Gorham Community Night at the Ball Park - THIS WEEK - Benefit Just Love Ministries which fights human trafficking. Buy your tickets today!! Thursday, July 12, 2018. The Portland Sea Dogs, AA Affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, take on the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, AA Affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays at 7:00 PM. Ticket $9 Gorham Night at Sea Dogs
Westbrook Community Night at the Ball Park – Benefit Recovery Liaison, a program of the Westbrook Police Dept. Wednesday, August 15, 2018. The Portland Sea Dogs take on the Trenton Thunder, AA Affiliate of the New York Yankees at 7:00 PM. Ticket $9 Westbrook Night at Sea Dogs
District Night at the Sea Dogs – Sunday August 19 at 1:00 PM. Gates open at 11:30 AM - $26. To purchase tickets: https://groupmatics.events/event/Rotarydistrict7780 Tickets purchased through this link are for the Picnic Area in Right Field. Includes buffet that runs from 11:30am until 2:00 PM - hamburgers, hot dogs, BBQ pulled chicken, baked beans, coleslaw, Coca-Cola products & Sea Dog Biscuits. Cash bar. Contact bob.wester@icloud.com with questions.
Community Food Drive - Co-Sponsored by Westbrook-Gorham Rotary and Westbrook Kiwanis. Hannaford Drive a Saco Biddeford Savings parking lot- Saturday August 18, 10AM-2PM. Contact Sarah Hutchins to volunteer.
Rotary Night Out - Tuesday August 28 5:30PM- In place of our usual lunch meeting, join us for an evening at a local establishment. Look for details soon. Friends, spouses and children welcome. Just let us know so we can plan for enough food!!
Westbrook-Gorham Rotary Annual Golf Tournament - Tuesday September 18, 2018 at Gorham Country Club.
The Locker Project - Fresh food and baked goods distribution in Westbrook. Two or three volunteer needed for each date during the summer at either Westbrook Community Center (WCC) or My Place Teen Center (MPTC). WCCarrival 4PM on dates: July 11 & Aug 8. MPTC arrival 3PM on dates: July 25 & Aug 22. 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
5th Annual Westbrook Strong 5K & Matt's Mile - Saturday July, 14 - 8AM at Riverbank Park in Westbrook. Fun run. Kid's race starts at 8AM, 5K begins at 8:30. All proceeds to the Matthew Rairdon Scholarship Fund at Saint Joseph's College. Fun prizes and raffles! For more information or to sign follow this link: Westbrook Strong Run Sign Up Registration ends July 13, 2018 at 12:00pm EDT
Crutches 4 Africa Work Detail – Thursday July 26, starting about 4PM - The Saco Bay Sunset Club is planning to ship a container to Africa in August. We will be packaging various products for shipment so that they can be more efficiently loaded a few weeks later. Location: 20 Gooch St. Biddeford, ME. CONTACT PERSON: Dennis Robillard 468-0043. Also, if you have any mobility items to donate, please bring them to one of our next two meetings on July 17 or July 24. Those items will be taken to Biddeford on the 26th.
Donate Blood – American Red Cross has put out a call for blood due to low supply. Please consider donating during a drive near you or at the Blood Donation Center on Forest Ave, Portland. Upcoming locations in our area: St Annes Church, 299 Main St, Gorham, Friday 7/20 1-6PM; Gorham High School, Morrill Ave, Gorham, Monday 8/13 1-6PM; Cinemagic, County Rd, Westbrook, Friday-Saturday 8/17-8/18, 10AM-5PM. For more locations: https://www.redcross.org/give-blood
Can Tabs for Ronald MacDonald House – Ongoing - Thank you for continuing to collect can tabs.Please bring your collection to any meeting this spring/summer. Pat and Cliff Plummer and looking forward to accepting them for Ronald McDonald House.
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.
On June 26, President Bill Chadwick summarized and closed out our Rotary year.
Bill told us that Presidential training starts well before the year begins. He recounted attending PETS in March 2017 and hearing then President-Elect Ian Riseley speak about Rotary and the selection of his Rotary theme Making A Difference. Later he attended Zone Institute Conference training for future leaders held in Hartford CT.
At the beginning of the year, the Board participated in a Blue Sky Planning exercise to identify all the things the club would be involved in. Bill identified projects in each of Rotary’s six areas of focus, and we executed on the plan!
Highlights from the year include our Cuatro Cayos water project in partnership with the Los Amates club of Guatemala. The trip to Guatemala in partnership with the Celebration Florida Club and Stroudwater Christian Church built stoves, provided dental services, poured floors, and included a literacy project. Back in Maine, the Gorham Interact Club grew to 125 members and participated in a wide variety of service projects. We sold out of Christmas trees and wreaths, outselling previous years. Bill offered thanks to Mike Foley who implemented an inventory system and enabled us to take credit and debit cards.
At our Lobster bake in 2017, we honored two 50-year members, Henry Saunders and Nelson Harmon. We held a food drive in September, supported the Locker Project through the school year, and our golf tournament fundraiser was very successful. Foundation giving continued to rise, with a large number of new and advancing Paul Harris Fellows, in addition to a Major Donor. We completed several projects in the area of literacy with volunteers reading in both Gorham and Westbrook schools, books donated to the library in honor of our speakers, and our ongoing book distribution at food pantries and other locations. Our house project continued as we celebrated 60 years of partnership between Rotary and WRVC and the latest home got underway. Finally, we grew our club membership.
As a result of this hard work, we received the District Governors Award. We are also anticipating the Presidential Citation from Rotary International which will officially be announced shortly. Thanks and congratulations to the whole club for a great year.
Incoming President Deb Shangraw thanked outgoing President Bill Chadwick for a great year. She presented him with his Past President name badge and a gift from our club – a gift certificate to the Golf & Ski Warehouse.
Deb gave us a quick preview of some of her priorities for the new Rotary year. She plans to set a budget to better guide us through the year on spending and donations. She also will be preparing a “board book” that will help us have productive board meetings. She’d like to update our list of projects with more detail, something we can share with prospective members. She also mentioned working towards sending one student from My Place Teen Center to RYLA next year.
With respect to membership, she is still looking for a membership chair. She plans to survey our members to find out more about what they like, don’t like, and what members want to do. She also mentioned “shaking things up a bit” with respect to meetings. Perhaps one meeting a month in the evening. Finally, she mentioned that she’d like to add a new project for the club working with the elderly or with veterans.
A special Board Meeting will be held July 17th at 10PM at WRVC to layout budget and plans in more detail and gain board support. Plans will be presented and discussed with the full membership at our August 7 Club Assembly.
If you have an idea for a speaker or program, please contact Christine Johnson at cejinmaine@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 August and September.
Here is the list of upcoming speakers and programs:
* 7/10 - No Lunch Meeting - Evening Event
See you at the Lobster Bake
* 7/17 - John Lobosco - District Governor Visit - Be the Inspiration
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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