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Speakers
Sep 01, 2017
Sep 08, 2017
Thirty-five Years in U.S. Diplomatic Service: Rules to Live By
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Executives & Directors
President
 
First Vice President
 
Second Vice President
 
Treasurer
 
Secretary
 
Immediate Past President
 
Sergeant-at-Arms
 
Director Term End 2018
 
Director Term End 2018
 
Director Term End 2019
 
Director Term End 2019
 
Community Service Chair
 
International Service Chair
 
Vocational Service Chair
 
Youth Service Chair
 
Rotary Foundation Chair
 
Club Protection Officer
 
Vision Champion
 
Communications-WJ Bulletin Ed
 
Communications-PR External
 
Constitution/ByLaws Chair
 
Fund Raising Chair
 
Good Cheer Chair
 
Invocation Chair
 
Meeting Day Chair
 
Music Committee Chair
 
Program Chair
 
Membership Chair
 
Web Administrator
 
Administrative Coordinator
 
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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Portland Rotary
meets on September 1, 2017 at the  
HOLIDAY INN BY-THE-BAY
88 Spring Street, Portland
                                
*09/01/17 Michael Smith, Camp Sunshine

Michael Smith, Development Director at Camp Sunshine, will be speaking at Friday’s lunch. He will provide an overview of their mission and current initiatives....detailing how Rotarians can be supportive. He will also be highlighting the upcoming “Suitcase Party” <campsunshine.org/subdomains/suitcaseparty/index>.  

After graduating from Falmouth High School, Mike pursued his ambition to own a restaurant by attending Johnson & Wales University and later purchasing a Maine-based Pat's Pizza franchise. He operated the location in the Lakes Region area for 11 years before changing careers and accepting a position at Camp Sunshine. As the organization’s first Director of Special Events, he incorporated out-of-the-box thinking with extreme attention to detail to produce successful festivals and events throughout the Northeast. Today, as the Camp’s Development Director, Michael is most proud of the team he has put together and their continued success in the highly competitive non-profit sector.

08/25/17 Bob Fowler, Milestone Foundation



Our speaker last Friday was Robert Fowler, Executive Director of the Milestone Foundation. For those unfamiliar with Milestone, it provides emergency shelter, as well as drug and alcohol addiction treatment to adults with chronic substance use disorders. The mission of Milestone is to provide the best services possible to help people with substance use and behavioral health disorders to attain stability, recovery and greater quality of life. (www.MilestoneFoundation.org)

Mr. Fowler focused his talk on the opioid epidemic in Maine. He noted that he’s on the Maine legislative task force to address the opioid crisis. Mr. Fowler made no bones about it: we are a nation suffering with a public health crisis and epidemic. 

Some statistics he gave were both tragic and alarming. As a nation, we suffered over 52,000 deaths last year due to overdoses. More people died from overdoses than were killed in automobile accidents – more than the deaths we suffered in Vietnam. Maine’s overdose death rate is more than 1 each day—a 40% increase.

Mr. Fowler emphasized that opioid addiction is a very complicated issue and he offered no simple solutions. He shared that Milestone offers homeless outreach and an overnight shelter, housing placement assistance, medically managed detox, residential treatment and transitional housing.

He described some of the services available at Milestone, including:

• Maine’s only 41-bed overnight substance use disorder emergency shelter;

• A Home Outreach and Mobile Engagement (HOME) Team that provides support to those with substance use disorders and responds to police, merchants, and citizens to provide services to those most vulnerable;

• A detoxification program for men and women struggling with substance use disorders; and

• An extended-care clinically managed 16-bed residential treatment program.

Mr. Fowler ended his remarks early and graciously answered question after question from Rotarians. He noted that addiction services are so lacking that only 1 in 10 people that desire treatment can access it. Unfortunately, overdose deaths are the single highest cause of death for those under 50. Where Milestone used to treat nearly 100% alcohol addiction, it’s now 50/50 with opioids/alcohol and the demographic is for younger and younger individuals.

When asked what we could do to help, Mr. Fowler suggested that we, as a club and as individuals, pressure our lawmakers to fund programs and allocate even greater resources to providers. We are losing a generation of young people to substance use disorders and we can only overcome this epidemic if everyone does their part. So what are you waiting for?

 

(Photo L-R: Steve Mortimer, Robert Fowler and President Don Zillman.)

08/25/17 Bits & Pieces

President Don Zillman opened our weekly meeting by welcoming 48 members, 2 visiting Rotarians and 1 guest.


