This past week, the Rotary Club of Dover had the opportunity to visit the 3rd graders at Horne Street School to teach them about how the dictionary is a tool that they can use to help them learn so much in just 459 pages.
The Rotary Club of Dover, NH, offers opportunities for our members — and those interested in making a difference — to get involved. Through meetings, social events, and volunteer projects, our members learn about the issues facing our community and communities all over the world, partnering with local, national, and global experts to exchange ideas about potential solutions and to draw up action plans to respond. Along with these opportunities to serve, members also are able to regularly network, resulting in lifelong friendships and business connections.
Our club is a proud part of this community and of Rotary International. Rotary is a global network of more than 1.2 million members who believe that great things happen when dedicated minds come together. We are community and business leaders representing different professions, experiences, and perspectives but with a shared desire to connect with others to address the challenges affecting our community and communities around the world.
This past Monday, the Rotary Club of Dover had the opportunity to visit the 3rd graders at Garrison Elementary School to teach them about how the dictionary is a tool that they can use to help them learn so much in just 459 pages. We said that the 3 things they should do when they get their dictionaries, 1st - smell it, 2nd - put their name in it, and 3rd - try to learn to say the longest word with over 1,900 letters.
Congratulations to Caroline Schultz an 8th grader at Dover Middle School as she was awarded the Rotary Club of Dover’s October Student of the Month. Caroline was surprised, honored and grateful that her classmates and family were there to share with her. This award is given to a DMS student that goes above and beyond to be kind and compassionate to others while focusing on projects within school or in the community. We love that we are able to recognize these students each month as we move forward in sharing “service above self”.
At this week's Rotary Club of Dover club meeting, we had the opportunity to learn from Cheryl Saint Amand about the Rotary International Rose Bowl Float whose theme this year is "HOPE CONNECTS THE WORLD".
Our club helped to support this year's RI Rose Bowl Float with a $100.00 donation presented to their RI Rose Bowl Committee. Rotary has had a float in the Rose Bowl Parade for the last 41 years.
Did you know:
- All the floats have to be decorated with organic material
- Purpose – extensive publicity for Rotary
- Organized by a separate organization from Rotary itself
- Floats all put into a park and people may pay to visit floats close-up
- Roses start coming in three days ahead, each one with a water container, have to be put in precisely with no spaces. $3/rose is the cost. Water containers are saved and recycled next year.
- 2018 was Year of the Bunny – Rotary float won the Princess Trophy
- Organizing entity has to raise the money - may ride the float or walk alongside for a substantial donation
- 30 people on the team
- $100 to sit in seating near judges
Clubs and individuals can donate: RoseFloat@RotaryFloat.org
Over the weekend, the Rotary Club of Dover prepared our beautiful Rotary Gardens for the Winter months. Thank you to James for your help in putting the gardens to “bed”.
The Rotary Club of Dover recently granted Garrison Elementary School the opportunity through the SEED program to participate in leadership training. The INspired Leadership Training is comprised of three one-hour coaching sessions for the entire faculty and will benefit all 450 students at GES. “We are so excited to provide this leadership training,” said Melissa Lesniak, President of Rotary Club of Dover. “Thanks to SEED for bringing this unique opportunity to our Club to make a difference at Garrison Elementary.”
The Paul Harris Society recognizes Rotary members and friends of The Rotary Foundation who elect to contribute $1,000 or more each year to the Annual Fund, PolioPlus Fund, or approved global grants. The purpose of the Paul Harris Society is to honor and thank individuals for their generous, ongoing support of The Rotary Foundation.
At a recent Club meeting, we had the opportunity to honor and award, President Melissa with this award. Congratulations and thank you for your contribution to Rotary!
The Paul Harris Society recognizes Rotary members and friends of The Rotary Foundation who elect to contribute $1,000 or more each year to the Annual Fund, PolioPlus Fund, or approved global grants. The purpose of the Paul Harris Society is to honor and thank individuals for their generous, ongoing support of The Rotary Foundation.
At this week's Club meeting, we had the opportunity to honor and award, Marion Cheney with this award. Congratulations and thank you for your contribution to Rotary!
During the month of October, the Rotary Club of Dover collected fines from our members and guests that were to be donated in November to the Rotary Foundation in honor of World Polio Day that took place on Thursday, October 24th. Our club collected $177, which was matched by a fellow Rotarian at this past Wednesday’s Club meeting. Thank you to our club for your support as we make a final donation of $354.00.
