Rotary Logs: April 3, 2014 (starting a business) and April 10, 2014 (opera)

April 3

The day started off with a dedication to Andrew Jarvis. Mort Schmidt had the pleasure of telling our fellowship about how Andrew arrived to our country and how he ultimately left it.

Andrew arrived from Greece when he was a young boy with nothing and lived in the basement of a NJ donut shop. He slept on a cot and was given donuts for his work. He would write to his family in Greece that the streets of the US were lined in Gold…which of course means this is the land of opportunity. You just must Carpe Diem. Andrew left the Rotary with a healthy endowment. Each year on the Thursday closest to his birthday, we share in a toast of champagne in his honor.

Marie Brownell then spoke about Kay Jarvis, Andrew’s daughter and our fellow Rotarian that past away in the fall.

Marie talked about how Kay would always ask her how she was doing…? And tell Marie that “we girls need to stick together” because, as Kay remembered, “us girls weren’t always in this club!” Marie reminisced about how Kay would have a new story to tell her every week: Republicans, her fiancé, and how wonderful a city Portsmouth is to live in … and of course that Marie should move here! Marie then honored Kay by presenting the Paul Harris Fellow to her. Kay’s nephew James Adam and Kay’s great-grandson Michael were in attendance to accept the Paul Harris Fellow Award.

Bill Mortimer then told us a few more charming stories about “Kathy”. Bill met Kay/Kathy while he was a beat cop. He would visit Kathy and her friend Irene at the coffee shop. He recalled how he, Kathy and Irene were driving home one night and Kathy got pulled over by a cop. She was angry at the officer and showed it. Bill asked why she reacted like that and she explained… “because he was wrong”! Kathy’s next run-in with the law was in Portsmouth where Kathy told the police officer that he’s “nothing but a little twit!”.  Bill mentioned that at Kathy’s funeral, Kathy’s sister Dorothy mentioned to him that Katherine and Irene are in the same place. Bill said he knows they are waiting for him, but he is in no hurry! Needless to say, Kay Jarvis had a bright spirit and loads of spark.

President Dave discussed the activities from the Board Meeting. For more details, please go to the website.

Sara Tracey is looking for volunteers to help with the Soup Kitchen at the Salvation Army on April 30^th.

Leonard Seagren discussed the new Walk for Diane to be held on April 19^th. The start line is at his home in New Castle and will travel along Rt 1B. Starts at 3:00 and there will be a party at Leonard’s house afterwards.

Stella Scamman had the honor of introducing this weeks speaker:  Jackie Eastwood. Jackie talked about her Road to Entrepreneurship.

Jackie moved from Upstate NY to NH with her boyfriend in 1968. They married and had a child. He soon moved out and Jackie was left a single mom working as a waitress. Jackie was always recognized as a hard worker. She remarried and moved to Hooksett and worked at Pitney Bowes as a Sales Manager. Then moved up to Sales and Marketing Manager for Pitney Bowes and moved to Hartford. Her daughter stayed in NH and attended St Pauls and Dartmouth. She was then recruited by a medical device company in Arizona. She was given equity. She was then recruited by Medtronic in MN.

She and her husband lived in MN for 11 years and she quoted that the movie “Fargo” isn’t a documentary! They then moved back to NH, where she is closer to her grandkids who now attend Philips Exeter.

One day she received a call from a MN surgeon who had a bleeding issue with one of his patients. Jackie then called her old boss at Medtroic about possibly providing a solution. Since Medtronic wasn’t interested in building the product that could be a possible solution, she decided to start her own company in which Medronic invested $5mm. She raised another $100mm. The company that she built was called TissueLink Medical. It started in a mill building in Dover NH. She hired great employees and had a “No Bozo” policy.

Jackie’s “tricks” for building the company were to know where you are going, communicate the mission and repeat it, develop a culture that is ethical at all times and will “walk the talk” and to bring in outside Board Members early in the process. Then for execution she reports that one should do one thing and do it well. But be prepared to change with having a B and a C plan just in case. The company was renamed Salient Surgical Technologies and moved to Pease Tradeport.

Let your team make decisions and get out of the way! Let outside experts in and get out of your office. Celebrate often.

In 2011 Salient was acquired by Medtronic for $525mm and remains in NH as Medronic Advance Energy. Now with 400 employees, it is the fastest growing division in Medronic.

Then came the time to Give Back. Its not just about you! Her choice was: The Global Child. There mission:

The Global Child delivers quality education. As a community, we make every conscious effort to offer these students with the best opportunities possible since we know that Cambodia's poor education system generally impels many children to drop out of school. We do this by monitoring teacher-student relationships, developing an applicable curriculum, and giving superior compensation to teaching staff.

Taking full responsibility for the education of any child is both complex and expensive but doing so for a formerly street-working child is much more difficult.

The primary service we provide is education. Each student receives $1 per day of school attended which serves the dual purpose of training them in personal finance and countering their value as former child-laborers.

Our educational program includes the Cambodian government's recognized curriculum of: Khmer, Math, Social Studies, Geography, Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Earth Science with additional training in English, health, basic computer skills, art, music and extra-curricular activities such as soccer, volleyball, Karate and traditional Cambodian dancing. During their enrollment in our program, students receive housing, healthcare, food and school supplies.

Additionally, each student receives counseling and financial support until they achieve solid employment upon graduation; hopefully following their completion of university but sometimes after receiving vocational training from a trusted partner organization.

Fascinating program. Inspiring!

April 10

District Governor was here and talked about the Rotary District Conference taking place May 16-18 in Portland, Maine at the Westin Harborview Hotel. 

April 19^th will be the hands on project at Pease Baseball Field

The 21^st annual Golf Tournament will be Friday June 20.

Our guest speaker today was Dennis Neil Kleiman.  Dennis is an enthusiast of the opera and discussed the historical context of opera.  He runs the opera connection at the Musica Hall and co-wrote the theme song for “Reading Rainbow” on PBS. 

Many people don’t like the opera and he pointed out some key things that make it so uninviting…

The first is the language barrier, Opera is in foreign languages and since many people may not understand Italian, German or French we don’t want to attend.

The second is that it moves slow!  Opera depicts a different century when people were not always in a hurry. Opera was the most popular form of entertainment in Europe.

The third is the loud singing.  In the 19^th century there was no way to amplify voices so the singers had to project their voices.

And last is the music. 

Some of the ways he invites us to experience the opera is through the Met Opera Broadcast  (online & HD) and they also have translations.

It is paced so that what we see on the screen moves a bit faster for visual stimulation and focuses the story more. 

The broadcast also has a selection of the greatest opera singers. 

Dennis invites us all to come and experience the opera with what he calls “mission impossible!”