September 25, 2024 Breakfast Meeting Notes
Guests today were District Governor Kelly Drew and prospective member Kerry LaMontaigne (Kerry works for Edward Jones in Meredith as a financial advisor).
The 50/50 was won by Denise, who donated the money to Polio Plus.
Braden won the draw at the card game but selected the 4 of hearts. The game continues.
Beth offered hanks to those who were part of New Hampshire Day of Caring.
District Governor Kelly Drew speaks to the club
District governor Kelly Drew was our speaker for this morning. Kelly, a 3rd generation Rotarian, is a member of the North Conway club. She is a 3 time club president and has chaired many committees. Over the last 2 years she has been organizing the multi-club Clean up the Kanc and Pinkham Notch project. She is a member of a traveling softball team in her spare time. Kelly’s daughter Jessica is also a Rotarian and an active volunteer for many causes; she is now at Michigan State pursuing a PhD.
Kelly started by saying that joining Rotary was the best decision of our lives. It takes honesty, integrity, and fellowship to make a Rotarian, but there is so much more to the experience. She recounted her early memories of Rotary: her father putting on a suit and tie on Wednesday nights and going to the Rotary meetings, and helping her mother with shopping for Christmas gifts for needy children. Kelly realized that Rotary was her 2nd family when she developed stage 3 breast cancer. She was living in Maryland at the time and her daughter was only 18 months old. She decided to move back to North Conway be closer to family and friends. Her Rotarian friends helped out in so many ways, by dropping off groceries, taking her to appointments, and watching her daughter.
Next she discussed what’s going on in our District 7850. We are working on two projects. One is membership; we always need more members and we don’t promote ourselves as much as we should. Don’t hesitate to wear your Rotary shirts, hats, and pins; they are great for starting conversations. You can tell people fun information about Rotary. For example, Rotary is the only nonprofit in the world that has a seat in the United Nations. This gives us the power to have decision making throughout the world. Rotary is also justly proud of its efforts to combat polio, and we used what we’d learned abut polio vaccine campaigns to roll out Covid vaccination quickly. She also reminded us to donate our happy dollars to the End Polio campaign. A donation of $100 per year gets you into the polio plus society.
The other initiative is public image/public relations. Tell people what Rotary is doing…be prepared to talk up Rotary. What has impacted you personally? Try to tie your stories to the person to whom you are speaking. She suggested that our club should be holding events on the PSU campus to promote Rotary…perhaps hold an event on the football field on a day that they aren’t playing. This could help us reach young people that we need in our organizations.
Kelly just attended the Rotary Zone meeting in Toronto. She was very moved by two of the speakers: one who was a 9/11 survivor from the 105th floor and another was a family that had submitted Everest all at the same time. She also told us how Jennifer Jones (the first female Rotary International president) spoke about going to a settlement outside of Afghanistan/Pakistan and meeting with a group of women who had all been raped and sexually abused and all of their husbands were killed. In that part of the world women aged 12 and up are subject to abuse. The women sometimes did not have enough food for all of their children so they had to decide which child would get to eat, which was heart wrenching. These women were looking for jobs and Jennifer bought them desks, phones, and sewing machines so that they could earn money to feed their children and themselves. Kelly used this story to remind us that what we give to the Foundation is making a difference in people’s lives. It gives people dignity, hope, and peace when they have none.
She urged us to think about what we can do locally, and give the gift of Rotary to other people.
There are several upcoming events in our district. The District Assembly is happening in North Conway on October 26th, the same day as Rotary Leadership Institute. The District Conference will be held at Mt Cranmore in North Conway on May 31. The first half of day will be Rotary business, and second half will be fun: mini golf, summit Mt Cranmore at sunset with a youth talk. The speaker will be Mike McGovern, who is in charge of Rotary’s polio program.
This year’s theme for Rotary is the Magic of Rotary. Rotary International president Stephanie Urcheck was on a trip out of the country to help with a water purification project. Once the equipment was installed and turned on, one of the little boys exclaimed that it was “magic” to see the clean water being made from the brown, and that inspired her to make her theme The Magic of Rotary. This will be the last year to have a theme; for marketing purposes it is better to keep a single concept from year to year. We can emphasize the Rotary Action Plan: impact, engagement, reach and adapt.
After her talk, Kelly Drew was given a gift by co-presidents Alicia Williams and Beth Dever.
Happy dollars were shared by Phil, Alicia, Beth, Mike, and Kelly Drew.
Respectfully submitted,
Lora Miller, secretary