June 5, 2024 Breakfast Meeting Notes
Today’s only guest was our speaker, Louise Toilliez.
Tony opened with his famous NH trivia, “Traveling like a Bat out of Hell in NH” edition.
The 50/50 was won by Braden, who donated it to Tom.
Braden also won the chance to draw for the card game but selected the 4 of diamonds. The game continues.
A signup sheet for the Changing of the Guard on Tuesday, June 18th was passed around. If you were not at today’s meeting and wish to go the Changing of the Guard, please let Beth know by next Monday. Cost is $45 per person.
Lora provided an update on the Kanc cleanup. The event was a big success; this year we had 50 people on the Lincoln side, including some school-age volunteers. The general impression is that the highway is cleaner than when we started doing this project several years ago and that less trash is being gathered.
Braden brought thank-you cards to Beth at we received from Whole Village (Jenn Hunter() for our contribution to a new front door and from Responders Together NH (Amy LaMott) for our donation to help veterans’ mental health. Squam Lakes Natural Science Center also sent a thank you for our donation towards their communication upgrades.
Changing of the Guard dinner: Doors open on Tuesday June 18th at 5:30, starting with drinks. Dinner will follow and then the program. Invitations have gone out to all members. Sharon will be the master of ceremonies. Tony will do the card game if necessary but Beth suggested asking Erica do it. We will ask Ben if his son Quinn would like to play acoustic guitar at the event. Braden will come up with a list of past winners to invite.
Ken Williamson introduced our guest speaker, Louise Toilliez. Louise is an exchange student from France who has been living with Ken and Lora since last August. She has just finished twelfth grade at Plymouth Regional High School, although she will need to spend one more year in high school in France before she can enroll in a university. Louise has been a helper at several of our Rotary events, including serving as a runner for the Penny Sale, decorating the green, and marching in the Hometown Holiday Parade. near Belgium in northeast France. Ken noted that she came here through a program called Cultural Homestay International that is always looking for new host families.
Louise arrived in August 23 and felt very stressed by the transition but her host family helped her a lot. She has seen and done so many things since she arrived here: gone to NY and Boston and had lots of fun outings with friends. She was impressed with how friendly and welcoming the students were here. She feels her English has improved a lot and she now understands a lot better, noting that when she first arrived her host family would sometimes say something and she had no idea what they were talking about!
Louise said that she had 7 years of English language instruction before she came here, but she felt that the training she received in France was not very good at preparing her for using English on a daily basis. Her new American friends helped her a lot. They encouraged her to talk about a wide variety of things and this helped her to improve her language skills. She was very excited to go to the prom, because they do not have a prom in France. She will be attending 4 different parties with her friends upon graduation!
The exchange program has helped her learn more about herself as well, and is assisting in her transition to adulthood. There were some sad things, like missing her family or not being in France for significant events, but she is learning to adjust.
Denise reminded us that members of our club are invited to the Lions Club meeting at the Common Man Inn next Wednesday night.
Ken Evans reminded us that we are having our community visioning sessions next week. They will be held on Thursday night at 6 pm at the Senior Center and the following Saturday at 10 am at the high school library. The admin committee members should arrive 45 minutes early for the events next week, as they will need to set up tables, flip boards, and refreshments. The committee will be meeting this Friday evening to decide on refreshments and give out job assignments. Other club members will be asked to speak to small groups about ideas that have come up and we will need someone to manage flip charts.
Mike will be going to district changeover on Saturday. Denise may go as well.
Steve wanted to know who in the group has a new member(s) in mind. Steve is working on a few people himself. He reminded us to reach out to new people and friends about joining Rotary. Sharon noted that years ago, our president got a bunch of extra Rotary coins and gave them to Rotarians to pass out to prospective members. Ken noted that we will be signing in people at the visioning meetings and getting contact information so that we can see if anyone else is interested in membership at that time.
Happy dollars were shared by Mike, Ken Williamson, Beth, and Phil.
Respectfully submitted,
Lora Miller, secretary