December 2024
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Club Information
Welcome to our Club!
South Berwick-Eliot

Service Above Self

We meet In Person
Thursdays at 7:15 AM
Berwick Academy
Academy Street
Commons Building
South Berwick, ME 03908
United States of America
Home Page Stories
ROTARIANS HELP BRING SOLAR POWER TO THE CLASSROOM (AND BEYOND)
 
Thanks to the We Share Solar program that our club helped bring to Marshwood Middle School, 6th graders were able to construct solar power stations while learning about electricity and other valuable lessons.  At least 8 Rotarians from the South Berwick - Eliot Club assisted students in Scott Carson's classroom during the month of November.  2 of the 14 solar suitcases will be deployed to villages in east Africa through the We Share Solar program, allowing them to be able to study after dark, charge cell phones, care for patients during night time, etc.  This STEM project has so many positive aspects to it and we hope to provide more solar suitcases in the future to Marshwood Middle School so that smaller groups can work on their projects and more solar stations can be deployed in the future.
 
 
We are delighted to welcome Christopher MacDonnell as our newest member.  He is manager of the Eliot branch of Kennebunk Savings Bank and has already been active in the community and our volunteer activities.  Thanks for joining us, Chris!  We love your positive attitude.
 
A few of our club members received training from Marshwood Middle School teacher Scott Carson so that we can help students when they have their solar energy learning unit in a few weeks.  The Solar Suitcases from We Share Solar, are used to teach students about solar energy and each year 2 solar stations are deployed to Africa.  More photos and details to come when we actually work with the students!
Past President Thomas Harmon has once again led our club to greatness as the South Berwick - Eliot Rotary Club has, for the second year running, been awarded a Rotary International Citation for fulfilling its goals for 2023-24, helping Rotary create hope in the world.  Few clubs are awarded this citation, but our small but mighty club managed to do it again under Tom's leadership.  Congratulations.  And to those reading this who are not members, come join us this year and discover "the magic of Rotary".
After an evening of selling gelato (we sold out!) at the annual Lanternfest in South Berwick, the following morning our stalwart members helped with a clean-up of the grounds.  
 
Many thanks to our hard-working volunteers.
  
 
Once again, Mike and Cindy Moloney did their magic and we had over 25 teams competing in the 2024 Geography Quiz Night.  All our club Rotarians helped in some way during this event, and even a couple of Interact students volunteered with the food sales.  The Great Works School in South Berwick was abuzz with activity and everyone learned a lot of new geography trivia while munching on delicious goodies and taking part in the silent auction, raffles, and audience competition.  We raised over $8000 that night which will go to The Common Man for Ukraine, whose representatives spoke at the event and shared information about all the good deeds they have done, particularly for children from Ukraine.  Many thanks to all who participated and helped.  It was a great evening!
It was another Thanksgiving success at the South Berwick Community center as almost 100 senior citizens were served a delicious Thanksgiving dinner, compliments of the Rotarians of South Berwick - Eliot.  We are grateful to our members who provided food and smiles to all who attended.  
 
Past District Governor Claudia Frost visited our club at the end of August to present President Tom Harmon with a Rotary Citation our club earned for meeting almost all of its 2022-23 goals for service to our community and beyond.  Only a handful of clubs in the district earned this Citation for excellence.  Congratulations to our hard-working, fun-loving club and president!
 Rotarian Robin Wheeler (right) presents a check for over $8000 to Sydney Mosher, one of the co-founders of Camp Kita in Maine.
 
