Greetings fellow Rotarians!  Today’s speaker was Nichole DiDomenico, the Rotaract advisor at Norwich University. The focus of Nichole’s visit was to promote the Upendo Mjoma project. This is an initiative to train and educate the youth in Pommerin, Tanzania in ways that will enable them to generate their own income and provide for the community when they are older.  This effort was started by the Upendo Women’s Group and the Upendo Men’s Carpentry Group in Pommerin, Tanzania. Thanks in part to the generous volunteer efforts and financial support of the Norwich Rotaract chapter, Upendo Mjoma is now a thriving and beneficial community organization in Pommerin.  In addition to helping provide basic educational needs to the youth of this area, vital vocational skills such as carpentry and animal husbandry are also taught.  To date, a residential and vocational center for 17 children between the ages of 6 and 12 is almost complete and there are plans to construct a carpentry workshop and a barn for raising animals. For more information about this organization, please visit its website at:

            We still need volunteers for this event on Saturday, March 19th! Please sign up for volunteer shifts at http://rotaryclubofessex.org/event/2016-rotary-vermont-all-star-hockey/ We are also looking for members to donate baked goods for the event’s concession stand. You can indicate what you will be bringing by signing up at: http://rotaryclubofessex.org/event/hockey-concessions/  You may also visit the newly-created Hockey Classic Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VTRotaryAllStarClassic/?fref=nf for further updates and information about the games and the players themselves.

 

            We will still need three more volunteers to work at the Heavenly Pantry Food Shelf on Thursday, March 24^th.  Please contact Sharon Dettenrieder  at sharon.dettenrieder@gmail.com if you would like to help.

 

 

            Our Club’s 50^th anniversary celebration will be held on Wednesday, April 13^th at 5:30pm.  As part of the celebration, the 50th anniversary committee is looking for photographs from Rotary events over the past 50 years.  If you have photographs - hard copies from the early years or digital copies from later years - please get them to Jeff Cabanaw as he is putting together a video for us that will be shown at the 50^th anniversary dinner.  If you would like the hard copies returned to you, please indicate that on the envelope so that Jeff can get them back to the right person. 

 

Upcoming Meeting Schedule:  March 16, 2016 – Our speaker will be Jon Kuyper, Director of YMCA Camp Abenaki.

 

For the complete list of upcoming speakers and information about the Club, please go to our website at www.essexrotary.org   Be sure to also visit us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EssexVermontRotary

 

       Yours in Rotary,

 

Jason Ruwet