The Last Couple of Zoom Meetings
On March 25th your club secretary was taking notes like a one-armed paper hanger, as she juggled a 9 month old baby with one hand and her pen and notepad with her other hand. Our guest speaker was Carolyn Hogan from the Center for Wildlife located at the base of Mt. Agamenticus in York. She was very excited to tell us about the great improvements to their facility, which was once a modest old ranch building. Thanks to major capital improvements it is now a wonderful place for animals and people. The Center for Wildlife gets 2500 patients per year from within a 100-mile radius of their place, which means the animals are coming from 3 states (Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire). Some animals stay in sanctuary there. COVID has meant more restrictions to visitors, but once things settle down with that they will welcome more people on-site. They have programming for all ages. After investing $5 million dollars, the Center is now a dream facility, with some amphitheaters, lab space, ample space for animals, and the ability to host interns. It was purchased on 2016 and after the changes they have a better exam room, lab area, increased services they can provide, and housing for interns. If you care to visit, they are open Fridays-Sundays for groups of ten people or less.
On April 1st, Marshwood High School freshman Rowan Waddell joined us and we hooked her up with Paige Johnson, who is joining our club having transferred from her Rotary club in Vermont, because Rowan is interested in Rotary's international student exchange program and Paige experienced that first-hand. What piqued Rowan's interest in the program is that in the past her family hosted students from Japan. If it were up to her, she would enjoy living in Italy or Spain or Denmark, but would accept other destinations (preferably European). Paige Johnson was involved in one of Rotary's international exchanges about 10 years ago. She had learned about it while she was a RYLA student. Later, as a senior in high school she felt she wasn't quite ready to settle into college and yearned for a cool experience somewhere. Her preferences included Latvia, India and Japan. When she learned she'd be going to Latvia she started teaching herself the language and familiarizing herself with the culture. At the last moment, however, that exchange fell through and Rotary instead placed her in Finland. Although she wasn't prepared to speak Finnish, that was no problem since almost everyone there speaks English. Paige described the high school choices students have there: they can either follow a vocational route or an academic route. She entered the academic curriculum. It surprised her that the people were so reserved and no on made a big deal about this American who was now in their school, even though she knew that in her little school in Vermont this would've been a big deal. She also learned that people do not waste their time with small talk, so spontaneous conversations with strangers just don't happen. Paige lived with 3 different host families during her school year including an older couple that spoke English but she insisted they speak Finnish to her and a family with children where the 12-year-old boy did speak mostly Finnish with her. Paige has returned to Finland since her time there and visited them. During college when she spent a semester abroad in St. Petersburg, Russia, she was very close to Finland and could see them then, too. After college Paige worked for a marketing company and the local Rotary club hired her company for a project and that is when Paige joined the Rotary club in town. Now she is here in southern Maine and works for Unitil.
Other Items
Jeremy Fogg is very optimistic that the electronics fundraiser will happen! They are zeroing in on the last Saturday in May, during the morning and the afternoon, at the Eliot Commons parking lot.
If you haven't yet, please pay your club dues.
President Deb has been in contact with Bill Widi of Shady Hill Farm about our fall fundraiser around Halloween possibly with his cooperation.
We received a request from the president of the Interact Club at MHS to contribute to the Class of 21's community garden project to provide a peaceful reading and meditation place for students on the MHS campus. This will be discussed at the next board meeting.
On April 15th our speaker will be Nancy Loftus (sp?) from Berwick Academy who will tell us about pre-schoolers and the benefits of education outdoors.
We are hoping that on April 8th out speaker with be someone from the Boston Genealogical Society who is a friend of Jeremy Fogg's. We shall see...