Twelve Rotarians and two guests sat down to the usual fare, and Tony got things moving right away with a fine of one-and-nine on President Caroline in absentia for her missive earlier this week telling him to be good while she was gone.  Despite the fact that all of us got the email (proving that Tony was not singled out as needing a special reminder), the fine passed.  He then immediately turned on acting President Liane, fining her one-and-nine for neglecting to mention in her moment of gratitude the happy news for certain present Rotarians that the school budgets had all passed.  This also passed.  Karl then fined all Rotarians not wearing badges, though Anita was exempted for not having received hers yet.

 

With the fines out of the way, we moved on to our other money-maker: happy and sad dollars.  John was first with a sad dollar at the prospect of making another snow day call tomorrow morning.  Eddie gave a happy dollar for the wonderful family vacation he'd just finished at the Grand Canyon.  He had lunch with John Nichols while he was down South and connected John with Ted about his Rotary Foundation points.  I gave a happy dollar for being two-thirds of the way to a baby.  George then rose with a slough of updates: he has a new great grandson, Henry Elwood.  He, Linda, and his sister all had birthdays over the last month (happy 84th, George!).  He had sad news as well: his older brother is in the ICU in Burlington with pneumonia.  Our prayers are with him for a full recovery. 

 

 

The Central Vermont Chamber has 1 ticket left for their $4,000 raffle - or at least they did until those present bought it on behalf of Barre Rotary.  

Gary Hass from The World newspaper and Central Vermont Rotary wanted to know if our club would be interested in being a Tide Pride sponsor.  This involves paying $75 to support The World publishing spotlights on deserving Spaulding students.  We agreed that this was a good form of publicity for the Club and voted to sponsor as requested.  This also led to an impromptu and impressively on-key group rendition of the Spaulding song - from memory!  Dick and Liane may or may not now be putting the Four-Way Test to music to help us better remember it.  Liane also asked for our well wishes as she and Caroline brave both the blizzard and Massachusetts drivers for the PETS training this week.

 

 

 

David Rouleau may not have a dog himself, but that didn't stop this civic-minded go-getter from spearheading a community dog park initiative once he started hearing from enough people that it was needed in the Town.  He was the driving force behind the Millstone Trails Disc Golf Course and is President of the Barre Town Thunder Chickens, a snowmobiling club with a focus on community service.  He and the rest of the Barre Town Community Dog Park Committee secured a location at the Town Recreation Fields that fulfilled the requirements the community set forth in a survey: it had electricity and bathrooms, could be driven to and accessed by people with limited mobility, was safe, and could be fenced in.  That fencing came through the hard work of volunteers and some generous donations, but they still owe around $2,500 for materials.  That money should be raised at this weekend's Calcutta dinner, raffle, and silent auction.  Tickets are still available for $50 per couple; contact David Rouleau if you'd like to attend.

 

The dog park is currently up and running, but they're still fundraising for ongoing maintenance costs and some added features like seating and shade for humans and ramps and dig zones for dogs.  As part of this fundraising effort, the Park will be holding a grand opening on June 9 in coordination with the Caws for Paws Pet Expo.  This will be a huge event with 60-70 vendors and performances by Green Mountain DockDogs and 802 Disc Dogs.  Tables will be $30 for for-profit vendors and free to nonprofits.

 

 

Congratulations to this dedicated team of volunteers for creating a new community resource for our canine friends and their people!  More information can be found on their Facebook page.