Locker Project Fresh Food Distribution – In this school year, produce distributions at Westbrook High School will take place the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month with additional days as needed: Jan 30, Feb 13 & 27, Mar 13 & 27, Apr 10 & 24, May 8 & 22 and June 12. Any date changes will be announced in the Scribbler. Time: arrive by 1 PM depart by 2:15 PM, unless otherwise noted.
New Cumberland County and Sebago Lake Region Ice Fishing Derby 2019 – Saturday & Sunday February 16-17. A fundraiser of the Rotary Club of Sebago Lake. For more information: www.icefishingderby.com
Rotary Night Out - Our next Rotary Night out will be February 19 starting at 5:30 PM. Mister Bagel 609 Main St, Westbrook. Prime Rib Dinner!! Members $10. Cash bar. Program PDG Sheila Rollins - Rotaract Project in Puerto Rico. On March 19, we'll have our annual dinner at WRVC (see below).
Update Rotary Field Trip - Tuesday February 12, 2019. 11:30AM. My Place Teen Center, 755 Main St. Due to preparations for the American Heart Association Luncheon, we will not be able to meet at WRVC on this date. We'll be upstairs at MPTC. Enter through front door. On-street parking Main and Foster Streets. Please consider bringing a snack donation. See Current & Upcoming Opportunities.
Winter Dinner at WRVC - Tuesday March 19, 2019. 6PM. Each year we have a special evening meal at the WRVC Dining Room. This year, this dinner will become our March Rotary Night Out. Register now at: https://westbrookgorhamrotary.org/event/winter-dinner-at-wrvc/
New 22nd Annual Gorham Business Exchange Marketplace – Saturday March 30, 2019, 10AM-3PM. Visit and support local businesses. Admission is free. There will be about 80 booths representing all kinds of businesses who provide products and services to the people and businesses of Gorham. Lots of entertainment including bounce houses and games for the kids. Food court supplied by local businesses. If you’d like to register your business as a vendor, go to: Gorham Biz Exchange 22nd Annual Marketplace
New Big Brothers/Big Sisters Volunteers Needed – BB/BS of Southern Maine is seeking volunteers to be “Bigs” for kids in our area. See related story below.
New FBC Westbrook SOUPer Bowl food drive – This week!! Through Sunday February 3. Vote for your favorite team – Patriots or Rams. Cast your vote with your food donations for the Westbrook Food Pantry. Drop off at the church at 733 Main St or bring to our meeting on January 29.
New Help Pick a Charity to Receive Bernstein Shur's $10,000 Donation – Two of our favorite charities are in the running for $10,000 – The Locker Project and My Place Teen center. Please follow this link to see the wonderful videos created for both organizations and vote! One vote per email address. Deadline February 1. https://t.e2ma.net/webview/pznipc/2337f367bb4125df1eeb899a77f77fd7
WinterKids 2019 - This week!! Canal School is seeking community engagement to earn some extra points in this final week. See related story below to see how you can help with a photo or video featuring their poster.
Food Drive Competition at Blazes Burgers – Next two weeks!! January 20 through Feb 11, 2019. Blazes Burgers is partnering with Westbrook High School and Middle School for a food drive. Bring a food item for either school and receive 10% off your order. The schools receive points for items donated and the winning school will receive an extra $50 donation from Blazes. Suggested donations include: Cheese crackers, granola bars, Ramen noodles (both block and cups), mac & cheese cups (microwave), easy microwave meals, breakfast cereal or mini cereal boxes, applesauce (small containers), cans/cups of ravioli or other pasta, fruit cups, pudding, cereal bars, goldfish, canned soup, pasta, sauce (no glass jars), tuna snack packs, and trail mix.
Westbrook Baseball Fundraiser at Blazes Burgers – This week!! Wednesday January 30, 2019 4-7PM. WHS Baseball team is heading to Myrtle Beach in April for Spring Training with other teams from around the country. Each player is required to raise funds to pay for the trip and Blazes will be helping. 10% of sales during the evening will be donated. There will also be a 50/50 raffle.
Community Conversation & Naloxone Training - This week!! Wednesday January 30, 2019 6-8PM. St. Anthony's Church on Brown Street. Hosted by the Westbrook Police Dept. An opportunity to learn what you can do in the event of an overdose, and obtain more information on what the Police Department is doing to respond to the drug epidemic. Serving pizza and salad. For more information: http://www.westbrookmaine.com/calendar.aspx?EID=450
New MPTC Food Drive – My Place Teen Center is asking for donations of healthy snack foods - pretzels, granola bars, Cheezits, Pop Corn, breakfast bars, fruit snacks, terra chips, etc. Bring your donation to any meeting or bring them on February 12 to our “field trip” meeting at MPTC.
Canal School is about to enter the fourth and final week of competition in the WinterKids Winter Games. As of late last week they were only ONE point away from first place. They have a very good chance of winning $1,500, $3,000, or $5,000 for Canal!
One easy way they can earn extra points is through "community engagement". That’s where you can help with photos or videos that feature the WinterKids poster (and preferably a Canal Coyote or two) taken at local stores, restaurants, and other businesses. Download poster and info here: WinterKids Winter Games 2019 Information
They are still looking for businesses that wouldn't mind lending their support by letting them stop by this week for a quick picture or video. They'd also love to have the photo support of our public safety officers, service organizations, public officials, and fellow Westbrook schools.
