Rotattler for March 5th and Beyond
Meeting of March 5, 2020
President Jeremy was away, but future president Deb saved the day.
A small but lively group welcomed our guest speaker, Regan (sp?) Russell from Berwick Academy (brought to you and introduced by Michael from BA). She has participated in BA trips to Thailand, Italy, China, etc. and she and Michael are class advisors of the current senior class. She is a member of the art faculty and had the opportunity to travel to Aomori, Japan. Aomori has a sister relationship with Maine ever since the ship Cheeseborough was wrecked off the coast of Japan and villagers in Aomori took care of the survivors. So they established the Friends of Aomori and Maine, a group which includes members of their Rotary club in Aomori and which organizes cultural exchanges. Russell's experience when she visited was to study Aomori's famous wood-block art. She was there one week in 2018. Aomori is located in the northernmost region of Japan, outside of Hokaido and is amazingly similar to Maine in weather and landscape. It is also a bed of artistic creativity. They have lots of snow, apples, rugged scenery and are famed for their parade floats and artwork. During the visit, she saw area schools and was most interested in how they delivered arts education. Their project of cultural exchange is called Hashi, which means "bridges" and this project helped build bridges between the countries. She enjoyed the Munakata Memorial Museum and observed and worked with the most famous block print makers in the country. In Aomori, every student makes one block print each year and then they put it all on display. BA students and Aomori students are now making and sharing their block prints and sending them to each other and displaying them in their exhibits. This year's prints from Aomori will be displayed at Greeley in Cumberland, ME. Last year's was on display at BA.
Upcoming
It's a busy week ahead and your club secretary won't be around to hound you about them, so here goes, in case you're interested:
Next Thursday our speaker will be Gary DeColfmacker. Maybe he'll tell some "Deb Stories"...
March 14th is the Community Supper at which we have volunteered to help, at the Eliot Methodist Church on Route 236 in Eliot, and the event is from 4-6 p.m. but come early to help if you can.
March 16th there is a Maine Bicentennial Celebration at the Eliot Elementary School at 2 p.m. This includes the dedication of the mural of the clipper ship Nightingale built in Eliot at the Hanscom Shipyard, and school staff and children have prepared a big birthday celebration and presentation. They suggest you come and "dress like a Mainer" (whatever that means).
March 16th at 5 p.m. is also the Rotary board meeting at the offices of Civil Consultants.
Now off to Ixtapa, Mexico (fingers crossed we make it back as planned).