Dick Hall called the meeting to order and asked Bruce Moore to lead the club in the Pledge of Allegiance

 

In honor of the day’s speaker, Mayor Mark Dion, David Small told a tale from Portland 169 years ago. In 1851, Maine became the first state law to prohibit the sale of alcohol except for “medicinal, mechanical or manufacturing purposes.” 18 states followed suit. On  June 2, 1855, between 1-3K people  gathered because Portland Mayor Neal S. Dow, a Maine Temperance Society leader, authorized a shipment of $1,600 of “medicinal and mechanical alcohol.” The protesters believed, falsely, that this shipment was for private use. When the protestors failed to disperse, Dow ordered the militia to fire. One man died, seven were wounded. Following the outcome of the "Portland Rum Riot", the Maine law was repealed in 1856.

 

WELCOME GUESTS:  Tim Donnellon announced the guests including Sylvie Montello, Corey Hascall and Maliha Raidah from USM and Paul Tully’s guest Marla Keefe. (Photo: Tim Donnellon)

 

SHARING CELEBRATIONS:  Happy Dollars were shared to express appreciation for the Celtics, a non-local sports team, travel, visitors, selling houses, etc.

 

GENEROUS TRAVELERS: Dick Hall shared that $19,550 has been collected for the DR hearing project from all of the past volunteers who traveled to the DR.

 

KING BUT NO QUEEN: Brian Nickerson led the raffle. Tom Talbott’s ticket was selected to have a chance of drawing a queen of hearts to win the $70 prize but, alas, King Tom picked the King of Spades and the pot grows larger.

 

PHF CELEBRATION OF SYLVIE: 

In recognition of Sylvie Montello’s retirement from the Portland Schools and her seven years organizing Portland Rotary’s reading program in Lyseth Elementary School, Patty Byers, Bob Clark, Laura Young and John Thompson presented her with a Paul Harris Fellow. Patty shared that this is the highest honor the Club can bestow upon outstanding members of the community. (Photo: Laura, Sylvie, and Bob)

 

SUMMER READING: During the recognition of Sylvie, Laura shared that sign ups have begun for this summer’s reading program which will take place every Wednesday at 1 pm at the Boys and Girls Clubs Riverton Clubhouse starting Wednesday, June 26^th and ending Wednesday, August 21^st. Thanks to David Small and Mike Fortunato who are reading every Wednesday! Here is the link to sign up or email Laura!

      

A GRATEFUL FUTURE NURSE: Roxane Cole introduced Corey Hascall, VP of the USM Foundation. Corey thanked Portland Rotary for supporting the Promise Scholar program and introduced USM’s Promise Scholar Maliha Raidah. Maliha is from Bangladesh, graduated from Biddeford HS, is a nursing major and a rising senior. Maliha expressed her gratitude to our club and USM for the scholarship support for her 4 years of college.

 

FLAGS FOR HEROES: Tom Talbott spoke about the Flags for Heroes project and the wonderful new website thanks to Cort Hepler. Having a quality website helps us build this event, first by bringing in key allies such as the Rowe Auto Group, the Portland Sea Dogs, Portland Radio Group, and the Maine Mall. It should help you point your friends and co-workers to join in by sponsoring a flag, something that they will be grateful to you for this wonderful opportunity.  www.flagsforheroesmaine.com

 

HOST FAMILIES NEEDED: Zach Newell reminded Portland Rotarians that we are sponsoring a youth exchange student from Spain during the next school year. Two more host families are needed to host the student for 2-3 months each. Please spread the word.
 

SHREDDERS WANTED: Larry Gross reminded everyone of the Shredding event Portland Rotary is hosting on June 15, 9-1 PM at the TD Bank Branch at 362 Allen Ave in Portland. This is a great opportunity to clean out your office, basement or garage of old papers like long ago tax returns that you just dont' trust throwing away in the regular trash. There is a nominal fee of $5 per shopping bag or $10 for bankers box, and all proceeds go to our Charitable Fund. Patty Byers was busy cleaning out her storage locker - that's how it's done!

