This past year, Barre Rotarians – as people of action – proudly accomplished the following, often with the collaboration of others as noted:
- Picked mounds of trash off the streets of Barre City, led by our fearless leader and assisted by dedicated members of our larger community, every Thursday night starting at 6 pm.
- Donated close to $16,000 to the Aldrich Public Library. These funds were raised from our dedicated annual Library Breakfast held each year during the Saturday of the Barre Heritage Festival. This year will be our 35th year of raising money to benefit the most honored of institutions – our local library.
- Held our 3rd Annual Rotary Ball. This is a new fundraiser and fun event, now in its 4th year. Barre Rotary sponsors an elegant, formal night out at our Masquerade Ball at the Barre Elks Club. Formal Escort into the ballroom, Dance competition, ballroom dance lessons, ballroom dance demonstration, silent auction and elegant dinner and dessert have made this a new legacy fundraiser for Barre Rotary. This event raises money to fund our many of donations to local non-profits, such as Our House, the Barre Opera House, the World Santa fund, the local Barre pool, Barre Rotary Dictionary Project for local elementary school students, the Barre Granite Museum, Pathways to Accessibility, Barre Swsh AAU Basketball, Camp Agape, SHS graduation project, and the list goes on and on and on……
- Initiated the Summer Street Mural Wall Project. Ably assisted by the energy and ideas of many community partners, Barre Rotary conceived of a new use for the unsightly, dilapidated retaining wall on Summer Street as the location of a new, dynamic, interactive mural to beautify our community. Barre Rotary has already raised 73% of its operating budget for the mural, has retained a local young artist who has created initial sketches for the wall, has received permitting approval for the mural, has received the support o the Barre City Council for the project. This project will involve many different groups of amateur artists from all segments of our society, to assist in painting the 44 panels that will be mounted on the wall upon completion. Projected completion date is October 31st.
- Sponsored a young school child in Tanzania for $400. These funds, going to the Upendo Mmoja project, will allow one child to attend school, receive food, clothing, shelter and supplies. We are proud to be impacting one child’s life in such a profound way.
- Co-sponsored with The World Santa Fund, the Salvation Army and the Central Vermont Rotary, the World Santa Project, which gave new winter coats (sold to our group at cost by Lenny’s Shoe and Apparel) to 125 local children, men and women, along with hand knitted hats and mittens. We packaged these gifts up in festively wrapped boxes compliments of the amazing labor of the Central Vermont Young Professionals.
- Planted 34 fruit trees in local schools and other community areas through the 2018 Rotary Sustainability Project, with collaboration and support from Central Vermont Rotary and support from other community partners. This effort responded to a challenge from 2017-2018 Rotary International President Ian Risely to plant a tree this year for every one of the 1.2 million Rotarians around the globe. We met our challenge and, as a global group, Rotarians exceeded the challenge. (We have two more trees to plant this fall at East Montpelier Elementary School). These trees, which were planted with the assistance of the Central Vermont Career Center and many school children will provide fruit for schools and local community members.
- Donated dozens of dictionaries to local elementary school children, a legacy project that Barre Rotary has been doing for years. The children’s glee at having a physical dictionary in hand is always inspiring and moving.
- Sponsored one high school teen to go to the Rotary Youth Leadership Conference, which allows youth to develop leadership skills and expand their community vision and skills.
- Sponsored a local teen’s participation in the Rotary Speech Contest, in which teens from NH, Vermont, and Quebec hone their speaking and advocacy skills by participating in speech competitions at the local club, region and then district level on topics of interest and relevance to Rotary, our community and our world.
- Sponsored the local Spaulding High School Interact Club, to encourage and support a generational legacy of good works through acts of kindness and generosity at the high school level.
- Our members also donated thousands of dollars to the Rotary Foundation this past year, an international Rotary foundation which uses its funds to promote Rotary’s 6 key causes around the world: Polio Eradication; Clean Water; Literacy; Peace Fellowships; Maternal and Child Health; Growing Local Economies.