Sneaking in on the last day of the month - it's still February! 

 

The club has lots of exciting things going on - in addition to our work on the pollinator garden project in Bedford, Ralph is spearheading another international project in Kenya, inspired by a presentation from the Rotary Action Group 4 Club Foot. This project will help adults with clubfoot, in addition to introducing the Ponseti method for correcting clubfood in children. 

 

We are in the process of planning at personal care drive for the MCC food pantry for Election Day in Bedford (March 12). The list of items we hope to collect includes: body wash, shampoo, conditioner, laundry soap, dish soap, shaving cream, razors, body lotion, tissues, paper towels, and hand sanitizer. More info to come! 

 

Yours in Rotary

Paula

February 2022

Robert “Bob” Mead. (1924-2021) I wish I had known Bob better.
I wish I had known him in 1956 when, in his early 30s, he and other involved, like-minded community businessmen embraced the ideals of Rotary and formed our Rotary Club of Bedford. I wish I’d known him during the four years when he and other Rotarians and townspeople joined in creating Springs Brook Park. It opened in 1971. And I wish I had known him when he inspired Bedford Rotary’s 2012 creation of the 9/11 Memorial Garden at Springs Brook Park. I wish that I’d had the chance to know him, his thoughts and the strength with which he built the legacy that we remember now.

 

July 22, 2021. It was just sixteen days after Paula Gilarde became our 68th club president. She, and a few other club members, attended the District’s recently formed Environmental Action Group”s “Climate Café” meeting where attendees talked about environmental issues, projects, and ideas. Motivated and focused on club service, several of the mentioned projects and ideas caught Paula’s interest, one in particular. In an email the next day
she wrote, “I'd like to learn more about Operation Pollination....” In the weeks and months following pollination interest grew. An Operation Pollination representative spoke at a September weekly meeting, and the next week the Board approved our signing the Pollinator Pledge. Later, Paula took interest in the idea of towns mandating the planting of native plants for pollinators.

October 20, 2021. That date, when the Bedford Rotary Board of Directors met, is the birthday of Paula’s proposal to create the Bob Mead Tribute Pollinator “meadow” (now garden) at Page Field in Bedford. Board approval was unanimous. What was born then and is now underway is multifaceted. It will certainly be a fitting tribute to Bob Mead’s legacy. It will be a long-term environmental service project, the creation, and growth of a gift to the Bedford community. It can be an opportunity to bring together citizens of Bedford, young and old, to join in its creation. It is an important, major project that requires support, input, and energy. It needs more than a few people “getting behind” it, it needs a significant number of people, Rotarians, and others, “getting into” it. And it will be a facet of Rotary’s legacy in Bedford.

 

March 1, 2022. Update.
Bedford DPW scouted the Page Field area with club members in December and a section bordering the wetlands behind Veterans Memorial Park on Great Road was agreed upon.

The next step toward full town approval will be presenting our garden plan and obtaining the approval of the Bedford Conservation Commission.

The “Winter Sow” project at the February 15th weekly meeting was active participation in the learning process that is both accompanying and guiding the creation of the garden. Milk jug cultivation of native plant seeds that require the extremes of cold weather to propagate in the spring may produce seedlings that will populate the garden before next winter rolls around.

There’s more to come. Much more!