By Vicki Haugen and Irene Fowle

Last Thursday we were enchanted by Lynn Chadwick from Pittston, Maine, the home of Doom Forest Distillery and Chadwick's Maple Craft Spirits. Lynn is a teacher turned distiller.  Lynn Chadwick, Master Distiller shared her journey of starting a distillery in Pittston after discovering in her 20’s that she was allergic to drinking rye or barley! So not being one to give up she turned her family cabin and barn into a distillery!  Now a family run business she and her family distill everything from Blueberry Vodka to Maple Whiskey. Her samples were superb. She shares this business is both hard work and fun. 

 

 

Chadwick's Craft Spirits is a product that's completely handmade in the most tranquil and beautiful of surroundings in our distillery in Pittston. Triple Distilled Maple Craft Spirits are made in small batches to control quality. The time intensive, natural process is the epitome of handmade. The Chadwick Family collects all the sap from the family's own maple trees and carefully boils it down into maple syrup.  Many of the ingredients are literally hand-measured and carefully combined.  It is a tedious and time-consuming process as each batch is aged to perfection. Their tasting room is open most Saturdays from 3-8 pm to sample products and have a cocktail

A large crowd welcomed new member Graham Hurst tonight as his first real membership greeting and his official pin was donned.  Then, Judy White shared with us all the concern that polio is again on the increase and in the spirit of our Rotary history of support, we are encouraging anyone who can give more now, it is needed.

We enjoyed a scrumptious vegetable dish made by Chef Amy Ronan with kale, beets and other treats from “Veggies to Table”. The veggies shared this week were a gift from an oversupply. 

Our club was happy to donate $1000 to support the Recovery Conference to be held in North Berwick on September 28th and we have four free tickets to the day's conference for anyone that would like to attend! 

This week we welcome Dan Gardner from the Boothbay Region Ambulance Service.  We are so fortunate to have these compassionate and highly trained medical professionals right here in Boothbay.   Come hear about the Ambulance Service and thank them for being there when we need them.

BBH ROTARY BIKE PROGRAM:

Bikes, bikes, bikes and bike riders – many of the international workers who fuel our tourist economy – can be seen all around town every summer riding a bike.  Where do the bikes come from?  Most of the red-wheeled bikes are part of the BBH Rotary Club Bike Project, and have been part of our summer scene for almost two decades..

Way back in 2006, Seth Hedgcock, a member of the Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club,  noticed a young man walking to his job every day.  Seth offered him a ride and discovered he was here for the summer on a International Summer Work Visa.  International workers are critical to the Boothbay Region as they fill many of the seasonal jobs at the hotels, shops and restaurants.  It was during this car trip that Seth got the idea of the Rotary Club Bike Project.  A project that would support our local businesses by providing transportation for our summer workers, both local and International. And the people who use the bikes are not just foreign citizens:   My own daughter used a Rotary bike one summer while she was saving money to buy herself a car.  

When Seth presented this project to the Rotary Club in 2006, the idea was enthusiastically received and money was allocated to purchase and repair as many used bikes as possible. In the beginning, we put out a call for gently used bikes and many that had been ridden by now-adult grandchildren came out of garages and sheds and Seth and a group of dedicated Rotarians tightened chains, put air in the tires, and watched the program grow from about around 25 bikes a year to over 100 bikes on the road. And so in 2016 the Rotary Club purchased 115 new bikes, all three-speed, with push- pedal brakes and uniform parts to make maintenance easier. But with the growth in the program, we needed a place to store the bikes off season.  Thus in 2019, our amazing Rotary Club construction crew added a dedicated bike shed to the Big Gray Barn on Montgomery Road .  The bike program was here to stay.

All that was just in time for the pandemic! In 2020, fewer than ten bikes were loaned out. The number grew to 30 bikes in 2021 – augmented by some of the crew that came from Denmark to construct the trolls at the Botanical Gardens.  For the last several years, the club is back to the previous normal of loaning around 100 bikes every year to our summer workers.

The red wheels on the bikes go round and round because of the ingenuity and dedication of the Rotary Club Bike Program mechanics: Bill Prince, Rick Mitterling, John Skoglund, Robin Reed, and Jim Herbold augmented by Rotary friend Steven Johnson and many other Rotary members past and present.

Bikes can be picked up or dropped off at the Rotary Club Bike Shed at 66 Montgomery Avenue on Saturdays between 8:30 to 11:00 am or Thursdays from 5:00 to 6:00 pm till mid-October.  A $100 security deposit is required at pickup, but that money is returned at the end of the season when the bike is returned and in reasonably good condition.  We also offer bike helmets, running lights and bike locks to all riders at no cost.

The Rotary Club Bike Program is one of many projects made possible because of your generous donations of gently used household goods that are sold every Saturday morning from April to December 8:30 to 11:00 at the Big Gray Rotary Barn.   We currently need small household goods, lamps, dishes, pots, rugs,towels and art.   Just email rotarybarnpickup@gmail.com for pickup or drop off plans.

The BBH Rotary Club meets every Thursday at 6pm at our Clubhouse, 66 Montgomery Rd, Boothbay Harbor for congeniality, dinner, and a speaker or other special program.  Join us, and learn about all we do! You’ll be glad you came.