Morrisville Rotary Club

Present: Tim Sargent, Davis Koier, Roy Marble, Marcia Marble, Jason McArthur, Phil Chiaravalle, Linda Martin, Mark Cattelona, Bruce Shields, Rudy Loyola, Gary Nolan, Mel Patashnick, Mary Metcalf, Geoffrey Blume, Ted Lambert and Sharon Menard.

Guest: Andrew Calderwood from Craftsbury.

Sargent At Arms, Mark collected Happy Dollars from: Mary, Roy, Davis, Tim, Rudy, Geoffrey, Mark-helped to find a missing older man in Johnson; Linda,  and Mel.

Sad Dollar: Mel

Fines: none

Announcements:

Tim shared a Thank you note from Laraway School for our Literacy donation.

Kaia Waller has asked for $5,000 to study in Patagonia at the National Outdoor Leadership School-to committee

Request from Planting Hope Program for funding-to committee

Old News: Tim reminded everyone dues are due. Either $110 for the year, or $55 for 6 months.                                                 Please try to pay at the next meeting.

Plan a session to rebox the ducks at Karen Lynch’s and move to new location

Mark and Tim shared that the Lamoille Valley Chamber of Commerce non-profit membership dues are $147.00 per year.  Rotary to join to partner in ventures and increase our publicity.

Speaker: Andrew was our Rotary Exchange Student to Venezuela in 2009-10. He presented his slide show showing the different places and foods that he experienced last year.  He stayed with two host families. The city of Maracaibo is in a desert area while the second part of his stay was in San Cristobal in the Andes with 700,000 people where the social life and climate was more to his liking. This second family owned a farm that they visited twice a month where they produce beef, milk and forest products. Andrew went on three Exchange Student trips in areas from sea level to 12,000 feet elevation. He saw world famous Angel Falls, 150 pound wild rats and a 14’ Anaconda snake. In the Andes the farm fields are too steep for tractors; oxen help the people grow strawberries and potatoes. His diet included plantain, cornmeal, corn and boiled fish. Milk and meat quality control and taste were uneven and not the same as in Vermont.

Gasoline costs $0.05 per gallon but was in very short supply. Roads are two lanes wide and not in very good condition. It is better to fly between cities. Andrew brought home an extensive collection of tractor photos. Government: President Chavez receives fewer votes with each election.  The very poor receive minimal food subsidies. Folks in the middle and upper classes are treated very poorly by the national government. Education: Andrew found it not equal to the USA with most high schools being privatized. The public high schools were bad and the universities were average. Andrew is available to speak with groups on his experiences and will encourage others to participate in the Youth Exchange program. Andrew can be reached at rcalderwod@aol.com

Our Incoming Rotary Youth young man to Peoples Academy is from Chile and we do need host families for 2-3 month periods of time. Sharon has been corresponding with him on the Internet and his written English is good. Geoffrey Blume and his family will volunteer to be one of the  Host Families.  Contact Sharon Menard at SPB6601@yahoo.com.

Raffle: with the new deck of cards found Tim with the winning ticket but not the ACE OF HEARTS.

Tim adjourned the meeting at 8:00 AM

Minutes submitted by Marcia Marble