Events

Join us today for Constitution Day!  Rotarian Caroline will educate members on our founding document.  She will also be handing out the ever popular pocket Constitutions, for those whose copies are worn out.  It is never too late to refresh your 7th grade civics brain.  

Join us today for Club Assembly as Jim Catone will lead us in an After Action Review of the Barre Art Splash.  We encourage every member to attend so that we can evaluate this project.   

Join us at the Barre House for a lunch & an update at the Opera House.  Executive Director Nathaniel Lew will  share all the news from our favorite local venue. 

What's in a name?  Join us as Museum director Kaomi Joy Taylor educates us on the origins & fun meanings of names.  

Kaomi Joy Taylor, MPA, is the Founder and Chief Namiac of the Museum of Names (www.museumofnames.com), a new institution dedicated to showcasing the power of names and promoting name fluency in culture and leadership. Based in Colchester, Vermont, Kaomi previously served as the longtime Executive Director of the Governor’s Institutes of Vermont and brings decades of nonprofit and civic leadership to her work.  

Please step outside your comfort zone and join us for a short field trip, an experience designed to demonstrate the safety concerns of those who are visually impaired or blind.  Led by VABVI ED Dan Norris and volunteers, Barre Rotarians will experience first hand what it feels like to walk our streets without sight.  We urge our members to help the Vermont Association for the Blind & Visualy Impaired raise awareness in our community on this issue.  We will have a quick lunch and then take to the streets for this compelling experience.  

Join us for spooky treats & carving feats in memory of a longtime member of our community.   Invite a friend for this fun & collaborative activity.  

Learn all about Habitat for Humanity's Mission of creating a world where everyone has a decent place to live.  This promises to be an inspiring meeting, with our guest CV Habitat Executive Director Zachariah Watson. 

Zachariah was hired in October 2020 after moving to Montpelier from Hartland, Vermont. He is a lifelong Vermonter, coming to CVHFH with 10 years of non-profit experience. He was also a member of Vermont House of Representatives, having served on the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee before deciding not to run for re-election when he married and moved out of his legislative district.

 

This will be an abbreiviated club assembly where we'll recap our first financial and programmatic quarter for our Rotary Year.

This week Jordan Heiden the Campaign Director with Democracy Vermont joins us to share what her organization has been up to. 

Board & Card Game Day at Barre Rotary.  Join us for the shenanigans!  This will be held in our usual meeting space.  

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family! We hope you have a wonderful day spent with friends and family. 

No meeting this week. 

This week we Sarah Galbraith the Director of Development and Community Engagement at the Green Mountain United Way joins us. She will be sharing a little bit about what she does and we will be helping to organize gifts that will be donated to children in foster care this holiday season. week we Sarah Galbraith the Director of Development and Community Engagement at the Green Mountain United Way joins us. She will be sharing a little bit about what she does and we will be helping to organize gifts that will be donated to children in foster care this holiday season.

Join us this week for some holiday festivities. Play a fun game, participate in a Yankee Gift swap and enjoy everyone's company before we take a break over the holidays. 

Happy Holidays! Wishing everyone peace, joy & love this holiday season and always. 

No meeting this week. 

Toni Kaeding is a nurse whose work has spanned clinical, academic, administrative, and policy positions in Vermont.  She retired from the University of Vermont where she held both faculty and administrative appointments in the College of Nursing & Health Sciences. She was also founding Director of the Freeman Scholars Program.  Since 2017, Toni has served as a volunteer for Patient Choices Vermont where she provides, upon request,  education about medical-aid-in-dying to doctors, nurses and community organizations.  Toni enjoys cross-country skiing and tennis and lives at the end of the road with her family in Worcester, Vermont. 

Christina is the owner of two Barre small businesses, Breath & Bone Reiki and Rooted yoga. She is a Reiki Master in the Japanese style of Usui Shiki Ryoho, reiki has been part of her personal life for over 20 years, she opened her practice to the public in 2023. Christina was also recently certified in 5NP Auricular (ear point) Acupuncture which she now offers clinics through her yoga & reiki studio. 5NP can ease symptoms including, stress, anxiety, addiction, insomnia and much more. And if you don't like needles, there are seed stickers that can be used in their place. Lean in on some self care with us today. 

Last summer Barre Rotary President Emily and family went to Juneau, AK to visit friends and family who live there. While there they went on a fishing and whale watching trip. Emily spent two summers on the water in Juneau guiding whale watching trips while in college and this one day trip took the title of best whale watch EVER! Join Emily as she shares video footage and humpback whale facts from this epic whale watching excursion on the inside passage around Juneau. 

Please join us this week as we host the Rotary Youth Speech Contest!  Our topic for students to discuss this year:  How Can We Be Instruments of Peace?  Be prepared for some inspirational speeches!  

Kris Hunt, Millstone Trails Vice President joins us to share about the fantastic network of trails right here in Barre. The Millstone Trails Association is a non-profit that maintians this network of non-motorized recreational trails. The trails cover 1,500 acres of diverse terrain among some of Barre's historic quarries making hiking, biking, skiing or snowshoeing an enoyable outing year round. 

Word-of-mouth is the most powerful marketing for local businesses, but until now it's been invisible—difficult to recognize or reward. The Aska app changes this by creating a simple way for people to share their favorite local businesses and be thanked for doing so.

When we recommend a great coffee shop, trusted plumber, or favorite restaurant, Aska makes those connections visible and keeps marketing dollars in our community instead of flowing to distant corporations. It's about appreciating the everyday advocates who strengthen our local economy and the relationships that make our communities thrive.

Join us to explore how each of us plays a vital role in our community's health—and how technology can serve Main Street instead of replacing it.

Please join us today as we hear about the upcoming Green Mountain Film Festival, taking place from March 1-15 in downtown Montpelier!  Green Mountain Film Festival   

Join us for this "insider's" presentation from the FMFF Festival Director.  

Phayvanh was Montpelier Alive’s Executive Director from 2011-2014, and has been a staunch supporter of collaborative, creative community building.

She is co-creator of PoemCity, former coordinator of Montpelier Art Walk, and piloted the City’s parklet project. Phayvanh spent five years on VTDigger’s business team, growing the digital ad revenue fourfold with combined digital ad management and new product development.

She later went on to work with LION Publishers, a national organization that supports independent news businesses in the US and Canada. Currently, she is executive director for the Center for Arts and Learning, a nonprofit arts hub in downtown Montpelier. She cooks, crafts, and conspires during her free time. Contact Phayvanh at director@gmffestival.org