You may know the Rotary Club from their annual Christmas tree and wreath sales, but their impact extends beyond seasonal fundraisers. The Rotary Club engages in a wide range of service projects throughout the year. Rotary is a group of business leaders whose mission is to “provide service to others, promote integrity and advance world understanding, goodwill and peace through fellowship of business, professional and community leaders.” Christine E. Johnson, the president of The Westbrook-Gorham Rotary Club, provided the following information.
How did this local group come to be known as the Westbrook-Gorham Rotary?
A group of businessmen in 1926 created a Rotary west of Portland made up of Gorham, Westbrook, Windham and Standish. Over time Windham-Standish formed their own club, now called the Sebago Lake Rotary and Gorham-Westbrook Rotary took on a new name to better reflect the two towns.
What is the membership by town?
Westbrook-Gorham Rotarians live in surrounding communities, not just in Westbrook or Gorham. Most have some tie to Westbrook or Gorham due to their business location or a hometown connection. Others join the club because of some combination of meeting time, meeting location, club size, service focus, or simply because a good friend is already a member.
What causes does Rotary support?
Our club has several areas of interest that largely align with Rotary International areas of focus. Locally we offer a significant number of scholarships at Westbrook and Gorham High Schools and Westbrook Regional Vocational Center (WRVC). With the City of Westbrook, we support construction of a house as part of the education of Building Trades students at WRVC. We donate books to the Walker and Baxter libraries, support local food pantries and after school programs and support The Locker Project financially and with volunteer hours. A recent addition is volunteer and financial support for Lakes Region Senior Center which is based at the Little Falls Activity Center. Our two most recent district grant projects were solar charging poles in Gorham and Westbrook.
How are funds raised to support these activities?
Westbrook-Gorham Rotary currently holds three significant fundraisers each year. The annual golf classic on the fourth Monday of September is now in its 30th year. For more information see www.westbrookgorhamrotarygolf.org. We also sell wreaths starting Thanksgiving weekend and would welcome new residential and commercial customers. We deliver! For many years we also sold Christmas trees and may resume doing so at some point. Last year, we added an annual Pizza Challenge to identify some of the best pizza sold in Westbrook and Gorham. Look for that again this year.
Anything else you would like to let people know?
We welcome anyone who is interested in connecting with like-minded individuals to make and find opportunities to serve our communities. Check out the calendar on our website www.westbrookgorhamrotary.org for meeting and program information and join us sometime.