Greetings to all our community members and Rotarians on this, the end of 2017. I’d like to take this opportunity to share with gratitude what the Rotary Club of Boothbay Harbor Foundation has been able to accomplish with the donations we received this year. Because of the generous business sponsorships for our 2017 Rotary Auction, our costs for the event were mostly covered. This resulted in our being able to convert most all our Auction proceeds into charitable grants.

The following grants account for the 2017 calendar year:

* For our youth and schools we supported the Ron Calhoun Scholarship Fund, the Rotary Scholarship, the Boothbay Region Student Aid Fund, Senior Awards, the French Class trip abroad, the Francis Aley Memorial Book program, the BRES Everglades trip, the Set for Success day, and the 7th grade Kieve trip.

* For our youth summer programs and other opportunities, we supported the Charities Classic, Rotary Reads (free children’s books available at the Community Center), annual support for the YMCA, and scholarships for the Y summer programs, Big Brothers – Big Sisters program, the Make-a-Wish Foundation; scholarship grants to the Boothbay Sea and Science Center, the Little League, annual support and scholarships for Camp Postcard, the American Legion’s Dirigo Camp, three student scholarships to Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, and a donation to help build the Edgecomb playground for disabled children.

* For our community we helped purchase a van for the Health and Wellness Foundation, and a log mover for the Woodchucks. We worked together with the Community Center to raise funds for its operations, made several donations to our community libraries, a major donation to Life Flight’s new helicopter fund. We gave annual support for the St. Andrews Free Bed Fund, the BRCRC heating assistance program, Boothbay Region District Nurses, Community Fireworks, Mid Coast United Way, New Hope for Women, the Make a Wish Foundation, Rebuilding Together, Boothbay Region Community Resource Council, Boothbay Region Food Pantry, and the Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts. We hosted the Rotary Elder Forum for care organizations and workers and supported their projects, and supported with our time and money our Rotary Bikes program for our seasonal workers from abroad.

* National and international support: We did an internal, club fund drive, and matched those dollars with a grant from our foundation to make a special donation of just under $2,000 to the American Red Cross disaster relief fund for their work in all this year’s hurricanes, fires, and flood disasters. Besides our annual support, we made an extra donation to Shelter Box for their work with the Puerto Rico and Caribbean hurricane relief efforts. Annually we do an internal fund drive with matched dollars from our Foundation to support the Rotary International Foundation. We supported Partners in World Health’s mission to Senegal, Rotary’s Polio Plus polio eradication program, Safe Passage in Guatemala, and Thai Daughters.

* Additionally, grants were sent to the LiveStrong Foundation and the Milestone Foundation.

In summary, I’m sure I’ve missed something, or several things. The grand total of just this list is about $30,000. I like to say “Rotary is a gift.” It provides Rotarians with a means to do great work beyond our individual capabilities. Much more than camaraderie, we have the opportunity to gain leadership skills, do great work with others even when our only common denominator is Service, and truly make a difference in the lives of the people of our community and even the World. But we do not forget that it is the generosity of our community that has made our work possible.

Thank you all and Happy New Year!