Recently, our Dover High Interact and District Interact students had an opportunity that they will never forget. Through their Interact Club they were able to experience a fun and educational weekend as they participated in the 2019 United Nations Day.
When they arrived in New York City they had a few hours to take in the sights of Times Square in New York City, take in dinner and see the musical, Tootsie. Most years the students would attend the Rotary UN Day meeting, but this meeting was not in session, and yet the students gathered to discuss what takes place and the discussions and decisions made during these meeting.
The students also attended the 911 Memorial Where are they we re able to take in the tragic day in which so many lives were lost and so many heroes made. Congratulations to these students as they were chosen from each of their local Interact Clubs to represent District 7780. I t was two days of learning and understanding the impact the students have on rotaries future leader ship as well as the adventures and sightseeing along the way.
In celebration of Veteran’s Day, our Rotary Club of Dover listened to the stories of our Veterans at this week’s Club meeting. We thank them for their service.
At our weekly Rotary Club of Dover meeting yesterday, our Club presented Community Partners NH with a check for $500.00 to help underwrite the scarlet Lewis presentation held earlier In October. Our club is grateful to partner with Community Partners as this was one of many projects and initiatives to come forth in our efforts to focus on Mental Health & Suicide Awareness in our Community.
For more information about Scarlett Lewis and the Choose Love Movement, click on this link: https://www.jesselewischooselove.org/.
A celebration took place recently as CAP - Community Action Partnership of Strafford County - partnered with the Rotary Clubs of Dover, Rochester and Durham-Great Bay to build their new playground through a District Grant. It was a hands-on opportunity for the Rotarians to be a part of the construction and see the final project where the kids have a place outside to play and enjoy.
The celebration included many local businesses and the staff of CAP. Thank you to those that attended and shared the stories of how CAP is a part of our community.
Community Action Partnership ensures the causes and conditions of poverty are effectively addressed and to strengthen, promote, represent, businesses and serve the Community Action Network. They pledge themselves to create an environment that pursues innovation and excellence through multi-sector partnership and collaborations.
The Rotary Club of Dover recently assisted HAVEN with their “coloring book” project.
With this donation of $1,000, HAVEN will use these funds for this project to allow children to understand how to recognize and protect themselves from sexual violence.
HAVEN serves women, men, and children affected by domestic and sexual violence. HAVEN is the largest violence prevention and support services agency in NH. The need to eliminate domestic and sexual violence, while supporting individuals and families, is greater than ever. Your support will help us better serve Rockingham and Strafford Counties, ultimately making the Greater Seacoast a safer place to live.
Being an advisor wIth our Dover High Interact Program, it was a goal of mine to get the Early Act Community Service program at Dover Middle School. Over the past year, with the help of our President Elect, Gregg Dowty and Dover Middle School Principal, Kimberly Lyndes to create the Student of the Month program that recognizes a Dover Middle School student each month for above and beyond based on “service above self” through kindness and compassion to others in school or within their community.
For the month of September, we presented 7th grader, Luisa Pellitier for her kindness of others and celebrated her award with her classmates and parents.
The Rotary Club of Dover recognizes the accomplishment of our youth in our community and present the award each month at the middle school and a quarterly recognition of the students at a Rotary meeting Where they will receive A donation from the Rotary Club who their choice of charity for projects that they are working with.
I am grateful for her involvement in the program forward to our announcement of the Student of the Month for October.
The Rotary Club of Dover recently assisted the Dover Middle School PTA. The PTA is a proud community, each of us doing our part to contribute to the greater good of the students. Volunteers come in many sizes, there are opportunities to bake for school wide events, chaperone, or even serve on the board.
With this donation of $250.00, Dover Middle School PTA will use these funds for their upcoming Pumpkin Dash 5K to take place on Saturday, October 26th. Join them if you would like to take part and support as you run or cheer on those at the race.
At this week's Rotary Club of Dover's Club meeting, Chief Breault of the Dover NH Police spoke on his department and what his staff and officers do everyday to make Dover safe and a city where residents and visitors are proud of. He said that he was grateful for Rotary’s support of many Dover undertakings, especially the Teen Center.
