It was another Thanksgiving success at the South Berwick Community center as almost 100 senior citizens were served a delicious Thanksgiving dinner, compliments of the Rotarians of South Berwick - Eliot.  We are grateful to our members who provided food and smiles to all who attended.  

 

Past District Governor Claudia Frost visited our club at the end of August to present President Tom Harmon with a Rotary Citation our club earned for meeting almost all of its 2022-23 goals for service to our community and beyond.  Only a handful of clubs in the district earned this Citation for excellence.  Congratulations to our hard-working, fun-loving club and president!

 Rotarian Robin Wheeler (right) presents a check for over $8000 to Sydney Mosher, one of the co-founders of Camp Kita in Maine.

 

 

When one of our club meeting speakers talked to the members of the South Berwick – Eliot Rotary Club this past year, Rotarian Robin Wheeler, who had a friend whose band, Under Cover, wanted to donate an evening of dance music towards a Rotary fundraiser for a good cause, decided that this was the cause we should all support.  The speaker, Isaiah Mosher, was one of the co-founders of Camp Kita, a summer camp for young survivors of suicide of a loved one, which has been offering one-week overnight camping experiences free of charge for the past 10 years.  Rotarian Erica Place had heard about this worthwhile program and their plans to soon establish a permanent camp in Alton, ME to be able to increase services to the community, so she invited the Camp’s co-founders to inspire the club members to help.  And that is just what happened.  A dance was held at the Regatta Room in Eliot in April and the band was hot and the town members there were on the dance floor all night long!  Robin and Erica organized a silent auction and there was a 50/50 raffle.  When all the donations were accounted for, the South Berwick – Eliot Rotary Club was able to present a check for over $8000 to Camp Kita at their club meeting on July 13^th.   Other major sponsors of the event were Pelkey Funeral Home and Kennebunk Savings Bank where Erica is a branch manager.   Sydney Mosher was on hand to receive the check and updated the club on Camp Kita.

 

Sydney and her siblings, survivors themselves, have 75 campers coming this year (there is a huge waiting list).  Camp is free of charge to the campers and this year they are renting a camp in Belgrade, Maine.  They are in the process of building their “forever home” in Acton, where they hope to offer more camperships, programs for adults (currently the age range is 8-17) and other groups.  Camp consists of the normal summer camp activities plus peer group therapy each day, mentoring, crisis management, sessions about living with grief in more productive ways, and is staffed by mental health and other professionals along with camp counselors and staff.  For now it is a one-week-long camp experience once per summer.  Once they have the place of their own, they will be able to service many more people of all ages.  To her knowledge, this is the only camp of this kind in the country and there is a great need for it.  Campers come from Maine, New Hampshire and beyond.  Many return each year until they age out.  However, they can return after they turn 21 if they wish to be counselors.  By the way, did you know that KITA means "listens" in Abenaki?

 

We are so happy to have helped this invaluable program and are thankful for all the community members and sponsors who supported this effort. 

 

 

 

We are delighted to welcome Eliot citizen and civic activist Jocelyne Gregg.  Come join our Club along with Jocelyne - she's a fascinating lady and the rest of the group is a lot of fun, too.

 

Club members Richard Donhauser and Helen Goransson were part of a delegation of 7 Rotarians from the district to visit Zambia during February and March to investigate potential future projects we can get involved in, as well as to see the results of the global grant "Healthy Learners" which we helped make happen and which is now a nationally-accepted program in Zambia.  What a memorable experience and we expect some exciting initiatives will arise from this experience.  They also got to enjoy the game preserve in Chobe, Botswana and the magnificent Victoria Falls in Livingstone, Zambia.  Richard was the team leader and he did an admirable job!

 

 

WE ARE DELIGHTED TO WELCOME OUR NEWEST MEMBER, ERICA PLACE, FROM THE ELIOT BRANCH OF KENNEBUNK SAVINGS BANK (Pictured here with our Membership Chair, Stan Shapleigh)

 

We are delighted to have Mary Onken and Amy Miller join our jolly group of do-gooders.  Mary is a retired school teacher and national official of track and field, and Amy is a writer and major community volunteer and also an active booster for the Life and Hope school project in Haiti.  Both have already shown their true colors in volunteerism even in our club's activities.  WE ARE SO GLAD TO WELCOME THEM!

 

The South Berwick - Eliot Rotary Club is proud to welcome another Interact Club.   Our successful and active Interact Club at Marshwood High School, led this year by enthusiastic advisors Grace Jacobs and Carolyn Maugher and a team of hard-working officers, has provided community and global service in many ways and we are so proud of them.  This year, Berwick Academy in South Berwick chartered its service club to join the ranks of the Rotary Interact clubs.  Advisor Jen Onken and a group of approximately 100 students are out and about serving the community and helping in global projects all year long.  Now they are also benefiting from the support of our Rotary club to broaden their experiences, including taking part in the Interact United Nations trip and sending students this coming June to the next session for the Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA) camp in Raymond, Maine.

 

Pictured below, from left to right, Rotary Interact Club liaison and past president Skip Cousens, co-presidents Greta Lincoln and Robin Orr, and current club president Richard Donhauser, presenting their charter to Berwick Academy.