Greetings fellow Rotarians!  The sun was out and the spirits were high during our annual changeover barbeque!  In what turned out to be a very well-attended event, several Rotarians and their family members celebrated the past Rotary year and welcomed in the new one.  After enjoying an amazing barbeque dinner, President Sharon Dettenrieder formally welcomed us all and provided a recap of our Club’s many great accomplishments over the course of the past Rotary year. After thanking the many people who helped her during her presidency, Sharon recognized this year’s award winners.  This year’s Rookie of the Year was Lois Parmelee.  In only her first year, Lois has stepped up to help out in a number of different ways for our Club.  Our Unsung Heroes Awards went to Damon Clark and Mike Dimitroff.  In addition to serving on the Board and on the Hockey Committee, Damon has diligently kept our website up to date and running like a clock.  Mike Dimitroff, who is one of our newer members, very quickly joined the newly formed Finance Committee and has played a big role in assisting Club Treasurer Kristin Winer oversee the Club’s Finances.  Our Rotarian of the Year was awarded to Phil Murdock.  In addition to being the only two-term Essex Rotary Club President in our Club’s history, Phil worked hard in overseeing the very successful Wings over Vermont event that took place last summer.  Phil has also been an integral figure in the Essex Eats Out program and has graciously donated large numbers of apples from his orchard to the Heavenly Food Pantry.  Last, but not least, our President’s Award went to Trish Porter.  As many of you are already aware, Trish will be serving as our Club’s President this coming year.  In preparation for that job, she became involved with just about every facet of Rotary this year and even served as a member of both the hockey and the golf committees.  Congratulations to all of this year’s award winners!   We then proceeded with the ceremonial passing of the Presidential torch from Sharon to Trish.  As a thank you to Sharon for her hard work this year, the Club made a donation to her son Eric’s memorial education fund.  Thank you very much to Sharon for your exemplary leadership and dedication to our Club this year, and thank you to Trish for taking on the role as our Club’s newest President!

 

 

            As many of you know, our Club has provided financial support to the new Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity project on Park Street in Essex Junction.  Habitat is seeking volunteers to help on the site, but slots are limited.  If you would like to volunteer, please sign up here: https://vermonthabitat.org/construction-volunteers/ 

 

 

            The next opportunities to volunteer at the food shelf will be on July 27^th and August 24^th.  Please let Sharon Dettenrieder know if you are able to volunteer for any of those shifts.

 

 

Upcoming Meeting Schedule:  July 5, 2017 – Our speaker will be U.S. Representative Peter Welch who will discuss the current state of affairs in our nation’s capital.

 

Have a safe and Happy Independence Day! 

 

For the complete list of upcoming speakers and information about the Club, please go to our website at www.essexrotary.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