Greetings Rotarians!  We started things off by hearing from a contingency of Rotarians from District 9640 which is located in Australia. This group of Rotarians formed a Rotary International Friendship Exchange Team with the intention of visiting our District as a way of encouraging fellowship between Clubs worldwide through travel and visitation.  These ten individuals spoke about their respective Clubs and the activities in which they are involved. It was an amazing opportunity to get to know Rotarians from across the globe.  Our first speaker was Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Sue Minter.  Ms. Minter had previously served as our State’s Secretary of Transportation and helped oversee the recovery from Hurricane Irene.  Sue’s vision of Vermont is to maintain our State’s quality of living for working families and to grow our economy by focusing her efforts on innovative technologies. She touted her success in maintaining a balanced budget for the State Department of Transportation. Our next speaker was Democratic Governor for Lieutenant Governor, Sen. David Zuckerman.  Sen. Zuckerman discussed the importance of educational opportunities in our State, particular ones related to early childhood education.  He pointed out that, during his time in the legislature, he helped champion causes such as increasing minimum wage and the Marriage Equality Act.  When questioned about the issue of legalizing marijuana, Sen. Zuckerman articulated his reasons for supporting that proposal. 

 

 

            The final numbers are in! This year our Club realized a net profit of $4,524.00, which represents a slight increase over last year’s numbers. Our overall gross revenue was broken down as follows:  $7,608.00 in gross sales (which is roughly $1,000.00 more than we realized last year); $940.00 realized from Corn Dollars purchased by Rotarians; and $264.00 in donations from patrons, all of which totaled $8,156.00.  Our expenses this year were $3,632.00.  President Sharon indicated that we will be discussing these numbers in greater detail at next week’s meeting.  Thank you again to all of the Rotarians, friends and family members who donated your time to this event.  A big thank you goes out to Holly Lemieux, Ray Allaire and the rest of the Corn Booth Committee for their leadership in once again overseeing a fun and successful event!

 

 

            On Saturday, October 15th from 9 to 11 am our club is planning to volunteer at ADL middle school for the Feed My Starving Children service project. At this event, we help hand-pack meals for malnourished children and the meals are sent around the world where they're used to operate orphanages, schools, clinics and feeding programs. You can sign up for this event on our website at http://rotaryclubofessex.org/volunteer/managevolunteercontacts?VolunteerSignUpId=5e31f183-87f2-4563-8148-49afd137b4ac&Token=iHdTnbYFOoHFxph3X2RPWDSsqfAR736rMXAT1qqKLLt0eimM38vs1pewq-zi772G0  Please contact Amy Jackman for more details about this service project.

 

 

            The next opportunity to volunteer at the Heavenly Food Pantry will be on October 27^th.  Please contact Sharon Dettenrieder if you would like to sign up for shifts.

 

Upcoming Meeting Schedule:  October 12, 2016 – Our speakers will be Republican candidate for Attorney General, Deborah Bucknam and Republican Candidate for State Auditor, Dan Feliciano.

 

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 visit us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EssexVermontRotary

 

       Yours in Rotary,

 

Jason Ruwet