President Gina Patterson opened the meeting at our lunch meeting site: Heart Rose Club in the former Shriner’s building, Gina welcomed all to the May 23, 2024 meeting of the Brattleboro Rotary www.brattlebororotaryclub.org

Invocation:

Given by Thomas Ely, retired Bishop of the Diocese of Vermont

Gina lead the club with the Pledge of Allegiance

28 Members, 0 Student Rotarians and 1 guests attended the meeting.

Guests:

Thomas Ely, who will be our Speaker

JOKE OF THE WEEK - For our joke or song of the week:

George Anthes had a joke about a paranoid library patron.

ED NOTE: 2023-24 weekly assignments are posted on the club website.

Rotarians for Rotarians:

Milt Gilmore recovering from surgery and would love calls.

New Members:

ROTARY MINUTE

Cindy Jerome gave a synopsis of an article in the New York Times on Polio eradication.

Note for future presenters; The Rotary Minute could also have the speaker talk about their personal involvement in Rotary or personal background.

Years of Service in our Club for April:

On Behalf of our Club and all Rotarians, thank you for your Service Above Self

Student Rotarian updates:

Birthday greetings -

BIRTHDAYS FROM RUBIN -

Bill Vermouth - So nice to finally be out of my 20's and catching up to the rest of the club.

Meeting location - The Heart Rose Club – 11 Green Street in Brattleboro

Announcements

Frank LaGrande was given a Paul Harris Fellowship Award for the many contributions he has made to the Club activities.

John Mabie: Scholarship applications are coming in. None yet from BUHS.

Bill Vermouth: Golf Tournament – raffle, silent auction and opportunities to help.

Stan Nowakowski GroundWorks meal will be the second Wednesday in June. A few more volunteers are needed. Please contact Stan.

The Heart Rose Club is closing for Rotary lunches as they are moving to a public deli and lunch business. The last meeting at the Club will be next week on the 30^th. Work on a new venue has begun. Watch your email for more information.

Mara Williams: We have gotten the OK from Ted Kramer to have a raffle. The first prize will be $500.00, second will be a “close your garden for winter” and 3^rd will be “ Garage Clean Out”. These will require teams of at least 4 Rotarians for each project. Tickets will be sold at Gallery Walk on the first Friday evening of the month from June through October. She would like to have at least 3 folks for the table each month. She needs one more for June 7^th.

The change over dinner will be June 27.

On going Stage rebuild at Living Memorial Park coordinated by Carl Lynde

Greg advised club members that June 29th is the day of our event at the
welcome center. He encouraged people to think about what they will bring.

Speaker Schedule by Jim H

Next week: West River Thrives and the Brattleboro Housing Partnerships
Following week: The golf tournament

ED NOTE: Weekly assignments for the invocation or motivational thought can be found on the club website.>

REMINDERS

Please bring your bottles and cans to the Putney Road redemption center to benefit Pure Water for the World. Please remember to inform the staff that the bottles and cans should be credited to the club.
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FINES & Happy Dollars

Mara Williams for Frank LaGrande and her Mother and Father’s tireless work on Polio Plus.
Carla Lineback for a 3 generation trip to Washington D.C.
Stan Nowakowski for the Rotary gardeners who did a wonderful job on the Memorial Garden at Memorial Park.
John Mabie for his 11 month out grandson who is now crawling forward!
Rob Szpila for his daughter who graduated from Clark University
George Anthes for his daughter’s presentation at Circus Arts. Circus Arts will be offering a Silver Circus Program. He also noted that Industrial construction spending is now at 224 billion dollars.
Bill Vermouth for the many accounts Rhonda handles with great dexterity.
Rhonda Calhoun for a fabulous 2-week trip to France and Chris Hart serving as Treasurer at the lunches while she was away.
Tom Ely for his daughter receiving her advanced degree in Education.
Mark Anderson for Tom Ely’s work with Swords to Plowshares.

PROGRAM

Guest Speaker: Thomas Ely on the work of the group Swords to Plowshares.

Tom was introduced by Mara for Cheri Ann who could not be present.

Swords to Plowshares takes guns which folks have voluntarily turned into the Sherriff’s Office and converts them into art and garden equipment. The Windham group is working with the Putney School which has a forge. They have students attending to be part of the forge program.

To learn more, you can contact Tom at Thomasely1@gmail.com or Mark Anderson, Windham County Sherriff.

Scribe – Stan

REMINDERS

FINES & Happy Dollars

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