By Diane Hines
Houlton Rotarian
The first meeting for the month of July for the Houlton Rotary Club took place on July 6.
July birthdays were acknowledged and dollars collected. There were four guests present, being Karen and Walter Thompson, who live in Tennessee, while not at their camp on Drew’s Lake; Frank Gouch from Sarasota, Fla. and Frank Thompson’s grandson Caleb. The guest speaker, hosted by Becky Day was Dale Flewelling.
Flewelling’s talk centered on his life’s passions “ Friends of Aroostook” and his upcoming “Nature Trail.” Friends of Aroostook grew from a need to feed the hungry and organize the abundance of food that becomes available at times. With Flewelling’s passion to take care of the outer man and his wife Lois’s passion to care for the inner man, they came up with the concept of organizing a food supply chain.
Flewelling provides food to 17 pantries in Aroostook County and five food pantries in Washington County. There is constant need and the organization is growing and will probably be the largest in the state of Maine. With assistance from Darrell Crandall a program was developed to allow inmates to work on the farm for Flewelling. He farms about 60 acres on the Holland Taylor farm. The jail program provides volunteer workers and the inmates earn days off.
Another passion that Flewelling has is nature trails. With contribution from the Quimby Family, he has hired Brian Stewart of Stewart Engineering to design a trail system on the Ivey Farm that borders the B Stream, now called the Captain Ambrose Bear Stream.
The trail will require hiking boots as the approximately four and a half miles will wander through 160-acres of woods and some fields. Flewelling hopes to build a visitor’s center with an office in a building with dimensions of 16 feet by 32 feet. He suggested that Rotary could contribute to this project. Volunteers will be needed for the trail work. He hopes to make the smallest footprint possible.
On Monday, July 13, Houlton Rotary Club meeting was a special event as the club hosted the District Governor of District 7810 Wayne Wornes and his wife Sylvie. Other guests were Terry Thomas of the Woodstock Rotary Club, Thomas Donahue Junior, guest of his twin brother Matt Donahue and Elizabeth Dulin’s guest was her colleague Kelley Ashley.
Scott Dionne and Matthew Nightingale gave a five-minute presentation about programming for the next year. They will be emailing the club members their format and guidance for upcoming guest speakers. The two will be creating a database and schedule to help club members host guest speakers.
Jane Torres mentioned the upcoming Wings and Wheels event on Saturday, July 25 and Rotary volunteers for that event will be able to sign up on July 20. Torres introduced the new District Governor Wayne Wornes from the Dieppe Rotary Club and from Muncton, N.B. Wornes is vice president of Primerica and a former police officer.
Wornes addressed the group, first sharing how well the District 7810 is functioning and how his job is to “steer the ship.” He educated the Houlton Rotary club about the new International Rotary President K. R. Ravindran and Ravi’s mission for this year to “be a gift to the world.”
Last year’s theme was to “light up the world” and Ravi is taking this one more step in service above self. Ravi’s family business produces quality packaging for tea bags, a value added business in India which helps to serve tea to the world. Ravi’s life theme is to be a gift to the world. He has given tirelessly. He believes in the concept of “pay it forward.”
Wornes went on to discuss the structure of Rotary. District 7810 has 44 clubs that he will visit this year. Houlton is the sixth club he has visited. He attended the zone conference in Toronto which reaches to New Jersey and includes Bermuda and over to Russia. In San Diego, California, 525 governor elects will meet. Wornes suggested that Houlton manage its relationship with its neighboring clubs Woodstock and Florenceville that Terry Thomas oversees. Thomas reports to Wayne about those three clubs. He suggested that we can share events or just be supportive of each clubs’ events.
Wornes mentioned other Rotarians in Maine who are great to reach out to for ideas. President “Ravi” encourages all club members to “think outside of the box” going forward. He encouraged the club to make one meeting just a meeting to network. Rotary is the first network organization founded by Paul Harris in Chicago as a way to get to know his fellow attorneys.
Wornes spoke about why we join Rotary, which can be for many reasons but the key is why we stay. The focus should be on why we stay and what works for people and the organization. A new position in Rotary is called the “Public Image Chair.” What is the public image being put out into the community? Who is managing that and how is it working? Wornes suggested sharing articles with other clubs and other media such as the Bangor Daily News.
Wornes commended our youth service committee for the work being done with the youth exchange and spoke about the long term exchange program that he and Sylvie are very active in. They joined Rotary just to be able to host exchange students. Wayne encouraged everyone to attend the District Conference to be held in Muncton, N.B. from Sept. 11-12. This year’s theme focuses on the local culinary activity in Muncton with a “culinary tour” and an Acadian Kitchen Pantry. Everyone is welcome. At the conclusion of his talk he received a standing ovation from the Houlton Rotary Club.
