Our fifth annual Hometown Heroes banquet took place last Thursday at Spruce Point Inn. The event is described in full in an article else­where in the Register so we will not go into detail here except to mention that it was an inspiring evening, from the opening invocation by Gary Speers, president of the Damariscotta-Newcastle Rotary Club and retired chief of police of Normal, Illinois; the presentation by Lincoln County Emergency Management Agency director Tim Pellerin, to the recognition of those who stand ever ready to serve our community in times of crisis. Incredible kudos go to Angelo and Liz DiGiulian and the entire Spruce Point Inn family for hosting the evening, to Daren Graves for organizing the program and serving as emcee, and to Debbie Graves, who decorated the tables and, as Daren said, "did everything I forgot to do."

The lobster bake scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 23 has been cancelled due to schedule conflicts. We will meet on Thursday, Sept. 21, at the usual time and place. The program that evening will feature presentations by our local Boy Scout and Girl Scout leaders. Waiters will be Sue Kreahling and a player to be named later. Monthly assignments for September are steward Jason Lorrain and innkeeper, I.J. Pinkham.

On Thursday, Sept. 28, the program will feature past recipients of our grants: Haley White will tell us about her participation in the Student Ambassador People to People program this summer; and Brittany Wood and Jessica Simmons will report on the Thomas College environmental ecology program that they attended. Waiters that night will be Tom Peaslee and Bill Bailey, and our greeter/invocator will be the effervescent Doug Harley. In consideration of the age of our presenters, there will be no meeting of the Turpentine Club that evening.

The summer may be ending but our year is just gearing up! Rotarians visiting the Boothbay Region and their spouses are always welcome to join us at our one-of-a-kind Rotary Clubhouse at 29 Oak Street (pedestrian entrance at 44 Townsend Avenue, across from Grover's Hardware), for our Thursday dinner meetings each week. The bell is rung and dinner is served promptly at 6:30 p.m. A short business meeting is followed by a special program, and the evening ends by 8 p.m.