Walker Library Holiday Open House - Tuesday December 12, 2-6 PM - Join the staff at the Library for their annual holiday celebration. Enjoy an afternoon of music, snacks & beverages, a visit by Santa (4 - 5), and a silent auction. Explore the festive Victorian tree in the historical part of the library with friends and family. (Hint: Go early so you can attend W-G Rotary Christmas Party at 5:30!)
Altrusa Fundraiser - Your $10 donation puts you in the running to win a great prize EVERY DAY for the month of January! These make great stocking stuffers or Christmas gifts. Prizes include cash ($25, $50, $100, $250) and lots of gift cards (Shaws, LL Bean Gift, Kohls, Applebees, Amato's, DiMillo's and more). To see complete list: Altrusa Prize Calendar Your Donation will help @AltrusaPortland continue it’s great work in the community! To download a copy of the form with directions: Altrusa Portland 2018 Calendar Raffle Entry Form
Toys for Tots Donation Drive - FINAL WEEK - One option for drop off of unwrapped toys this year is the AllState offices of Carlo Giraulo 543 Main St, Westbrook. Collecting from October 18 to December 15.
Warm Feet for Veterans - Marine Corp League Detachment 1324 is collecting winter socks, jackets, gloves and blankets for homeless veterans and their families in the Portland area. Donations are for all ages and sizes for men, women, boys and girls. The Gorham Police Dept has a collection box in their vestibule that is open around the clock daily. All donations will go to local shelters or agencies that assist homeless vets locally.
WRVC Holiday Giving Project - See story below about this Giving Tree project. Return items to tree by 12/20.
Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP) - The Gorham Interact Club is doing a “Gift Donations for Elderly Patients” drive to assist Maine Medical Center. Their drive runs through Thursday, December 21. If you would like to help, please bring items to our meeting on December 20 or drop them for Ethan Johnson at Chalmers Insurance in Gorham. Items needed include: Mechanical pencils, 12-pk colored pencils, Disposable lens cleaner wipes, Large Print Activity Books (Crossword, Word Search, Sudoku, Adult Coloring, etc.), Large Print Books.
Toiletries for the High School - Ongoing - Collect those tiny bottles of toiletries you are paying for during your next hotel visit and bring them home to help students in need of personal hygiene products. The HS Pantry and the HS Nurse are always looking to restock these basic supplies. You can always drop items off during the school day at the HS main office, or bring them to a meeting.
Donate to our Club's Charity through Amazon Smile – Ongoing - If you order items from Amazon.com, even if not very often, you can help Westbrook Gorham Rotary Club Charities. Go to http://smile.amazon.com/. Search for our Charity and select it. You may need to login to your Amazon account before being able to finalize your selection. Then, when you shop Amazon.com (always starting from http://smile.amazon.com/) a portion of every purchase will be donated to our charity.
Can Tabs for Ronald MacDonald House – Ongoing - Let’s keep collecting those can tabs over the winter months so we'll have a big donation in the spring.
CLYNK for Literacy - Ongoing - Don't forget to keep filling those bags to help fund the children's books we ask our speakers to sign for the Baxter and Walker Libraries. Extra bags are always available at our meetings. We're nearing the end of the quarter and the next pay-out window. Please fill those bags with holiday cheer and drop them off by December 29th!
Mike Foley reports amazing progress on trees sales, with less than 30 trees remaining at the end of last weekend. With so few trees remaining, we may sell out before next weekend. If you are scheduled to work this week, be sure to look for updates from Mike.
Also, please remember that we will be breaking down the site on Tuesday December 19 immediately following our meeting. Please be sure to dress warmly and bring your gloves!
