Collins, Eno to speak at Rotary Lunch Club Sept. 19, Oct. 17

AUBURN — Journalist Steve Collins will be the guest speaker Thursday, Sep. 19, and Amos S. Eno, president and founder of Land Conservation Assistance Network, will be the guest speaker Thursday, Oct. 10, at the weekly meeting of the Lewiston-Auburn Rotary Lunch Club.
The events are held from noon to 1 p.m. at The Village Inn, 165 High St. Collins is the State House reporter for the Lewiston Sun Journal and board president of Youth Journalism International. He will share information regarding the upcoming “Bill of Rights” concert in Auburn.

The concert — the Maine premiere of this work — will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 22, at the First Universalist Church, 169 Pleasant St. The music, arranged for a large chorus and eight-member ensemble, brings the words of the first 10 amendments of the United States Constitution to life. Wesleyan University professor Neely Bruce, who composed the work, will be in Maine to conduct. U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, plans to share insights on the Bill of Rights as part of the event.
Eno has been changing the environmental policy and philosophical landscape for 45 years, challenging government, the corporate world and environmental leaders to think differently about environmental policy, conservation vs. preservation, development and land use. Simultaneous with founding LandCAN in 2000, Eno served as executive director of the New England Forestry Foundation, where he engineered the two largest privately held land conservation easements in the United States totaling 1.1 million acres — the Pingree Project and the Downeast Project.
For 10 years, he was executive director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, re-organizing NFWF into a regionally managed organization to improve services. He has been director of wildlife programs at the National Audubon Society and editor of the Audubon Wildlife Reports.
Eno has served as special assistant in the Office of Endangered Species at the Department of the Interior. He served as assistant to Nathaniel P. Reed, assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, from 1974-1976, working on Alaska lands, endangered species and national wildlife refuges.
Founder of the Resources First Group, a consulting company, Eno’s past clients include Secretary of the Department of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Resources Legacy Fund, Nature Conservancy, New England Forestry Foundation and the Louisiana Secretary of Natural Resources.
Guests and visiting Rotarians are welcome at the Thursday meetings; lunch is available for $14. For more information, visit www.lewistonauburnrotary.org or contact Monica Millhime 207-713.7045, millhime@myfairpoint.net or Club President Celeste Yakawonis, 207-713-7111.