Good morning! 

Join me in the recap of the last month of meetings and activities. 

Tuesday, October 13, 5:30PM Meeting

On October 13th Rotarians gathered for our evening meeting for the month. The meeting was called to order by Acting President Tony but quickly followed by a fine by Bob Pope.  Bob fined Tony for having our guest speaker, Cloe Garcia, the Youth Exchange Student, recite the pledge to a flag of another country. Tony countered that if Bob could recite Spain's national pledge in Spanish he would willing pay said fine. Cloe didn't under stand what was happening, but, the fine passed. 

Happy $$

Caroline started with excitement for a new housecleaner who charges a reasonable rate and does a great job. MacKenzie Dunn, is local and looking for more work if you need someone to help around the house. 

Ted was happy to have been able to spend some time with long time member George Milne. He shared that George is composing new music and enjoys visits from his friends, family & Rotarians. Don't forget George also appreciates calls, texts and snail mail if you're unable to make it for a visit. 

Jan followed with a happy dollar for meeting with me, Emily as well as my daughters Lena & Riley at Hobby Lobby. She helped us pick out the correct supplies for the art item we were asked to paint for the 2027 Barre Rotary Art Splash. Keep on the lookout for a space rooster along Main Street next year. I've been taking photos of it as we make progress. Here's one of the last I took, it has a few more details now and is very close to being completed. 

Eddie continued with some happy dollars who celebrated his 31st wedding anniversary with Sandy. 

Guest Speaker

Next up was our guest speaker and Youth Exchange student Cloe Garcia from Spain. Cloe talked about her family & friends in Spain and also her trapeze sport, and how her adjustment to Vermont has been going. 

Following her presentation Tony awarded her the Rotary Coin. 

Following Cloe's presentation we welcomed Zach Watson, Cloe's host family and the current President of the Montpelier Rotary Club. Zach shared that the Montpelier club is still recovering from COVID and are working hard to start attracting new members. Their largest project is the Kitzmiller Coat Drive, where they redistribute new and used coats to Central Vermont community members each year, this number is around 400 currently! You can donate funds or a used coat in good condition at our local Community National Bank on Main St in Barre. 

Zach is also the Youth Exchange Officer for the Montpelier Rotary Club and encouraged our members to consider attracting youth exchange students for next year from Spaulding High School. 

Caroline shared that they are looking for a host family for the second half on Cloe's exchange year in Vermont. Zach and his family are willing to continue to host but indicated that it is best if the student has experiences with multiple households so that get a diverse living experience while in America. He noted that she's been dream youth exchange student!

To note, Cloe is extremely gluten intolerant and this would need to be accommodated by any host family. Contact Cloe if you're interested in hosting her!

Rotary Events!

Barre Rotary held a coin drop in downtown Barre on October 24th. Thank you to all who were able to help collect money and to anyone who was able to donate on their drive by. Rotary collected a total of $2,514.14 ! 

A group also participated in the End Polio event on the same day where they held our End Polio banner at the intersection by the Aldrich Library. 

Wednesday, October 28th, Noon Meeting

Our latest meeting was last week at noon at the library. 

We started the meeting with some happy dollars 🤑

Caroline was happy to have members of the Spaulding Interact Club planning to join us for our Rotary After Dark event on Nov. 19th for an evening of bowling. 

Tony followed with a happy dollar for a very successful coin drop. He also shared that he was participating in the Bowl-athon put on by the People's Health and Wellness Clinic and was looking for donations. 

Felicia shared a happy $5 for creating her first training program which is underway!

Eddie was happy for baseball…is what I got in my notes, but I'm guessing its for the World Series. The Brewers and Rays were in the World Series this year where the Brewers won in game 5. 

Tom shared a happy/sad dollar. His granddaughters Harwood soccer team lost in the semi-finals to Green Mountain Valley School. 

Caroline jumped in with another happy dollar for Paul who made some gluten free meals to give to the youth exchange student we sponsored from Spain, Cloe. 

Announcements

Tom shared that Meals on Wheels could really use some more volunteers. He said it was fairly quick, with volunteers starting at 8:30 AM and lasting about 30 minutes. Reach out to Tom if you'd like more information about the opportunity. 

New Member Induction

Last week we officially welcomed new member Felicia! Caroline presented her with her new member materials, pin and Rotary Coin. 

Guest Speaker

Next up was Felicia's classification talk, which she titled, The Art of Making a Difference. 

Felicia has been in the VT education system in one way or another for 30 years. She's resident of Randolph where she lives with husband and two sons where they own a small Christmas Tree Farm on their property. 

Through all her work in schools her most rewarding moments have been those that her students have shared that she made a difference in their lives. Helping students discover that they're capable of more than they think. When students share that they feel listened too when talking with her, or that they stayed in school because of her when they really didn't want to. 

Felicia is the current Assistant Director of Adult Education at the Central Vermont Career Center. She's excited to bring more adult classes to the community. 

Carving for Kay

We packed things in last week. We ended our meeting by carving a handful of pumpkins for the Carving for Kay event. Caroline and Paul took the innards out of most of the pumpkins to make the process go a little quicker, everyone jumped in and started to carve. 

Hopefully everyone had an enjoyable Halloween!