Greetings Rotarians!  Today marked the first meeting of the new Rotary year for the Essex Rotary Club, although judging from the weather, one may have thought we were attending the initial meeting of the Shetland Islands Rotary Club.  Immediate Past President Phil Murdock presented the “Rotarian of the Year” award to Jean Ashe. Jean enthusiastically embraced the role of Club Secretary this year and is a key member of the Rotary Golf Committee.  Jean is also a regular contributor to the Rotary Foundation and was one of the major sponsors for this year’s Rotary Golf Tournament.  Greg Morgan was also awarded this year’s “Rookie of the Year” honors.  In his first year with our Club, Greg has done an amazing job scheduling our speakers each week and has done a lot of behind the scenes work with many of our other Club activities.   Congratulations to Jean and Greg on some well-deserved accolades!  We also heard from each of the six Charitable Committee chairs who reported on what projects and worthy causes they supported this past Rotary year.  This was a great way for members to see exactly how the funds we raise our donated.  President Nancy Freeze concluded the meeting by summarizing the results of the Rotary Satisfaction Survey.  A majority of our members completed the survey and the results showed that our overall membership is very satisfied with our Club.  

 

 

            As many of you know, our Club sponsored high school student, Katy Trahan during her school year as a Rotary Exchange student in Iceland.  Throughout the year, Katy has been kind enough to provide updates about her experiences abroad through e-mails and posts on our Club’s Facebook page.  She most recently posted a short video about her year abroad that can be viewed on youtube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SNt14RO8y8

We will be fortunate to have Katy visiting our Club on July 15^th to discuss her experiences in greater detail.

 

 

 

            We are pleased to report that all of the volunteer slots have been filled for the July 23^rd session at the Heavenly Pantry Food Shelf.  There will be more opportunities to volunteer for the next two events that will be held on the afternoons of August 27^th and September 24th.  Please contact Sharon Dettenrieder for more information.

 

 

Upcoming Meeting Schedule:  Wednesday, July 8, 2015 – Our speaker will be Essex Police Chief Brad LaRose who will be discussing law enforcement issues in Essex and in Vermont.

 

For the complete list of upcoming speakers and general information about the Club, please go to our website at www.essexrotary.org   Be sure to also visit us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EssexVermontRotary

 

       Yours in Rotary,

 

Jason Ruwet