Mark Roberts is a Senior Fire Investigator with the State Fire Marshal’s Office (SFMO) and an Accelerant Detection K9 handler. 

The mission of the Office of State Fire Marshal is to prevent loss of life and property for those that live, work and visit in the State of Maine. Their goal is to protect against the devastation of fire, explosions and life safety hazards with integrity and fairness through fire prevention, public education, planning, research, investigation and enforcement of enacted laws and rules. 

As an agency, the State Fire Marshal’s Office is responsible for determining the cause of fires statewide and the investigation of arsons, explosions and fatalities. Mark has been with the office since 2008 and worked as a patrol officer in both Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth prior to that.He and his canine partner, four-year old Deacon, are one of only two K9 teams in the state and have worked together for two years. Deacon is a second career dog, having been acquired from a service dog agency in Michigan.

Mark will be addressing Maine’s Arson K-9 Program.

With an introduction by PP Roxane Cole, Catherine Lewis – Board Director and Director of Education of the Medical Marijuana Caregivers of Maine – spoke to our Rotary club about Maine’s Medical Marijuana program. Of interest to Rotarians is the fact that Catherine is a past President of the Hallowell Rotary Club and is a Paul Harris Fellow.

Medical Marijuana Caregivers of Maine (MMCM) is a trade association dedicated to the support and promotion of safe access to medical marijuana. Catherine spent most of her talk attempting to educate and advocate for the proper use of marijuana to alleviate chronic pain, cancer, seizures, severe nausea, PTSD and other conditions. Catherine explained that after a severe automobile injury left her and her husband with long-lasting injuries and pain, they became medical cannabis patients. The success of this treatment prompted them to become medical marijuana caregivers to help others.

Catherine helped to dispel some of the myths about cannabis and stated that many of us have been lied to for years about marijuana’s potential harmful effects and seldom told about the many benefits that proper use can provide. She stated that most of her patients are elderly and many suffer from cancer, are in wheelchairs, have late stage MS, have Alzheimer’s or spend their days in chronic pain.

Catherine’s business, Homegrown Healthcare, specializes in cannabis and alternative therapies. Her goal is to educate people about the many symptoms that cannabis can alleviate and how it can be used in conjunction with or as an alternative to traditional medicine and medications.

Catherine brought some samples of products to show that cannabis use can be without the stereotypical “joint” that must be smoked resulting in a high. Instead, the medicinal properties of cannabis can be made into other products with no resulting smell or euphoria – so that no one needs know that you’re even using the product. She showed us lozenges in different flavors, tinctures to be placed under the tongue, salves and lotions for external use, bath additives, patches and other products.

For additional information, go to: www.homegrownhealthcare.net

(Photo: PP Roxane Cole, Catherine Lewis and President John Curran.)

President Joh Curran welcomed 53 members on a beautiful summer day, when we officially met for our meeting at our new home for this year, The Clarion Hotel.

Invocation was presented by PP Russ Burleigh; the pledge to the flag was led by PP Roxane Cole and back in the spotlight to lead our a capella patriotic song was PP Russ Burleigh.

We celebrated the September Rotarian Birthdays by singing “Happy Birthday” and acknowledged the Rotarian Anniversaries with loud applause.

President John gave special note to Rotarians doing “good work.” Jesse Harvey manned 3 tables at Deering Oaks in honor of the Overdose Awareness Day.

The Maine Cornhole Tournament Event update was given by Terri St. Angelo (photo at right). The event brought in $2334. For the first year AND for this kind of event, that’s awesome! We now have the building blocks and game boards to really expand for next year. Our partner, NYA, will be working with us to allocate the funds soon. We had 26 teams participate. 11 Guests to support the teams. 16 volunteers from Rotary, NYA and the Boys and Girls Club. A special thanks goes out to the “Board Guys!” Russell Voss, Ben Delcourt and friends. Without the boards, we wouldn’t be able to play. Photos were placed on tables for all to see all the smiles at the event. 

Gracie Johnston (photo at left) spoke about the highlighted committee of the week – Community Service. She says this committee and what it stands for is the lifeblood of Rotary. All Rotarians recognize giving back to the community is so important. Some of the things the committee is working on this year: 

Opiod Crisis Initiative – Bring other clubs together to understand and educate on this crisis. 

Preble Street Resource Center Soup Kitchen – Always the last Wednesday of the Month. They are working on making it easier for volunteers to get there. Please consider joining to help on this night.

Thanksgiving Dinner at St. Vincent’s – Cook, prepare and serve dinner to homeless in the area. 

Salvation Army holiday bell ringers – Fun time sharing volunteer time with fellow Rotarians

Opiod Task Force – The group received a $5000 grant from the District and $1000 from Portland Rotary to start the Recovery Coach Academy.  Jesse Harvey was sent to a training for Recovery coaches. The next step is offering classes for people to become a recovery coach in the area. Attendance at 4 classes is needed to become certified. The Committee is hoping to spread this coaching to impact to as many people as possible and work with as many groups as possible to educate on the crisis and stigma.

Gracie ended her update by saying how proud she is of the Community Service members.

Jesse Harvey (photo at right) gave an update on the first ‘Train the Trainers Recovery Coach Academy’ class. Most attendees were from Portland, Sanford and Lewiston. He hopes to pair these students with Rotary Clubs to help spread the education to others. 

President John announced that there will be an Exchange Student coming from Germany and is in need of a temporary host. Contact John Curran for more information: curraj1@mmc.org

On Friday, Sep. 14th, there will be a new member orientation at 11 am at the Clarion Hotel. If you have any potential members or people that may be interested and want more information about the club, please attend.

Our weekly raffle was up to $980. Bob Fowler (at right in photo at left) gave Matt Tassey (at left in photo at left) the chance to pick the queen of hearts, but he was only able to find the 6 of hearts. 

Joe Reagan (photo at right) announced that he would be hosting the “Inside Maine” talk show on Saturday, 9/08, 10-1pm. If you would like to listen to any of the podcasts, follow this link. http://wgan.com/podcasts/categories/podcasts-inside-maine/    Joe also announced the Veteran’s Luncheon will be on Nov. 9th. Details of the program will be announced soon.

PP Bill Blount teased us with a John Denver song, but did not have the words for us, so we will have a song next week.
 

A shout out to the Maine Outdoor Challenge crew that is still paying dividends. Michael Reed obtained a Fishing Charter for the live auction. His long-term friend/client Kurt Christensen (Christensen Custom Homes) kindly donated a day-trip of fishing on his lobster boat in Casco Bay.  That auction winner was, PP Bowen Depke, who set out with his two sons and a friend at 8 AM to go 13 miles off shore for the adventure. By the calculation of his youngest son William, they caught around 125 fish, 2 sharks and 11 species. What a great trip to put in their family memory album. A thank you to all for the adventure!

(Mike Reed and a young fisherman.)

(One of Bowen's sons displaying his shark "catch.")

(Another of Bowen's sons displaying his unusual catch.)

(This team had quite a few catches of the day.)

Game Night             3rd Tuesday ea month
Long Creek              Mike Fortunato
Youth Center           michael.k.fortunato@gmail.com
                              or Jim Willey
                              jimandbarbarawilley@gmail.com