The month of September’s Zoom meetings focused on fundraisers and guest speaker presentations as well as including our regular features of Announcements and Since Last We Met. Here is a summary of the proceedings of those meetings.
Fundraisers
The Coin Drop raised $1500 thanks to Nicole’s “rounding up.” Not bad for two hours of work.
Planning continued for the barbeque and clothing drive fundraising event to occur in October. The event will now be a tailgate pick-up event on Sunday, October 25th from 12- 2:00 p.m. at the Civic Center. A raffle will also be held in conjunction with the tailgate.
Drive-In Movies continue on Saturday nights with successful concession sales occurring before the showing of the movie. It was decided to engage in a more rigorous promotion effort to increase attendance. A special Halloween event is being planned for the end of the month.
Bruce reintroduced the idea of placing containers in business venues to collect donations for polio. In the past, Give a Gallon was our effort to seek contributions for Rotary International's program Polio Plus. Karl reported that his attempt to locate paint cans used in the past for collecting donations was unsuccessful, but he did suggest that we ask paint stores to donate new ones and we will affix the appropriate labels. Joe Shadroui will take the lead on this fundraising activity.
Karl provided weekly updates of Barre’s Art Splash. Sculpture molds have been made or are in progress of being made for two race cars (one being Gov. Phil Scott’s car), cats and dogs. Generous donations from area businesses have underwritten the cost of the molds. Sponsors have pledged to purchase one of these sculptures which will be painted and decorated by twelve artists and then displayed on Main Street next summer. He also announced that nationally known artist Fred Swan and equally well-known cartoonist Jeff Danizer will each paint and decorate a sculpture. Bertil, Karl and Tom traveled to Catskill, N.Y. to attend its Rotary Club auction on September 19th, the culminating activity of this fundraiser. Bertil reported that 80 cat sculptures were auctioned off. The Rotary Club of Catskill raised $50,000 ($90,000 last year without Covid-19 restrictions) with a minimum bid of $500. The highest price paid for one was $4000. Our auction will take place next year on September 18, 2021. Mark your calendars!
Guest Speakers
Carrie Stahler, Director of Community Engagement for Green Mountain United Way.
Carrie began her PowerPoint presentation with the organization’s mission statement: “We fight for the health, education and financial stability of every person in every community in our region.” GMUW serves Caledonia, Essex, Orange, Orleans and Washington counties. Their programs include: providing services to employees to improve retention and job stability; in partnership, providing backpacks and diaper bags to support children transitioning into emergency foster care and those experiencing homelessness; supporting organizations with COVID-19 Relief Grants; training non-profit partners in the practice of coaching and teaching basic financial stability skills; providing access to fitness and community for people in recovery; in partnership, making and distributing over 2000 masks to the community; and providing team building opportunities for business partners while supporting literacy education at summer meal sites. A lively question and answer period followed her presentation.
Bethanee Syversen, Executive Director of EXPOSE (Education on Pornography and Sexual Exploitation).
Bethanee started her presentation with a short video and then provided us with a statement of the problem: “There is a package of bills aiming to fully legalize and decriminalize prostitution in VT. Doing so is harmful to the women, children, and other vulnerable populations in VT.” She went on to point out that studies show that these types of laws increase sex trafficking, violence, crime, abortions and divorce.Currently there are three bills in Legislature: H568 was crafted to create a study to analyze the impact of legalized sex trade; H569 (S217 in the Senate) would fully legalize and decriminalize prostitution in Vermont. According to Syversen, the results of passing the bill would include brothels being legalized, an increased presence of drug traffic and an elimination of exit strategies for those trapped in this way of life. The opposing side claims that passing of the bill would empower women; it’s a women’s movement. She supports the promotion of the Equality Model. Under this model, women and children and any others being prostituted cannot be penalized, but the pimps, buyers and traffickers can and it keeps all other aspects of prostitution illegal. The plan of action includes: educating about the bills and the Equality Model and collaborating for prevention. Specifically, you can host a house party or a Zoom meeting, attend hearings or call your representatives. At the conclusion of her presentation, she received the wholehearted support from those present at the meeting.
Sue Higby, Director of Studio Place Arts
Sue began her presentation with an historical perspective in the creation of an artists’ center for Washington Country. Karen Lane, a former Rotarian, suggested the Nichols Block. Eight hundred and forty thousand dollars and twenty years later, the area artists had a home. She went to say that the center has twenty-four exhibits per year, offers rental studio space to artists, and has three hundred and fifty affiliations with artists per year. Exhibits have to receive positive reviews from magazines and newspapers. Open exhibits occur each November and December and some exhibits feature the work of Barre’s finest sculptors. She proudly reported that SPA was the first gallery/museum to close because of Covid-19 and the first to open. Programs for children, shows and exhibits continued via video and classes and workshops, when allowed, were conducted in small batches following State guidelines. Currently there are four exhibits and she encouraged everyone to come and view them while observing CCD guidelines.
Announcements
Through the efforts of Ted, John and with the help of Louisa Tripp, funds for the purchase of 600 hundred masks were secured from District 5870. (The masks were donated to the Barre Unified School District on Friday, October 9th.)
Nicole, Bruce and I launched an effort to develop a strategic plan to guide us forward as a club. We conducted a survey to determine the current status of certain aspects of the club from the members’ perspective. We then asked members to name characteristics that they would like the club to have in the future. Our next step is to present several optional vision statements based on the results of these two activities.
Karl announced that Nicole has been selected as one of three finalists for the Athena Leadership Award which recognizes outstanding leadership of professional women. The winner will be announced on November 6th.
Tony was nominated and subsequently elected as President-Elect for 2020-21.
Bruce has sent members an email regarding the application of Mike Lannen as a corporate member. If no one objects to his becoming a member after a second notification, a vote on his candidacy for membership will take place. (Publication in this edition of Granite Chips constitutes a second posting of this application.)
Since Last We Met
Birthdays:
Caroline Earle Sept. 4
Bruce Fischer Sept. 18
Joe Preddy Sept. 30
Significant Other Birthdays:
Caroline’s husband Paul Haigh Sept 2
Wedding Anniversaries:
Tom & Linda Babic 50 years Sept. 5
Club Anniversaries:
Loren Polk 2 years Sept 19
Days in history in September:
1956 Elvis Presley makes his first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show
1942 Japanese Bomb U.S. mainland
1806 Lewis and Clark return to St. Louis
1846 the planet Neptune is discovered