To all members, your help is needed to make our participation in Westbrook Together Days a success!! As you patronize our local restaurants, sandwich shops, cafes and coffee shops, please consider asking them to donate gift cards to promote literacy. Any denomination is welcome - $5, $10, $20, $25.
During Westbrook Together Days, anyone donating a new or gently used baby, children or young adult book will secure one entry per book donated in our drawing. Please share this information with family and friends.
Please bring any donations to our weekly meetings or contact Julie Hamm or Christine Johnson for pick up.
Don't forget. This week is our annual "Lunch with the Trades". Students and instructors from the various WRVC programs associated with the house project will be joining us for lunch this week. We are looking forward to hearing about progress on the house and some of the students' plans for the future.
Hal Thomas and Jason Beever have reported that students were interviewed and selected for RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) to be held at Camp Hinds June 21st-24th. Two students from Gorham were interviewed and selected. Four students from Westbrook were interviewed. All were strong candidates. The Board voted to select four students from WHS to allow our full complement of six students to attend. Look for more details on the candidates selected as they confirm their participation.
Gorham High School students Kristen and James Bensen, along with Darren Bantz from Stroudwater Christian Church, fresh off a mission trip to Guatemala, were are guests and speakers on May 5. Fourteen teens, along with six chaperones representing five local high schools visited eight different villages to deliver baby chicks and feed directly to villagers. The students who went on the trip helped raise the funds used to purchase the chicks and feed in-country.
Each family received 3 chicks and a bag of feed to raise them until they are large enough to eat. With the shortage of food in general and abundance of predators, raising chicks for egg laying is not feasible without a larger investment. The cost was about $12 per family, and about 100 families were given chicks during this most recent trip.
Stroudwater Christian Church started working in Cuatro Cayos 3-4 years ago and has committed to long term food support. They are now seeing results of previous visits – kid look healthy, with cleaner clothes and more children in school. Contrast this to other villages where the children looked sick and thin.
Stroudwater Christian Church has been partnering with Cristo Cristiano Cultural de Guatemala for several years. CCCG works with local Rotary clubs on projects in this area. Our club is currently working on a District Grant proposal to equip an existing dental clinic in this region with portable dental equipment. Dental care is a huge issue in this area. When hungry, they chew on the abundant sugar cane which ruins teeth leading to mouth disease.
Kristen & James Bensen distributing chicks and feed in Guatemala