Rotarians and Their Neighbors Raise Funds for Camp Kita
 
When one of our club meeting speakers talked to the members of the South Berwick – Eliot Rotary Club this past year, Rotarian Robin Wheeler, who had a friend whose band, Under Cover, wanted to donate an evening of dance music towards a Rotary fundraiser for a good cause, decided that this was the cause we should all support.  The speaker, Isaiah Mosher, was one of the co-founders of Camp Kita, a summer camp for young survivors of suicide of a loved one, which has been offering one-week overnight camping experiences free of charge for the past 10 years.  Rotarian Erica Place had heard about this worthwhile program and their plans to soon establish a permanent camp in Alton, ME to be able to increase services to the community, so she invited the Camp’s co-founders to inspire the club members to help.  And that is just what happened.  A dance was held at the Regatta Room in Eliot in April and the band was hot and the town members there were on the dance floor all night long!  Robin and Erica organized a silent auction and there was a 50/50 raffle.  When all the donations were accounted for, the South Berwick – Eliot Rotary Club was able to present a check for over $8000 to Camp Kita at their club meeting on July 13th.   Other major sponsors of the event were Pelkey Funeral Home and Kennebunk Savings Bank where Erica is a branch manager.   Sydney Mosher was on hand to receive the check and updated the club on Camp Kita.
 
Sydney and her siblings, survivors themselves, have 75 campers coming this year (there is a huge waiting list).  Camp is free of charge to the campers and this year they are renting a camp in Belgrade, Maine.  They are in the process of building their “forever home” in Acton, where they hope to offer more camperships, programs for adults (currently the age range is 8-17) and other groups.  Camp consists of the normal summer camp activities plus peer group therapy each day, mentoring, crisis management, sessions about living with grief in more productive ways, and is staffed by mental health and other professionals along with camp counselors and staff.  For now it is a one-week-long camp experience once per summer.  Once they have the place of their own, they will be able to service many more people of all ages.  To her knowledge, this is the only camp of this kind in the country and there is a great need for it.  Campers come from Maine, New Hampshire and beyond.  Many return each year until they age out.  However, they can return after they turn 21 if they wish to be counselors.  By the way, did you know that KITA means "listens" in Abenaki?
 
We are so happy to have helped this invaluable program and are thankful for all the community members and sponsors who supported this effort. 
 
 
 
We are delighted to welcome Eliot citizen and civic activist Jocelyne Gregg.  Come join our Club along with Jocelyne - she's a fascinating lady and the rest of the group is a lot of fun, too.
 
This year we decided to do our electronics recycling fundraiser by joining forces with the Marshwood Education Foundation, which is a grass roots parents and educators organization that provides mini-grants to educators for projects that teachers would love to see happen at their schools.  By sharing the work and the publicity we Rotarians were able to get to know better the parents in town who are extremely involved in their schools, as well as the teachers who helped out on the project, too.  Using an electronics recycling company, friends and neighbors from around town brought their unwanted electronics and electrical devices and paid a fee for our helping them get these recycled, and our organizations, in turn, split the earnings from that Saturday morning.  The funds we received will go towards our scholarship fund.  We also had available our Rotary pamphlet and information cards for those who might be interested in joining us.  We are always eager to have folks join us!  

 
Club members Richard Donhauser and Helen Goransson were part of a delegation of 7 Rotarians from the district to visit Zambia during February and March to investigate potential future projects we can get involved in, as well as to see the results of the global grant "Healthy Learners" which we helped make happen and which is now a nationally-accepted program in Zambia.  What a memorable experience and we expect some exciting initiatives will arise from this experience.  They also got to enjoy the game preserve in Chobe, Botswana and the magnificent Victoria Falls in Livingstone, Zambia.  Richard was the team leader and he did an admirable job!
 
 
WE ARE DELIGHTED TO WELCOME OUR NEWEST MEMBER, ERICA PLACE, FROM THE ELIOT BRANCH OF KENNEBUNK SAVINGS BANK (Pictured here with our Membership Chair, Stan Shapleigh)
 
Rotarian Mike Lassel delivers masks to the South Berwick Fire and Rescue Department.  Pictured are Firefighter Cam McLean, Fire Chief Joe Rousselle, and Rotarian Mike.  The Rotary District distributed thousands of masks, including the South Berwick - Eliot Rotary Club which has provided 3000 masks during this last campaign.  Well done, Rotarians!
 
Club Executives & Directors
President
Vice President
Treasurer
Secretary
Membership Chairman
Past President
Rotary Foundation Chair
Community Fundraising
Interact Advisor
Interact Advisor
Club Protection Officer
Captain At Arms
Web Administrator
RYLA Coordinator