President Don Zillman
 was spending the holidays in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his wife, Linda, and missed the meeting, so First Vice President John Curran ably stepped in to run the show. Tom Nickerson (at right) provided us with a moving invocation and 1st VP John welcomed 52 club members and 2visiting guests.

 


The raffle was conducted by Terri St. Angelo and (once again) Past President Loretta Rowe's name was chosen – but in the spirit of Christmas, she graciously pulled the 5 of clubs, leaving the pot of $1,202 to grow until our next meeting. 



Tom Ranello introduced our newest member, Ben Jackson (at right). Ben is the Headmaster at North Yarmouth Academy in Yarmouth. Be sure to welcome Ben!
 


Past President Laura Young (at left), Chair of this year's Nominating Committee,  announced the slate of officers for the coming year and asked for a motion and vote to accept the announced officers, which was unanimously approved by the members. The slate of 2018-19 Slate of Officers is listed separately in this issue.



Erik Greven (at right) thanked everyone for their warm clothing donations to the Preble Street Resource Center – including the donations for underwear. Since more money was spent on buying underwear than was collected, several members pledged happy dollars to make up the difference.
 


Past President Dick Hall (at left) urged all Rotarians to support the Rotary Foundation and indicated that letters would be going out to all members inviting them to become Sustaining Members or to join the Portland Rotary Circle of Five Program. Contact Dick for more information at: dickhall@maine.rr.com
 


Jan Chapman (at right) filled us in on our own long-time Rotarian Meredith Small and her husband Bill, who live in Saint John, Virgin Islands, during the winter months. They recently returned there to assess the condition of their home after the devastating effects of Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Meredith is hoping to have power by January and she and her husband are hauling water for cleaning, cooking and all other needs. The house was open to Hurricane Maria and all their belongings were blown outside, lost or destroyed. They had no insurance as it was prohibitively expensive. We are planning to send a care package off to them soon and a card was passed around to send. Contact Jan or Bruce Moore (janchapman1966@gmail.com or brucevmoore@gmail.com) for more information and ways to help.



1st VP Amy Chipman (at left) reminded everyone again about signing up for the Rotary International Convention in Toronto, Canada to be held June 23-27, 2018 and urged more Rotarians to attend. To register, go to riconvention.org 


 


Roger Fagan (at right) urged all Rotarians to check the hearing aid boxes previously placed in the local communities and get the units back to him. He, along with 12 people from Alaska, Maine and Florida, will be going once again to the Dominican Republic on January 20th and will provide 200 hearing aids, 70 water filters and 70 solar lights. We have also joined with 15 other clubs in the District to support the Westbrook/Gorham Rotary Club in bringing clean water to the jungles of Guatemala. In April, the 3-H project will be brought to Prishtina University Medical Center in Kosovo, a country that is rebuilding its medical infrastructure after recently gaining independence from Serbia.

Happy Holidays everyone – and remember, no meeting this Friday!