This Week:Portland Rotarian, Jack Carr- Maine Maritime History
Our first in-person meeting in 2 years will feature our own Jack Carr, class of 2003 and Club President 2011-2012. Jack will speak to Maine’s maritime history from the first European contact to modern day focusing on the evolution of shipbuilding and its local effect. Learn the surprising and little known maritime history connections between old Maine and old Virginia from the beginning to present day. This will include the history they didn’t teach you in school and his own personal experiences. Jack is on the volunteer staff at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath and had personal involvement with the Union Wharf sale and other transitions of other maritime assets in Maine.
District Governor Dick Hall is keeping us up-to-date on the efforts of Rotary International's humanitarian efforts in war-torn Ukraine. Right now, the main avenue for financial contributions is through the Disaster Relief Fund. Contributions to Disaster Response are temporarily being prioritized for districts impacted by the Ukraine crisis. Unspent funds will be available to any Rotary districts for Disaster Response grants.
In addition to the Fund, please check out this list of Rotarian based Projects that districts and clubs around the world are engaging to help the cause. Rotary International is encouraging all levels of Rotary, national, district, and local to create their own responses.
In-Person Meetings: Food Reservation Required!
Reminder that if you intend to eat lunch at our club meetings, you need to make a reservation every Wednesday by 10am. To do so:
Italian Heritage Center, 40 Westland Ave, Portland. Doors open at 11:30, and try to arrive a bit early to sign in, pay for lunch, and share fellowship. We officially start at 12noon sharp and end at 1:15. We will zoom our meetings. Using Portland city protocols, masks will be optional. You will be asked to confirm that you are fully vaccinated at the door. $20 can be paid by cash, check or card at the door.
Meeting of March 4 | The Inner Workings of ecomaine
by Ben Lowry
Link To Zoom Recording of Meeting:Click HerePassword: FG.5T6mz
Last Friday, in our (hopefully) final fully remote meeting, our membership and guests had the distinct pleasure to hear about the inner workings of ecomaine, a facility known to most of us as a dominant feature just off the turnpike at outer Congress Street. Katrina Venhuizen, a senior environmental educator since 2016, was able to provide great detail through video and narrative that answered many of our questions about “where does all the trash go?”
With 70 communities in Maine and 2 in New Hampshire working with the one ecomaine facility in Portland, tons and tons of trash and recycling are handled daily. Recycling, consisting of cardboard, paper, glass, metal and plastic is handled very differently than trash, which can be made up of old household items, clothes, and organic food scraps. We are all very familiar with the blue bins that are used for recycling and Katrina was able to dispel many misconceptions about what can be recycled and what cannot. She showed us fascinating video footage of the inner workings at the ecomaine facility, where recycling items are first dropped onto a huge floor and then fed into a series of metal sorting conveyors, with spinning stars, that feed some items in one direction and others in another. Even with all of the technology available, the whole process can be shut down by wire or fabric gumming up the works, forcing human hands to dig in and pull apart any obstacles. Metals, all 12 tons per day, are sorted by ferrous and non-ferrous by specialized magnets, glass is smashed to tiny bits that can then be used to make countertops and bathroom items and paper and cardboard are sent off to be made into recycled paper products, most notably toilet paper.
Food items, on the other hand, are not garbage and can be used in composting, either in your own backyard or dropped off at five Portland locations, including one of our pet projects, the Franklin Street Community Gardens. With the average person producing 219 pounds of organic waste per year, about 40% of all waste of food residue.
Actual trash is burned at the ecomaine facility for about four hours, a process that produces enough heat to allow steam to run on sight generators, with 90% water vapor being the final released product that we can see coming from the smokestack. The energy produced by the two generators is sold to help fund the facility. The ash that is left over is deposited in a landfill just three miles from the site, an area that is much cleaner, with no methane release, than most large landfills that we see across the state, many of which will be obsolete in the next 20 years.
So, the next time you toss away a bit of trash, take a moment to think about what will happen with it. And remember the phrase “reduce, reuse, recycle and compost.” It’s the right thing to do and it certainly meets our four-way test!
Around We Go: Rotary Logo History
Last week we displayed the various renditions of the Rotary logo since it was first conceived n 1905, to present day. Let's take a closer look at the original design.
In 1905, Montague M. Bear, an engraver and member of the Rotary Club of Chicago, sketched a wagon wheel with 13 spokes as a club emblem. When fellow club members began to complain that the design was static and lifeless, Bear added flourishes that made the wheel appear to ride on a bed of clouds. Unfortunately, some members felt the clouds looked like dust, defying the laws of physics by being kicked up on both sides of the wheel. Bear responded by superimposing a banner with the words “Rotary Club” over the clouds.
Bits and Pieces | by Erik Jorgensen
PP Larry Gross, Jan Chapman and Bruce Moore were on the Zoom before the rest of the club, engaged in a pre-meeting conversation about mountaineering in the Moosehead region. Then Charlie Frair popped on and the discussion moved to hiking in California – he is waiting to hear about a lottery pass to climb Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the lower 48. Joe Gray appeared, and noted that he’s back from Florida, before suggesting the value of hiking in Alaska.
Clearly minds are on places –almost anywhere-- other than the melting, muddy March landscape of Portland! And right on cue, PP Ben Lowry appeared to talk about the extraordinarily clement weather in La Jolla. All this before the talk turned to Woodstock.
