April 21, 2016 Meeting of West Bay Rotary

Suzanne introduced herself as a part of "GRITS": sisterhood of girls raised in the South. She was born in Lyons, Georgia, studied music and piano at a very young age, and also played clarinet and the organ. She met her future husband, West Bay Rotarian Lehman Scott in high school. She attended Shorthill College in Rome, Georgia, studied church music and organ, and worked in a private school teaching music. She worked in an urban Atlanta parish as an organist until it was deemed unsafe for her and her family, and decided to go to graduate school although she and Lehman had young children.  She got her masters in music, and was a full-time organist in a Decatur parish 4 years before purchasing a music store, Opus One, and moved back to Rome and opened a second store. She later became a development officer at her alma mater, and got very involved in community activities. She joined a 50-member Rotary Club and immediately became involved in club leadership. The club had a Dick Derby, and a local basketball tournament as well. She was later Director of Development and then to Barry College, from which she retired in 2014. The Scotts have family in New Hampshire, and more moving from Portland, Oregon to New England in the next 2 years. She is not currently serving as organist in a parish, but might again some day.

Susan Dorr and Peter Berke recently went to Guatemala to work on a Masons on a Mission stove building project. Susan spoke about her two-week trip, during which she and her husband, former West Bay Rotarian Greg Dorr, spent 5 days in a team building a stove for a different home each day. She said it was a great and very "doable" project and hopes other members of the club will go to build stoves. She described the process of cutting bricks, mixing mortar, laying tile, lining and completing stoves that cure for 2 weeks before they should be used. Firewood is very scarce. They were part of a group that filled 3 pickup trucks each day and traveled to the towns on the lake in this particular area of Guatemala.  An extra treat was experiencing the festivities and rituals of Holy Week which she said could provide another presentation for another day.

 President Lisa indicated that buckets on the table are for Knox Recovery Network. Ira mentioned that one third of the babies born in Knox County are addicted to drugs. 

Tom Albertson reminded all of this weekend's EWaste and Shredding Saturday from 9-2. Peter Berke is reminding folks to sell their tickets, sign up to sell tickets at French & Brawn and Camden National and volunteer the day of the event, May 28.

Bruce Malone announced that the Camden Rotary is planning a 10th Anniversary of visiting Curtis Island and West Bay Rotarians are invited to join them on Curtis on June 7 at lunch time. More details to follow.

Jim Potter, chair of Vocational Service, announced that three students the club has supported for 4 years are graduating and have jobs. Nate, who attended Worcester Polytechic, is going to work at MIT. Neil, being awarded a BS from UMaine is going to work at Woodard and Curran in Portland, and Cade, at NMCC, is going to work at Vestus Energy Co.