Presumpscot Scribbler 8-6-2017 (Aug 06, 2017)

Aug 15, 2017

Shannon Cilento - Summer Intern

Westbrook Downtown Coalition

Aug 22, 2017

Sheila Rollins - PDG District 7780

Rotaract at St Joseph's College - Plans & Expectations

Aug 29, 2017

Chief Bob MacKenzie - Kennebunk Police Dept

District Recovery Initiative - District 7780 Combating the Opiod Crisis

Sep 05, 2017

Becky Albert - Westbrook Librarian

Classification Talk as we Celebrate International Literacy Day Sept 8

Sep 12, 2017

Dave Underhill - District Governor 2017-2018

District 7780

Sep 19, 2017

No Meeting - See you at the Golf Tournament

Sep 26, 2017

Marty Helman - District Foundation Chair

Oct 03, 2017

Club Assembly

View entire list

Board Meeting

WRVC Board Room

Sep 05, 2017
10:30 AM – 11:15 AM

23rd Annual Rotary Classic Golf Tournament

Gorham Country Club

Sep 19, 2017
11:30 AM – 5:00 PM

Oct 2017 Board Meeting

WRVC Board Room

Oct 03, 2017
10:30 AM – 11:15 AM

Nov 2017 Board Meeting

WRVC Board Room

Nov 07, 2017
10:30 AM – 11:15 AM

++++++++++++++++++++

The Four Way Test

Of the things we think, say, or do:

First, Is it the truth?

Second, Is it fair to all concerned?

Third, Will it build goodwill & better friendships?

Fourth, Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

++++++++++++++++++++

Rotary's Six Areas of Focus

* Fighting Disease

* Saving Mothers & Children

* Providing Clean Water

* Supporting Education

* Growing Local Economies

* Promoting Peace

Milestones

Bill Gowen - Rotary Anniversary 8/1 - 45 years
Judith Reidman - Rotary Anniversary 8/1 - 16 years
Bruce Saunders - Birthday 8/9
Christine Johnson - Rotary Anniversary 8/14 - 5 years

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Next Board Meeting

9/5 10:30AM at WRVC

All members are welcome at Board Meetings

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Upcoming Opportunities

Community Dinner – At FBC 733 Main St Westbrook. Third Saturday of every month. 4:30-6PM. Next dinner is August 19. People who want to help serve the meals arrive at 4:15PM. Those who would like to help cleanup, do dishes, etc, arrive by 5:45PM. There is also need for “intentional diners”, those who just want to sit, eat, chat, and listen to the stories of their fellow diners. If you would like to help, please contact Scott Linscott.

The Locker Project at Westbrook Community Center – Wednesday August 23. One or two volunteer needed at 3:30PM in Scarborough to load truck. Two volunteers needed 4-5:30 to help arrange produce and groceries on tables, then assist students and parents with bagging the food to take home. 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. Please contact Christine Johnson if you can help.

Preble Street Resource Center - Wednesday, August 23 - several volunteers are needed to help prepare and serve a meal to those in need at the Preble Street Soup Kitchen. Volunteer time is from 4:00-6:15PM. Doors open for guests at 4:30PM. The volunteer door is on Oxford Street. A few volunteers are needed at 3:30PM to help with prep. If you can help, please contact Gracie Johnston of the Portland Rotary Club: gracie.johnston@wcsh6.com

Summer Concerts in the Park - Once again, legionnaires will be selling grilled and other food items at every Wednesday night concert in the park through August 21st. Please come enjoy the free music and support your local veterans at the same time.

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.

CLYNK for Literacy – Ongoing - Keep those cans and bottles coming! Drop off your filled CLYNK bag at any Hannaford (drop off locations can be found at: https://www.clynk.com/locations/maine/ . Thanks to those who have contributed bottles so far to help purchase books that we donate for each speaker. If you need more CLYNK bags, they are available at each meeting.

Nelson Harmon Recovering Nicely

Wayne Lopez and Henry Saunders provided an update on Nelson Harmon at our meeting on August 1. Nelson is recovering at home from his recent successful heart valve operation. He continues to improve and can’t wait until he can drive again. He is frustrated that he can’t get out to manage his rental properties - like taking out the trash! In a recent e-mail he indicated that he is looking forward to returning to meetings as soon as he is cleared to drive. Get well soon, Nelson!