PP Amy Chipman (right) gaveled the meeting into order – she was at the podium as President Bruce is off at president-elect training this week.
There was a general sense of excitement about the return to live meetings next week. At present more than 20 people are signed up for next Friday, so be sure to get your RSVP to Alice ASAP. Our last in person meeting was March 13, 2020 and we’ll be back on March 11, 2022 – almost 2 years to the day!
Charlie Frair led the invocation – he asked for a moment of silence in recognition of the tragedy currently unfolding in Europe. Patty Byers led the pledge and Amy, having begged for someone else to do it and exhausted all other options, led the club in My Country Tis of Thee. She did a fine job.
Patty Byers (right) announced that the Foundation Committee will meet on April 1st with details to come. But then she launched into a happy dollar frenzy. She wanted to acknowledge that she’s discovered Rotary Grove. That was worth a buck. Then she gave an “undisclosed number of happy dollars” representing each year of her life – which she paired with a special gift of 69 happy dollars, in honor of her twin brother, whose birthday happens to also be today! Thank you, Patty, and many happy returns!
PP Ellen Niewoehner (right) noted that Dick Hall has announced that the Rotary foundation has established a Ukraine relief fund – Rotary is working hard to provide both humanitarian support and working to promoting peace during this man-made disaster. Rotary will be providing water, food, shelter, and clothing.
Charlie Frair announced that we will again be doing a Flags for Heroes project this fall. It will start on September 11 and the flags, each in honor of a real-life hero, will be up in the Mall for two weeks. It will likely be our year’s biggest fundraiser. The timeline starts in March and if you’d like to be part of it, see Charlie.
Ellen Niewoehner announced that the environmental committee will be meeting next Friday, immediately after our in-person meeting. They will be in-person at the Italian Heritage Center, but also on Zoom. Topics include brainstorming Earth Day ideas and discussing potential tree projects.
From the Sunday River slopes, we received a fun photo from our intrepid skiers, Jim Vicenzi, Amy Chipman, and Bill Blount!
Have a photo of Rotarians in service or enjoying some fellowship? Send it in to the Windjammer, and maybe we'll print it! (Odds are good.) Email Tom Talbott.
March Birthdays are Gerry Angier, Patty Byers (today!), Jen Sledge, Michelle DiSotto, Dave Small, Matt Collins, Larry Gross, Ellen Niewoehner, Paul Tully, John Thompson, and Alan Nye.
Anniversaries for the month were: Howie Herodes (30 Years); Leslie Clark (2 years); Mike Robinson (5 years); Don Curran (12 years); Tom Ranello (24 years); Stefanie Trice Gill 1 year.
Speaker Schedule
March 18 |Susan Black, Brunswick Coastal Rotary, Village Health Works in Burundi.
President-Elect Bruce Jones will turn over the bell to these Past Presidents to guest host the following meetings: March 25th: Tom Talbott • April 1st: Bill Blount • April 22nd: Larry Gross April 29th: John Marr • May 20th: Bowen Depke • May 27th: Ellen Niewoehner
June 17th: Roxane Cole • June 29th: Ben Lowry
Club Executives
President-Elect Bruce Jones
1st VPDick Hall
2nd VP Patty Byers
Treasurer Howie Herodes
SecretaryMichelle DiSotto
Board of DirectorsEllen Niewoehner, Mark Foster, Bob Clark, Roger Fagan, John Thompson
Sergeant-At-Arms Dave Putnam
Club Administrator Alice Alexander
The Windjammer
is published online by
The Rotary Club of Portland, Maine.
Contributing Editors
Bill Blount, Jake Bourdeau, Dick Hall,
Erik Jorgensen, Julie L’Heureux, Ben Lowry,
Tom Nickerson, Tom Talbott, Laura Young
3rd Q Program Chair:Justin Lamontagne
4th Q Program Chair:Roxane Cole
Managing Editor Tom Talbott
Co-ProductionAlice Alexander
Thank you North43Bistro, South Portland, for your support!
Charlie Frair led the invocation – he asked for a moment of silence in recognition of the tragedy currently unfolding in Europe. Patty Byers led the pledge and Amy, having begged for someone else to do it and exhausted all other options, led the club in My Country Tis of Thee. She did a fine job.
Patty Byers (right) announced that the Foundation Committee will meet on April 1st with details to come. But then she launched into a happy dollar frenzy. She wanted to acknowledge that she’s discovered Rotary Grove. That was worth a buck. Then she gave an “undisclosed number of happy dollars” representing each year of her life – which she paired with a special gift of 69 happy dollars, in honor of her twin brother, whose birthday happens to also be today! Thank you, Patty, and many happy returns!
PP Ellen Niewoehner (right) noted that Dick Hall has announced that the Rotary foundation has established a Ukraine relief fund – Rotary is working hard to provide both humanitarian support and working to promoting peace during this man-made disaster. Rotary will be providing water, food, shelter, and clothing.
March Birthdays are Gerry Angier, Patty Byers (today!), Jen Sledge, Michelle DiSotto, Dave Small, Matt Collins, Larry Gross, Ellen Niewoehner, Paul Tully, John Thompson, and Alan Nye.
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