With the Rotary Club of Dover donation, it paid for the floors that means so much more than just having a floor, it provides a safe space for many kids and changes their lives. He is also grateful that Rotary supports organizations that provide recovery and suicide prevention and mental health care. These are vitally important in the community.
Chief Breault presented statistics on the Dover Police department. How many calls they take, how many traffic stops and tickets, and other policing work. He explained how the department moved to having some of the work done by civilians and that they now have 52 sworn police officers and would need 56 to be fully staffed. Crime in Dover has gone down year over year despite the rise in population. His focus is on community policing and data showing the results and engagement.
Police departments have taken on the mantle of being social workers. The officers provide well checks and work with the homeless populations to provide information on available social services. They also take the time to get to know everyone and explain to the public that they police behavior, not people. He also provided information on the drug related overdoses resulting in deaths and overall overdoses. These numbers have gone up from 2008 and are now going down. He is optimistic and thinks that lower number of deaths from overdose is the result of more people administering Narcan. The Police Department’s philosophy is that addiction is a disease and they provide support, not punishment.
The Rotary Club of Dover recently assisted the Dover Parents Music Club Boosters a non-profit organization that will lend support, both moral and financial to the Dover High School Music Department, promote music education by cooperating with the Director of the Music program, and organize and manage the funds available to the music program.
With this donation of $500.00, DPMC will use these funds for their band and Winter color guard show.
The Rotary Club of Dover had the opportunity to make a $500.00 donation to the Woodman Museum as part of our Community Giving Program where our Club helps out those in our community that are looking for assistance of their organization as we want to help them with their projects and needs.
The Woodman Museum was founded in 1916, as a traditional early 20th-century style natural science, history, and art museum with exhibits for all ages. The campus is home to four buildings, which include the Woodman House (1818), the Hale House (1813), the William Damm Garrison (1675) and the Keefe House (1825). The museum’s collection includes hundreds of colonial artifacts, a comprehensive mineral and fossil collection, mounted animal specimens, fine art and furniture, an extensive collection of military history items, local history objects, and much more. The Woodman is open seasonally to the public (from early April to mid-December) Wednesday through Sunday, 10am-5pm.
Read more about the Woodman Museum at their website: www.WoodmanMuseum.com
The Rotary Club of Dover recently donated $500.00 to Safe Haven Ballet as they raise money that will allow them to offer free trauma sensitive classes for survivors of sexual violence, and uplifting ballet performances to help our community.
Learn more at: www.safehavenballet.org
Have you been downtown Dover this weekend? If not, be sure to check out the fabulous work that our Rotarians did to the Rotary Gardens in preparation for next weekend’s Apple Harvest Day. We love our community and making it beautiful for everyone to enjoy.
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Where was Miles our Rotary moose this week? Thanks to Doug Locy, he was Introducted to my friend and Rotarian, Julie Lynn Hitchcock at our Rotary meeting & social, he played with the Locy’s dog, River and his friends, they walked together in Magnolia overlooking the bay in Manchester by the Sea. They enjoyed lunch in Manchester and got packed up for trip to Newburyport fireworks. Oh look, they enjoyed an ale on the fireworks cruise watching the sunset with friends on the Merrimack River and boy were the fireworks fabulous. What an evening pontooiing on Great Bay. And ended a fun week resting with River and relaxing as they kayaked on the Bellamy River as they headed back to our dock.
Hearing from Michelle, Kelsey & Ashlyn about their recent experience at RYLA - Rotary Youth Leadership Awards program in Raymond, ME. They spoke about being put on teams that allowed them to participate in activities that would make them think and respond based on their leadership skills. With their participation came in opportunity of growth for them as individuals and working together with others that they may not have known prior to attending RYLA. Each year the Rotary Club of Dover sponsors 3-5 local high school students to attend this program. Many enjoy and learn leadership skills that they decide to return as Program youth counselors.
At last week’s 5th Wednesday Rotary evening meeting we were able to honor our Rotarians who received their Paul Harris Fellow + awards. Congratulations to Kevin Raymond with a PHF+7, Marion Cheney with a PHF+5, R David Drucker with PHF+1, and Peter Widmark with PHF+5. Your contributions to the Rotary Foundation is felt by so many locally and all over the world.
Look who we found on vacation! Thanks to Nick Pellman and his family, Miles, our Rotary Club of Dover NH was able to spend a week and a half at the beach with the Pellman family. Thank you for sharing your journey and vacation with Miles.