President Ken Gardiner opened meeting, with his original poem “Ode to a Moon Pie”.
Buckets on the Table will continue to be for the Camden Area Food Panty thru mid-November.
Jan Abendroth/Fellowship Chair spoke on the idea of a Pie Swap for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, and for those interested, identify whether you want to make a pie to give away, or you want to receive a pie. Jan will develop information for a Club email, with the details on ordering. Pickup will be at West Bay’s Christmas Tree sale location at Maine Sport, between the hours of 11:30 to 1:00pm on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
Deb and Ray Fink discussed the creation of Lucky’s Christmas Tree Raffle, which will benefit 3 local organizations: Camden Area Food Pantry, One Less Worry and the Shields Mission. More details on how to purchase raffle tickets will be forthcoming in an email to Club members, as well as press releases and Facebook postings.
Our speaker was John Marshall of Sunset Selfies and Teachher.org - John was a local host for WPXT, as well as a program director and producer. John travelled to India after leaving WPXT, visiting an orphanage where he stayed for 6 months. He started fundraising there, using his TV skills and experiences. After returning to Frye Island from India, he was sitting with a pair of scissors, an empty beer box and his camera on a tripod. He cut the shape of an alligator into the beer box, put it on his head and took a photo with himself in front of the setting sun….this was the beginning of Sunset Selfies, which is now published for the last 5 years on Instagram, comprising a vast collection of cardboard cutouts and resulting photos.
During the last 6 years, John has worked on the orphanage, spending up to 7 months there in India and the remaining time between his parents in Florida and in Maine with his children. John’s fundraising work is associated with raising funds for orphaned girls to go to college. John indicated that there are 11 million abandoned children in India, with 90 percent of these being girls. John has raised funds for the first 13 girls in the program, all being first generation college students. The cost of college in India is somewhere from 2500 USD to 3200 USD per year per student, and he has been able to get some girls sponsored for college in Australia.
John’s work led to his creation of the website: Teachher.org where there is much more information and the ability to make a donation, if interested. For questions or additional information, you can also email John at John@teachher.org
Other Club News: Next WBR Habitat Build Day will be Saturday, November 21st, 8:30am start
Christmas Tree Sales – signup for shifts at westbaysignup.com (more information on safety protocols will be discussed at next week’s meeting)
Meals of Hope Project is being planned for Saturday, January 23, 2021 (time TBA) – Club is looking for contributions
Next week's speaker will be Etienne Perret and PDG Suzanne Uhl-Melanson discussing Rotary Foundation and Grants.