June 18, 2025 Breakfast Meeting Notes
Guests: Mike Sun
The 50/50 was won by Mike Sun.
Jake won the chance to draw for the ace of spades but was unsuccessful. Better luck next time!
Tony thanked us for the cleanup of Boulder Point on Saturday. He also passed on greetings from a former member of the club. In addition, he asked us to vote on whether to continue with trivia after the changeover OR replace it with a “member’s minute” in which members could talk about anything they want. He left some blank pieces of paper on the tables; write “yes” if you want to continue with trivia and “no” if you would like to go to a members’ minute.
Tony presented his famous NH Trivia, “What makes a Rotary meeting” edition.
Lora thanked all who helped with last weekend’s cleanup of Boulder Point. We also received a thank-you from the head of the highway department for our efforts.
Next Wednesday is the changeover dinner. We still have a meeting that morning. Please pay Ken Evans for your meals ($40 per person).
Mike announced that the incoming Rotary International president had to pull out because of personal reasons. He will be replaced with Francesco Arezzo of Italy. He is an orthodontist and a 30+ year member of Rotary.
Our club sponsored everyone who went to Putt Putt for Polio for $10 each. There were 44 people; the board had approved up to $750 for this effort and Mike suggested that we give the entire amount to Polio Plus.
There will be a board meeting on Friday.
Raisa Kochmaruk speaks to the club about Hubbard Brook.
Ken Williamson introduced our speaker, our own Raisa Kochmaruk. Thanks to Raisa for filling in at the last minute! Raisa started doing child and wedding portraits in high school and began to work on bird portrait in college. She is a scientific illustrator and graduate of Cornell University, where she earned a degree in Environment and Sustainability with a concentration in Science Communication. She also has a You Tube channel where she has a time-lapse video that shows her drawing a bird. During college, Raisa worked at Cornell’s renowned Laboratory of Ornithology and Cornell’s museum of vertebrates. She was hired by Hubbard Brook to paint a mural and after she arrived, there was an opening for a media person and she was hired as a staff member. She also painted a mural for the Lehigh Valley Audubon Society in her native Pennsylvania. Raisa showed examples of her illustrations including for those for merchandise, stickers, and scientific papers.
Today she is talking about the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation where she works. This is a small nonprofit with a staff of 8. They aim to promote the understanding and stewardship of forest ecosystems through a variety of endeavors, including the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (started in 1955), the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study (1963), the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation (1993), the Hubbard Brook Long-Term Ecological Research project (1988) and others.
The Hubbard Brook Research Foundation convenes high profile events to promote policy, produce fact sheets and science newsletters, provides the Young Voices of Science program, and hosts tours for school groups. The Foundation used to do Welcome to the Woods Program to introduce people to nature but unfortunately funding for this has been lost. The Foundation has social media pages and journalist outreach, and manages 2 campuses in Thornton for student/researcher housing. The students have housing as well as events such as bonfires, talks and other educational events.
Policy events: The executive director, Anthea Lavallee, has organized conferences with Ann Kuster, Maggie Hassan, and Maggie Goodlander in order to is to keep our local politicians informed about new research and how it can influence policy.
In 2020 Hubbard Brook hosted their first Clean Energy Town Hall, for young people to meet with policy makers. In January 2024 they hosted another event with many speakers, including the discoverer of the presence of acid rain in the Northeast. They produce publications on ecological change in the White Mountains, as well as others about global warming, carbon, mercury, and invasive species.
Hubbard Brook’s flagship science communication training program is Young Voices of Science. This program is a Zoom class, aired in the evenings; it has served 234 students since 2020, from the US and around the world. This program is free for about 25 students per semester. They bring on 8 experts in each session to address the students. The program has launched the careers of a number of science communications specialists. Hubbard Brook is trying to create a Young Voices of Science program to take the curriculum to the schools, but unfortunately this effort was also shut down by budget cuts. The Foundation lists all of the student research projects on the web site.
The Foundation also ran the Welcome to the Woods program jointly with the US Forest Service to introduce political refugees to the outdoors. Students from 15 countries were able to come and see the woods. They hosted a Ukrainian group in 2023 at the Flume. Unfortunately they had to eliminate the program due to budget cuts.
Raisa works in Social Media and Outreach, with lots of educational videos on You tube. She does timelapse videos, humuments (scientific papers with photos to illustrate them), podcasts, and other informative broadcasts.
Hubbard Brook has a matching donation program this spring, up until July 11. They are looking for donors as well as members for the Board of Directors. July 9-11 will be their board meeting, with dinner and a storytelling hour.
Happy dollars were shared by Nancy, Denise, Tony, Phil, Beth, Alicia, and Mike.
Respectfully submitted,
Lora Miller, secretary
