President's Winter 2015 Update

Winter, 2015
Dear Hopkinton Rotarians,

It's been several months and more than several feet of snow since my last update. Let me try to catch up on these months.
-On December 2 we inducted 3 new members; Seth Greenblott sponsored by Bill Siff, Pete Afflerbach sponsored by Billy Chapin, and Ben Barton sponsored by me. I am impressed to see early on their willingness to jump right into club activities! Billy Chapin, our membership chair, is doing a great job inviting prospective members to our meetings and it's paying off!

-The Senior Holiday Luncheon at the Slusser Center was a huge success with a packed attendance and great reviews. Once again the Interact students did a fine job serving and bussing the tables. Thanks to Ken Traum, Gayle Kimball and Neal Cass for organizing the food donations, publicity and cooking! Colonial Market generously donated hams for the event.
-This year's Rotary calendar theme was our town's upcoming 250th anniversary and featured historic photographs of Contoocook and Hopkinton. The calendar looks great and feedback on it has been very positive. Thanks to Gayle Kimball, Billy Chapin and Mark Winzeler for their hard work in collecting photographs and advertisers, and coordinating it's creation along with much assistance from Heather Mitchell of the Hopkinton Historic Society and Donna Dunlap of the Hopkinton Town Library. This year's calendar was dedicated to Bruce and Cindy Salsbury for their tireless energy and hard work in planning the calendar in years past.

-Our efforts to increase our Flags Over Hopkinton contracts to 250 by Memorial Day are going quite well. Between our promotion this fall at the polls and our mass mailing to Hopkinton households we have assembled 94 new subscribers. Assuming we get a 100% renewal of our present 119 subscribers that will put us at 213. Upcoming promotion at our Candidates Forum and Town Meeting should get us to our goal! With more than a doubling of flags to put up and take down we will definitely need additional club members taking on routes. The flags flying proudly all over town should look great during this celebratory year!

-As I write this, 12 Hopkinton Interact students, along with Club advisors Pam Moskul and Emily Tam and Hopkinton Rotarians Phil Reeder and Gerry Youngman, are on an Interact Mission trip to Nicaragua. They are working on a school and community center near San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. They travelled with 15 duffel bags filled with donated school supplies and dental hygiene products that will be distributed to students of the school where they are working. They also will be arranging for a number of eco stoves to be donated to the community, largely underwritten by a $1000 donation from Amigos de Honduras. The eco stove is a a safe and low emission alternative for cooking and heating indoors compared to traditional wood-fired stoves. -On February 18 Cooper Kimbal-Rhines, a HMHS Interact student, presented a refurbished laptop to Beth Sargent, representing Dial-a-Ride. If you have an old laptop sitting in your basement this is a great way to put it to good use. The Interact students, with guidance from Dave Luneau, will purge the hard drive of all personal data and prepare it to be donated.

-On May 9 Hopkinton Rotary will be participating in Hoops on Wheels, a fundraiser for Granite State Independent Living, a non-profit that promotes life with independence for seniors and people with disabilities through advocacy, information, education and support. The event is a wheelchair basketball tournament for able-bodied and disabled participants. Team members include Ken Traum, Mike Byrnes, Frank Grano, Steve Chamberlin, Seth Greenblott, Dave Luneau, Dan Feltes (our guest ringer) and myself. It should be hilarious and supports a great cause!

-My hopes for our club to become the primary host of a global grant is starting to take shape. We have received a detailed proposal from the Al Hyaat Teaching Hospital in Borama,

Somaliland for a project to improve maternal and infant care in Borama, Somaliland. We also have received interest from the Red Sea Rotary Club, located in Djibouti City, Djibouti to act as our regional partner. I will present more details to the club over the next several weeks. I've asked our board to give serious consideration to our participation in this global project. Assembling the grant and raising funds would be a major club commitment but that is what Rotarians do. Participating in a global grant was identified as a desired goal at our club visioning in the Spring of 2014 and this is our opportunity. If you agree that this is a worthwhile project to pursue please let the board know.

Sincerely,

Eric Schlepphorst
Hopkinton Rotary President 2014-15