MEETING/EVENT SCHEDULE:
April 26th - Rosie's
May 3rd - No meeting
May 10th - Rosie's
PRESIDING: Spence Putnam
MINUTES OF April 19th, 2023
The meeting started with club members reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and Rotary 4-Way Test.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
- Polio Plus Jar proceeds are less than halfway to their budget target with two months to go. Please be generous to the jar when possible.
- Maureen read aloud the slate of proposed CACO allocations. She noted that the proposed $9K allocation to Open Door Clinic would go toward funding a mobile examination van to increase medical access to those in the local migrant community with limited or no access to transportation. The proposed allocations are 1K higher than the 47K assigned to CACO for FY23. Geoff is confident that between the current surplus in the service account and the amount of unrestricted funds left over from the Cabot and VT Gas sponsorships, that the 1K variance will not be an issue for the Club to absorb. Today's discussion served as an official warning to club members ahead of a planned vote to take place at the next breakfast meeting at Rosie's on April 26.
- Neil expressed concern about the need for more funding to local youth sports programs, one of Buster Brush's past priorities. After discussion by Maureen, Neil, and other members, it was agreed to give this area greater focus ahead of the CACO allocation process to take place in 2024. Smaller donation requests can also continue to come before the Finance Committee and Board of Directors as needed.
- David asked about a separate and new request to cover the costs of 10 kids to attend an Opera Company of Middlebury production in June. He will generate a proposal of $500 to be addressed at next week's meeting.
- Paul Horn gave an update about the upcoming service project at the Lindale Mobile Home Park. A work date to assemble the new playground equipment will likely take place on a Saturday morning in June. The exact date and time will be announced at a future meeting.
- Paul also announced the Club's intention to work with the Middlebury Area Land Trust (MALT) on a service project in August. MALT also has an invasive species removal project taking place on Saturday, May 13 for anyone interested. To learn more and to register for this or other work party events, please visit: https://www.maltvt.org/events
- All are welcome to help to at the lunch bagging and delivery project at HOPE tomorrow (April 20). To help with bagging, please arrive at 10 am. To help with deliveries, please arrive by 11:15 AM.
- Bill Cunningham asked for a group of Rotarians to help CSAC erect their tent which remains up all summer. The date will be Saturday, May 6, and more details will be forthcoming.
- Rebecca announced that the club will be helping with the MUHS Project Graduation again this June. She will be looking for a small group of volunteers. Stay tuned for future updates.
Classification Talk by Alex Wolff:
Alex gave his member classification talk. Alex's initial roots in the area came from spending three summers at Keewaydin Camp when he was a young teenager. Alex moved to the area in 2002 after having lived in New York City. He recounted the experience shared with his wife on September 11, 2001 while bringing their newborn son home from the hospital. Alex began his career in sports journalism with Sports Illustrated and enjoyed the flexibility of working here in Vermont after the move. His wife first worked in Vermont for Addison County Home Health & Hospice, and now works for Elderly Service's Project Independence. He spoke of how Vermont often feels more apart from the rest of the world, and appreciates how the experience in Middlebury Rotary rekindles that feeling of connection with the rest of our nation and world.
Fines and Happy Dollars:
No fines were levied this week.
Happy Dollars:
Bill Cunningham: Happy for the Porter Auxiliary Derby Days coming up on Saturday, May 6.
Veronica: Happy that Addison Allies Network is a recipient of $1,000 from the 100+ Women Who Care network.
Spence: Special thanks to those who worked on the CACO committee this year.
Guest Speaker:
Buzz introduced Sas Carey, who he first met last year while measuring her windows for Window Dressers inserts. He described Sas as a filmmaker, educator, nurse, and mentor.
Sas has lived in Addison County since 1968 and in the town of Middlebury for the last 44 years. In addition to nursing, she started practicing energy healing over 30 years ago, and has sought throughout her career to integrate traditional and allopathic medicines.
Sas held up her recently released book titled "Marrying Mongolia: A Memoir" and went on to describe what led her to visit this country and eventually fall in love it. After being pressed to visit Mongolia by one of her patients, Sas traded 7 years of energy healing for $5,000 to cover travel costs of her first trip in 1990. She returned to Mongolia several times throughout the 1990s and beyond, studying traditional Mongolian medicine, conducting programmatic work of the United Nations, and researching reindeer herds and the lives of nomads. These experiences served as inspiration for her subsequent literary works and film. One of her best known films is Gobi Women's Song (2006).
Sas plans to return to Mongolia later this year for the first time since Covid. Among her newest endeavors, she is going to follow up about the life of a young woman whose birth she was allowed to film 22 years ago. She is also going to follow up about the wellbeing of a 14 year old girl for whom she helped to coordinate medical treatments in the United States after having suffered from terrible burns at 11 months of age.
No one won the cow tag raffle this week.
MINUTES RECORDED AND SUBMITTED BY STEVE WILLIAMS ON BEHALF OF SYLVIE CHOINIERE
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