WEEK OF APRIL 29, 2020

COVID 19 and Rotary

Greetings fellow Rotarians. This week the Board met to discuss ways in which our Club can begin to return to action. Some of the proposals included virtual meetings with the entire Club and smaller breakout meetings by committee. Our hope is to start with an informal Zoom meeting at some point in the very near future that will allow members to virtually stop in and out of the meeting to say hello and to catch up with fellow members. Please stay tuned for a future announcement on when this might happen. As for what the future holds for many of our events, there is a great deal of uncertainty about what we will or will not be able to do. We already know that the Golf Tournament has been postponed until late September and that the Memorial Day parade has been postponed indefinitely. We also know that the Knights of Columbus will not be putting on the annual senior holiday luncheon this year. Things that are still up in the air are the Changeover Barbeque scheduled for the end of June and the Corn Booth during the Champlain Valley Fair. We will certainly do our best to keep members updated on all events as details become available.

Membership

As hard as it is to believe, the Rotary fiscal year is coming to an end. Even though our schedules might be busier and our ability to serve the community is being challenged by the current pandemic, there is still a lot of good that our Club can do. This cannot be accomplished without strong membership, however. Please remember that there is not a one-size-fits all model in terms of member participation. We appreciate all levels of participation by our members, no matter how small or infrequent they may be. Whether your contributions are purely financial or are in the form of periodic assistance at our fundraisers and service projects, they all make a difference! With that in mind, it is our sincere hope that all of our members will renew their memberships for the 2020-2021 Rotary year. If, however, you do not plan to continue your membership, we ask that you please let us know of your intentions by June 15th as we will need to report the 2020-2021 roster to Rotary International before the start of the new Rotary year (which begins on July 1st).

Amazon Smiles Program

As more of us are utilizing the services of Amazon, Members are encouraged to take part in the AmazonSmile program. Through this program, Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to our charities account. To take advantage of this opportunity, please visit https://smile.amazon.com/ch/03-0348126 and sign up!

Heavenly Pantry Food Shelf

The food pantry is looking for volunteers to assist with providing curbside service. People who fall in the vulnerable category, however, are asked to please hold off on volunteering until the health threat subsides. Please contact Associate Pastor Josh Simon at jsimon@fccej.com for more details on how you can help.

Upcoming plans for the next few weeks – The newsletter will still be distributed each week to provide our members with any updates on our Club and Rotary in general. In the meantime, please stay safe.

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