NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Meeting Recap

Greetings fellow Rotarians! We kicked things off by inducting one new member and re-inducting a prior member. Don Bedard became our 61st member and we welcomed back Dijana Kulasic as our 62nd member. If you haven’t done so already, please introduce yourselves to Don and Dijana and make them feel welcome. Our speaker today was Bjorn Norstrom, project manager for Tech for Tomorrow (T4T). This non-profit organization was established to connect underserved members of our community with information about technology and how to use it. For example, T4T teaches new Americans and elderly individuals how to access and utilize technology and information systems in their daily lives. T4T also works with a number of families with home-schooled children who typically do not have access to the same technologies that are available in public school systems. Bjorn reported that on average, T4T assists roughly 100 people at any given point in time. Please visit http://tech4tomorrow.org/ for more information about this organization.

Annual Senior Luncheon

The annual senior luncheon is scheduled for Wednesday, December 4th at the Champlain Valley Expo. As always, we will be looking for volunteers that day to help serve food, put together goodie bags and clean up. Please contact Janet Cooper at jcooper@cooperfinancialvt.com if you have any questions or are able to donate items for the goodie bags.

Salvation Army Bell-Ringing Project

Our Club has once again committed to providing volunteers to ring bells and collect money for the Salvation Army during the holiday season. We still have four (4) slots to fill on Friday, December 6th and Saturday, December 7th. Members can now sign up for shifts online at the following link: https://rotaryclubofessex.org/event/salvation-army-bell-ringing-2019/

Server Gratuity

Over the course of the next several meetings, we will be collecting donations for a holiday gratuity to give to our server in December. If you would like to contribute to this, please give your cash donation to Jean Ashe at the front desk before each meeting. There is no set amount to donate and every little bit that we receive is appreciated.

Heavenly Pantry Food Shelf

We are looking for volunteers to help staff the Heavenly Pantry Food Shelf on the following dates; Thursday, November 21st (3:30pm); Monday, December 9th (5:15pm) and Thursday, December 19th (3:30pm). Please contact Sharon Dettenrieder at sharon.dettenrieder@gmail.com if you are able to fill any of these shifts.

Upcoming Meeting Schedule: Wednesday, November 13, 2019 – Our speaker will be Michael McGovern, Rotary International Chair of the International Polio Plus Committee. This is a rare opportunity to hear about Rotary’s efforts to eradicate polio from someone at the Rotary International level, so as many Rotarians as possible are encouraged to attend this meeting.

For the complete list of upcoming speakers and information about the Club, please go to our website at rotaryclubofessex.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