Here is Nelson with grandson John Harmon II and great grandson Nick Harmon on August 5, at the Port Harbor Marine Fishing Tournament where John placed first, landing a huge 719 lb tuna! Former W-G Rotary member Walt Stinson was in charge of weighing all of the tuna brought in during this tournament.

Bits & Pieces from Club Assembly

* Bill Chadwick has received a citation for excellence from Jose Moreno, Guatemala’s Ministro de Desarrollo Social (Minister of Social Development), for work done in Guatemala. Congratulations Bill!

* President Bill Chadwick reported that he has made great progress on our Guatemala water project. We have now raised $39K, including District and Global grant matching monies (assuming final approvals). Bill will be meeting with two other clubs in an effort to add to this amount.

* The club is in the process of completing a “calendar audit” – to create transferable information and better catalog all that our club does. For this audit, we are listing all projects that we either lead or are involved with where we contribute our time to serve our community or to raise money. Each item will also include a current point person. The process was largely completed during the board meeting that preceded Club Assembly. The info captured will be transcribed and shared shortly.

* Our Golf Tournament brochure is available on our website and on Facebook. Please share the link with friends and acquaintances. We continue to solicit for golfers and sponsors: GolfTournament2017.pdf

* Bill discussed an additional project that we can support in Guatemala. The Rotary Club of Los Amates is partnering on our water project and this is an opportunity to partner on one of their projects. They have proposed a project to plant several thousand ramon trees in a deforested area. These trees produce berries to sell and are known to effectively remove CO2 from the air. They are an ancient and nutritious food source indigenous to Guatemala. Each tree costs about 40 cents.

* District Governor’s Award for 2017-2018 – DG Dave Underhill has challenged us to complete projects in each of Rotary’s six areas of focus: Fighting Disease, Saving Mothers & Children, Providing Clean Water, Supporting Education, Growing Local Economies, and Promoting Peace - now also known as the Pyramid of Peace. Bill plans to vet any new projects or activities against these six areas of focus as we work towards achieving the DG Award again this year.

Interact Club Ready for Growth

Westbrook-Gorham Rotary was pleased to welcome several members of the Gorham High School Interact Club to our meeting on July 25. The students provided a report on their activities from the 2016-2017 year, then shared the goals and plans for the 2017-2018 year. We also heard from three students who attended RYLA in June at Camp Hinds.

President Aaron Farr introduced the four officers and three of the four board members who were able to join us. He shared some club statistics from their first year. With 51 club members, they participated in 8 events and gave 607 hours or community service. Their largest event was Relay for life in which 28 members participated.

Treasurer Jon Scriber spoke about their participation in a Habitat for Humanity build over the winter. They were able to work on a home in Scarborough on two occasions. Secretary Abbie van Luling talked about their participation in Relay for Life. The 28 participants gave up much of a weekend to travel by school bus to UNE where they stayed awake and active all night to raise funds for the American Cancer Society. They also mentioned their collection of activity books, crayons, band aids, etc, for Barbara Bush Children’s hospital, a project that Ethan Johnson helped them with and which many W-G Rotary members contributed items to.

Aaron then covered their goals and project plans for the coming year. Their first goal is to grow membership to 65 while retaining all of their current members. They plan to increase events to 10 and give 800 hours of service, more than 30% increase over the past year! New projects they are looking at include bi-monthly soup kitchen visits, sending school supplies to third world countries, celebrating Earth Day, and volunteering at the Animal Shelter.

Vice President Garrett Higgins showed us some results of a survey of members conducted at the end of last year. Garrett shared some of the responses members gave when asked their favorite part of the club: “The upbeat atmosphere”, “making memories and new friends”, and “the fact that everyone came together to help the community”.

RYLA attendees Sarah Walker, Sarah Stevens and Hailey Morrill shared their impressions of RYLA. All of them valued the experience and will be good ambassadors to recruit for next year. Adviser Neile Nelson offered a few words of praise for all of the students and their amazing organizational skills and accomplishments.

Finally, the remaining board members conducted a pop quiz to see how well we had listened to the presentation. Those who answered questions first and correctly received 2017 RYLA shirts.

Before leaving, the students all signed books that were donated to the Baxter Library in Gorham.