DECEMBER 11, 2019

Meeting Recap

Greetings fellow Rotarians! We kicked off the last Rotary meeting of 2019 with our annual officer elections. After a hotly contested election that brought forth calls for recounts, memos filed with the Supreme Court, and accusations of candidates surreptitiously recording their opponents’ debate practices, we learned that the following individuals were chosen to lead our Club in the 2020-2021 Rotary year: Max Seaton, President; Max Levy, President-Elect; Jason Ruwet, Vice-President; Jean Ashe, Secretary; Betty Poulin, Treasurer; Tim Gendron, Sergeant at Arms; Bob Mulcahy, Member-at-Large; Sharon Dettenrieder, Member-at-Large; Andy Love, Member-at-Large; Heidi Brosseau, Immediate Past President; and Jim Hirsch, Visitor Emeritus (just kidding about the last one). Thank you to all who have stepped up to serve during the next Rotary year! As we always do, we closed out the last meeting of the year with an amazing performance by the Essex High School Chamber Choir. This talented group of young adults treated us to a blend of beautifully performed holiday classics, contemporary pieces, death metal dirges (just seeing who is still paying attention) and gospel songs to send us into the holiday season and the new year.

Salvation Army Bell Ringing

Thank you to the many Rotarians who braved the cold temperatures and snow to ring bells for the Salvation Army this past Friday and Saturday! Spirits were high (especially at the Essex Discount Beverage) as our members helped collect a combined $1,500.00 to support those in need. Once again, we’d like to thank Rusty Brink for coordinating our Club’s participation in this event.

Operation Warmth

As many of you know, our Club participated in Operation Warmth, which is a program that provides winter coats to school-aged children in need. Our Club recently purchased and distributed 85 winter coats to local school children. This is just another example of the type of work our fundraising efforts support. Thank you to Max Seaton for spearheading our efforts in this program and thank you to the Rotarians who assisted Max in distributing the coats!

Heavenly Pantry Food Shelf

We are looking for volunteers to help staff the Heavenly Pantry Food Shelf on the following dates; Monday, January 13th (5:15pm) and Thursday, January 23rd (3:30pm). Please contact Sharon Dettenrieder at sharon.dettenrieder@gmail.com if you are able to fill any of these shifts.

Upcoming Meeting Schedule: We will not be holding any meetings for the remainder of December. Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, January 8th. We’ll see you all in 2020!

Have a joyous holiday season and a happy New Year!

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