Rotarians from the South Berwick - Eliot Rotary distributed over 150 student dictionaries to all the third graders at the Central School in South Berwick and the Eliot Elementary School in Eliot.  This tradition has gone on for a number of years within our club but we missed a few years due to COVID and other reasons, but, in recognition of our support for literacy, we brought it back this year.  Five members of our club visited the students at their schools and talked about the usefulness of dictionaries - not just for looking up words and definitions but also for the other valuable information contained in a dictionary.  Each student received his/her own dictionary with a label inside for them to sign their names under our Rotary motto.  Richard Donhauser and Robin Wheeler not only spent time with the students but gave them the extra bonus of performing magic tricks for them!  Stan Shapleigh, Dan Ammons and Skip Cousens had a great time quizzing the students around topics inside the dictionaries.  "It was so much fun," they all reported.  We are delighted to have resurrected this popular project for our local students.

 

 

Thanks to so many donors around the district, Rotarians in Peru, and other generous people, Marshwood Interact student Nellie Young was able to improve education in the village of Pachacamac, not far from Lima, Peru.  It was Nellie's vision that made this all happen.  A District 7780 grant provided almost $4000 and Nellie raised about $12,000 more, and those funds were used to replace an unhealthy school, renovate another school building, and now we hear that because the contractor in Peru donated his labor, we have about $1900 left over to repair yet another school in that region!

 

 

 

Brian Beeler, our membership co-chair, created a festive induction ceremony to welcome our newest member, Heidi Early-Hersey, who is a curriculum specialist for the Marshwood school system and active community volunteer around our towns.  Each member created a link on a holiday paper chain that included everyone's "gift" that they felt Rotary gives them and others.  Not surprisingly, the most popular "gift" mentioned was FRIENDSHIP with great people!  Welcome to our newest friend and member, Heidi.

 

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".

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.

 

 

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 13^th.   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.