OCTOBER 9, 2019

Meeting Recap

Greetings fellow Rotarians! Our speaker today was John Thomas from the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (VABVI). There are currently over 13,000 individuals in Vermont who are blind or visually impaired and with a rapidly aging population, it is estimated that this number will rise to over 25,000 people by 2030. The VABVI offers programs for children that are designed to teach kids to move more independently around their homes, schools and towns. Programs offered for adults are a bit different as they focus more on providing support and transportation for adults who suffer from vision loss later in life. For more information about the VABVI, please visit https://www.vabvi.org/

Feed My Starving Children Service Project

On Saturday, October 19th, our Club has once again committed to help staff the Feed My Starving Children service project. The event will be held at Albert D. Lawton Middle School in Essex Junction from 9:00am to 11:00am. This is a fun event at which Rotarians and their family members will put together food packages that will feed hundreds of children in impoverished countries. We still need several volunteers for this event, so please e-mail Amy Jackman at amymj@us.ibm.com if you would like to help out.

Annual Senior Luncheon

The annual senior luncheon is scheduled for Wednesday, December 4th at the Champlain Valley Expo. As always, we will be looking for volunteers that day to help serve food, put together goodie bags and clean up. We are also looking for items to be donated for use in the goodie bags. If you or your business have pens, trinkets or items that you wish to donate, we would need 250 of those items to distribute. Please contact Janet Cooper at jcooper@cooperfinancialvt.com if you are able to donate items.

Service Above Self Nominations

Dave Johnson is currently soliciting nominations for our next Service Above Self Award recipient. Nominees must be individuals who demonstrate exemplary humanitarian service, in any form at any level, with an emphasis on personal service and helping citizens in our community. Please submit your nominations and a brief paragraph on why you feel your nominee is worthy of consideration by October 31st to Dave Johnson at mdjkiln@gmail.com

Heavenly Pantry Food Shelf

We are looking for volunteers to help staff the Heavenly Pantry Food Shelf on the following dates; Monday, October 14th (5:15pm); and Thursday, October 24th (3:30pm). Please contact Sharon Dettenrieder at sharon.dettenrieder@gmail.com if you are able to fill any of these shifts.

Upcoming Meeting Schedule: Wednesday, October 16, 2019 – Our speaker is to be determined.

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