Charlotte-Shelburne Rotary - Newsletter

Following the pledge and the opening prayer President Steve Dates introduced several special guests including members of the Hands to Honduras Team, Al Gilbert, Sam Feitleberg, Dorrice Hammer, and Meghan Hanley. He also welcomed back Emily Morrow who has been in Auckland, New Zealand for the past five months. Emily will be reporting on her Down Under experience at a meeting soon.

Rotary Foundation Thought

This week’s Rotary Foundation Thought is about PolioPlus Partners. In 1995, a second sub-program of PolioPlus, the PolioPlus Partners program, was developed to allow Rotarians the opportunity to directly contribute to polio eradication projects submitted by fellow Rotarians in polio-endemic, importation, and high-risk countries. The Partners program allows Rotarians to choose a project or country that interests them the most by selecting from the PolioPlus Partners Open Projects List available on the polio section of the RI Web site. Over $48 million has been contributed to over 600 projects since then.

There is still a significant, urgent and ongoing need today.

Announcements

We have had the opportunity to have an additional RYLA candidate for the program later this week at Lyndon State College – a fifth student from CVU sponsored by Charlotte Shelburne Rotary. Sue McLellan will review the applications and see if we can find a fifth person.

Salute to Jim Spadaccini – Elaine Dates reported on the tribute paid to Jim Spadaccini at the District Changing of the Guard celebration last week. Jim was honored for his years of membership in Rotary (active since May 1, 1973), a second generation Rotarian, Youth Exchange coordinator for more than a dozen years, all activities that have won him the respect and deep appreciation of the Rotarians of District 7850. He received a standing ovation from the club as Elaine finished her report.

Sergeant at Arms

Kris Engstrom, presiding at her final meeting as Sergeant at Arms, collected lots of pin fines, Anniversary fines from Bill Deming, Carol Obuchowski and Michele and Michael Lash, as well as a birthday fine from Alan Hathaway.

Happy fines:

Kris – for Britta’s healing finger and for the incredible garden she is growing
Elaine Dates – for Kris allowing her to cut flowers from her garden – flowers that became an arrangement that won at the Garden Show – and a notoriety fine for the great publicity the show got with Sharon Meyers on Channel 3
Gary Bergeron – his first grandchild was born in Virginia
John Hancock – celebrated his birthday in April – happy to be back at Rotary
Joyce Errecart – visiting her grandchild in Virginia
Fritz Horton – notoriety fine
Dennis Delaney – his son Luke has been appointed a Lieut. Commander in the US Navy – Dennis was in Honduras with the other H2H group – visited Rotary meetings where the speaker talked for an hour and 15 minutes
Russ Blodgett – happy to have Spadaccini in the club
Alan Hathaway – for Jim’s good work – for Kris’s good work as Sergeant at Arms
Judy Christensen – for Sue finding four RYLA students from CVU (and maybe five) – the RYLA program on the weekend will be great including a fund-raising all night celebration to raise funds for Polio Plus – for her son John’s graduation from basic training – he’s in the Air Force – a Green Mountain Boy
Don Condon – send Joyce to RYLA – for the success of the Ric, Eric, Bob and Don golf team bringing home the Essex Golf Tournament Trophy
Terrell Titus – for donning her color coordinated outfit and leading her team to last place in the tournament – and for Jim Spadaccini and Hands to Honduras in our club
Don Rathbone – happy to be at the meeting
Jim Spadaccini – thanks – and glad to have John Hancock back – pointing out that John Hancock and Bill Deming are the longest memberships in the club.
Sue McLellan – for Jim and for RYLA – leaving early to find #5
George Ewins – an incognito fine
Joan Lenes – for Jim Spadaccini’s granddaughter who has just become the student chair of the Connecting Youth program at CVU
Roz Graham – for seeing another green and white Mini in the parking lot
Michael Clapp – his sister is coming for a visit – his non-professional garden is looking good – for Jim’s activities bringing honor to the club – for Don Rathbone being back
John Hammer – for Mozart Festival selling more tickets already for the first and last concerts of the summer than last year at this time – thanks to Jim Spadaccini for making the Youth Exchange so successful
Gary Marcotte – for hearing Jim Spadaccini’s brother talk about what a wonderful person he is

Lucky draw: Russ’s ticket (held by Ron Van Mynen as Russ had left early) was drawn, but Ron chose the wrong ticket and missed the $328 pot.

Hands to Honduras

Members of the Hands to Honduras group reported on the work they did in Honduras this winter, with pictures organized by Linda Gilbert.

Eighty-three volunteers worked on projects in Tela, bringing amazing changes to the town and the infrastructure with their hands-on labor, sharing of expertise and teaching skills that will help to make the place healthier and safer.

Among the construction projects were constructing a kitchen and patio at a poor rural school, building a large classroom in Las Palmas, renovating a school building in Garvil Avelar, building two rooms for a day care center, and doing rehabilitation in the therapies center. They also painted, built latrines and set up clean drinking water systems,

One colorful project was painting murals both to brighten up classrooms and to serve as a teaching aid.

The dental clinics attracted large crowds and the two dentists extracted 500 teeth. Specialists at the therapy center helped children and adults with walking problems, spinal cord injuries and strokes. At the family health clinics three doctors saw more than 360 patients of all ages.

Experts from Vermont trained Tela firefighters in the use and care of the ambulance donated by St. Michael’s College, presented the Tela police department with 10 pair of handcuffs and 15 mag flashlights. They are also working with Tela Police, Fire Department, Red Cross, Hospital, Homeland Security and the Mayor’s office to establish a centralized 911 Emergency Service.

Linda Gilbert said that the underlying purpose of the H2H team is to do good things for the children. She said the group was characterized by its “Yes We Can” attitude – and were recognized throughout Tela because of their Red H2H shirts.