MEMBERS PRESENT
Alisa Barry, Marcy Caulkins, Tony Ciampaglione, Dan Dietz, Carmen Derby, Ed Dews, Amelia Farnum, Sadie Fischesser, Jerry Goldberg, Drew Hazelton, Tristan Johnson, Damon Kindopp, Sandy Ladd, Turner Lewis, Mark Lovey-Reys, Jim Maxwell, Ralph Meima, Jennifer Moyse, Todd Murchison, Shawna Parker, Michelle Pong, Jon Secrest, William Shakespeare, Valerie Stuart, Jill Terrell-Ouazzani, Tristan Toleno, Linda Torunkski, Aviva Wertkin, Kevin Yager.
STUDENT ROTARIANS
Anthony Gringeri (Hinsdale High School), Rebecca Freeman (Brattleboro Union High School), Casey Manning (BUHS).
MEMBERS ABSENT
Nick DuBois, Mark Ethier, Arden Fagelson, Ross Gibson, Scott Gibson, Scott Gordon-Macey, Jason Posternak, Marcy Rushford, Sandy Shriver, Ellen Smith, Josh Traeger.
GUESTS
John Mabie, Carrie Simmons, Michael Clough, Ralph Meima’s son Alex, Sadie Fischesser’s daughter Evie, Amelia Farnum’s daughter Lucy, and Mark Lovey-Reys’ daughter Talia.
STUDENT ROTARIAN REPORTS
Anthony Gringeri noted that Hinsdale High School’s Annual Christmas Bazaar would take place this Saturday, November 14 at the high school from 9-2 pm.
Casey Manning gave us an update on the activities of the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) at Brattleboro Union High School. FBLA recently hosted a career-training event with Skills USA where participants learned how to be effective leaders. She also told us about how she spoke to BUHS’s freshman class about FBLA and encouraged them to join. Ninety students attended the FBLA’s first meeting. Other recent FBLA activities included a trip to the Big E, an extracurricular fair at the Career Center, and attendance at a State Leadership Conference in Montpelier. The FBLA finished its Yankee Candle fundraiser, which raised $9,000. They also hosted a blood drive that brought in 27 pints of blood. Next week, the FBLA is going to New Orleans for its fall leadership program. A highlight of that trip will be attendance at a Saints game where they have sky box seats.
Rebecca Freeman said Brattleboro Union High School’s Christmas food fundraiser just finished. It raised $8,000. They are now focusing on their fall fundraiser for the March of Dimes. They will host another fundraiser for the March of Dimes in the spring. In addition, to raise awareness for National Premature Baby Day, which is coming up on November 17, purple streamers will appear soon all over the school. Additional activities the FBLA will be involved with this semester include Project Feed the Thousands and a campaign of customized letters from Santa to area children.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Jennifer passed around a sign-up sheet for the dinners our club will provide at the Shelter over the next few months.
Tristam announced that Brattleboro’s Afternoon Club has decided to co-fund the vacation nutrition project our club has been running for the last six or seven years at Westgate, Ledgewood Heights and Moore Court. Tristam also noted that our Board of Directors recently approved the International Committee’s request for funding and support for the Justa Stove project in the mountains outside of San Pedro Sula Hondurans.
Kevin notified members that next Wednesday, November 19 our club will present our donation check to Kelli Corbeil and Jeff Morse for Project Feed the Thousands. All club members are encouraged to attend and asked to bring in food donations to our breakfast meeting that morning.
Sandy alerted members that if they are picking up food for Project Feed the Thousands at Hannaford’s to speak to personnel at the store’s front desk if the food collection box is not visible. She noted that when she went to do a pick up, donated food had been placed in the conference room rather than in the big box that is supposed to be in the front of the store. The Drop In Center’s Lucy Fortier is getting in touch with Hannaford’s to ensure they put the collection box back out where it is supposed to be. If you have any problems like this, please let Project Feed the Thousands Committee members know so they can address them.
Linda announced that as of next month, Quiz Triva Night will take place on Monday nights.
BRAGS
Amelia noted with glee that she had the opportunity to meet Lyle Lovett at a concert recently thanks to a tweet from Tom Bodette. Tom’s tweet broadcasting that he was attending Lovett’s concert instead of sitting at home waiting for election results on November 4 sparked a rapid response from Lovett who invited Amelia, Tom and their spouses to meet him backstage after the concert.
Sandy made a brag in celebration of the birth of her college roommate’s first grandchild.
Michelle bragged on behalf of Veterans Day. She said she comes from a long line of veterans, was formerly married to a vet and praised all veterans for their service.
Jennifer bragged for her fantastic group of dancers at the Brattleboro School of Dance. She also recounted how much fun they had in Boston where they had Chinese food for dinner prior to attending the ballet Swan Lake.
BOWL OF LIFE
The bowl of life question of the day was: Whom does Aleksa Secrest call the one with the spiky hair. Answer was Aly during her punk rocker phase.
GUEST SPEAKER’S REMARKS
Michelle introduced our guest speaker, Michael Clough, who is the director of the Southern Vermont National History Museum up on Hogback Mountain. Michael described the institution as an old-fashioned style natural history museum. It is home to the historic Luman R. Nelson natural history collection, one of the largest collections of native species on exhibit in the Northeast. The museum also displays live birds of prey, native fish, reptiles and amphibians as well exhibits on natural history, mineralogy and local history. He noted that the birds of prey and live animals are a major attraction. The museum is located next to Hogback Mountain Conservation Area and Molly Stark State Park, which has over 600 acres of protected land and hiking trails.
Michael said that the museum has recently been in a state of constant growth due to a tremendous amount of outreach. It currently has one and a half staff members and was visited by 13,000 people last year. Museum staff made 150 off site presentations during 2014. Michael informed us that the museum plans to move to Brattleboro in the near future and is currently considering several possible locations. He noted that the institution’s goal is to be more accessible to school groups and to work to build a regional presence. The museum currently does not have a parking lot that can accommodate school buses. He said the Museum’s long-term goals are to hire a fundraiser, grow its staff and do more school programming.
The star of the show was the red tail hawk Michael brought to visit the club. The hawk’s name is Piper. She came to the institution for rehabilitation 12 years ago after she was hit by a car and lost her ability to fly. Most of the museum’s live inhabitants were either injured at some point and came to the museum to be rehabilitated as Piper was or were donated former pets. Red tail hawks get their red tail when they turn two years old. In captivity, they can live into their thirties. As Will Shakespeare can attest to, they also are known as chicken hawks because they love to eat chickens. Their daytime vision is 8 – 10 times sharper than a human being’s eyesight.
Michael concluded by inviting everyone to visit the museum. For more information about the Southern Vermont Natural History Museum go to www.vermontmuseum.org