August 4, 2011: District Governor

            Portsmouth Country Club is great!  Excellent food, attentive wait staff, beautiful location and, get this, they are giving a gift certificate to add to our weekly raffle every week!  And from downtown it is not that much further than going to Red Hook. 

            What better way to begin a meeting than by celebrating Mort’s 30 years of perfect attendance?  After his award,  Mort had the opportunity to introduce two new Paul Harris Fellows.  In his introductory remarks, Mort pointed out that the Rotary Foundation was started in 1923 with an endowment of $23.04.  In 1947, Rotarians raised $1,460,00.00 in memory of Paul Harris who died that year.  The Paul Harris Fellow Award began in 1957 and our club was the first in the district to raise half a million dollars for the Rotary Foundation. 

            Our first recipient at today’s meeting was Steve Parkinson.  City Manager John Bohenko introduced Steve and thanked him for his years of contribution to the city since 1981 and for his contributions to city athletics, countless contributions to Rotary, Portsmouth Little League, Youth Basketball, and as the New Castle Fire Chief.  The list of his contributions went on and on (but my fingers were getting cramped trying to write it all down).  Steve’s response was typical of the man in brevity:  “Thank you. This is a great honor”.  Congratulations Steve!

            Our second Paul Harris Fellow was introduced by Mort who first got to know Chief Dave “Lou” Ferland when Mort participated in the Citizens Police Academy. As a 26 year veteran of the Portsmouth Police Department, Lou has been in charge of the K-9 dogs, the chair for the Explorers and Boy Scouts, has been a dog obedience instructor and received the Governor’s Recognition Award.  Police Officer Tom Grella, a 21 year veteran of the Portsmouth Police Department and himself a Paul Harris Fellow and Seacoast Morning Club Rotarian summed up Chief Ferland this way:  Tom and Lou were riding in a police car when they saw a man with cerebral palsy and with crutches trying to make his way along a road.  The Chief asked Tom to pull the squad car over and the Chief offered the man a ride.  Tom said “that’s just the way he is.  He treats people with respect”.  By the way, “Chief” Ferland will soon be Dr. Ferland when he receives his PHD this fall.

            A Paul Harris Fellowship was not the only award given today.  Dentist Barry McArdle was given the Governor’s Award for arranging thousands of dollars worth of dental work for a visiting Kyrgyzstan student.  As many Rotarians do, Barry took his own time and his own talent and donated it to make someone else’s life a lot better and Barry simply stated:  “I just did what I thought I should do”.  The perfect Rotarian response echoed by Paul Harris Fellows Parkinson and Ferland. 

            Sam Allen, our outgoing youth exchange student heading to Brazil on August 13^th came to the club and thanked us for his scholarship.  Good luck Sam!

            Gary Spears, our district governor, who spent the majority of his professional career as a police officer, has been a Rotarian since 1982 and is a frequent rotary presenter.  District Governor Gary, quoting the President of Rotary International, observed that once we find our inner strength, we can do wonders as Rotarians.  Rotary focuses on family, water, education and health, among other areas.  He commended our club for leading the way in these areas. 

            Governor Gary made particular mention of Friends Forever and told us that when the kids were here last time, they took $110.00 out of their pockets that they were using as travel money to help a local food pantry after hearing a presentation at a rotary meeting.  Not only that, they went back to Ireland to start their own food pantry.  The kids also got on facebook and condemned renewed violence in Northern Ireland and one even started a vigil for a former “enemy” kid who had recently died.  When Gary commended this young lady for her efforts, she replied “I just tried to make a difference”. 

            One of our best meetings.