Well, no doubt now, Winter is here. It sure is cold, perfect weather for looking out your window at that huge, bright “Wolf” moon or for joining us Thursday night for our “Zoom” Rotary meeting.

Deborah Bronk, president and CEO of Bigelow Labs will be our speaker this week. She will talk about climate change research in the Antarctic. She will give us a behind the scenes glimpse of what it is like to do research in that fascinating and cold part of the world. Ah, as I write this the current temperature at McMurdo Station is 25 degrees, my thermometer says it is 1 degree outside. But, after all, it is summer at McMurdo Station right now. (Remember summer!) We are so fortunate to have Bigelow Lab as our neighbor and Deborah is always an interesting and fun speaker.

We’ll also have time to visit, share stories and project updates. It’s always great to see you. LincolnHealth is looking for Rotary volunteers for the COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic at the Boothbay Region YMCA. Volunteers would perform client intake which includes asking clients about any recent exposure to Covid and if they have any symptoms which might be Covid related. There is also a volunteer need for parking attendants. LincolnHealth has an application and does require a background check. If you are interested in volunteering for this important endeavor, email me. I will forward your email to the volunteer coordinator at LincolnHealth.

Last week's timely presentation by Rotary International Leader, Carolyn Jones about race and bias in the United States led to an engaged and thoughtful discussion by club members. We seldom go over the scheduled hour for our meeting time, but it was almost 7:20 when we signed off last Thursday. Thank you everyone for your contributions, experiences and ideas.

John Welsh gave us an update on the current district grant of $10,000 earmarked for food insecurity in the region. The soup program has been a huge success. Amy Ronan is making soup. Then with the planning and guidance of Judi White we are packaging and labeling it before delivery to the Food Pantry. After a discussion with Fleet Davies of the Food Pantry, our Rotary Club will be supporting a voucher program that will enable Food Pantry clients to also purchase meat and fish. With this cold weather we all need more protein.

The Boothbay Region High School Interact Club met virtually last week. They are continuing their microlending project via Kiva. They are postponing their annual spaghetti supper this year because of the pandemic. At this time they are planning a “Walk-athon.” More on that later, but they will probably be distributing pledge sheets at their February meeting. Let’s join in this “Walk-athon” and support our Interact Club. Even club members who are “away” can participate too. Let’s see how many states we can collect pledge sheets from.

Your board of directors will be meeting Monday, Feb. 8 at 5:30 p.m. Let me know if you want to join the meeting or have ideas or topics for discussion.

Hope to see you this Thursday at 6 p.m. Stay warm!