July 13, 2022 Breakfast Meeting Notes
Breakfast Meeting Notes July 13, 2022
Braden was absent so Denise led the meeting. We had no new deck of cards so there was no card game. Danielle won the 50/50.In Tony’s absence, Steve gave us trivia, a recap of greatest trivia hits from the last year without multiple choice.
Announcements:
- Pinkham Notch cleanup on July 23 at 9 a.m. Sign up at Rotarycleans.org. Tell your friends and family!
- Bridge House Family Fun Fair on July 30, all day. Admission is $5/family. Events include games, food and fun. Volunteers will be needed throughout the day and you can show up for just a few hours.
- Wednesday August in the evening the Fisher Cats will have a fundraiser for the Plymouth Rotary and NH/Common Man Fund for Ukraine. They will be playing the Richmond Flying Squirrels. The team will donate a portion of gate proceeds and we will hold a 50/50, with prizes at each inning as well. There will also be a dunk tank. Steve hopes that we can all come with our families to have a strong Rotary contingent. He noted that we have raised over $250,000 for Ukraine so far but are hoping for $1,000,000 to get Alex’s full donation.
- Denise noted that a number of people at the Senior Center Anniversary told her that they enjoyed Rotary Park but it does need some work. For example, the flag needs to be replaced.
- Mike gave out some free boxes of face masks for members to distribute in light of the fact that COVID’s latest variant seems to be highly contagious and is surging across the country.
Our speaker today was Janice Foucher of Sibersong Sled Dogs. She is a kennel owner, distance musher and racer based in Wentworth, NH. She also organized a group of about 15 female mushers in central NH. She typically keeps about 35 dogs, but only 20-24/year train for racing; the rest are puppies or retirees. About 2/3 of her dogs are Siberian Huskies, while the rest are “Alaskan” huskies, mixed breeds descended from the dogs of native Alaskan villages. The village dogs are extra-hyper and have been known to eat their dog houses out of boredom.
Jaye has always wanted to do the Iditarod, which will next be held on the first weekend of March, 2023. This sport of mushing requires great athleticism, both from the dog and from the human handler. Temperatures can be -20 to -40 below zero Fahrenheit. The musher has to put down the straw, feed the dogs, and take it up again when ready to start up, so he or she gets even less sleep than the dogs.
Sled dog racing also requires a great deal of cash; registration for the race is $4000 and the total cost for a race season is $30,000-$50,000. This includes costs for a heated and air-conditioned dog truck, costs for food, pickup at the end of the race and shipping the dogs back home. She raises this money from sponsors, raffles, and other fundraisers. She also works as a web designer and has a sewing business on the side to help cover expenses.
Respectfully submitted,
Lora Miller, Secretary