Rotarians Amy Dugas, Julie Forbes, Lisa Ryan, Carol Madsen and Bridgton Hospital’s Director of Nursing and Patient Services Jill Rollins assembled on April 15 at the planting site to see the progress of the crocuses there. They feared the delicate blooms would not survive the impending Nor’easter last week.

“Only a third of the bulbs we’d planted in October had bloomed and they looked a little bedraggled,” said Bridgton-Lake Region Rotary Club President Julie Forbes, ND, according to a news release from the club. “But we wanted to check on them.”

Forbes is a polio survivor and thus personally committed to the progress Rotary worldwide in partnership with the Gates Foundation is making towards the eradication of this terrible disease. Only two countries in the world continue to report new cases, Pakistan and Afghanistan. In parts of the world, the polio vaccination infrastructure has been enlisted to address the COVID pandemic.

Bridgton Hospital was the first corporate member of the Bridgton-Lake Region Rotary Club, and the club has actively participated in three projects with the hospital in the past year. Because of busy schedules and then the pandemic, an official induction ceremony of Bridgton Hospital’s Rotarians Peter Wright and Amy Dugas is to take place in late April at Stella’s on the Square.

For more information, contact lakeregionrotary@gmail.com.