Rotary Log: June 9, 2011 (vocational and service awards)

Rotary Log

Meeting 6-9-11

Summer finally came and went last Thursday (with a full 24 hours actually in the 80’s) – and soon it will be time to get ready for winter.  But in the meantime, a cool and pleasant Red Hook welcomed this week’s Rotarians with open arms. 

Diane called the meeting to order as member’s stood in line for their hearty meal of Spaghetti and Meatballs and joined in song for the Star Spangled Banner.  And it was great to see Rev. Allen welcome us again with this meal’s blessing. 

There was a full program today, so announcements were kept to a minimum.  But there were in fact quite a few guests with us today including a couple of nice looking folks who are up for admission to the club (including one who has made it to the last five meetings, making all of us with less than perfect attendance feel quite sheepish).

Rotarians were also reminded of the upcoming Golf Tournament on Friday, June 24^th.  It looks to be a great event once again, with loads of prizes, silent and live auctions, and some fun teams.  Many thanks to John Pratt, John Pappas, and the other committee members for pulling together such a fantastic collection of sponsors – and please don’t forget to volunteer for the event.

Another upcoming annual event is the Thunder Chicken 5K Road Race on August 4^th.  (I remember when I first moved to Portsmouth a couple years ago, I got stuck in stopped traffic.  When I asked what the hold-up was, I was told it was the Thunder Chicken Road Race.  This led me to ask myself what sort of people name a race “Thunder Chicken” – and well, now I eat lunch with them every Thursday).

For the first time in perhaps forever, this year’s Race will not feature the accompanying Bar-B-Q which saddened many in the room (there may have been one happy cheer, but it sounded suspiciously like a chicken’s voice to me).  But that doesn’t mean the event doesn’t need just as many volunteers.  If you’re not helping out, you better be wearing running shoes!

(Also on a side note, Nancy Notis sent around a notice last Friday thanking everyone for their help with the successful Funky Junk Yard Sale and looking forward to making next year’s event better).

The first part of today’s program was a presentation from the Portsmouth Interact Club. 

This year we were visited by Veronica Davies, Elena Freedman, and Greg Tsougranis – all of whom are juniors at Portsmouth High School.  They were introduced by Interact Committee chairpersons Tawnee Walling and Dave Underhill, Faculty Advisor Christine Lantz, as well as a special welcome from District Interact Chair George Barlett.

These inspired young individuals updated the group on this year’s events and fundraisers which included volunteering at the Salvation Army and the Senior Citizen Prom.  All in all, the Interact Club was able to raise $1,500 which was divided between A Safe Place, Make-A-Wish Foundation, and Japan Relief (Portsmouth Rotary also made a matching donation).  The future of Rotary indeed looks bright!

The second part of the program was devoted to this year’s Vocational Awards.  Awards were presented to:  Rodney Rowland for his work at the Strawbery Banke (Cultural Enrichment) (Photo above), Ben Porter for his work as leader of the Save Our Bridges organization (Public Service),

Tammy Hilton for her years of dedication at the Seacoast YMCA (Health and Human Services), (not able to attend) ,and Arthur Ashley for going above and beyond as Head Custodian at Portsmouth High School (Education). 

Congrats to all and Portsmouth Rotary will be happily donating $150 to each recipient’s charity of choice.

I couldn’t see who won the 50/50 this week (too busy fumbling around looking for my tickets), but there was no match.  Have a great week everyone!