We meet In Person

Thursdays at 12:15 PM

Portsmouth Country Club

80 Country Club Lane
2nd Floor
Greenland, NH 03840
United States of America

Our Club meets in person and via zoom simultaneously. Meeting zoom information will be emailed on weekly basis.

Venue Map

2022 Christmas Tree Sale is now underway!

Hours: Monday-Thursday noon until 6PM, Friday-Sunday 11AM-8PM

Location: 775 Lafayette Road Portsmouth (Harbor Freight/Planet Fitness lot)

Click for more info

<---- Click on the ornament to buy online now

Photo by Don Chick from Don Chick Photography

Become a Rotarian! https://portsmouthrotary.org/sitepage/how-to-become-a-member

2022 Annual Thanksgiving Dinner

51st Annual Thanksgiving Dinner is happening again !

Due to risk of Covid -19 only pick up and free delivery again this year instead of a sit down dinner.

Top of the Week!

Thanksgiving Dinner Service Needs Volunteers

Dear Rotarians

Thanksgiving is right around the corner on Thursday, November 24th. Because covid is still spreading, we will continue to provide boxed meals, which will be delivered to families at their homes. The sign up sheet is available on line and can be found below.

We need: 4 people to help us set up tables for our assembly line event . We will meet at the Greek Orthodox Church at noon until about 1:00 to set up tables and do whatever prep is necessary for getting the assembly line tables ready for assembling the meals.

We need 25 assembly line workers to arrive around 8:30. We expect we will be done as we did last year around noon or 12:30. We hope we can streamline the process and have meals and bags ready for delivery starting at 10:00.

We are asking that everyone be vaccinated/boosted for covid…if you are working with food, you will need to be masked and we will provide food service gloves while you are working with the food.

Masks are optional during the day before set up.

Portsmouth Hospital continues to generously provide all the food, Greenland elementary is providing the beautifully decorated bags for our guests and Rotary provides the many hands to help Seacoast families have a lovely holiday meal.

We will also need 25 drivers to volunteer for delivery. You will be assigned a route along with phone numbers of recipients so you can call them in advance and let them know that their meal is on the way. Señor Rice continues to be our Driving Route Coordinator and he will have cards with names, addresses, and phone numbers. Volunteers will bring the bags to you cars. You can drive to the back of the church to receive your bags and directions. The meals can be left on front steps, in lobbies of buildings, or another convenient spot so that you can deliver with no contact. If you must go into a home or apt. building we recommend you wear a mask.

Here is the sign up link. Thank you in advance for adding your hands to this wonderful volunteer project. This is our 51st year. That is quite an amazing accomplishment for our club.

Best,

Ann Bliss & Betsy Scott

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0D48A5AC23A3F8C07-thanksgiving2

Salvation Army Food Service

Sara Treacy along with her husband Joe served food out of the Salvation Army food truck on a chilly Wednesday night. Rotary has signed up for the third Wed of the next 11 months. This changed from Tuesday nights because more people are available on Weds.

If you would like to help, contact Sara at saratreacy@comcast.net or call or text to: 603-661-8588.

Rotary Log for November 10, 2022

Rotary Log for November 10, 2022

Due to time constraints, this will be a short, short version of the log—just kidding.

President Joannie presiding.

The Pledge of Allegiance was voiced by all.

Greeter Mike Asselin led us in the four-way test.

We sang along with Dan Hoefle, a spirited rendition of God Bless America.

Sara Treacy gave the invocation, a piece from Maya Angelou. Special thanks given to members of the military.

Guests and visiting Rotarians.

Walter Horman (sic) guest of James Petersen, member of Rochester club and transferring to our club.

Leonard Seagren introduced himself as a guest (okaaay?).

On this day before Veterans Day, Joanie gave an honorable mention to all our veterans and military and had them stand up to be recognized. Thank you for you service.

Announcements.

Salvation Army—volunteers needed. Please see Sara.

Team Turkey—Betsy Scott informed us Greenland Elementary School students have again decorated the bags to be used for our annual Thanksgiving dinner drive.

Ann Bliss said two more volunteers are needed to prepare the packages and 10 more drivers.

Butch Ricci informed us Friends Forever is having a “Pints for Peace” gathering this Saturday (November 12) from 1 to 5 pm.

