Rotattler for December 12th and Beyond

 

 

President Jeremy began with announcements, including:

  

-- There were about 5 members who made sure we lit up the streets for Home for the Holidays.

-- The Yankee Swap holiday meeting on Thursday will be at the tavern at Outlook Golf Course.  DON'T FORGET!  Bring an anonymous gift (funny or nice or regift, etc.) to add to the Yankee Swap pile.  This is always fun.  

-- NO MEETINGS AFTER THAT UNTIL THE WEEK AFTER NEW YEAR'S DAY.

-- Our speaker at the next meeting will be Jim Pope of Eliot, a fascinating person who has been a lighthouse keeper, a tugboat captain, and more).  He was invited by Richard Donhauser.

-- We have switched around our Rotary After Hours week in January.  ROTARY AFTER HOURS WILL BE JANUARY 16TH AT THE HEADMASTER'S BUILDING AT BERWICK ACADEMY.  Many thanks to Jim Hamilton for hosting this.

-- January 23rd's meeting will have Linda Greer as its speaker.  She is the new Marshwood Adult Education director.

-- So January 30th will be a normal meeting day.

-- We have a blood drive planned in February.

-- Robin Wheeler mentioned that St. Christopher's Church in York needed help with their Toys for Tots campaign.  She passed around a sign up sheet for December 16-19.  This schurch is across from Foster's in York on Route 1A.

-- We will be helping 2 families, one from Eliot and one from South Berwick, with gift cards and monetary gifts.  

-- We received a check from Pumpkinman for our volunteer work, and it was over $200!

-- We have put into place Rotary members alert system which will provide texts to members when we have inclement weather that requires notifications to members.

-- Carol Chapman mentioned that the Portsmouth Music Hall can use volunteers.  It's a good opportunity to see their great shows and also be helpful.

-- The board meeting was to be on Monday.

 

 

State Representative Michele Meyer was our guest speaker.  She presented her impressions of being a first-year representative.  She represents Eliot, some of South Berwick and some of Kittery.  She welcomes the opportunity to serve the public and never would have imagined she would be working in politics.   But this career nurse has her own mantra in the way she serves:  She is doing the people's work and she refuses to judge based on political affiliations.  This current legislature in Augusta is not ugly and members enjoy a wonderful collegiality.  Having been a registered nurse, she found herself on the Health and Human Services Committee.  All work in Augusta is done by committees.  She mentioned recent legislation pertaining to immunization and another about death with dignity.  She is proud of the budget they produced, which involved compromises by all but that's the way they work up there now.  Most pressing needs include the state's workforce shortage and workforce housing shortage.  These are tough ones and the economic health of the state depends on creative approaches to these issues.  We are very fortunate to have articulate, intelligent and dedicated people like Michele working in government on our behalf.

 

 

Although President Jeremy was out of state, he provided us with notes and we soldiered on.

 

We discussed our meal service, helping the 2 needy families, passing the hat for our cook, potential new members, our upcoming Yankee Swap meeting plans, the after-hours meeting planned at Berwick Academy on January 16th, fundraising ideas, food pantry coverage, our next elections, the speakers list for 2020, our global grants, and Strawberry Festival.

 

So, to reiterate:

 

 

 

 

-- April 3rd is the Geography Quiz Night, so please start to submit your sponsorship payments to Skip Cousens.