Rotary Rocks! - Saturday October 5, 2019, 9AM-4PM. Abromson Community Center at USM, 88 Bedford St, Portland. A one day Rotary experience featuring projects of the Rotary clubs of our District. Open to the public, all current and future Rotarians. This event will serve as the 2019-2020 District Conference. Registration is now open at: https://rotary7780.org/event/rotary-rocks/
5th Annual Southern Maine Cornhole Invitational sponsored by Gorham Business Exchange in partnership with Westbrook-Gorham Rotary - Saturday October 26, 2019. $50 per team (2 people) through Oct 22, $60 thereafter, starting at 1PM. Gorham Sports Center, 215 Narragansett St, Gorham. To register: https://www.gorhambusiness.org/cornhole-tournament-2019 Information about cornhole board purchases will be available shortly.
Rotary Night Out - Sebago Brewing - Tuesday Oct 29 5:30PM. 616 Main St, Gorham. Invite your friends and colleagues to join us for a social night out at Sebago Brewing's Tasting Room. Light appetizers. Cash bar.
New Veterans' Appreciation Lunch - Friday November 8, 2019 - Portland Rotary will be hosting its 5th Annual Veterans' Appreciation Luncheon on Friday, November 8, 2019, 12:00 noon at the Seasons Event & Conference Center at the Ramada Plaza, 155 Riverside St, Portland, Maine. Veterans free, others $25. Registration required. For complete information, go to the Portland Rotary Club website at portlandrotary.org and on the right side, click on Veterans' Appreciation Lunch or click HERE.
Westbrook's Veterans Day Celebration - Monday November 11, 2019. Ceremonies at Riverbank Park 11AM to honor all veterans. Celebration at American Legion Post 197, 300 Conant Street following the ceremony.
Annual Christmas Party - Tuesday evening December 10, 2019. 5:30PM at the home of Judith & Ed Reidman, 7 Enchanted Lane, Westbrook, ME. More details to follow.
Festival of Trees Tips for Charity Luncheon - Friday December 13, 2019 11:30 or 12:30 - We'll have our Rotary table again this year. Watch here for tickets to become available.
Final week!! Hannaford Helps Reusable Bag Program - Benefit WHS Food Pantry - All of August and September - 7 Hannaford Dr, Westbrook. Stop by the Hannford in Westbrook during August or September and purchase Hannford Helps reusable bags. $1 from each bag will go to the Food Pantry at Westbrook High School.
This week!! The Locker Project - TLP will be returning to Westbrook High School, 125 Stroundwater St, Westbrook, on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month, with some exceptions due to holidays. Arrive by 1PM for set up. Done by about 2PM after clean up. Check in and out at the front office. Upcoming dates include Sept25, Oct 9, 23 and 30, Nov 13, and Dec 11. An additional date may be added in Nov and/or Dec as we get closer. If you would like to volunteer, please contact Christine Johnson.
Final week!!Westbrook Project Graduation Fundraiser for Class of 2020 - Order by September 30, 2019. Pullover, sweatshirt, stadium chair, sweatpants, hats, travel blanket. For order form and drop off locations go to: https://www.facebook.com/westbrookprojectgrad/
Reading Friends - Read weekly with 1st or 2nd graders at Gorham's Village School, 12 Robie St, Gorham. From about 9-10AM on a weekday morning of your choice. This program will likely start up again by mid-October. Watch here for more details. Even if you can only commit to a few weeks in the fall, winter or spring, consider joining this important work for literacy. If interested, contact Christine Johnson. Registration and a basic background check are required. Go to this link to register: Reading Friends Volunteer Form Village School Gorham for "child's name" enter Rotary Volunteer, under Teacher select "other" and enter "Reading Volunteer".
New Cornhole Tournament “Leader Board Sponsor” – This is an opportunity similar to a “hole sponsor” at our golf tournament - $100. We will have screens at the tournament running a page with “Leader Board Sponsors”. Please consider becoming a sponsor and asking others to help. We are also looking for a signature “Tournament Sponsor” - $1,000. This would be a great opportunity for a business in our area to put their stamp on this event. If you have ideas for either Leader Board or Tournament Sponsor, please contact Ethan Johnson or Aaron Paiton.
New Socktober Sock Drive for Westbrook Schools - It is that time of year again. Cooler/cold weather is coming and the Westbrook Community Board is sponsoring a sock drive for the Westbrook Schools. If you’d like to help, please bring items to one of these upcoming Rotary meetings: Tuesdays Oct 8, 15 and 23. Socks needed for Pre-K through age 18 (children’s sizes 6-7.5 or XS up to adult sizes). Underwear for elementary through middle school age sizes also appreciated (extra small to medium, boys and girls).
