President Bowen opened the meeting by welcoming 65 members and 2 guests. The invocation was presented by Alan Nye and we pledged our allegiance to the flag and sang a patriotic song.

Travis Parker ran our weekly raffle, which was over $300 and our speaker drew Dick Giles' name to try and find our elusive Queen of Hearts, but couldn't find her...so the pot continues to grow for another week.
 

The club was basking in the warm glow of the most-successful-ever Maine Outdoor Challenge benefitting the Boys and Girls’ Club, which is expected to clear close to $60,000 when the final accounting comes in. Bravo to Kris Rosado, Mike Fortunato and all the Club volunteers who made it such a success. If you’ve not seen the great story by Dierdre Fleming in Sunday’s Telegram, it provides a great account of this event: http://www.pressherald.com/2016/06/12/deirdre-fleming-maine-outdoor-challenge-is-a-charity-event-that-teaches-skills/

The top Portland Rotarians in the Maine Outdoor Challenge were Bowen Depke, who scored a 20 in archery;  Adam Shepherd, who managed a 17 in fly casting; and a tie between Peter Ingram and Kris Rosado in shooting, where each earned an 18. Overall, Peter Ingram came in 3rd out of 205 competitors, with a 52 of 75 possible points. He was only 3 points behind the competition winner. 
 
The lobster bake/awards event on Wednesday wrapped up the 3-day competitions and was just as successful. With a packed house in attendance, awards were handed out to the winners of the event, as everyone enjoyed the tasty meals that were served. Many went home as additional winners of the silent and live auction items!
 
With Tom Ranello performing his effective auctioneering, we witnessed quite a bidding duel on one "Jump & Raft" live auction item by our own members Alex St. Hilaire and Bowen Depke. Alex would not be beat and walked away the winner!
 

Meredith Small offered a history minute, profiling the club in 1952-53, a year that saw our club chugging along with about “1,000 to 1,100 in its checking account” and awarding support for playground equipment, hearing aids, and clothing for refugees arriving from East to West Berlin. It was a year in which Richard Nixon appeared before a joint meeting of Portland Service clubs. At one Rotary meeting, the speaker (a poultry merchant) brought chickens for every member, though it was not specified whether they were live or ready to cook! The other important event that year, one that would, of course, prove prescient for Rotary, was the development of the first polio vaccine by Jonas Salk. Meredith’s sister and brother were both participants in early vaccine trials.
 


Amy Chipman
reported that she was “housecleaning” the Rotary Foundation files and had a bunch of previously announced Paul Harris Fellowships (PHF) to award as her term as Foundation chair was coming to an end. These were presented to Julie L’Heureux (her 6th); Jon Young (his 3rd); Mark Millar and Erik Jorgensen (their 2nd each); Amy Chipman (her 4th); President Bowen (for his service as president); Gus Karlsen (his 7th); Victoria Millar (wife of Mark Millar) and Elise Hodgkin (her 2nd) from Amy. She announced that overall, 22 PHFs were awarded this year.
 

Janelle LoSciuto, and her helper son, Luca, announced that the Youth Services Committee will be conducting its summer “read and feed” program, featuring books and meals at North Deering Gardens at Riverton. Rotarians are needed to be trained to read to kids – for information on training and the program contact Janelle LoSciuto: jlosciuto@marchofdimes.org
 

President Bowen announced that the Service and Memorial Fund has entered a period of transition. The S&M Trustees have joined with the board in envisioning the fund as the core for what is hoped will be a “million dollar endowment” for Portland Rotary. More details will be forthcoming.

Finally, Past President and Club tennis commissioner Bill Blount is recovering from knee replacement surgery. He says that “he’s flexing well.”