August 27, 2025 Breakfast Meeting Notes
Mike opened with a Rotary minute on the four way test. It is at the heart of Rotary ethics.
The 50/50 was won by Mike, who donated the money to Tom.
Greg goes the opportunity to try for the ace of spades but drew the Jack. The card game continues.
Denise reported on service projects. We have two projects coming up. First, Paradise Point Nature Center (the Audubon Society) in Hebron will need to move canoes and kayaks up the hill from the water’s edge up to the buildings. They are looking for at least 4 Rotarians to help. After some discussion, it was determined that we could get at least 5 people there on Wednesday Sept 10, at 8:30am after our meeting.
The second project is Ending Hunger in New England in North Conway with their Rotary. They will be bagging up 20,000 meals at their community center between 8 and 5 on Saturday Sept 20. We will take at least 400 meals back to the Plymouth Senior Center and Plymouth Area Community Closet. The board has also decided to donate $250 to this effort.
Members donated $650 to victims of the Texas floods and the board matched it for a total of $1300.
Public image: Public Image committee met on Monday night and started looking at the marketing for the Penny Sale. Steve also brought in a new sign (Rotarians at Work) to put up at our public events so that people know who we are! Penny Sale setup night will be October 15 so be sure to get your prizes solicited before then.
Bill Clark presented a check for $1000 from Noyes Insurance to support the Penny Sale. Thanks to Bill and Noyes for their support!
Russ gave a presentation on his national parks tour in the month of July. He visited 8 western national parks. They started in Denver and went to Breckinridge to visit family. The parks they visited were Black Canyon, then Moab, Arches and Canyonlands (very hot), Lava Hot Springs, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier, and Olympic Mountaineer. They ended up in Washington state (Longview) to visit Russ’s son.
The trip involved crossing the Oregon Trail several times, as well as the Louis and Clark expedition’s route. They crossed the continental divide 15 times, seeing 7 states and 8 parks, covering 3500 miles over 28 nights in 16 hotels. Russ took many, many pictures and shared some of them with us.
The Black Canyon of the Gunnison is the narrowest, steepest canyon in the world. Canyonlands and Arches were next on the list. It was very hot and they had to reserve for a specific entry time, which meant that they were there in the afternoon. There are no roads in Arches, only roads around the park. But they enjoyed the beautiful scenery and pictographs in Arches.
Grand Teton is beautiful, with mountains everywhere. There were many signs warning of grizzly bears, but they only saw one bear and it was a black bear. They also saw a moose just off of the trail.
At Yellowstone they saw the Old Faithful geyser, as well as the Old Faithful Inn (very expensive). This is the largest entirely wooden structure in the USA. At the Lake Yellowstone Hotel, they were told that their room was “in the back by the bison.” Bob the Bison is a live bison that hangs out at the hotel! They also saw the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.
Glacier was one of Russ’s favorites. They drove on Going to the Sun road and even got to deal with a flat tire there. They saw a number of wild animals including a wild goat, hoary marmots, and big horn sheep.
In Washington they went to Hurricane Ridge at Olympic National Park (where Dan Abbe used to work). The park also contained the Hoh Rain Forest and Rialto Beach.
Mount Rainier was also on their agenda. They were lucky to see almost all of the mountain (it’s often covered with clouds).
Happy dollars were shared by Steve, Alicia, Denise, and Bill.
Respectfully submitted,
Lora Miller, secretary