President Roger Allbee welcomed all to the November 3 2022 meeting of the Brattleboro Rotary Club www.brattlebororotaryclub.org held at Ramunto's. ED NOTE: 29 Members + 3 Guests + 7 Student Rotarians = 39 attended.
For the invocation Betsy Gentile quoting from Deepak Chopra.
This was followed by the pledge of allegiance. Birthday greetings were given to Stan Nowakowski and Cathy Coonan.
ED NOTE: Weekly assignments for the invocation or motivational thought can be found on the club website.>
Guests: Mark Anderson.
JOKE OF THE WEEK
For our joke of the week: Cheri-Ann Brodhurst told a joke about small town difficulties around policing.
ED NOTE: 2022-23 weekly assignments are posted on the club website.
ROTARY MINUTE
For the Rotary Minute, none today.
Rotary anniversaries : Roger Miller celebrating 61 years. Wow!
UPCOMING PROGRAMS
11/10 - Jeff Nugent from Windham Regional
11/17 - Senior Solutions
11/24 - No Meeting – Thanksgiving
12/01 - Senior Gift Wrapping
12/08 - New Executive Director at the Retreat Farms
12/15 - Matt Korn from Pure Water for the World
NOTE: 2022-23 weekly assignments, are posted 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.
Mike Mandracchia bragged for Rhonda for feeling bad for him as a vegetarian. Today he received a wonderful vegetarian meal for lunch.
Betsy Gentile bragged for the Leland & Gray girls soccer team going this weekend to the finals against Proctor.
Stan Nowakowski bragged for playing golf with Phil Steckler. Phil sends his greetings to the Club.
Bill McKim bragged for his Cheryl who has fine opinions and knows a stud muffin when she sees one. Bill was wearing a contoured tee shirt and boxer shorts and she said, “Thank you for the eye candy”.
Bill Vermouth bragged for Bill’s Cheryl for her sarcastic sense of humor.
Today’s scribe overheard someone say that Cheryl must have bad eyesight and needs to see an eye doctor.
George Karakabakis had 2 brags. The first brag was for his daughter who received official notification of graduating a year early. The second brag was for HCRS getting a $4,000,000 grant over 4 years…it is an exciting opportunity for the agency. He wanted to brag a million dollars, but he doesn’t think it would pass as a legitimate expense.
Rob Szpila bragged for Greg Worden and other downtown merchants who welcomed Trick or Treaters on Halloween. Greg had his camera and took pictures.
Roger Allbee bragged for Rhonda and all of the work she does behind the scenes.
Club Business:
Roger announced that at the last meeting during Assembly there was discussion around other locations for our Rotary meeting. Betsy Gentile and Roger met with the new Chef at the American Legion who went to New England Culinary Institute and is very good. Whatever the American Legion serves on Thursday is what would be served to the Rotary Club. There would be a vegetarian option. It will go up a bit in price…$15 and $14 would go to the American Legion. It is a bigger, quieter room and there are many Rotarians that could walk to it. A survey will be sent out and Betsy asked that the survey be returned promptly with opinions. Roger said that Ramuntos has been very gracious to us.
Leland & Gray – the girls soccer team made it to the finals for the second year in a row. The last time they made it to the finals was 30 years ago. Concert – they are preparing for band and chorus concert which is a week and a half away. Drama – they will be performing The Addams Family next weekend. Gina Pattison bragged for Leland & Gray going to the soccer finals – she was a Junior and a Senior at Leland & Gray the last time they went to the finals.
BUHS – The boys and girls soccer teams made it to the first round but did not move forward. Music concerts are going on. Drama is working on Fiddler on the Roof. BUHS has 14 exchange students this year and a lot of trips are coming up for them.
Career Center – They attended the first in person Fall Leadership Conference at Norwich University. 7 Club Members attended the all-day event.
Hinsdale – They are planning a Winter Bazaar with an Arts & Crafts booth on November 12th – it is rumored that Santa Claus might show up. They are working on starting up a Chess Club for those with limited athletic skills. The yearbook cover has been picked out.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Roger Allbee announced that Mark Anderson and Jenny Crowell will be inducted as new members on November 17th.
Greg Worden announced that Rotarians will put up Christmas lights downtown on November 19th. Meet at 8:30am at Vermont Artisans. All help will be appreciated – the more help we have the faster it will go. Betsy Gentile announced that if Student Rotarians participate in this project it will go towards Community Service requirements.
Phil George pass around the sign-up sheet for Christmas Tree sales. Rotarians need to sign up for 2 slots in the first 2 weeks. If you can’t lift Christmas Trees, put “Cashier” next to your name. November 28th is the set-up date and there are two shifts. One shift to get the trees and one shift to unload them at Brattleboro Bowl. The plan is to take three vehicles to Craftsbury, leaving at 8:00am and returning by 3:00pm. The second shift should be at Brattleboro Bowl by 3:00pm. All proceeds of the Christmas tree sales will go to scholarships.
Rob Szpila announced a Sunrise Rotary Invitation from Nick Dubois, President:
Dear fellow Rotarians:
We would like to invite our noon club friends to a special presentation on November 16th.
Chris Hawkins, a very old friend of Will Shakespeare's, will be presenting a slide show and discussion of his time at the National Science Foundation’s Amundsen-Scott Station at the South Pole. Here he worked for two austral summers as a Maintenance Specialist. He helped support the varied science projects and the infrastructure needed to live at the Pole. He will give us a virtual tour of the station and talk about life at this remote outpost.
All are invited to our breakfast meeting which starts at 7:15am.
PROGRAM
Betsy Gentile introduced Ross Smart and Mary Lou Forward from River Gallery Art School and they held a wonderful art workshop which all Rotarians participated in.
DISCLAIMER
Weekly changing scribes and questionable IT may have resulted in oversights and errors. We regret any mistakes.
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