New Winter Gear Drive for Westbrook Schools – During the month of November, we’ll be collecting winter gear for kids. Hats, mittens, boots and coats for all ages. Scarves for older kids. Collected at meetings: Nov 5, 12 and 19.
The numbers are still being crunched, but here are several highlights from this year’s tournament:
On Tuesday September 17, 2019, thirteen teams teed off on a perfect day for golf. We had many generous sponsors again this year, including tournament sponsors Gorham Sand & Gravel and Shaw Brothers. We were also pleased to have four Platinum Sponsors, six Gold Sponsors, Hole-in-One Sponsor Lee Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram Westbrook, Putting Contest Sponsor Dave’s World, and Lunch Sponsor Mister Bagel. In addition, we set a record with 57 hole sponsors! Thanks to everyone who entered a team, recruited these holes sponsors or sponsored a hole!
RESULTS:
* Closest to the Pin Hole #4 - Zack Hess
* Closest to the Pin Hole #15 - Dennis Dalton
* First Place Gross – Team Crimmin: Donald Crimmin, Mike True, Brandon Crimmin Will Flagg
* First Place NET – Team Hub: Suzanne Joyce, Bob Whiting, Andrea Todd
* Second Place NET – Team Mister Bagel: Rick Wagner, Mike Buotte, Steve Shibles, Zack Hess
* Third Place NET – Dennis Dalton, Michael Rague, Paul Landry, David Reid
On September 3, 2019, Henry Saunders introduced our speaker Dana Humphrey, Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Maine and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Dean Humphrey is also Saunders Professor of Engineering Leadership and Management
Dana spoke of the strong job growth in engineering positions - 25% from 2006 to 2017. He also spoke of the need to increase the capacity to educate engineers in our state. 27% of Maine engineers are now 55 or older. Over the next 10 years it is projected that the state will need to produce 3190 engineering graduates to fill the projected new positions and replace retirees. Although the number of graduates has grown 70% since 2001, at the current graduation rate, only 1600 engineering graduates would be available.
One component of increasing graduation capacity is to add faculty. In the past three years, the University has added 21 positions across engineering disciplines. Another component is adding physical capacity – office space, classroom space, lab space, student meeting rooms, rooms for collaboration, student project design suites.
The final piece is to attract students. The University of Maine College of Engineering has an excellent yield rate. Historically 50% of students who come to campus for a tour end up attending the college. To support all of these pieces needed for growth, the Engineering Education Design Center (EEDC) is “a building for Maine’s future.”
The EEDC includes all of the elements noted above - offices for faculty, classrooms, meeting rooms, laboratory space, and collaborative spaces for student projects. It also includes bright, open common spaces and a Campus Welcome and STEM Outreach Center. All campus tours will begin from this location.
Planning for the EEDC is nearing the construction stage. The detailed design was completed in May and construction documents should be complete in late 2019. Ground breaking is slated for spring 2020, with spring 2022 ribbon cutting and fall 2022 welcoming of the first students.
The projected cost is $75-77M. As of our meeting, $66M had been raised, enough for the project to move forward. This includes $43M from the State of Maine with the rest coming from 350 private donors to date. If you are interested in helping the college raise the remaining amount, please contact Patricia Cummings, Senior Director of Philanthropy at The University of Maine Foundation, 207-581-1155 or 800-982-8503, patricia.cummings@maine.edu
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 McDonald 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.
Volunteer at Preble St – Register as a volunteer then select as few or as many volunteer shifts as you want. These can be working in the Receiving Center accepting, sorting and stocking donations; helping prepare and/or serve breakfast, lunch or dinner; sorting or distributing food pantry items; or other activities listed on the volunteer page. For more information and to learn how to register as a volunteer: https://www.preblestreet.org/you-can-help/volunteer/
If you have an idea for a speaker or program,look for a sign-up sheet and an upcoming meeting or contact Christine Johnson at cejinmaine@gmail.com or Phil Spiller at pdsflynavy@gmail.com .
We are also interested in ideas for service projects in lieu of meetings, or in-meeting service projects.
The following lunch dates are available for YOUR program. Sign up today!!
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On September 3, 2019, Henry Saunders introduced our speaker Dana Humphrey, Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Maine and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Dean Humphrey is also Saunders Professor of Engineering Leadership and Management
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