Kittery Rotary Club held our Community Champion Recognition Social at Robert's Maine Grill on October 24, 2023. This year's recipients are Ernie and Lisa D'Angelo who own Kittery Ace Hardware.
 
 
 
The Community Champions award was established by Kittery Rotary Club to recognize community members who stand out in their service to the community. Joining us for this recognition social were District Governor Marion Cheney her husband Harry, Barbara McGaughey from Fair Tide and Kelly Philbrick who nominated the D'Angelos for this award
 
 
President Pam introduced Lisa and Ernie and played a video available through the Mainspring website which gave a great presentation of their efforts in the community. Lisa and Ernie are the current owners of  Kittery Ace Hardware, Lisa is also very active with Footprints food pantry, Ernie is a regular mentor for Traip Academy students working on their capstone projects. They have hosted the Holiday "Bouy Tree" fundraiser and recently put on a local car show to raise funds for the Mainspring human services collabrative, which they are ardent supportors of. The Rotary Club of Kittery had establised a "Community Champion" Award this year to recongnize individuals who are committed to Service Above Self. the core guiding principle of Rotary. We asked for nominations from the community and the nomination of Lisa and Ernie recieved from  Kelly Philbrook stood out.
 
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We were honored to have District 7780 Governor Marion Cheney join us and present the plaque to Lisa and Ernie. In addition the Club has made both Lisa and Ernie Paul Harris Fellows, a Rotary International Award for outstanding contributions to service above self which represents a contibution made by the club of $1000 to the work of the Rotary foundation supporting humanitarian activities from local service projects to global initiatives.
 
 
True to their own focus on community, the first reaction of the D'Angelos' was to describe all the othe businesses and organizations which they felt did more and deserved the recognition more. We agree with them that we are very fortunate to have many, many businesses and organizations in our community who do so much for the community, which is why we are proud to follow the recommendation of Kelly Philbrook and recognize the efforts and commitment of a couple that while getting a settling into their new ownership of a local business, have committed so much to support of their community.
 
Thank you to the D'Angelos family and we appeciate what you do for the community! 
 
 
And a huge thank you to Cole Harrison Insurance for sponsoring this event!