Midge reminded everyone to sign up for the Christmas tree sales. You can use Rotarymidge@rotary.com to reach her.

Joannie gave us an update on the Portsmouth Monopoly game. All pieces have been sold out. Two spots left on the board. See Barb.

Lindsey and Kaitlin will be stepping down as Secretary and Assistant Secretary. Volunteers needed. Lindsey and Kaitlin will train prospects. The position requires running the Club runner website, create new-member packets and badges, monitor Rotary Gmail address, collect agenda items for monthly board meetings, take notes at the meetings and order club materials as necessary. Takes about one to two hours a month to do all the tasks.

Happy Dollars.

Cleo for completing her first half-marathon…Neal because John Lyons is present as well as for Barb’s boots, Jon and Kevin wearing the same shirt and for the merging of the Hoefle and McEachern law firms…. John Lyons threw in $5 dollars because Neal is happy John is here…Stanford gave happy dollars for Kristen Petersen being named the new Executive Director at Seacoast Board of Realtors. Peter gave happy dollars in recognition of our veterans.

New Member.

Cleo introduced a new Rotarian, Ashlee Goodwin. She lives in South Berwick, has two sons and is a mortgage loan officer for a local bank. Welcome!

DEI Moment.

Stanford Cross next spoke about his life. He grew up in Pontiac, Michigan, and went to a school with a high black population. Racism was unknown to him. But when he was five, Stanford went on a trip to the south and had his first experience with it. There was a white-only drinking fountain and a black-only drinking fountain. His cousin told him he couldn’t drink from that fountain.

At 12, Stanford was bused to a white neighborhood for school due to desegregation. White folks yelled at the bus and threw paint. This had a big effect on young Stanford, but it did not stop his belief in the goodness of people.

Then the family moved to a white-collar neighborhood with high education rate. He was called a racial slur his first day. A person who was to become a good friend told him to ignore it, and he did. But he got same treatment in Ft. Lauderdale during Spring Break.

Stanford entered the Air Force in 1983 and was assigned to Pease. After he got out, he went to the University of Michigan, using his GI Bill benefits and came back to New Hampshire to work as a bank loan officer. There he got the same reaction, “What are you doing here?” He worked to create relationships and foster kindness.

If we had a few more kind people in the world—like Stanford--we would have a better world.

The speaker.

Barb introduced our speaker, Larry Scarlotto, Navy Hospital corpsman, First Marine Recon and currently a personal trainer.

As he told it, Larry left college during the Reagan years and joined the Marines with the hope of becoming a hospital corpsman.

Assigned to the 1^st Marine Recon unit, he stayed with them for six and a half years. Lots of hill climbing and such. Was involved in the Beirut bombing and the three-day war in Grenada. Budget cuts at the time limited his options in the service so he left for the private sector.

Larry took advantage of previous restaurant experience and. opened a few restaurants including a stint as a co-owner of the Goat. Covid killed that business. Now semi-retired, he does real estate and some personal training.

Larry also got involved with Homeland Heroes that helps veterans and active-duty service members, especially young veterans. The organization provides furniture and new household items to improve their living conditions. The non-profit has two locations, Salem, and North Hampton.

Q&A

Where do you get your funds? Do all sorts of fundraising like dinners, road races, golf outings, etc. One can also contribute $6.03 dollars in recurring monthly donations.

What did you do as a corpsman? Ran sick halls for injuries and illnesses. Learned emergency services like medivacs.

What was the best part of being in the military and worst part? Best part was being part of a team since he grew up an athlete. Started off terrible with firearms and eventually won a competition for sidearms and M-16 rifles. Worst part, hurry up and wait. March for a whole day and wait for orders for two days.

No question but a comment. Today, November 10, is the Marine Corps Birthday, 147 years old.

Stanford Cross gave a final announcement. Due to his extraordinary volunteer and charitable work, his bank gave him a check to be given to his charity of choice. He picked Rotary because for him, it is family.

The 50/50 raffle was for $53.There was no match. The bonus continues to grow. Can you say $475?Yes, you can.

And that was your Rotary meeting for November 10, 2022.

Until next time.

Respectfully submitted, Mark Lorusso