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Russell Hampton
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Aug 17, 2018
Aug 24, 2018
Opioid/SAD Data and Statistics
Aug 31, 2018
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Welcome to the Rotary Club of Portland, Maine!
Portland Rotary
Service Above Self
We meet Fridays at 12:15 PM
Holiday Inn By-the-Bay
88 Spring Street
Portland, ME  04101
United States
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Rotary This Week

Portland Rotary Club
will meet this Friday,
August 10, 2018 
at the
Clarion Hotel
1230 Congress Street, Portland
 
*08/10/18 Dr Judith Jones, Maine Assn of Charter Schools

Dr. Judith Jones has a B.A. from Middlebury College, a M.A. from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and a Ph.D. from the City University of New York Graduate Center. She began her career in International Relations and worked for the US Agency for International Development and the State Department. Following her passion for education, Judith switched careers and became program analyst for the NJ Department of Education when community colleges were initiated and teachers colleges were transformed into liberal arts programs. While living in Washington DC, she became involved with the emerging “Six School Complex” and documented this innovative public school choice program in her 1987 book, Six School Complex: A Successful Innovation in Washington, D.C.’s Public Schools. This led to a dozen years of working with the DC Public School system in a variety of facility planning, education planning, and policy positions.

She became involved with the early efforts to create “public autonomous schools” in DC, leading to the passage of enabling legislation for public charter schools by the DC Council in 1994 and by Congress in 1995. As co-founder of FOCUS, she worked with founders, authorizers, and others to develop a high-quality charter school movement in DC, now serving 44% of all public school children.

In 1998, Judith’s personal focus shifted to the state of Maine, where she and her husband Bill retired. At the time, Maine was one of the 10 states without an enabling charter school law. Judith quickly joined MACS, which was working to bring charter schools to Maine. Judith led the group in formalizing their efforts as a non-profit corporation in June of 2000 and in persisting to convince Maine legislators to enact enabling charter school legislation in June 2011. In Judith’s words…

“Access to good education is an avenue out of poverty, but the existing American system denies this access to many children.  It gives school districts almost complete control over taxpayer dollars and resources. Personal experience has persuaded me that better education outcomes will come only with basic structural changes, including allowing parents to choose schools that meet the needs of their children, with the money following the child, not the political winds of the day.”
 

08/03/18 Ryan Vachon, Explorer, Fim Producer, Motivational Speaker

Inspiring yourself to achieve “blue sky space” was the theme of Ryan Vachon’s motivational presentation to our club on Friday. He was born in Boston, where he graduated from Tufts University with a degree in geology. He lives in Colorado, where he is the Executive Officer and Founder of One Premise Innovative Communications with the University of Colorado at Boulder. His career has been inspired by the challenges he has faced, especially while he was learning how to overcome his dyslexia and developmental obstacles. He found ways to inspire himself to be an assertive person and a creative thinker. This growth journey began about 6 years ago, when he found himself confronted by panic attacks. He made a decision to overcome the despair caused by these obstructive emotions. “I finally responded by standing up for myself,” he said.

Believing in the inspirational power of self-motivation has given him the confidence to confront challenges. Among the most arduous of his self-motivating challenges occurred during rock climbing experiences. During his climbs, he was faced with the opportunities and risks he confronted with each step he took, while attempting to conquer treacherous and steep terrains. Quick decision making increased his chances of success, like when he was once faced with a 2,000 foot “predicament”; but emotional decision making could also contribute to tragedy. His advice was “never act on emotion” but work through the “emotional clouds,” and look towards “blue sky space.” 

Confronting fear has been a big part of his life. He has learned to be motivated while striving to overcome fear. Taking small steps towards overcoming fear can lead to “big steps” in directing us to becoming “bigger people.”  

In being decisive, he recommended the acronym “GOALD”: 

G - A goal. “I want to do ‘this’”; and then ask yourself, “What holds me back?”

O - Ownership of the goal.

A - Advise yourself, “What do I do?”

L - Lead yourself through the paths toward the goal; know the challenges (sometimes, this also means facing the realization that there may be too many obstacles in the way of achieving the primary goal.)

D - Dedication for achieving the goal.

In summary, inspiring ourselves to achieve higher goals will give us the added benefit of allowing us to reach out to help others.

 

(Photo L-R: Matt Wolcott, Ryan Vachon, and President John Curran.)
 

08/03/18 Bits & Pieces

(The meeting started on a light note when this reporter heard PP Paul Gore tell Alan Levenson that he was “looking particularly lovely today.”)

President John Curran welcomed 47 members, 2 visiting Rotarians and 3 guests to a warm summer meeting. Bruce Jones presented us with the invocation, taking quotes from an acceptance speech from a Junior Achievement awardee. Its contents spoke about the importance of compassion in business and personal life and gave us examples of where we can introduce compassion to everything we do.

Mike Fortunato lead the Pledge of Allegiance, and PP Bill Blount led us in "My Country Tis of Thee."


1st VP Amy Chipman introduced her guest and potential member Francine Laporte, and PP Peter Goffin introduced Mary Finnegan, a Portland Rotary member from 15 years ago. Mary had already received hugs and special welcomes from several members.