The new Social Services Program at Westbrook Regional Voc Center has set up a Giving Tree in the lobby near the main office. The tree is hung with tags requesting essential items that will be given to clients of Woodford’s Family Services. Most of the tags are for small items, like soap, deodorant, gloves, hats, socks, toothpaste, toothbrushes, Hannaford Gift Cards, etc. If you took a tag last week, please be sure to return your item to the tree by 12/20. If you would like to take a tag, you can always stop by the school during open hours. Or you can pick up a tag during our next meeting on 12/19. Just be sure to return the item to the tree by 12/20
Thanks to all who attended, hosted tables, or made donations to the Tips for Charity Luncheon on Friday December 8. We had a good turn-out and a good time again this year. The folks at Westbrook-Warren Church do a great job organizing and executing food and beverage for two seatings totaling well over 200 people. Ray Richardson hosted and Doc Stockwell was back at the piano this year making it even more festive.
L-R: Bill Chadwick, Deb Shangraw, Donna Dwyer, Sue Joyce,
Steve Rand, Scott Linscott, Pat Plummer
Attending were Jim Born (father of Christine), Dana Smith (Kiwanis), Deb Shangraw, Donna Dwyer (MPTC), Sue Joyce, Bill Chadwick, Pat Plummer, Scott Linscott, Steve Rand, Phil Spiller, and Judith and Ed Reidman. Thanks also to Veronica Bates, Julie Hamm, Kathi Perkins and Cliff Plummer who were not able to attend at the last minute but who sent along a "tip" for our table.
Dana Smith, Jim Born and Table Host Christine Johnson
Now that the Festival is over, we expect there will be an announcement soon about money raised. Charities benefiting again this year are the Westbrook Food Pantry and the Good Samaritan Fuel Fund.
New Member: Kathi Perkins has been approved as the newest member of our club by the Board of Directors at their December 5 meeting. Welcome Kathi!
PE News: Deb Shangraw is now our President Elect for 2017-2018. We are grateful that she could move up one year after the unfortunate departure of Kate Wight.
VP News: Mike Foley was selected by the board and the club approved him as Vice President for 2017-2018. Congratulations Mike!
Guatemala Water Project: As has been discussed previously, our proposed global grant made it through various levels of approval until it reached the Latin America office. At that point, pages of questions were raised and requirements for baseline health and other measurements pushed the timeline beyond the planned (and purchased) team trip in February. Thanks to encouragement from DG Dave Underhill and a major promotional effort by AG Tony Wagner, we are moving forward with a club project. Our club, in conjunction with about a dozen other clubs in our district, will provide over $15,000 to drill. Bill Chadwick reports that work has started in Guatemala in preparation for the arrival of our 28-member team, including 8 Rotarians, who will be traveling to Guatemala February 14-24.
More on Guatemala: The Gorham Interact Club will be collecting and donating 150lbs (three duffle bags full) of supplies for the community our water project team will be working in. Look for more details on that after the new year.
Tree Sale: As of 12/4, we had sold over 180 trees, well past the halfway point. We were also sold out of wreaths. A bit over 27% of sales had been by credit card. Mike Foley reported on some ideas being discussed for next year. We are looking at pre-selling wreaths and possibly trees. If we do so, that would likely start in early November. We may adjust our open schedule based on sales trends seen this year. Also, we might move to a single price point for trees. A planning meeting will be set for July to discuss ideas and to review any work needed on the trailer.
We have been receiving many requests to provide programs recently so have not assigned members to specific weeks as we have done in the past. If you have an idea for a program, please contact Christine Johnson at cejinmaine@gmail.com.
We are now scheduling programs for March.
Here is the list of upcoming speakers and programs:
* 12/12 - THIS WEEK! No Meeting - Christmas Party at the Reidman's
* 12/19 - Jana Allain - Woodfords Family Services
* 12/26 - No meeting - Christmas Break
* 1/2 - No meeting - Happy New Year
* 1/9 - New Members Induction & Sarah Hutchins Classification Talk
* 1/16 - Ken Hawley - CEO Transformation Project - Project Update
* 1/23 - Dan Stevenson - Economic Development Director Westbrook
Rotary is about fellowship, as well as service to our community. Even if you must miss a meeting, you can remain engaged by attending Rotary-sponsored events of our club or other clubs like fundraisers, by selling Christmas Trees, by volunteering at our Golf Tournament or our Road Race, or by attending District events or training. Just let our Secretary Mike Foley know when you have participated in any of these activities at mfoley@me.com
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