Mural Has a New Home
 

 

 

Thirteen Rotarians were lunching on make-your-own sandwiches (or make-one-for-another) or salads (hold the bread) when Elizabeth garnered President Caroline’s attention to propose a fine of one-and-nine on Ron for making Tony’s ½ sandwich and on Tony for accepting Ron’s hand-crafted masterpiece. Tony defended Ron’s kindness “tooth and nail” and low and behold the fine did not pass. Scott offered a Happy Dollar for his adventure camping in a camper for the first time in twenty-five years. Sue proposed a fine of one-and-nine on Caroline for lack of initiative regarding the scheduling of our annual steak cookout at Karl and Charlene’s. Pleading that she had too many projects on her plate to remember everything proved to be a weak defense and the fine passed. Sue lamented that she would miss this popular event around the Rinker’s pool.

 

 

Caroline gave her weekly report on Rotary Projects.

 

Bertil rose to announce the giving of a dollar in honor of Karl’s work on the maintenance of our website and proposed that everyone give a half dollar in recognition of my work on Granite Chips. I humbly acknowledged Bertil’s kind gesture. He gave another dollar in recognition of the momentous past few months: his sister broke her leg; his wife Gladys had a stroke; his brother recently had major surgery; and it took him five days to get over the common cold.

 

 

Caroline called Ron to the front of the room and presented him with a Paul Harris pin in recognition for years of his efforts working on Annual Rotary Breakfast. In appreciation, those assembled gave him a standing ovation.

 

 

 

 

David Gold announced that the Golf Day sponsored by the Times Argus in recognition of the good works of the area service clubs will take place next Friday (September 1^st). Two more are needed to round out the team. Contact David if you would like to participate.

 

Tom rose to announce that volunteers are still needed for the Boy Scout Fund Raiser this weekend. Quickly following on his heels, Tony was up and in his face exclaiming that if he had been on time, he would have known that the topic had been covered and then proposed a fine for the infraction. Tom’s defense was that he was on a call with a client and couldn’t (interpreted by Tony as wouldn’t) break off the call. Rotarians agreed with Tony and the fine passed.

 

Karl conducted one of his website quizzes and Sue won a Powerball ticket worth a potential $750,000,000. If she won, Karl stipulated that she give $1,000,000 to the Barre Rotary Club. (By now we all know that neither happened.)

 

 

Caroline introduced Steve Perkins, our speaker for today’s meeting.

 

Steve Perkins is the executive director of the Vermont Historical Society.  Born and raised in Vermont, he left the state to spend his undergraduate and graduate years in the mid-Atlantic.  He served as curator and executive director of the Bennington Museum for ten years before moving back to the family farm in Williston.  Prior to taking the helm at the Historical Society, he served as an administrator at ECHO in Burlington.  

 

Steve presented an historical account of Paul Sample who completed a mural that originally was installed at National Life during Dean Davis’ tenure as CEO. He told an interesting story of Sample’s life including his education at Dartmouth, as a self-taught saxophonist, his bout with T.B., teaching at the University of Southern California and marring a Montpelier native and moving to Vermont. His presentation was abundantly accompanied with slides of relevant art work. Unfortunately, due to technological difficulties, his entire presentation is not available. The mural has been moved to the Pavilion in Montpelier and can be viewed there.