If you can help by letting them drop by some day next week for a “photo op”, please contact Amanda Bramble if you’d like to participate in a photo or video: amandabramble0510@gmail.com
Phile Spiller introduced Nicole Avery, Executive Director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Maine as our speaker on January 22, 2019. BBBS moved their offices to the former St Mary’s parish hall on Main St Westbrook where they held a ribbon cutting in April 2018. Nicole joined the organization about 4 months ago. She grew up in Bridgton and has long experience in the non-profit sector.
BBBS serves kids up to age 18. Their goal is to make sure that kids have the skills to make good decisions throughout their life. “Bigs” provide mentorship to their “Littles”. This can include working on basic skills like shaking hands or doing laundry. Kids working with a mentor is 52% less likely to skip school and 46% less likely to use drugs.
Nicole Avery of Big Brothers Big Sisters
of Southern Maine
There is a huge need for male Bigs who can be high school kids to adults of all ages. BBBS has a vigorous vetting process – background checks, references, driving record check – as well as training, and they work hard to make compatible matches. The commitment “ask” from a Big is one year, but the average match lasts for 3 years. Matches are usually same sex, but can cross as need requires and if the Big, the Little and their parents agree.
Bigs and Littles usually meet once or twice a month. These meetings can be community based or site based. Community meet-ups can happen anywhere in the community of interest to both parties. Site based meetings take place at a specific location, like at a school for an after-school program. It costs about $1300 to support a match for a year. The funds to support the program come from several sources – fundraisers, corporate partners, grants, United Way, and individual donors.
Nicole would like to double the number of matches this year to 400. If you are interested or know someone who might be, visit their website somebigs.org, call 207-773-5437, or drop by their offices at 625 Main St Westbrook. Volunteers go through training and orientation with a focus on safety and providing resources to help create a successful match.
We received a nice letter from Roberta Morrill (Berta) who organizes the table hosts and reservations for the Tips for Charity Luncheon. Berta thanked us for sponsoring a table again this year. She also congratulated us on our donations totaling $525, the most given by any table again this year. We are proud to have been the top grossing table for four years in a row!!
Westbrook Warren Church’s Festival of Trees raised almost $6100 in 2018 and they are donating $6000 to the Westbrook Food Pantry. Thank you again to those who attended or made a donation.
The dates for the 2019 Festival of Trees have been set. The Festival will run from December 7-14, with the luncheon on Friday December 13. Hope to see you there!
The Locker Project - THIS WEEK Again!! Fresh food and baked goods distribution in Westbrook. In this school year, produce distributions at Westbrook High School will take place the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month. Next opportunity Jan 30 arrive by 12:45 for set up. Help lay out food on tables and interact with the kids to encourage them to take items. You will be a welcoming presence, making sure people know they are invited to take food. Everyone is invited to bring food home with them. If you can help on any of these dates, please contact Christine Johnson. For more information, or to donate, visit their website: mainelockerproject.org
Children's Books for Pantries - We continue to supply new and gently used children's books to food pantries about every two weeks. We have been fortunate to obtain a regular supply of used books from Goodwill Buy the Pound. We also periodically obtain new books from a couple of sources at little cost. However, the need is always greater than the supply. If you, a family member, friend or colleague have children or grandchildren who have outgrown their books, we'd love to have them to share with children who will love them. All ages from babies to young teens. We can also always use large print books for older readers. Bring to any club meeting or contact Christine Johnson for pick up.
Can Tabs for Ronald MacDonald House - Thank you for continuing to collect can tabs.It's and easy way to help a wonderful organization! Just keep a small plastic bag or small jar in your kitchen, on the counter or in a drawer. As you go to toss your returnable can into your CLYNK bag, simply twist off the tab first.
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. If you have been working on filling a bag for a very long time (6 months or more), please consider returning it and starting a new one. Thank you for your ongoing support of this fundraiser!
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.
District Interact Assembly - Saturday March 23, 2019 - Oxford Hills High School. Interested Rotarians are welcome to attend. More details to follow. Snow Day March 30, 2019.
District Training Assembly - Saturday April 6, 2019. 8AM-1PM. York County Community College
Rotary Fest (AKA District Conference) - Friday-Saturday June 21-22, 2019 - Fort Williams, Park Cape Elizabeth. Friday service project and cook out for volunteers. Saturday packed with fun and educational events for adults and kids, and another service project opportunity. DG John and the Planning Committee are working hard to make this a free event for all. Watch for more details.
District Changeover - Tuesday June 25. Camp Hinds. More details to come.
If you have an idea for a speaker or program, please contact Christine Johnson at cejinmaine@gmail.com or Phil Spiller at pdsflynavy@gmail.com . We are also interested in ideas for periodic evening meetings, service projects in lieu of meetings, or in-meeting service projects
We are now scheduling programs for February and March.
Here is the list of upcoming speakers and programs:
* 1/29 - Mike McGovern - Polio Plus update
* 2/5 - Club Assembly
* 2/12 - Field Trip - MPTC 755 Main St Westbrook
* 2/19 - Rotary Night Out - Sheila Rollins - Rotaract Project in Puerto Rico
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 know when you have participated in any of these activities at info@westbrookgorhamrotary.org
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