David Small
(
at left) offered a comedic invocation in honor of our club’s monthly efforts to hold a social gathering at a different Portland brewery. The invocation, entitled “A Beer Drinker’s Prayer” brought some levity to our meeting. Dave followed it up with a much more brief and solemn prayer.



George Crockett led us in the Pledge of Allegiance and Kathy Grammer played the keyboard to a nice rendition of “America,” which the club handled with great aplomb. Such could not be said a few minutes later when Meredith Small (at right) tried to lead us in an effort to sing the lovely ballad “Shanandoah,” which we unfortunately mangled and mutilated, although we gave it a nice Rotary effort!
 


Dick Giles took to the podium to talk about our club’s efforts out at the Long Creek Youth Development Center, where we have been working with the guests in the Cedar Unit for several years now. Every 3rd Tuesday of the month, we head out after work and spend time with these young men, sharing snacks, sweets and a game. It’s a wonderful program and a great way for Portland Rotarians to be of service. Please contact Mike Fortunato (michael.k.fortunato@gmail.com) or Jim Willey (jimandbarbarawilley@gmail.com) if you have questions or are interested in helping.

 


Charlie Frair asked us all to mark our calendars for Friday, November 10th, when we will be hosting the 3rd annual Veteran’s Day tribute....this year to be held at the Italian Heritage Center. We are looking to increase our club’s participation from 30 to 50 Rotarians and yet will not look to increase the overall scope of the event, which saw 300 guests hosted last year, comprised of veterans and their families joining us gratis. For now, keep your eyes peeled for announcements and block off the noon hour on November 10th.



Marty Peak-Helman, former District 7780 Governor and now the District Foundation Chair, presented President Don Zillman, Past-President Laura Young and Past-President/current Club Foundation Chair Dick Hall with a check for $4,000 to go toward our CHE reading program. In presenting this generous sum, Marty praised our club for being amongst the district leaders in foundational efforts.  

 


Jan Chapman had our speaker pull the name of newest returning Portland Rotarian, Peter Moore, for the weekly raffle drawing, which was worth a cool $736, but Peter pulled the Five of Spades, thus the pot with grow for next week’s effort.
 

Birthdays and Rotary Anniversaries

NOTABLE DATES FOR MEMBERS IN SEPTEMBER:

Member Birthdays
10th - Austin Harris
15th - Joe Gray
17th - Andrew Cook
18th - Stephanie Joyce
19th - Don Mackenzie
20th - Liz Fagan
21st - Gus Karlsen
28th - Kris Rosado
30th - Meredith Small 
 

Date-Joined-Rotary Anniversaries
1st -     Peter Goffin - 34 years
            Gus Karlsen - 25 years
            Bill Ross - 25 years
            Jim Willey - 25 years
2nd -    Danielle Conway - 1 year
9th  -    Andrew Cook - 1 year
            Charlie Frair - 12 years

11th -   Mac Collins - 8 years
            George Crockett - 19 years
            Andreea Paine - 2 years
17th -   Austin Harris - 55 years!!!!!!!!!!!!
23rd -   Justin Lamontagne - 6 years

 
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!
 

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


Preble Street        4th Wednesday ea month
Resource Ctr        4-6:30 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:  Charlie Frair
Program Reporter:  Tom Talbott
Bits & Pieces Reporter:  Julie L'Heureux
Registration/Greeter:  David Clough
Sell Meal Tickets:  Stephanie Joyce
Raffle:  Jerry Angier
Badge Box:  Bruce Jones
Collect Meal Tickets:  Tom Nickerson
*
Song Leader:  Don Lowry
Keyboard Player:  Russ Burleigh
Sgt-at-Arms (Setup):  Matt Tassey
Sgt-at-Arms (Take Down):  Jim Willey

*if hotel staff is unavailable

 

Rotary Meeting Locations

If you would like to mark your calendars,
we are scheduled at the following locations
through September 2017:

2017
Sep   1 - Holiday Inn By-the-Bay
Sep   8 - Holiday Inn By-the-Bay

Sep 15 - The Clarion
Sep 22 - Bayside Bowl
Sep 29 - The Clarion

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.
 
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)                                                                           
Eileen Skinner          Retired CEO
(David Small)             Mercy Hospital

Adam Scheppard      Northpoint Mortgage
(Brian McDonough)

John Thompson       Icon LNG
(Loretta Rowe)

Thank you.