April 9, 2025 Breakfast Meeting Notes

 

Guests included prospective member Raisa, as well as  Dan who came last week.

 

The 50/50 was won by Raisa.

We started a new card game. George got the chance to draw and Russ asked him to pull 2 cards but neither was a winner.

 

George’s speaker was unable to attend today so we had a club forum. The speaker, who works at NuCar Ford, can talk to us about the business in the area at a future date, if anyone else needs a speaker. Please see George for more information.

 

Tony opened with his famous NH trivia, Rotary Retro edition. He also thanked us for our help last week in identifying people in the old Rotary photo. Only  one young woman remains unidentified.

 

Today we covered a lot of announcements. We have been contacted by Parks and Rec to see if we would be interested in helping with the car show. Last year we did, and we sold pizza. There will be a concert at the car show, which will run from 6:30-8PM on July 30 (31st is the rain date). If we are going to do this, we will need to figure out how many folks we need.

 

This Saturday is the spring assembly in Lyndonville from 8-2 as well as the 3rd round of the speech contest. Let Denise know if you are going. The goal is to help members meet Rotarians from other clubs. Registration is not required; water, coffee, pastries and a very light lunch will be served.

 

District grant deadline is April 26. 

 

The Rotary day of service is May 17th, which  is Circle’s cleanup day. 

 

May 30th is the pre-district conference Putt Putt for Polio in Lincoln. The final round of the speech contest will be that weekend.

 

RYLA is coming up and we have 4 students going. 

 

The District changeover is June 7 and location is still being decided…hopefully in Magog, QC.

 

July in Burlington there will be a Polio Plus baseball game benefit with the Lake Monsters. 

 

Ken Evans announced that this has been the best maple syrup season in years. He has spent over 1000 hours boiling sap since the beginning of March. He brought small jugs of maple syrup for each of us. Thanks for your generosity!

 

Ken also noted that he got an excellent annual report from Circle this week. 

 

Sharon is picking up scholarship applications this morning. She will scan them and send them out to our committee. The committee members are Lora, Ken Williamson, Nancy, Marybeth and Sharon. 

 

Mike had several announcements. First he explained what RYLA is: Rotary Youth Leadership Academy. Young people who are finishing their sophomore year in high school apply for this 3 day leadership event. Participants enjoy a variety of activities; it is often a life-changing experience for these kids. We have 4 young people going to this year’s event on June 20-22. We can have up to 70 students at this event; we also take some from District 7870, to the south of us. More info is on the district 7850.org website, under the “youth” tab. Adult volunteers are also needed. 

 

We also partner with District 7870 on youth exchange. Yesterday Mike was up in Burlington for their visioning session (we may want to do another one of these ourselves). Susan Cherry is in charge of district Youth Exchange and she spoke to Mike about a young girl from Taiwan who would like to come here. Is there any interest in hosting her in our club? We would need at least one host family and need to get permission from PRHS. We can also get in a Ukrainian student here (but none of us can go to Ukraine). The cost would be $4500 for airfare, insurance, and a monthly stipend. Alex offered frequent flyer miles for a student who would need a ticket so the club would be spared this expense. Ken, Lora, and Sharon all spoke about their great experiences with exchange students. Susan also suggested speaking to Shelby’s family to see if they are interested in hosting or know someone who might want to do this. 

 

Mike received an email from a group of students at PSU who are doing an ecological project on wetland cleanup. We can refer them to the Conservation Commission to see about cleanup at the Oxbow. We will discuss a local cleanup later.

 

Phil spoke about the most recent 12th trip by the Common Man for Ukraine. He went along with Alex, Lisa and Susan this time and really enjoyed the trip.  We have delivered over 2000 tons of food to Ukraine and the trauma camp in Poland has served 1006 kids. They met with mothers of kids that had gone to these camps to see if there was more that we could do. Phil  was impressed with the organization and planning for food deliveries by the Polish Rotarians and it is an amazing operation. 

 

Beth had people say what they are looking forward to this spring. 

 

Happy dollars were shared by Mike, Denise, and Tony. 

 

Happy 80th birthday to Alex! 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Lora Miller, secretary