Charlotte-Shelburne Rotary - Newsletter

Rotary Thought – Rotary Clubs in Honduras and Pennsylvania cooperating on establishing vision clinics have changed the lives of many people in Honduras.

John introduced guests Sam Feitleberg and speaker Alex Hopkins

Announcements

8/15/09 – Shelburne Day at the Shelburne Parade Ground where Hands to Honduras Tela is organizing a food booth with hamburgers, hot dogs, corn, root beer floats and desserts. Stop by to have lunch. They will also be telling the public about Rotary and the H2H project.

8/19 – Champlain College Marketing Professor Nancy Kerr

8/20 – Rotary Board

8/26 – Lake Champlain Sailing Center

John recommended that every club member consider the challenge, related to member recruitment, “each one bring one.”

He also said that the website needs to be brought up to date. Everyone should go to the website with their password to update and complete information on the web – or ask for a form to fill in and submit.

A step toward encouraging retention of members would be to check out a hobby or interest of members via the website and make a connection (such as skiing or a hobby) with another Rotarian.

Pancake Breakfast

On Sunday, Sept. 6 CS Rotary will serve a pancake breakfast at Shelburne Community School as a fundraiser for the Wind Ensemble at SCS. Helpers are needed and a signup sheet will be passed at the next meeting. We expect a good crowd, with people attending the Balloon Festival at the Museum and the after church crowd.

Sergeant at Arms

Don Condon announced that it is time to start buying extra lucky draw tickets to raise the size of the pot from its current $403.

He assessed some Don’s Random Fines:

The Happy Architects’ table was fined
Paul Bohne for the work being done on Spear Street – our tax dollars at work

Happy fines:

Sue McLellan – late and happy
Paul Bohne – his anniversary was Aug. 11
Dennis Webster – his anniversary was Aug. 8
Dennis Delaney – for missing meetings
Bob Sanders – has been away a lot- thanks for the tennis courts
Joyce Errecart – Don hasn’t been targeting her lately – her sister is arriving from Australia – her family is coming for a visit
John Dupee – his daughter-in-law and children are leaving after a family vacation
Debby – for Alex Hopkins’ visit and for the story about him in the Free Press
Ric Flood – for Bob Maynes dressing like a respectable banker even on his day off
John Hammer – predicting the future mating of the two Minis parked in the parking lot – suggesting that Rotary should get ‘the pick of the litter’ – looking for a rental home for a friend – Mozart is $400,000 in debt and in danger of folding – but at the last concert a $35,000 matching grant was announced and they have already raised $15,000 for it. He blames the troubles on the wet weather for two summers.
George Ewins – his son visiting from Albany – went to the Classic Car Show in Stowe and his son saved him from impulsivity
Terrell Titus – to Saratoga with school friends
Alan Hathaway – good to have Chuck Dunham back
Dave Rice – went to the Stowe Car Show with his 85-year-old father
Mal Parker – a wedding on the weekend and celebrating their 37^th anniversary
Dennis Delaney – had an interesting story to tell about a waitress in Las Cruses, NM

Lucky draw: Sam Feitleberg drew John Hammer’s number but John chose the wrong card.

Guest Speaker

Alex Hopkins and John Beal

Alex Hopkins of Shelburne, who is going to be a senior at CVU in September, told about his experiences helping the people of the border town of Reynosa, Mexico and the fund-raising project he has organized to continue that work.

Alex went to Reynosa in 2007 and 2008 to help build needed homes there. In 2009 the trip was cancelled because organizers felt the danger from drug violence was too great and Alex decided to take another approach to helping. As his CVU Graduation Challenge project he is working to raise $10,000 that will build a kitchen to feed a hot meal to children before they go to school every day. The theme of his project is “Change Gears -- Change Lives” and involves a bike race at Catamount with classes for several age groups, a silent auction, food, a DJ, and other fun activities.

Alex said that his time in Mexico had introduced him to the realities of people living in real poverty, a family living in the shell of a burnt-out bus, the home they had lost to fire along with everything they owned. After helping to build them a small house in 2007 and returning to find what progress they had made by the following year, he decided to combine his love of biking with a project that would raise money to help their community. A kitchen and feeding center will help the children of the town, as well as create jobs and provide an emergency shelter when needed.

His project had already raised $6,000 when he spoke to Rotary and he expects to exceed his $10,000 goal. He said the experience has also helped him to improve his communications skills, learn about websites, and pursue sponsorships. He asked if Rotary would consider a donation and his request was referred to the finance committee for consideration.

Bobbe Maynes Update

Sincere apologies to Bobbe Maynes for the inaccuracies in the reporting of her talk at our Aug. 5 Rotary meeting. Here are corrections:

Bobbe was Vermont’s first Commissioner of Tourism and Marketing (reporting to the Secretary of Commerce).
She was Communications Director for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
The community initiatives of United Way do not really “target direct service,” but rather they work towards four impact areas, with the strong network of direct service providers being essential for United Way to do community change work (i.e. if they were not in place providing the direct service, United Way could not do their community collaborative work).
The numbers quoted for people served in Shelburne, Charlotte and Hinesburg are for programs United Way funds at member agencies, i.e. the number of recipients by town who received services in those agencies and in their programs, funded by United Way. The HelpFund is a different initiative that has provided assistance with keeping people in their homes by making grants to help with housing and utilities. United Way also worked with SCHIP, securing help for several other families from SCHIP as the first point of referral so that everyone took advantage of the SCHIP resource first.