November 10, 2016 Meeting of West Bay Rotary

Mik Mikkelsen, standing in for Peter Berke, asked Betsy Saltonstall to introduce our speaker,  Andrea Sarris, who is a graduate of Colby.  Betsy met Andrea when she was working on a film on Frannie Peabody at a TV station in Portland. She has resided on the island of Lesvos in Greece for the past 12 years, and is a self-described guerrilla filmmaker.  She is a storyteller, and focused on the two threads of the Greek economy and the “human wave” of refugees through this part of the world.  She teaches English to children, and serves as a walking and jeep tour guide.  Her grandfather immigrated to the US from Greece.  

650,000 refugees came through Lesvos, almost half of the number that came through Greece, as part of the migration in the middle east.  The island has only 85,000 inhabitants and agriculture fishing, ouzo and tourism are the main industries.  It is approximately the size of Rhode Island. The refugees arrived on the north end of the island.  Lesvos is closest to Anatolia, Turkey, crossing a channel of 4.1 miles.  There have been refugees coming to the island for many years, but never before in these numbers. 

In January 2015, Greece is in an austerity period with rising taxes, inflation, unemployment when the Syrians, Afghans, Somalians, Eritrean’s and other middle eastern and African nations begin to arrive.  She began to encounter them on her walking tours.  Greece is now in an isolationist mode and becoming divided. 

There were some tensions between the different groups arriving, including those from Syria and Afghanistan.  She was torn as a tour guide in the midst of refugees arriving in huge numbers, and as a former tv person, recognized what a huge story as well as humanitarian crisis her community was facing.  It took  months before buses arrived to move people to refugee camps.  She helped where she could with providing bread, water and rides.  Refugees were everywhere on beaches, in parking lots, and any place they could find and/or were allowed to wait for processing.  She eventually volunteered at a camp taking in Syrians.   She shared slides of the island that demonstrated the increasing volume of people and relief workers that overtook the island in the worst months of the crisis in the fall of 2015 before borders were closed.

The flow has slowed to one or two boats per day, and the detention center has a 3500 capacity but currently has about 6000.  

 

Terry Bregy presented his annual “Rotary Foundation v. Hammacher Schlemmer Dillemer”

He highlights the myriad of ways to support the Rotary Foundation versus buying any of the toys and gadgets out of the Hammacher Schlemmer catalogs. 

Buckets on the table are for the food pantry.

Next week we will have laptops and a tutorial on MyRotary website and our club’s West Bay calendar.

West Bay Rotary had the largest representation at the Rotary Leadership Institute recently. Mik and his wife and Roy and Deborah Fink attended the Camp Capella awards gala that recognized West Bay Rotary for its support. 

Mark Coursey is circulating a sign up for a November 19 work project with Habitat in Camden, 8-12 or 12-4p. Mark Masterson reported that the club was wrapping up the work at the Snowbowl on the picnic tables and signage for parking. Sign-up sheets are available for Christmas tree sales.

Lisa Dresser won the jackpot of $1,107.