After rituals completed, thirteen Barre Rotarians sat down to a Halloween lunch of calzones, salad and cookies/brownies dessert. In President Liane’s absence we were graced with President Elect Eddie running the meeting. Eddie shared with all Rotarians a reminder for the District LEADS training that is happening on November 10^th. This is a wonderful opportunity to share experiences with other Rotarians as well as gain some valuable leadership development skills. Kristin offered $1 to request leads to any individuals interested in a part time teller position. Caroline offered 2 $1 offerings. One was to convey a passion project started by Sue Higby at Studio Place Arts (SPA) regarding the holiday parking in downtown Barre. While meters are free during the holidays to promote commerce in Barre Sue proposed and had accepted by council to approve that certain meters be open to accept money that will go directly to benefit the Barre Rec Department and support youth activities. Caroline’s second dollar went to celebrate the U32 Raiders girl’s last soccer game and to also display how proud she is of her daughter and the teams’ work. Caroline shared the dual emotions of happiness that it was the last game, and sadness over the joy of watching her child do something she love as that chapter closes. Bruce offered a dollar to celebrate the removal of a tooth that was causing problems since he cracked it at his son’s wedding. Eddie offered $1 to support the Red Sox win, 4^th Championship in 15 years!! GO RED SOX!! Caroline then called on Bob Pope to tell us what he had been up to as we had missed him the last few meetings. Bob shared a few personal stories of what has proven to be a long and stressful couple of weeks for him and his family and also professionally. Tony took this opportunity to fine Bob 1 and 9 since he said Bob is often stoic at Rotary meetings and when he recently saw him out at another professional gathering he saw a different, more jovial Bob. Bob’s defense was that “certain” members of the group were at times a little tough on people and that he was just waiting out a time that certain others *cough, cough…Tony* never came back… In support of Bob’s rough couple weeks the fine did not pass and we are yet to see if Tony will reappear at the next meeting. Eddie also took the time to share about a moving ceremony at Hope Cemetery in memorial of those who lost their lives to the Spanish flu back in 1918 which affected many during that period. Ted then updated on the Rotary Ball. He shared that they saw about $2000 from the Silent auction and Tony shared that Jamie Heath had a wonderful time as well. At this point Karl fined Tony 1 and 19 for micromanaging Jamie at the ball. Tony had no defense and readily admitted that Jamie called him on it and he accepted the fine. “Is it the truth?” Tony stated that it was and readily paid his fine.

 

 

From here we wrapped up lunch and 7 of those 13 Rotarians went on a field trip to visit Sue Higby, Executive Director, at Studio Place Arts to get a tour. Studio Place Arts is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization located in the heart of downtown Barre. Sue shared the goal of the organization was to exposed a wide variety of people to the arts. She proudly told the group that they are the only place in the state that has a Freedom of Expression Policy which is extremely important to the organization. SPA also offers art programs for those with special needs and programs for both youth and adults in a variety of multimedia. Sue’s passion was visible as she expressed the importance of getting people excited about art and getting involved in a direct way. The SPA building has 3 floors and we then proceeded to start at the top and view each area as we worked our way back down. The third floor currently has an installation piece titled ‘Tension’ by Tuyen Nguyen and Misook Park. Tuyen is the SPA Studio Residency Recipient for 2018-2019. The fine attention to threadwork of this piece is something I encourage people to go experience in person. The second floor held a display called ‘Finding the Quiet’ by Linda Finkelstein and showed works made from multimedia of rust, indigo and eucalyptus. The first floor had a large display of stone works from many artists. It was apparent from viewing the many different works of art we witnessed the true talent that Vermont has to offer. It was quite an experience to see the many artist’s voices expressed in one location. Sue also encouraged people to come take the Art Stroll through the Barre Sculpture City. You can find the map on their website or take a map from the studio. Next time you are looking for inspiration head over to visit Sue and the other talented artists in residence at Studio Place Arts located at 201 North Main Street in Barre.