Portsmouth Holiday Parade
The Portsmouth Holiday parade is on December 7th. Join your Rotary friends and come bring your holiday cheer to the annual parade this year! Contact Nancy Notice if you would like to participate.
Wrap A Smile Is Looking for Quilts
Comfort quilts, created by quilters from all 50 states and several foreign countries, are gathered in Maine and then packaged to ship with medical missions.
Boothbay Harbor Rotarian Dr. Ann Demeranville currently manages the project from Rotary District 7780 in Maine. Wrap-A-Smile was started by Terry Hodskins of the Wells Maine Rotary Club and to date over 24,700 hand-made cotton quilts have been shared around the world.
Click the link below to see the sizes they are looking for.
Portsmouth Interact Activities Abound
Last week we told you about the Halloween canned goods drive put on by the Interact Club.
So, you may ask, what other activities does the Portsmouth Interact Club get involved in? Glad you asked…
Soup kitchens - Once a month, about four members of the Interact Club and two members of its executive board volunteer at a soup kitchen at the Salvation Army site downtown. Duties include preparing meals, serving the food, and clean-up afterwards. Each member of Interact is required to participate at a soup kitchen at least once a year.
Christmas stockings - Around Christmas time, Interact donates stockings filled with small gifts to the Chase Home for Children and the Cross Roads House. Members of the club are given a list of the ages and genders of the people they can fill a stocking for, and many members end up choosing to do multiple stockings. This is known as a fun event and about everyone in the club participates.
Christmas tree unloading - Every year, Interact Club assists Rotary with unloading the Christmas trees for the annual Christmas tree sales. Interact members are required to participate and if they are unable to attend the unloading, they must help out with the sales.
Bell ringing - Interact members participate in bell ringing for the Salvation Army for a day each year.
Quilt raffle - This year, the club raffled off a quilt at the craft fair held at Portsmouth High School in December. The quilt was made by a teacher at the school and the proceeds from the raffle were donated to hurricane relief efforts in Puerto Rico.
Haven fundraiser - Interact helped out Haven, a domestic violence service and shelter, by donating gift cards to the shelter and setting up a table during lunch where students can donate money. A woman from Haven also came to a club meeting to talk about the organization.
Friday night dances - During this winter and spring, club member attended dances that were held at the Greenleaf Center every other Friday for people with disabilities. Besides dancing, there was also board games and basketball. This was known to be a fun event.
Chess - One Saturday a month, members of Interact volunteer at the Portsmouth Public Library to play or teach chess to the people there.
Beach Cleanup - Interact hosts a beach cleanup at Wallis Sands yearly, typically in May. Rotary members also help out. Duties at the beach cleanup include removing weeds, picking up trash and driftwood, and removing sand from the walkways.
These future leaders in our communities deserve a great big Rotary THANK YOU! Keep up the good works.
Volunteer for Cross Roads
For a great fellowship experience, please consider volunteering at Cross Roads House:
Slots are generally on Wednesdays and Saturdays with Cooks working 3-5 pm and Servers 5-7 pm.
If you would like to volunteer please text or call Tiffany at 603-380-5872. That way she will know when she has enough volunteers and can coordinate other dates that need to be filled.
