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Russell Hampton
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Director Term End 2020
 
Director Term End 2020
 
Director Term End 2021
 
Director Term End 2021
 
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Communications -WJ Bulletin Ed
 
Constitution/ByLaws Chair
 
Fundraising Chair
 
Good Cheer Chair
 
International Service
 
Invocation Chair
 
Meeting Day Chair
 
Music Committee Chair
 
New Mainers Initiative
 
Program Co- Chair
 
Program Co-Chair
 
Opioid Task Force Co-Chair
 
Opioid Task Force Co-Chair
 
Rotary Foundation
 
Sergeant -At-Arms
 
Web Administrator
 
Web Administrator Assistant
 
Youth Service
 
Friday, July 19, 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
DistrictSiteIcon District Site
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Rotary This Week
 
 
 
Portland Rotary
will meet 
Friday, July 19, 2019
at the Clarion Hotel
1230 Congress Street, Portland
 
*07/19/19 District Governor Andrew Glazier, Rotary District 7780
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.
 
07/12/19 President Amy Chipman - Inaugural Address
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.
07/12/19 Bits & Pieces
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:

https://preblestreet.volunteerhub.com/ If you're unable to volunteer and wish to donate, please use the same link which will lead you to a secure link. If you have any issues signing up please let Gracie know at: gjohnston@portlandradiogroup.com.


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!!
 
Passing of Former Portland Rotarian
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.
 
We send our heart-felt condolences to Dave's family.
 
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:  Paul Tully
Program Reporter:  Ben Lowry
Bits & Pieces Reporter:  Julie L'Heureux
Photographer: Laura Young
Registration/Greeter:  David Ertz
Sell Meal Tickets:  David Clough
Raffle:  Patty Erickson

Collect Meal Tickets:  Mark Foster (standby)
Sgt-at-Arms:  Scott Blakeslee
Rotary Meeting Locations

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

2019
Jul 19 - The Clarion
Jul 26 - The Clarion

Aug 02 - The Clarion
Aug 09 - HADLOCK FIELD - Sea Dogs
Aug 16 - The Clarion
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.