President-Elect Stephanie Gelinas presided over the meeting today in Pres. Jen’s absence. She opened the meeting with The Pledge of Allegiance and Tom Knight led the singing of God Bless America. Claire Durgin gave the invocation before lunch.
VISITORS:
Chris Paradis and Donna Hannon visited us from the Auburn-Lewiston Breakfast Rotary Club.
DRAWING & HAPPY DOLLARS:
The 50/50 Drawing was won today by Alan Hahnel after three tries!
Happy Dollars were given by John O’Malley and Alan Hahnel
Adam Dow auctioned off a pair of ladies mittens made by Kathy Becvar. Nancy Brown won the mittens with her bid.
BUSINES FOCUS:
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Today’s business spotlight was on Christine Wilson and Met-Life. Christine offered us advise and her services along with freebie brochures regarding services offered by Met-Life.
FOUNDATION MINUTE:
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Nancy Brown gave the foundation thought. This week’s Rotary Foundation Thought highlights the cooperation between two Rotary Peace and Conflict Studies Program alumni.
Rotary Peace and Conflict Studies Program alumnus, Francis Kabosha is busy repatriating refugees in Zambia back to their homeland in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Through the repatriation process, Francis also educates the leaders of the repatriated groups in the ways of peace to help them build and maintain peace in their home areas. He recently called his fellow RPCS alumnus, Abdulai Jalloh, logistics officer for the United Nations in DRC, to say, “I’m giving them the tools to build peace, you must ensure they reach their destinations safely.” Francis and Abdulai now work together to build peace in the region. Keep in mind, every dollar that you contribute to The Rotary Foundation goes to actual program spending
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Community Service Chair Shawn Wright announced that this month’s Community Service focus is on The Center for Wisdom’s Women The donated items, including a computer, will be delivered to The Center. Thank you to all who brought in donated items and financial contributions. Stay tuned for next month’s Community Service focus.
Stephanie reminded us of our off-site meeting next week, October 28, at the Good Shepherd Food Bank in Auburn. The luncheon will be catered by Grant’s Bakery.
PROGRAM:
Kathy Becvar introduced our speaker today, Maureen Higgins, Outreach Educator for the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope and Healing. Maureen received her Master of Social Work degree from the University of Michigan. She has worked as an oncology social worker since 1990 in both in-patient and out-patient settings, and as the Patient Services Manager for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. She is married and has 3 very active children. She loves her new role at the Dempsey Center because it allows her to reach out into the community in a variety of ways, and explore the prevention/early detection aspect of the cancer continuum.
As the Cancer Health Outreach Educator, Maureen provides expertise in cancer prevention and cancer-related health promotion and outreach for underserved populations in Androscoggin and Oxford counties. She conducts outreach to health care and social service providers on cancer screening and prevention options, and works collaboratively with other community, public health, and cancer-related organizations to bring programming directly to the target populations in venues such as schools, churches, soup kitchens, senior citizen centers, and public housing developments.
Maureen had an interactive presentation with much participation from the floor.
Mac McPeake thanked Maureen with a gift and then closed the meeting with a group recital of the Four-Way test. Thanks to Ray Martel and Spiller’s for printing the Four-Way test banner that reminds each week of our credo.
