September 10, 2015 Meeting of West Bay Rotary

John Marshall was introduced by Sandy Cox. Sandy saw John on tv on “207” talking about his book describing his family's 6-month trip around the world doing volunteer work along the way. He shared a slide show of his trip. A resident of Gorham, he worked in tv production for the local Fox News affiliate in Portland.

John was inspired by the idea of a “year of service” which ultimately translated into 6 months of travel including volunteer work in the places the family of four visited. Logan, age 17, Jackson age 14, and John and his wife headed first to Costa Rica, where they worked in a wild animal refuge, that included monkeys and anteaters. Then New Zealand, and participated in woofing (willing workers on organic farms) where they did farm work and in exchange got room and board. Then they went to Thailand, through Volunthai, where volunteers come to rural areas there to teach English. Even their teenage kids taught English to younger children. Then India to Indiaorphanage.com, where John has returned to spend more time. There are some 157 million orphans in the world, and 22 million in India alone. There, their job was to “love the kids” He now works mostly with orphan projects in different parts of the world, including the Good Shepherd Agricultural Mission. He shared a story of two girls who became orphaned in India at age 10 and 8. They lived on their own for 7 months in an apartment with donated food, and they eventually made it to the Mission where they were able to flourish.

Neworphanage.org is a project he has started to provide information about orphanages doing good work around the world so that their work can be more widely supported and replicated.

Buckets on the table are for Hospitality House. Bob Rubin, Betsy Saltonstall and Tom Rodman were all awarded their blue badges, having completed the new member Red Badge program.

Ron Hall spoke about the Rotary Foundation and Every Rotarian Every Year (EREY) program. He talked about how donors can direct their gifts to the Foundation to various options, and how they can qualify for EREY, Paul Harris and other recognition. He recognized Marty Martens, Paul Rogers, Bob Rubin and Bob Rosenberg as participating in EREY. Etienne Perret described the matching program for clubs to leverage more funds from the Foundation. Deb Hitchings the District Grant for the school in Lesotho awarded to the club recently.

President Lisa shared that the board has decided to support the Shields Mission Project with a gift of $1,000 in her memory. Cate was a member of the Project committee for many years. The Project serves people in Knox County and the five-town CSD who find themselves in financial crisis.

Sandy reported on the results of the Windjammer Festival weekend, and Chowder Challenge, it raised about $2,300 with $1,800 in sponsorships as well.

Susan Dorr is planning a Lobster Bake on September 24 at Rockport Boat Club, for $25pp, byob, and there's a sign-up sheet being circulated.

Thank you notes came from projects recently supported by the club, including Hospitality House, Steeple project and the backpack recipient school.

Next week's speaker is Dr. Lauren Michelakas, with Sarah Dwelley who will speak about the Sussman House.

Verna Cummings won the pot last week, and donated it back to the club.