CLYNK for Literacy – Ongoing - We will have a payout this quarter of about $66 to fund our library donation project.   Keep the 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.  If you have any extras not actively being filled, please bring them to the next meeting so others can use them right away.

On Saturday January 7, Jean Carlos and his mom Maricruz Vasquez, along with Angel Quiroz and his mom Itzy Arrocha, flew from Panama City, Panama to Boston.  Steve Rand and Elivra Perez, a good friend of Paul and Pat Emery, picked up the two families at the airport and transported them back to Portland in the middle of a snow storm.

 

 

Jean Carlos is 12 years old and Angel is 9 months old.  They are here for heart operations at Maine Medical Center. Thanks are due to the many organizations that are making this possible, including Gift of Life (International, Albany and New England), along with MMC and Dr Reed Quinn. These children are here because of the hard work of our late friend and dedicated Rotarian Paul Emery in partnership with Ted Shaughnessy of GOLNE.

 

Thanks are also due to many local folks for helping pull together the details to make our guests more comfortable.  Ronald McDonald House where they are staying; Wrap A Smile and Terry Hodskins for the beautiful warm quilts; Saco Bay Rotarian Elaine Fournier and Open Hands Open Heart in Saco who provided the baby car seat, a huge supply of diapers, and many warm baby clothes.  OHOH also purchased coats, hat and gloved for Jean Carlos.  Others who donated items include Westbrook resident Jim Born, newly elected City Councilor Lynda Adams and her mom, and Terry DiPietro from Rowe Ford Westbrook.

 

They children are currently undergoing tests and final check-ups.  Surgeries are scheduled over the next couple of weeks.

 

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 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.

 

March 2^nd is Read Across America Day.  We are working to identify opportunities to publicize and celebrate this day in our communities. If you have a business, please consider posting info about this day on your sign, your website or on our Facebook page. Perhaps make a special donation to your local school or library and encourage your customers and colleagues to recognize this day as well.

 

Other things you might do include reading to a special young person in your life that week and tell them about this annual celebration of reading and bringing in a book or two to our February 28 meeting to help fill our book distribution crates that week.

 

If you have ideas about how our club can celebrate literacy in America, please contact Christine Johnson.

 

On January 3, the Board approved new member Becky Albert Director of Walker Memorial Library. Welcome Becky!!

 

Don’t forget, Rotary sponsored activities can be used for meeting “make ups” if done within 2 weeks either side of the meeting you wish credit for.  Simply email Mike Foley (mfoley@me.com) with the date and activity/event/volunteer effort you participated in.  See more info below in Make Up Opportunities.

 

The Rotary Foundation match challenge is renewed for 2016-2017. The club will match any donation to the Rotary Foundation, dollar for dollar up to $100 in the member’s name.  For folks who newly sign up for Rotary Direct, automatic monthly payments, the club will add a one-time $25 donation to the Foundation.

 

The Dave Ave house is nearly closed out.  A few small items remain with respect to driveway, road and landscaping.

 

Opiate Project – There will be two meetings in the upcoming month. We are pursuing a possible partnership with the Windham club.  The target to roll out the program is Fall 2017 for the start of the school year.

 

Patriots Day Road Race – Our annual road race will be held on Monday April 17 starting at Riverbank Park in Westbrook.  Shot gun start at 10AM. Volunteers will be needed that morning. Owens McCullough and Dave Rolfe are in the process of planning and soliciting runners and will attempt to expand outreach this year to encourage more runners.  This is areal community effort involving help from both public safety and public works.

 

Save the date – target date for our annual lobster bake on Sebago Lake is July 11.

 

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.

 

Kate Wight, Jason Beever and Bill Chadwick

with the latest book donated to

Baxter Library in Gorham