July 19, 2023 Breakfast Meeting Notes

 

Guest: Chuck from Colorado.  He is from Club 31 in Denver; they have a very active international program as well as in their local area. Their KIDS program helps children in high school who are struggling and helps to get them into college. 

 

Tony’s famous Rotary Trivia: Know Your Area Nonprofits Edition.

 

50/50: Nancy won and donated it back to the club

Card game: our guest Chuck won but did not draw the ace of spades. We play again next week.

 

Please see addendum at the end of this note covering an item that was NOT mentioned at the meeting.

 

Announcements:  The Pinkham Notch cleanup has been postponed. Now we are looking at August 26th. 

 

Ken: The styrofoam presentation was taken to the Holderness select board on Monday night. They voted to approve $1000 towards the cost of transporting the bins here. Holderness is  generating at least one collection bag per week. The next step is for us to meet with select boards in Plymouth and Thornton to see if they can contribute as well.  They also got a bag and a half collected on Monday from an electrical contractor in Plymouth who is saving it for us. 

 

Tony: Follow on citizen of the year: We now have a plaque for Eleanor and he will present it to her at her at the Senior Center next Thursday 7/27 at midday. We also need to contact Record-Enterprise and Laconia papers and see if they can cover it. Alternatively we can get a good picture of her and send it to the papers with a press release. 

 

Steve recognized Lora for getting the minutes done every week and out promptly. 

 

This morning’s program was a recorded talk by Gordon McInally, our new RI president. (Those who wish to watch the entire program can access it on line at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu-nfEghUns.)

 

Gordon spoke on creating hope in the world. To create hope, we must continue doing our most important work and do it every better. We must work on rebuilding peace across the world as well as creating peace within each of us. We do this by building on the work of those who have come before us. Past Presidents Shekar Mehta and Jennifer Jones worked on empowering women. Rotoract has been expanded; the students can now tap into global grants. We rely on contributions to our Foundation to fund these projects and others. 

 

Rotary is working to empower women, youth, and support diversity, equity, and inclusion. The most important aspect of DEI is expanding a sense of belonging for all, to be sure that we are welcoming to all who can help us. This will change the face of Rotary and put us on the path to a better future.

 

Polio remains our biggest priority. Together we WILL end polio. We need to provide every resource to be sure that we succeed as quickly as possible. We need to raise $50 million US each year in order to get the full matching donation from the Gates Foundation. But a lot of clubs don’t contribute each year, so he encouraged everyone to contribute to the polio campaign. 

 

We need to share Rotary’s vision with the world, by emphasizing peace. We need to use the full power of Rotary to build positive peace, to give people hope. Over the next year, we will be building virtual international gatherings to help build trust and have conversations with one another.

 

As we work on peace in the world, we must also work on peace in ourselves. All of us face challenges that hurt our own wellbeing. Opportunities for connection have been lost, and children and young adults are feeling this loss the worst. Furthermore, there are many parts of the world where discussing mental health issues is seen as a weakness. Mental health remains a taboo topic, and services are in short supply. Rotary can improve this situation near and far. We are a network of 1.4 million members dedicated to doing good, and part of what we do is empower each other, showing each other comfort and care. We ask each other, “How are you?” But we need to be sure that we ask, “How are you REALLY?” Performing acts of kindness makes us more resilient and increases our own well being.

 

Gordon highlighted a Rotary program in New Zealand. The program is called Think and Be Me and it helps to teach children to alter the way they think, so as to change the way they feel. This program is being provided to over 9000 children. Another program, called Wellness in a Box, delivers mental health awareness materials as a result of a partnership between clubs in India and Naples FL. The materials in the box help to teach children that help is available, gives them confidence to seek help, and eliminates stigma. These programs are replicable and scalable. He challenged all of us to dedicate ourselves to help improve mental health for those around us, and create hope in the world. 

 

Other news: Board meeting will be this Friday at 7 am.

 

Next week will be a club forum, but we are also hosting our 3 RYLA students. 

 

Braden noted that we have a new FB page; go to PlymouthRotaryClubNH and invite your friends to like it. 

 

Lora reminded everyone that the survey of club health and engagement was sent out last week; please fill it out if you have not yet had the time to do so.

 

Happy Dollars: Denise had a happy dollar for Steve and Alex, who met with the Manchester Chamber of Commerce about the Common Man for Ukraine. Several area rotary clubs were also in Zoom attendance.  They want to do a project to help us to raise money for Ukraine. Denise also had a happy dollar for our guest Chuck, who can take information on the Common Man for Ukraine back to Colorado. Mike had a happy dollar for his granddaughter who has just crossed the 10 lb threshold. Chuck had a happy dollar for his new granddaughter coming at the end of this month. 

 

Addendum:  Last week Mike mentioned that Ted Smith, past president of the Lincoln -Woodstock Club, was extending an invitation to members to golf at the Jack with him. He is thinking of Wednesdays at 3 pm. If interested, please contact Ted directly at 603-348-4882.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Lora Miller, secretary