After almost 30 years, the Professional Golf Association (PGA) Ben Hogan Tour returns on June 21-27, 2021 at the Falmouth Country Club with the Live + Work in Maine Opento benefit the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital.
This week’s speaker, Shamrock Sports & Entertainment CEO and Live + Work in Maine Open Executive Director Brian Corcoran, will share details around the “Maine Event”, a stop on the newly rebranded PGA Korn Ferry Tour that will drive community, charitable and economic impact to our region.
Brian Corcoran is the CEO and Founder of Shamrock Sports & Entertainment, a Portland-based agency focused on property naming rights, corporate partnership and multi-media sales, as well as other strategic consulting. Shamrock has represented a diverse base of property clients such as NASCAR, National Basketball Association (NBA), Circuit of the Americas, Professional Bowling Association (PBA), the America East Conference and more. Shamrock also owns, operates and/or manages LIVE events including PGA Live + Work in Maine Open, Carnaval Maine and Portland Pops.
Brian got his start in sports business serving as Athletic Marketing & Ticket Manager for Eastern Kentucky University. Prior to starting Shamrock, he held executive positions with Fenway Sports Management, the Boston Red Sox, NASCAR and SFX Sports.
Corcoran earned his Master’s Degree in sports management as well as his BS in Exercise Physiology from Eastern Kentucky University, where is also competed in track and field as a middle-distance runner. He is happily married to Melissa Smith, CEO of WEX, Inc., with three children, and resides in Falmouth.
Bits and Pieces | by Jake Bourdeau
President Ellen Niewoehner convened the March 5 meeting with 42 members in attendance. President Ellen noted that it is March 2021 and she still can’t believe we are holding Zoom meetings over a year after the start of the pandemic. She is glad club members are staying active with the Club during the Pandemic.
Charlie Frair provided the invocation with a fitting quote by Dr. Jonas Salk who discovered the polio vaccine. Paraphrasing, Dr. Salk said that if we can be more courageous, trusting, cooperative, and forgiving, then we have moved closer to the next breakthrough in human evolution.
Dave Small asked about the status of contributions for the food insecurity project in Rwanda announced at the last meeting by Michel Kanyambo and Erik Greven. The project goal was $500, and Elise Hodgkin reported donations were about half way to the goal. Dave Small requested $20 pledges be made known to him during the meeting. By meeting’s end, he reported that the fund-raising goal was achieved with over a dozen members making pledges. Donations can be processed through the club website where the annual dues are paid, or by contacting Elise directly with a credit card.
Mark Foster introduced his guest, Omolola Achuba, who is originally from Nigeria, and a retail business owner in Portland.
President Ellen extended best wishes to the March birthday celebrants and observed membership anniversaries.
Birthdays:
Jerry Angier
March 1
Patty Byers
March 4
Jen Sledge
March 5
Michelle DiSotto
March 6
Dave Small
March 9
Mac Collins
March 14
Larry Gross
March 16
Angela Smith
March 26
Ellen Niewoehner
March 29
Paul Tully
March 29
John Thompson
March 30
Alan Nye
March 31
Membership Anniversaries:
Howie Herodes
29 years
“Queenie” Westcott
29 years
Angela Smith
23 years
Tom Ranello
23 years
John Curran
11 years
Mike Robinson
4 years
Leslie Clark
1 year
Bob Martin announced he was in the process of recruiting committee chairs for next year. “If you are passionate about a committee’s activities and mission, and want to be its leader; I want to hear from you. If you are new to the club and think you have to be in the club for a number of years before taking on a leadership position, please understand I think that is bollocks, and I want to hear from you.” Please connect with Bob at bobmartinmaine@gmail.com. “If I don’t hear from you, as Hawkeye says in the Last of the Mohicans, ‘I will find you.’”
President Ellen encouraged the club members to reach out to Bob, and she thanked her Committee chairs for all the help they have provided this Rotary year.
A Personal Club Assembly | by Jake Bourdeau
The Pandemic has forced the club to meet virtually since March of 2020. As a consequence, we have not been able to share personal stories, greet each other with a warm handshake, or enjoy the company of other members. Bowen Depke moderated a club assembly this week designed to mitigate that. He noted he missed “being able to beat the raffle odds called PTG, find my badge in the sea of badges, see Loretta’s welcoming smile, try to find an empty seat at a lunch table, or make new friends at a meeting.”
Bowen called on the group to share more about ourselves, our families, our endeavors, our summer plans, and anything else on our minds. He called on over ten Rotarians to share their stories, and as you would expect, the chronicle of information each person shared was thought provoking and filled with meaning.
Many shared how they pivoted to new more personally rewarding roles in their lives when the pandemic hit, and how lately, business is booming. Their many stories expressed enthusiasm about their child’s accomplishments at work, at college, at kindergarten, or elsewhere. These stories were trumped by the enthusiasm for what their grandchildren could become (or even great-grandchildren in the case of Bob Traill).
Charlie Frair shared a story about long lost girlfriend who unknowingly died suddenly without being able to say good-bye to him (pre-internet and cell phone), the loss that was felt for so long, and the enlightenment that came when he later found memorials in her name after her passing.
We found out randomly through the sharing of these stories that at least two Rotarians will likely be sharing some down time together on the Nickerson Lake in northern Maine this summer—Laura Young and Amy Chipman, who both unknowing about the other have camps there.
We heard many express gratitude for medical accomplishments including the COVID-19 vaccines that will soon allow us to socialize again with friends and family, and also for the upcoming and prior medical procedures that have or will cure our ills.
On the Rotary front, we heard about how Club Members have found creative ways for club projects to be implemented from afar (in the Dominican Republic, or otherwise).
While each member shared their story in their own personal way, it was apparent that each story showed an enthusiastic betterment of our society through their endeavors, their life’s work, or through the potential that each child they know provides.
Moment of Reflection
About Standing (in Kinship)
By Kimberly Blaeser
We all have the same little bones in our foot
twenty-six with funny names like navicular.
Together they build something strong—
our foot arch a pyramid holding us up.
The bones don’t get casts when they break.
We tape them—one phalange to its neighbor for support.
(Other things like sorrow work that way, too—
find healing in the leaning, the closeness.)
Our feet have one quarter of all the bones in our body.
Maybe we should give more honor to feet
and to all those tiny but blessed cogs in the world—
communities, the forgotten architecture of friendship.
Source: Poetry, March 2021
Illustration: Neebinnaukzhik Southall
Neebinnaukzhik Southall is a member of the Chippewas of Rama First Nation and is a graphic designer, artist, photographer, and writer based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Speaker Schedule
March 12 | Brian Corcoran, Shamrock Sports
March 19 | Stefanie Trice Gill, IntWork LLC
March 26 | Hannah Pingree, Maine Climate Plan
April 2 | Brit Vitalius, Southern Maine Landlord Association
April 9 | Mark Burnett, Cannabis Industry / Higher Grounds
