HOULTON, Maine — The Houlton Rotary Club met for its May 22 luncheon meeting with Rotarian John Kavin of the Caribou Rotary Club serving as a guest Rotarian. Kavin brought his mother Natalie Kavin. Rotarian Kay Fleming also brought a guest, Jake Plissey, and Rotarian Kyle Taylor bought his guest Courtney Castle and
Rotary President Matthew Nightingale’s guest for the meeting was Annette Beaton. Nightingale announced the Annual Dinner for the Club will be June 19 at 6 p.m. at the Shiretown Inn Restaurant.
Nancy Ketch announced a couple of downtown activities — the Entrepreneur Challenge and a meeting with Pat Wright a community development specialist.
Nightingale encouraged members present to mention to Rotarians who have not been attending recent meetings that they are missed. Attendance has been averaging around 50 percent of late.
Rotarian Becky Day introduced her and Rotarian Dana Delano’s guest speaker Keegan Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick, who is Day’s grandson, was a recipient of the Rotary Youth Exchange Program a couple of years ago while he was a student at Houlton High School. Fitzpatrick used a slide show of 50 photos from his travels to share his story.
Fitzpatrick hosted Max Buckers from the Netherlands for three weeks prior to his going to Bucker’s house in the Netherlands. Bucker really was amazed by the size of the portions served at Grammy’s Restaurant. He loved white water rafting. He fit right into Fitzpatrick’s group of friends as they swam and enjoyed other activities around the area. He even got to meet Fitzpatrick’s sister Danika’s exchange student who was returning to see Danika for her third visit to the United States.
Buckers and Fitzpatrick flew into Amsterdam for the three week exchange visit and went south to the town of Buckers’ home town of Melick near to the city of Roermond.
Fitzpatrick was immediately impressed with the wind mills (old fashioned styled) and tulips and dutch clogs. Many elements caught Fitzpatrick’s eye such as the efficient use of space and energy, including light switches and two-phase toilets. Houses were smaller and more efficient.
Fitzpatrick made many friends beginning on his arrival evening when he was invited to visit with Bucker’s friends while he went off to work. Pushing beyond his comfort zone he opened himself up to lasting friendships that first evening. Riding bikes to go places is the norm in that area. He learned to make Dutch cookies that were similar to gingerbread. The family hosting Fitzpatrick made sure that they visited key places such as the cathedral in Roermond and the museum in Brussels, Belgian called the Musical Instrument Museum, Thorne, Netherlands where the buildings were all whitewashed, and Cologne, Germany where they found a Dunkin Donuts for Bucker’s acquired taste from the States.
Buckers’ mother is British so there was no language barrier with her. Fitzpatrick did try to speak Dutch with the knowledge that he had. He thanked the Houlton Rotary Club for a wonderful opportunity to learn about another culture, to learn how to push his comfort zone and for the opportunity to make long lasting friendships. Fitzpatrick has just spent one semester in Spain and will be a junior at Berklee School of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.
