Greetings fellow Rotarians! We started things off by inducting Hillary Laplante into our Club as our 65^th member.  If you haven’t done so already, please take the time to introduce yourselves to Hillary and make her feel welcome.  Our speaker today was Shawn Trout from 1^st Republic brewery in Essex.  Shawn and his partner are both military veterans who met while working at Revision eyewear. Over time, they parlayed their mutual love of homebrewing into a full-time business that is now known as 1^st Republic Brewing Company. Located on River Road in Essex, the brewery currently offers nine beers on draught and has started selling their beer in cans and bottles as well.  Shawn discussed how the beer industry has exploded in Vermont and how our state ranks either at the top or towards the top in terms of breweries per capita and beer production per capita.  He also explained that the state legislature has recognized the importance of beer breweries to our state’s economy and is in the process of passing bills that will relieve some of the restrictions that small breweries have faced.  For more information about this company (and more importantly, to see which beers they currently serve on draught) please visit its website at: http://www.1strepublicbrewingco.com/home.html

 

 

            We are now just a few short days away from this event!  Thank you to all of the Rotarians who have volunteered to work at this event and to provide food for our concession stand.  For those who are providing items for our concession stand, please deliver your items to Kaitlyn Raymond at the State Farm Insurance office located at 29 Upper Main Street in Essex by 5:00pm on Friday, March 23^rd.

 

 

            Lois Parmelee is working on two projects for University of Vermont Medical Center.  She is hoping to provide hats and mittens to immigrant patients who do not have them and she is making fun pillow cases for children. Rotarians can help by donating brightly colored fabric for the pillow cases (42” x 25” for the body and 42” x 12” for the cuff) and yarn for the hats and mittens.  Please contact Lois if you can donate either or both of these materials.

 

 

            The next opportunities to cover shifts at the Food Shelf will be on Monday, April 9^th from 5:30 to 7:30; Thursday, April 26^th from 3:30 to 6:30; Monday, May 14^th from 5:30 to 7:30; Thursday, May 24^th from 3:30 to 6:30; Monday, June 11^th from 5:30 to 7:30; and Thursday, June 22^nd from 3:30 to 6:30. Please let Sharon Dettenrieder know if you are able to fill any of these shifts.

 

Upcoming Meeting Schedule:  Wednesday, March 28, 2018 – We will be holding our monthly committee meetings.

 We’ll see you all at the Hockey Classic on Saturday!

 

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 follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EssexVermontRotary , on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/essexvermontrotary/ and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/essex_rotary

 

 

       Yours in Rotary,

 

Jason Ruwet