 

Bill Ross reports that the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) is an outdoor living and leadership conference for area High School sophomores. Our club sponsors 4-10 students, this year the dates being from June 23-26. We're looking for some great volunteers to join in for some meals and celebrations, specfically:

    • Registration  Sunday June 23, 7:30am-10am

    • Dinner and Final Campfire   Tuesday June 25, 6:30pm-10pm

    • BBQ and Closing Ceremony   Wednesday June 26, 5pm-630pm

Please consider this an opportunity to see the impact of the program, and see the difference this camp makes on our community. These are three of the biggest moments at camp, and they are always so impactful because of the Rotarian presence. We'd love to see you there! FMI: Email Bill Ross, our RYLA Chairman!

Last Friday at The Italian Heritage Center, our club was honored to host Portland’s third elected mayor, former Rotarian Mark Dion. Raised in Lewiston, Mark recalled being placed in a remedial class because of his French accent, causing his parents to push back and stress to young Mark the importance of education and reading. Mark was raised with the credo, “success is often found on the printed page” which he carries to this day as he looked back on his career path which led from USM to UMaine Law to a string of service positions. After serving as Cumberland County Sheriff from 1998 to 2006, Mark was elected first to the Maine House of Representatives in 2013 and then the Maine Senate in 2016. After an unsuccessful gubernatorial bid in 2018, Mark was elected to the Portland City Council in 2020. He was then elected to the office of mayor in November of 2023 with the endorsement of departing mayor Kate Snyder. Much of his campaign platform surrounded the ongoing homeless crisis in Portland and with a promise to “continue the sweeps” of the growing encampments, Mark won with 51% of the vote in the ranked-choice runoff.

 

Portland’s new “law and order mayor”, as described by the Portland Press Herald, spent a good portion of his time at the podium giving us all an update on the efforts to shelter the “unhoused” population in Greater Portland, which includes more than just individuals but oftentimes entire families who need our help. Many of these are immigrants, who Mark was quick to point out are not “illegal immigrants”, are now housed in one of three shelters, the most impressive of which is the new shelter on Riverside Street, the only shelter north of New York that was built for this specific goal. The 25-million-dollar center holds 250 people and was designed with space for medical services, vocational offices, and to provide the guests with the dignity they deserve. Despite some push-back from neighbors, the new center must be seen as a great success, Mark noted. Combined with the Family Shelter on Chestnut Street, which has housed over 600 people in just the past few months, the residents of Portland have seen very few encampments, if any, since Mark took office just six months ago. Of course, one of the biggest problems the city still faces is where to place the unhoused as they transition to more permanent living arrangements. As we seen through media coverage, Portland and even outlying communities are oftentimes too costly for many of those who are hoping to put down roots and join the 500,000 residents of Greater Portland.

 

Mark spent a short time extolling the virtues of The Portland Jetport under the leadership of Paul Bradbury, which saw 2.2 million passengers come through the doors in 2023, as well as the Parking Division of Portland, which is led by stalwart John Peverada. Portland is one of the few cities in the nation where the majority of revenue comes from fees, not property taxes, although Mark did suggest that the residents of Portland will be facing a tax increase of close to 5% in the next year.

 

Mayor Dion impressed our club with his background in service and his passion for helping others during his long and very distinguished career. While he certainly is a very busy man, we still hope to have him re-join our group in the future as we both seem to share in the mantra of “service above self”.  (Photo- Mark and Dick Hall share a moment after the meeting.)

June 21 - Mike Roughton, Exec. Dir.  Association of Maine Manufacturers

June 28 -Dick Hall, Year in Review, Office Changeover

July 5- No Meeting, 4th of July Holiday Weekend

July 12- President Patty Byers

July 19- Portland Sea Dogs- Annual Picnic Lunch at Hadlock Field

July 21 - Sunday - Hadlock Field Presentation "Flags For Heroes"