Donate to our Club's Charity through Amazon Smile – 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

 

CLYNK for Literacy – Ongoing - Keep those canns and bottles coming! Drop off your filled CLYNK bag at any Hannaford. Thanks to those who have contributed bottles so far to help purchase books that we will donate for each speaker.  If you need more CLYNK bags, they are now on order and will be available for our January 24 meeting.  If you have any extras not actively being filled, please bring them to the next meeting so others can use them right away.

Accept the Challenge Match- The match challenge for donations made to the Rotary Foundation has been renewed for 2016-2017. The club will match any donation to the Rotary Foundation, dollar for dollar up to $100 in that member’s name.  For folks who newly sign up for Rotary Direct (automatic monthly payments from credit card or bank account) the club will add a one-time $25 donation to the Foundation.  If you have not yet made a donation in the 2016-2017 Rotary year, please consider accepting this challenge!!

 

Angel, Jean Carlos, and their moms Maricruz and Itzy, have settled in at Ronald McDonald house. Local Rotarians are acting as volunteer drivers to take them to appointments.  We are also providing support with warm clothes, baby formula, lotions (cold air is very drying!), and other special needs.

 

Unfortunately, surgeries have been delayed due to diagnostic findings.  We are all keeping our fingers crossed that the issues found will be cleared up quickly so the heart surgeries can proceed soon.

 

Angel and Itzy, showing off the beautiful quilt

from Wrap A Smile

 

Ann Cormier and translator Sandra Ricker from MMC,

giving a tour of the surgical area

 

Donna Dwyer, President & CEO of My Place Teen Center, was our guest and speaker on Tuesday January 10. Donna thanked our club for our ongoing support of MPTC, especially Deb Shangraw and Mike Sanphy who are on their Advisory Council.  She also remembered Paul Emery for his commitment to and advocacy of the center.

 

My Place Teen Center has been in existence for 18 years serving kids from 10-18 years of age. They are open Monday-Friday 2-7PM. Many of the kids who come to MPTC are choosing a different path from some of their peers, and possibly from their parents or siblings as well.  They come to study, to eat, and to socialize with people who care about them.

 

MPTC serves many children who are food insecure, meaning there is little or no food in their home on a regular basis.  This is due to many reasons that may include finances or parental health/mental health issues. 90% of the children they serve are from Westbrook. The remaining come from communities in the greater Portland area, some of whom arrive via Metro Bus.  They serve over 500 kids a year with a budget of about $600K.  Annual fundraising is always a concern.

 

Programming provided to the children is evolving based on the needs of the kids and evaluation of results. Some of the children have Big Brothers/Big Sisters, although MPTC is a mentoring organization as well. There are many volunteers who help make MPTC the wonderful and vibrant place that it is.  For example, Baker, Newman, Noyes has volunteers who make 100 cupcakes each week at the center.

 

The good work of MPTC is now spreading.  Biddeford has been persistently working towards establishing a center of their own.  They now have a building (a former church just like MPTC!), but about $5M of renovations is required. Following the example of MPTC, we expect that they will succeed with this important project.

 

Our fearless leader-in-waiting led the meeting on January 10 as our current fearless leader was vacationing in a warmer place. I don’t know where Bill found that box to stand on, but he sure looks the part! Here he is reading a quote from Doing Good is Simple: Making A Difference Right Where You Are by Chris Marlow.

 

Later, Bill’s raffle ticket was pulled from the basket by our speaker Donna Dwyer.  Bill donated his winnings of $47 to MPTC.  Thanks Bill!!

 

As of January 3, $560 has been donated to Westbrook-Gorham Rotary Club Charities in member of Paul Emery.  If you were planning a donation and have not yet had a chance to write that check, please do so before our next board meeting.  With the approval of Paul's wife Pat Emery, we will be working with My Place Teen Center to identify a way we can use these donations, with additional funds provided by the club, to best help MPTC and provide a fitting tribute to Paul.