Charlotte Shelburne Rotary Club

N e w s l e t t e r - Ar c h i v e F e b 1 1 , 2 0 0 9

print this page

Charlotte Shelburne Rotary Club Wednesday, February 11, 2009 Trinity Episcopal Church Community Room Welcome Guests introduced were Carol Smith and Michael Dupee – you’ll meet them again later. Rotary Foundation Thought This week's Rotary Foundation Thought is about making a Major Gift to the Annual Programs Fund of The Rotary Foundation. Tom and Fran Bayless of Ohio are passionate about Rotary and support the Foundation in many ways. Tom made his wife, Fran, a Paul Harris Fellow to celebrate the birth of their first child. Their children became Paul Harris Fellows on special birthdays. Following open heart surgery, Tom and Fran decided to became major donors to the Foundation in celebration of her recovery. Said Fran, Anything we can do, we should do. . . Where does your backyard end?" Our investment in time, talent and financial resources are an investment in making the world a safer and healthier place for our children and grandchildren. Announcements  John Beal will sub for Steve next week  Future programs o 2/18 – Audrey Butler of the Epilepsy Foundation o 2/19 – Board meeting o 2/25 – Club Assembly  Serving lunch at the Charlotte Senior Center on March 25 (sign up to help)  Trafton Crandall is chairing the Charlotte Shelburne Rotary team for the Bolton Ski/Ride Challenge on March 6  Steve is signing up judges to help with the Future Business Leaders of America Spring Leadership Conference on April 2 and 3  Records of attendance for the first five weeks were distributed  Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged $¼ billion to Polio Plus and challenged Rotary to match with $100 million – on the local scene 15 members of Charlotte Shelburne Rotary have taken the Polio Plus pledge challenge, donating $50 which has been matched by the club and also earned points from RI.  We have been asked to donate a significant item to the silent auction that will be part of the District Gathering at Basin Harbor  The president of Rotary International has invited Steve Dates and John Beal to the Rotary International convention in Birmingham, England Induction Robert Maynes, Carol Smith, and Ric Flood Ric Flood officiated at the induction of a new member, Carol Smith, sponsored by Bob Maynes. Carol is in wealth management at TD BankNorth. Sergeant at Arms Kris Engstrom levied an anniversary fine for Elaine Dates, a scoot fine for Ric Flood and a birthday fine for Katie Camardo (when she comes to a meeting, soon, we hope), and an anniversary fine for Paul Bohne. Happy fines:  Kris – based on the weather forecast for the weekend which means delivering Valentine flowers will be easy  Ric Flood – his prayer at last Wednesday’s meeting that the market would go up was heard – keep praying Ric!  Robert Maynes – welcome to Carol Smith, our newest member  John Hancock – that our Sergeant at Arms still blushes when she tells a racy story  Carol Obuchowski – in honor of her daughter’s birthday  Alan Hathaway – happy that Colleen is back – and that their work in Honduras was so successful  Jim Spadacinni – that he is sitting next to a banker – a banker of the Vermont variety  Don Maynard – for a visit to San Diego  Colleen Haag – back from Honduras where 82 volunteers did great work – the dentist fixed teeth for 500 patients, the pediatrician saw more than 250 children, the women’s health team did cervical cancer checks on more than 250 women – they transferred the St. Michael’s donated ambulance to the local fire department and got lots of great publicity – finished four building projects – the Dixon Jonah family flew in to join the project – the only challenge is that all 82 volunteers want to return next year – and they are recruiting their friends  Rosalyn Graham – a notoriety fine for being quoted in Seven Days’ story about changes at the Inn at Shelburne Farms – and for her daughter’s birthday Lucky draw: Colleen’s number was drawn but she chose the wrong card and didn’t get the $78.50 pot. Guest Speaker President Steve Dates and guest speaker Michael Dupee John Dupee introduced our guest speaker, Michael Dupee, his son. When District Governor T Tall commented that not enough young people were involved in volunteer work, John knew he had someone who could address the subject – his son Michael who is Vice President for Social Responsibility and Community Outreach at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. Michael reviewed some trends and statistics from the Corporation for National and Community Service. The number of volunteers in the 35 to 54 age group is going up in the average number of hours spent in volunteer activities and the number in Vermont is higher than the national average. He said that Green Mountain Coffee Roasters encourages community service by giving employees time to volunteer, at a rate of one hour a week, and also have an incentive program to encourage volunteering on their own time: they donate $250 to the employee’s chosen cause. Volunteer hours in 2008 totaled 6,000. The benefits for a company are that employees tend to stay longer, see that what they do benefits the company and the company benefits from lower human resources costs. Big companies have corporate volunteer programs. Web-based social networking makes it easy to find volunteering opportunities. Many volunteer opportunities have a technical base – using technical skills to benefit nonprofits. Social entrepreneurism is blurring the lines between volunteering and business – e.g. Seventh Generation Volunteering today is more than manual labor and fund-raising, but volunteering continues to help to grow community.