HOULTON, Maine — The Houlton Rotary Club met for its Monday luncheon meeting on Feb. 26. The program involved two groups that received $2,000 donations from the club this year — the Putnam House and Maine Moose lacrosse.
Lori Weston spoke on behalf of the Putnam House, which also included Jennifer Sylvester, Josephine Holmes, Roberta Johnson and Rotarians Dennis Ashley and Jane Torres.
Weston gave a brief history of Putnam House. Over 15 years ago a group of people led by Deborah Nisbett came up with the idea to find a space for the older population in the area to gather and have no time constraints on their meeting that happen in a restaurant.
The group wanted a warm inviting gathering place for coffee, hobbies to share, games to play and where one could learn new things. When the Putnam estate was given to the town, the conversation resurfaced and it was hoped to use the home for a community senior center.
However, the costs to make that building accessible were prohibitive, but the name Putnam House took hold. The name was transferred to another property that became available at 48 Court St.
While that piece of property is being renovated, a temporary home is at the Court Street Baptist Church. The space provided at the church has attracted more and more people to enjoy a very fun atmosphere for coffee, games and hobbies.
Sylvester is working on writing grants to help fund the renovation of 48 Court St. and there have been donations from the community and plenty of encouragement to keep going. The new space will be opening soon. Peter Chase and his crew have listened to the vision of the Putnam House committee and done a terrific job, according to Weston. A need is being filled for folks who are in a phase in their lives where they need companionship and fun activities to fill their time.
Another way to fill time is to play Lacrosse. Ken Ervin accepted the Rotary donation toward the new sport in town. Ervin moved to the area with his family and discovered the sport was not played here, so to fill a promise to his children he decided to start a program. He received a Soft Stick Grant from US Lacrosse that funded a clinic to share the sport with the community.
Then a First Stick grant came in to provide equipment for the girl’s program and later the boys got equipment from a grant from the Bill Belichick Foundation.
Now there are 18 boys and 16 girls involved from third to sixth grade and the teams travel as far as 139 miles to play. The Maliseet tribe let the teams use their fields and Dick’s Sporting Goods donated balls to help replace balls lost in the woods near the fields. Ervin hopes to eventually have a varsity team at the high school level.
Ervin played basketball professionally and noticed that his teammates played lacrosse to stay in shape. Evidence shows that the sport was developed as early as 1100 AD by indigenous peoples on Turtle Island, North America. A Jesuit priest named the sport lacrosse, the French word for stick that was used by the Huron tribe in Canada. The sport has spread over the years and now over 850,000 participants are involved in the United States.
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- The Houlton Rotary Club presented $2,000 to the Putnam House senior center during a Feb. 26 meeting. Taking part in the presentation are, from left, Josephine Holmes, Roberta Johnson, Rotarian Lori Weston, Rotarian Jane Torres, Jennifer Sylvester, Rotary President Matthew Nightingale and Rotarian Dennis Ashley. (Courtesy of Nate Bodenstab)