President John welcomed Immediate Past President Don Zillman back to Maine from the Southwest  and mentioned that PP Kris Rosado was currently in Germany. He also told us that Jesse Harvey was back from CT where he was trained to be a Recovery Coach Trainer for our Opioid Task Force.


President John read a nice thank you note, addressed to IPP Don Zillman, from the Refugee and Human Rights Clinic at the Maine Law School. The program teaches law students how to be effective advocates and supports them in their work at our southern border.


PP Larry Gross, speaking on behalf of himself and his Vocational Service Co-chair PP Jack Carr, was planting the seeds for future vocational service opportunities. He told us that vocational service is one of the pillars of Rotary Service and is included in the Declaration of Rotarians (Page 7 in the Roster). Vocational service uses professions as a way to serve. He cited the example where Jack Carr uses his engineering profession to mentor students at Portland High School, toward getting their own engineering degree.


There was a long list of August birthdays, and several anniversaries. Matt Tassey was the longest anniversary member on the list, 32 years of Rotary.


Jesse Harvey told us that he just completed the training to become a trainer of recovery coaches.  He will be leading the CCAR Recovery Coach Academy (RCA) training sponsored by Portland Rotary, with a grant from District 7780. The dates are Sep 4, 11, 18, and 25 and the class is 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM, with 30 minute break for lunch on ones own. To register, go to: https://goo.gl/forms/bcKuR0eutmspR7zw1. RCA Class applications are due by 6:00 pm 8/16/18. In order to be certified, one must attend all classes. The grant is supplying the scholarships for attendees, and attendees must agree to four hours of community service per month. We had registration for a previous course which was cancelled, so we have (12) carried over applications. This leaves (13) more spots. (See separate article for further details.)


Terri St Angelo, event coordinator, talked about the Maine Cornhole Tournament, which will be held Aug 23, 2018 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM at NYA’s athletic fields, 148 Main Street, Yarmouth, rain or shine! It features bracket elimination, end-of-summer BBQ, Team champion & consolation prizes. Proceeds will benefit the Rotary Club of Portland’s local service projects and Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Maine scholarship for full-tuition to attend NYA. For further details and to register, go to: https://orange.nya.org/cornhole/. Then Terri invited PP Roxane Cole (below left) and PP Jack Carr (below right) to demonstrate how the “sport” was played.

 

 


 

Gus Karlsen (at left) told us this is the last year he will be Collector-in-Charge for the MS Regatta. Gus brought the trophy we won last year for the service club division, and proudly displayed it up front. It is the 8th time Portland Rotary has won this trophy. Gus gladly collected $50 or $100 from anyone this week, and he will be back next week, so he asked that we “bring our checkbooks.” Usually Portland Rotary has been able to sponsor two boats, at $500 per boat. Gus would like to do that again.


With Jan Chapman conducting this week's raffle, which was over $800, Mike Reed's name was drawn. Mike pulled the Jack of Diamonds from the deck and it was not enough to win the pot that continues to grow.
 

Recovery Coach Academy
The Rotary Club of Portland, along with Greater Portland Health, is hosting a Recovery Coach Academy class. Details are below:
 
Cornhole Championship Fund Raiser

To register for this event, click on the following link: www.NYA.org/cornhole

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
 

                              When
Project                  Who to Contact


Locker Project         Pop-Up Picnic Dinner
                             with Wayside-Boyd St Gardens
                             5:30-7:00 pm
                             August 20

                             Steve Phillips
                             volunteer@mainelockerproject.org                   


Summer Reading    Tuesdays and Thursdays
Program                 11:15-12:00 pm
North Deering         July 5 thru August 9 
Gardens                 Contact Jan Chapman 
                             or Laura Young on Tuesdays
                             jchapman1966@gmail.com
                             lyoung@mainecf.org

                             David Small onThursdays
                             dsmall133@aol.com


Preble Street           4th Wednesday ea month
Resource Ctr           3:30-6:30 pm
Soup Kitchen           Gracie Johnston
                              gracie.johnston@wcsh6.com


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

 

This Week's Duty Assignments

Invocation:  Cy Hagge
Program Reporter:  John Marr
Bits & Pieces Reporter:  Jake Bourdeau
Registration/Greeter:   Tom Nickerson
Sell Meal Tickets:  Jennifer Frederick
Raffle:  Chris Force
Collect Meal Tickets:  Loretta Rowe
Sgt-at-Arms (Setup):  Mike Fortunato 
Sgt-at-Arms (Take Down): Mac Collins

Rotary Meeting Locations

If you would like to mark your calendars,
we are scheduled at the following locations
through August 17, 2018:

2018 
Aug 10 - The Clarion
Aug 17 - Hadlock Field

Aug 24 - tbd
Aug 31 - tbd


Blue BOLD dates are scheduled Board meeting days.

Any questions, please contact Loretta at: lrowe@maine.rr.com
 

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.
 
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.
 
Prospective Rotarians

As we receive applications for prospective members to join our Portland Rotary Club, the names of the applicants will be included in our Windjammer. Any information and/or comments you would like to share will be handled confidentially. Please contact Loretta Rowe: lrowe@maine.rr.com. Your input will be appreciated.

PROSPECT                 BUSINESS
(Sponsor)                                                                           

Amy Bouchard             Merrill Lynch
(Laura Young)


Thank you.