Charlotte-Shelburne Rotary - Newsletter

The World Bank measures poverty based on the amount of household income needed to meet daily needs, including food, clothing, and shelter. The percentage of those in the developing world who live on less than US$1.25 a day – considered the threshold of extreme poverty by the World Bank – fell by half between 1981 and 2005, from 52 percent to 26 percent. But more than one billion people worldwide still live on less than $1 a day. Every year, six million children die before their fifth birthday from malnutrition.

More than 15 million people in the United States live on annual incomes that are less than half the federal poverty threshold of $22,050 for a family of four – a standard that’s widely considered outdated. The National Center for Children in Poverty reports that, on average, all families require twice the federal poverty threshold to meet most of their basic needs.

During the past five years, The Rotary Foundation has awarded 142 grants worth nearly $2 million to combat poverty in the United States.

Halloween Parade

Everyone expressed their appreciation to Steve Dates for his fine job organizing the annual Halloween Parade on Sunday … and for playing his bagpipes to lead the parade down Mt. Philo Road with the Charlotte Shelburne Rotary banner carried by President John Beal and President Elect Linda Gilbert. Steve said that an impressive 60% of the Rotary members participated in the parade as well as 10 other volunteers. There were 13 floats. He is currently putting together a Parade Narrative to assist future parade organizers. Thank yous had also been received from Shelburne Parks and Recreation.

Steve expressed a special thank you to William at Cucina Antica for opening early so the judges could sit inside and have lunch while they made their decision on the winning parade floats.

Car Raffle

A last minute flurry of purchases of Pumpkin Raffle tickets brought the total up to 50, so we raffled off the two un-purchased Car Raffle tickets – one won by Ric Flood and the other by Linda Barker.

Organizer Fritz Horton said he still needed some volunteers to help with bussing and general clean up following the dinner – he immediately got his volunteers. He asked for someone to be in charge of parking and Bill Root was the logical choice based on his years of Harvest Festival experience.

Colleen Haag announced that she and Linda Gilbert and Linda Barker were going to be putting together the gift packages Wednesday afternoon and could still use some help. Some donations are still coming in.

Speakers

11/4 – Clint Reickert, will be talking about Rotary, Polio Plus and other campaigns in recognition of November being Rotary month.
Special guest speaker – On Wednesday, Nov. 11 the guest speaker will be Comedian Rusty DeWeese, known as The Logger. Rotary members can bring one guest for this special program, sure to be very popular and entertaining. Rusty is a well-known Vermont comedian who lives in Stowe and is a great story teller.
11/18 – Flynn Theatre

District Meeting Report

Steve Dates reported on the district meeting held in Randolph on Oct. 24. Among the interesting ideas shared by other clubs:

Have a 90 day satisfaction or your money refunded for new members
Create a wallet-sized trifold about Rotary to give to prospective members
Encourage spousal/couple memberships
Encourage clubs to attend the district conference next year at the Davis Center
Setting up a way of helping the families of Vermont Guard who are going to Afghanistan by creating a club contact name to ensure support for local family members if they need help.

And well worth noting – and bragging -- our club had the largest membership growth in the District and in the US

Rotary Responsibility

John said it is important to remember that while we as Rotary Club members are expected to support the club’s annual fund raisers, the Car Raffle and the Bowl-a-thon, and help with other Rotary projects like pancake breakfasts, any other requests that come to us for assistance and support are a matter of personal choice, and not a pre-requisite of Rotary.

Happy fines (with Bob Sanders collecting for Sergeant at Arms Don Condon):

Howard Seaver – for cutting short Don’s stories
Dave Rice – for spending last week in Oakville, Ontario
Kris Engstrom – thanks to the make up crew
Steve Dates – for the great day on Sunday
Eric Hanley – for the parade fun – and the Yankees
Roz Graham – for her Oct. 17th anniversary – for the great crowd at the parade – for an excellent story about Shelburne Farms in Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce Business Connection Magazine – for having an interesting meeting with the organizer of the Connecticut Rotary District Convention which will be held next spring in Burlington
Debbie Hanley – for Kris Engstrom opening her shop for the make up session for the clowns
Jim Spadaccini – for the food booth and the help of everyone
Adam Bartsch – for missing the car raffle (he can’t be happy about that!)
John Hammer – for the make up artistry – he looked so good he got five proposals on the parade route
Joan Lenes – going to Ontario, California next week to see Peter Lenes’ first official game with the Ontario Reign Hockey Team in the ECHL League. Peter was on the first line in a pre-season game and scored in the first three minutes of the game.
Carol Obuchowski –happy for everything
Michele Lash – fun helping with the make up for the parade
Russ Blodgett – happy that was in Winston Salem for a family weekend – relieved to find that the internal financial controls of the club really work – when he forgot to pay on his way in, Terry Kennaugh caught him and collected
Terrell Titus – missed the parade – thanks to Kris for flowers
Linda Gilbert – great parade, especially the unicycles
Pat Sokolowski – missed the parade – visited daughter at Pratt in NYC
Ric Flood – the raffle tickets are all sold
John Dupee – pin fine
Alan Hathaway – sold his house
Tom Glaser – hooray for the Flynn – saw two shows recently – it’s a great facility
Colleen Haag – fun day at the Parade – especially being chauffeur for Irv Rose
Sue McLellan – the parade
Terry Kennaugh – taking guests to visit the Vermont Bird Museum
John Beal – great attendance (even though it is Club Assembly)

Lucky draw (and it was a lucky draw): With a significant pot of $617 on the line, Sue McLellan, Mal Parker, Colleen Haag, Bill Deming and John Dupee decided to pool their tickets. They Won!