Good Morning Gloucester

A little story to tell today.  In 1979 when she was 87 or so, Gertrude Vanderwell Basil wrote a letter to my cousin outlining some history of the Gloucester area.  Here is some of that letter, reflecting on her time as a child in Gloucester probably around 1900: “then your great grandma [probably Ann Conlon Handran] left and took a job at a big brick home for tenants who went out fishing and their wives.  She was very happy there. I used to stop on my way home and she gave me a little coin purse with 11 cents in it because I stopped and visited her.  I was only about 6 or 7 years.  On the way home up on Bonds Hill there was a new home built that has a new rock wall in from of their home and I did not want to take that little purse home because Mom (Gertrude Holland Vanderwell) never let us kids accept any money from anyone so—I never did get it back because after years that place was torn down and it made me feel bad to think poor Nannie gave it to me.”

I understood her implication to be that she tucked the coin purse into the rock wall near the home on “Bonds Hill”.  As fate would have it, we are staying on Bond Street and those rock walls call to me every time I drive by them.  I think of a little girl’s coin purse with 11 cents inside perhaps still right where she tucked it over one hundred years ago. And I think of the long past ties I have to this area and count myself blessed.

The Gloucester Rotary Club is pleased to announce its 8th Annual Polar Plunge to help make Polio history!

FREEZIN’ FOR A REASON

On Saturday, February 3rd from 10:30 am – 12:00 noon

At Long Beach in front of the Cape Ann Motor Inn

Please park at Good Harbor Beach and take the free shuttle bus to the polar plunge

Free admission: Make donations to #EndPolioNow campaign at: https://app.mobilecause.com/vf/polio/team/Gloucester

The Gloucester Rotary Club will again host clubs from Rotary District 7930 (eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire) for the 8th annual Polar Plunge on Saturday, February 3, 2018 at Long Beach in Gloucester. The event is part of Rotary International’s ongoing campaign to eradicate polio in our lifetime. Several hundred people are expected to plunge into the cold waters off Cape Ann this year. Last year, over 300 people braved the icy waters, raising more than $120,000. Since the first Rotary Polar Plunge in 2011, Massachusetts Rotarians have raised over a half-million dollars with this event. Since 1985, Polio has been the signature cause for Rotary International as it has teamed up with partners including The Global Poverty Project, The Global Eradication Initiative, The World Health Organization, and UNICEF. Since that time, more than a billion dollars have been raised among Rotary clubs worldwide and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

READ MORE HERE

More information on Rotary’s #EndPolioNow campaign can be found at www.EndPolio.org. This year, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has again pledged a 2:1 match for every dollar Rotarians and friends raise toward eradication efforts.

A 60-cents donation can make the difference in changing a person’s life.

Please support Gloucester Rotarians as they brave the icy waters to help eradicate polio in our lifetime. The goal for the plunge is $125,000. Supporters can text “polio” to 71777 or visit www.GloucesterRotary.org to make a donation.