December 20, 2023 Breakfast Meeting Notes

 

Guest: Erica LaBella

 

Tony presents a Rotary minute in lieu of trivia. Rotary is well represented at COP 28 (Conference of the Parties) in Dubai. This conference is an annual meeting to address climate change. Rotary addresses the intersection of climate change and our areas of focus, such as education, mental health, and water quality.  Rotary International has allocated over $23.7 million in US funds for climate change projects.

 

The 50/50 was won by Russ, who donated to a fund to help 3 families displaced from their homes by fire in Campton last week.

 

The card draw was done by Peggy, who pulled the three of diamonds.

 

Tony inducted George Baranowsky as a new member of our club. See photo above. Welcome! 

 

Ken Evans was out sick. He is a Paul Harris fellow +7, meaning he has donated $8K to Rotary over the years of his membership.

 

Don Ingleburg, a past president of the club, passed away a few days ago. He was a big part of the amphitheater project. No formal memorial plans have been announced yet but there may be something in Holderness next Sunday.

 

Today’s meeting was a club forum, led by Alicia. She divided us up into groups to discuss member thoughts on our proposed $10,000 service grant for next year. The project will involve both a financial commitment from the club and a labor commitment from individual members that will help us to promote Rotary. Questions considered were when we should begin to contribute to the project (at the earliest planning stages or at a later time), how much time each individual member could contribute and at what time of year, and what we hoped to achieve with the project. Individuals were also asked to suggest projects. The responses were collected and delivered to Alicia, who will have the Admin committee discuss them at their next meeting.

 

Finally, Alicia told us of a house fire in Campton last week that destroyed 3 apartments and rendered 3 families homeless. They are looking for places to live; one family has been gifted a camper but the other two are still homeless. They are ideally looking for a 3 bedroom unit for no more than $1200/month. The town of Campton will pay for half of their first month’s rent but wanted to know if our club would help provide some funds. Various ideas were discussed, including giving the residents VISA gift cards or a line of credit at Ladders to help keep the money within the community. Ben suggested that this sort of thing happens every winter and perhaps we should start a fund for local emergency relief, along the lines of Shelter Box. Alex also noted that the Common Man has typically had a fund for local residents undergoing unexpected hardships. 

 

It was decided to allow Alicia to provide relief of $500 per family, $100 of which will be spent at Ladders and the rest on gift cards so that they can shop where they choose. Alicia has a list of clothing and other items needed (see below) and George is allowing donations to be dropped off at his office at 1294 NH Route 175, Suite 4, in Hampton. 

 

Items needed are:

 

Boys clothing, size 2T, 3T, and 4T

Boys clothing: 8 toddler

Boys clothing size 14 or boys size large

Boys shoes: Size 10 boys

Girls clothing: size 2T,3T

Girls shoes: size 5 toddler

General hygiene products

Socks

Baby wipes

Diapers size 6 and 7

Man’s large and XL shirts

Men’s pants: 36/32 and 34/34

Men’s shores size 13

Women’s shirts: medium and large

Women’s pants: size 4 and M/L bottoms

Women’s size 8 shoes

Bedding

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Lora Miller, secretary