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.
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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.
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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.