Charlotte-Shelburne Rotary - Newsletter

Linda read a story The Power of One from Time Magazine about a man born and educated in Uganda, who came to the United States, settled down with a job, wife and family. On a trip to his homeland, he was besieged with requests for help from all the grandmothers who were raising their AIDs orphan grandchildren. Determined to help, he raised funds from the people and organizations in his new hometown in Indiana, including Rotary, and built a school. Recognizing many other needs for these children, he continued his work, raising money and adding clean water, meals for the children at school, a farm, a hospital and residences. Another example of Rotary stepping up and helping.

Induction

Bob Lake was inducted as a new member of Charlotte Shelburne Rotary Club with Linda Schiavone as his sponsor and Ric Flood officiating.

Bob is a native Vermonter, lived in Brattleboro until he moved to Shelburne in 1992. He had been proposed for membership two years ago, but delayed his application after his son was severely injured in a car accident. He said his motivation for joining Rotary is that he wants to help his community and knows that Rotary is an organization committed to doing good work in its community.

Announcements

7/21 – Club Assembly
7/22 – Board Meeting
7/28 – Rep. Joan Lenes will give a legislative update

Linda mentioned that Shelburne Players is offering a music camp for children and anyone interested can contact her.

Service Projects

John Dupee said he needs a few additional helpers for the Charlotte Senior Citizens dinner on Aug. 13 – specifically people who could come about 3 and help with prep for the meal. They would be welcome to stay for the dinner.

More helpers are also needed for the Camp Ta Kum Ta Breakfast on Aug 3. This will involve being in South Hero early that morning to help to prepare and serve breakfast to 200 campers. Judy Christensen has volunteered to lead the team.

Sergeant at Arms

Don Condon began his SSA shtick with the top 10 smart remarks by traffic policeman to traffic rule violators. No one in the club had ever heard these remarks before.

Paul Bohne was the happy fine collector (or is that collector of happy fines) for Don – a role that Don said Paul was well suited for because of his training as Shelburne’s tax man.

Happy fines:

Don Condon – going to Fort Drum to welcome home his daughter who has been in Iraq with the army.
Carol Detsch – as a new member of Rotary, said she had had no idea that Rotary did so many good things in the community – and she is enjoying finding out
Rosalie Schneider – so impressed by the Hands to Honduras presentation last week – glad to be a Rotary member
Rosalyn Graham – anticipating the National Tree Farmers Association Field Day at Shelburne Farms on Thursday
Gennifer Noble – happy to be at the meeting
Don commended Robert Maynes for dressing as a successful banker should
Robert Maynes – having won the 50/50 raffle at the Changing of the Guard, he went on to win the 50/50 raffle at a golf tournament
Kris Engstrom -- paid tribute to Jim Spadaccini for being a great professional and a great Rotarian – she also paid tribute to her great Mother
Bob Lake – happy to be at the meeting
Jim Spadaccini – he enjoys Rotary – he’s been a member for 38 years – only outranked among those present by Bill Deming who is a charter member with 39 years of membership
Terrell Titus – pin fine – fun at the Make A Wish golf tournament – congratulations to the new president
Sam Feitelberg – a grandchild coming for a visit from California
Elaine Dates – going to the Craftsbury Chamber Concert series with their grandson
Steve Dates – going to Vergennes Rotary and being impressed by the membership informational booklet they publish (just like we did a long time ago)
Ric Flood – a scoot fine
Terry Kennaugh – a $50 fine for a 49^th anniversary (the extra dollar was because he forgot to mention it last week) – and being on a ground crew with Julie at the Stowe Balloon Festival
Alan Hathaway – happy
Denny Bowen – good breakfast
Chuck LaClair – congratulations to Terry and Julie
Bob Sanders – pin fine
Bill Root – sorry to miss the Changing of the Guard
Linda Schiavone – happy to welcome a new member
George Schiavone – happy John Hammer was present
Pat Sokolowski – happy to be back
John Hammer – a reminder that Sunday is the first Mozart Festival Concert – with dressage – at beautiful Shelburne Farms
Tiffany Bleumle – remembers going to Rotary meetings with her grandfather at 6 a.m. – happy our meetings aren’t at 6 a.m.

Lucky draw: Pat Sokolowski’s number was drawn but she chose the wrong card and didn’t win the $527 pot.

Vermont Works for Women

Linda Gilbert and Tiffany Bleumle

Tiffany Bleumle has been Executive Director of Vermont Works for Women for 12 years, during a period when the budget has tripled and the participants in their programs has grown from 70 to 900.

Vermont Works for Women has been in existence for 24 years and is a state-wide organization serving women and girls with programs designed to equip them to get out of poverty, train for better-paying careers and trades, and change their lives after incarceration.

She quoted figures:

1 in 3 working women with children live in poverty
¼ of girls don’t graduate from high school
Only 10% of people in engineering, construction, skilled trades are women

The core program of Vermont Works for Women is Step Up For Women, a program that began with a focus on the trades, including carpentry, welding, electrician, and has expanded to include IT and law enforcement.

They have also expanded their programs to include incarcerated women, a response to the growth in the number of women who are in prison, and the finding that many of those women have never had a full-time job. VWWW developed a vocational program that revolves around building affordable housing, specifically modular homes, that are built and sold to the state agencies. It benefits the women by teaching them practical skills, as well as giving them experience in leadership, problem solving and attention to detail.

They also partner with Mercy Connection in establishing mentoring relationships for the women before they leave prison, a valuable assistance in helping them to re-integrate into the community and establish new and better relationships.

Rosie’s Girls is another program, developed to give elementary and high school girls experience in welding, auto mechanics, carpentry, math and engineering, fields the girls never saw for themselves. “They discover talents they didn’t know they had,” Tiffany said. The girls learn skills, but they also gain self knowledge and have an opportunity for reflection.

The happy news is that 80% of the program participants find jobs, and the incarcerated women have a much lower recidivism rate than the state average. And a reliable source of skilled people will depend on tapping into the potential of women and girls.

How to help? You could mentor a prisoner, become a member of the kitchen cabinet (their advisory board), mentor girls and lend financial support.

Vermont Works for Women has also developed a general contracting business to give on-the-job training to women. Fresh Energy can provide weatherization service and install solar trackers.