Welcome

 

The concept of a Rotary club in the Oxford Hills was the brainchild of Christopher Hascall, a banker and former member of the Rotary Club of Bethel, after being transferred to the South Paris branch of Casco Bank and Trust.  Chris had the support of the Bethel Club and PP John Head was named Special Representative for Club Extension by District 779 Governor Orville “Tex” Ranger.  John and fellow Rotarian Roger Conant (a South Paris native and brother of Historian Ben Conant) made the trip weekly to our Provisional Club meetings and our early “Chartered Club” meetings to lend us help and advice.  At the time, of course women were not admitted into Rotary and John would come to our meetings to invite us to an event at the Bethel Club and say “Come on up and bring your wife or girlfriend –BUT NOT BOTH!!!

 

Due to the efforts of the Rotary Club of Bethel and after approximately 6 months of informal and “Provisional Club” meetings, the Rotary Club of Oxford Hills was chartered on November 11, 1983 with 22 Charter Members.  Our Charter Night celebration was held at Positively Main Street on February 4, 1984, with guests from all over the then District 779.  The first Annual Dinner was held on February 14, 1985 at Maurice Restaurant and the tradition of naming our Immediate Past President a Paul Harris Fellow began.  It has been traditional to hold our Annual Dinner around February 14 since.

 

Our first Community Service projects were hands on as we did not have funds available to financially assist recipients in the Community.  We manned water stations for the YMCA Triathalon and later that fall installed insulation at the YMCA building at Pennessewassee Park.  A few years later, we insulated, paneled walls and sheetrocked ceilings in an activity room for the YMCA.  We were asked to serve Bean Hole Bean Dinners for the Chamber of Commerce for a fee of $100 which turned into cooking them and serving the next year as many Chamber veterans and Beanmaster Larry Farmer were members of our Rotary Club. For this expanded responsibility we  were rewarded with $500.  After a couple years with that arrangement we took over the Bean Hole Bean Festival and added other activities – Cow Chip Casino, 300 Booster Club Drawing, Face Painting and other children’s activities and a small auction with items primarily donated by members.  With this format, we enjoyed a $7500 fundraiser.  Bean Hole Beans ran their course and President Paul Thornfeldt conceived the idea to sponsor a Free Bean Hole Bean dinner on the 50^th anniversary in 2002 of the famous event started by Doc Hall, Courtney Nason, Ray Harris and other Chamber members.

 

Our first Lobster and Clam Dinner was an idea set forth by PP Dick DeCato and Doug Edwards and was held in 1987 at Oxford Hills High School and has been held there every year since. Toys for Tots was first organized by PP Dave Paine, and members were simply asked to donate toys that our kids had out grown or were no longer needed.  We repaired them if necessary, cleaned them up and donated them through organizations as we do now.  In 1987, when the Supreme Court ruled that it was not illegal for women to become members of Rotary Clubs, we inducted 4 female members, Grace Emmerton, Gayla Pulkkkinen, Marjorie Howe and Valerie Weston, who also became our first female President.  Meeting places have included Bean’s Restaurant, Positively Maine Street, Maurice Restaurant, and Goldstreet Restaurant and in 1996, we had to find a place for “a month or two” while Goldstreet was to be renovated.  The ladies Circle of the First Congregational Church of South Paris were gracious to serve us breakfast for the duration and we have been happy and grateful to meet there since.

 

 

We have had one District Governor from our Club as of May 2017.

2021-2022         Peter Kaurup & Chris Summers Co-Presidents