join the ranks of the audience. Good job, John, you deserve the time to relax!
We’ve got a lot to get done in the next 7 weeks, so please be open to pitching in when and where possible. Portland Rotarians never disappoint!!
We were saddened to hear of the passing of former Portland Rotarian, David Snow. He passed away on Tuesday, July 9, 2019, in the company of his family.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, July 20, at 11 a.m., at The Episcopal Church of Saint Mary, 43 Foreside Road, Falmouth, Maine 04105.
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.