President Carla Lineback welcomed all to the May 7th meeting of the Brattleboro Rotary Club held via ZOOM. <ED NOTE: 35 Rotarians attended.> Meg Donohue offered the Peace Prayer of Saint Francis as the invocation:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
Since this was a virtual meeting, everyone was on their own for lunch.
TRIVIA QUESTION
When was the name “Purell” copyrighted?
(Answer below.)
JOKE OF THE WEEK
For the joke of the week, Dave Neumeister told a version of the following:
After a meeting several days ago, I couldn’t find my keys. I quickly gave myself a personal “TSA Pat Down.”
They weren’t in my pockets. Suddenly I realized I must have left them in the car. Frantically, I headed for the parking lot. My husband has scolded me many times for leaving my keys in the car’s ignition. He’s afraid that the car could be stolen. As I looked around the parking lot, I realized he was right. The parking lot was empty. I immediately called the police. I gave them my location, confessed that I had left my keys in the car, and that it had been stolen.
Then I made the most difficult call of all to my husband: “I left my keys in the car and it’s been stolen.”
There was a moment of silence. I thought the call had been disconnected, but then I heard his voice. “Are you kidding me?” he barked, “I dropped you off!”
Now it was my turn to be silent. Embarrassed, I said, “Well, can you come and get me?”
He retorted, “I will, as soon as I convince this cop that I didn’t steal your car!”
At our May 14th meeting, Stan Nowakowski will tell a joke or lead us in song and Tami Purcell will offer a Rotary Minute. 2019-20 weekly assignments are posted on the club website.
ROTARY MINUTE
For today’s Rotary Minute, Marty Cohn gave an update from the Ad hoc Rotary Clubs of Brattleboro COVID-19 response committee that me on Monday. The committee is looking into a funding grant for Groundworks as part of the district's global grant application, as well as a project to convert milk into yogurt and butter for the Vermont Foodbank.
Also, two community projects that will hopefully be announced shortly.
Loading and delivering meals for school children in the Brattleboro area
Letters to residents in nursing homes
At our May 14th meeting, Stan Nowakowski will tell a joke or lead us in song and Tami Purcell will offer a Rotary Minute. 2019-20 weekly assignments are posted on the club website.
UPCOMING PROGRAMS
05/14 – Club Assembly
05/21 – John Willis, author/photographer, “Mni Wiconi/Water Is Life: Honoring the Water Protectors at Standing Rock and Everywhere in the Ongoing Struggle for Indigenous Sovereignty”
NOTE: 2019-20 weekly assignments are posted on the club website.
REMINDERS
Please bring your bottles and cans to 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.
This is the41thnewsletter of the new club year.
If you like this newsletter, please brag at next Club meeting.
So far, there have been only 8 brags!
Since everyone is home, there should be an increase in readership and subsequent brags!
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Students from Windham Regional Career Center and Brattleboro High School gave their monthly reports.
BRAGS / HAPPY DOLLARS
<ED NOTE: Yes, we are keeping track of these happy dollars and brags.
Unless noted, happy dollars and brags are $1>
Ana Saavedra – for the response she received on her request for old skis for a gardening project.
Dave Twombly – for the opening of the Brattleboro Country Club.
Mara Williams ($30) – for Greg Worden who brought her into the club 30 years ago.
Rob Szpila – for his daughter, Lucy, going to Clark University in the fall.
Ron Stahley ($10) – for the ways in which the teachers and students in the community are meeting the challenges of COVID-19.
Greg Worden ($5) – for Mara Williams being a good Rotarian.
Bill McKim ($10) – for the Yellow Barn and the ways it is creating music during the pandemic.
Roger Miller – for the graduation of his nephew, Trevor.
Sandy Rouse – for the birth of her new grandniece.
Roger Allbee – for Greg Worden encouraging him to become a Rotarian.
Roger Allbee – for Marty Cohn helping to find a COVID-19 Rotary response by the two clubs in Brattleboro.
Greg Worden – for Stephanie Bonin’s leadership in the Downtown Brattleboro Alliance.
Dave Twombly ($5) – for Stephanie Bonin’s leadership in the Downtown Brattleboro Alliance.
Sandy Rouse ($10) – for Stephanie Bonin’s leadership in the Downtown Brattleboro Alliance.
Had time not run out, Marty Cohn would have bragged for his granddaughter Talia’s new love of hats.
PROGRAM
Ted Kramer presented Downtown Brattleboro Alliance executive director Stephanie Bonin who discussed the issues facing small-town businesses in the COVID-19 era.
<ED NOTE: A recording of Stephanie’s informative presentation will be available in a few days on BCTV’s new show, “Brattleboro Rotary Club Speaker Series”.>
Rotary Cares - TV Show
Rotary Cares, Episode 25 – Rotary Takes a Bite Out of Hunger
In episode 25 of the award-winning, monthly show, Rotary Cares, Brattleboro Rotary Club past president Marty Cohn discusses two Rotary community nutrition projects with Gayle Ottmann, Community Service Chair of the Rotary Club of White River and Lorelei Morrissette, Resident Wellness & Services Manager for the Brattleboro Housing Partnership. Directed by Brattleboro Sunrise Rotary Club past president Kevin Yager in the studio of Brattleboro Community Television.
Past President Martin Cohn who attempts to give a gist of the meeting respectfully submitted this bulletin. However, it is always better to attend. If you have any complaints about the contents of this bulletin...
