Morrisville Rotary Club

Present: Ted Lambert, Linda Martin, Bruce Shields, Marcia Marble, Jason McArthur, Davis Koier, Sharon Menard, Gary Nolan, Mary Metcalf, Mel Patashnick, and Tim Sargent.

Guest: Peter Ingvoldstad from the Lamoille County Mentoring Partnership.

Happy dollars: included several for the fine weather that we have been having.

President Elect: Tim Sargent called the meeting to order and asked for items for discussion:
Ted reported that the Youth Exchange Interviews are next Monday at 4:30PM. His committee welcomes others to join as they meet with at least 3 area youths.

Holiday Party: Gary reviewed that we have two caterer bids: Bruce Burnor at $20/person and Hoagies at $24.99/person.
Motion by Mary to accept Bruce Burnor’s bid, 2nd by Marcia. Vote: all in favor. December 11th at 6:00pm meet at the Morrisville VFW. Cost is $30/person. All past Club Presidents and Paul Harris Fellows are welcomed with family and friends! Drop off your two silent auction items at Ken Harvey’s County Oil soon.

Gary: Handicapped Ramp Project: Motion by Linda to provide $200.00 towards the materials. 2nd by Ted. Vote: approved. Money to come from Community Service.
Turkey Drive: Marcia made the motion to take the $100.00 not used at the Hardwick Hall’s Market and divide it between the four area Food Shelves: Johnson, Bradley, Food Share, and Hardwick for produce, etc. 2nd by Ted. Vote: approved.
Possible change in meeting site: Deanna had received a proposal from Hoagies which was shared with the club and is a buffet at $10.00 per person. Discussion to consider meeting at Hoagies on December 7th to view the meeting space and food. Tim to look into this.

Speaker: Peter shared that the Mentoring Partnership started in 2001 by past Lamoille North Superintendent Terry Bailey in response to the high level of incarcerated parents and the lack of a positive role model for too many Lamoille Valley youth. The hope was and still is to lessen the VT prison population who cost the tax payers $48,000/year for a male and $80,000 per year for a female to be behind prison bars.

Children of all ages need mentors with the focus on those with parents who have no high school diploma and those youth who display out of control behaviors. There are 200-600 area youth who would benefit from having a Mentor.

Peter came into this Director position just 8 weeks ago when Sharon Fortune left but he has mentored a teen for 2 years. While he and his youth are community based, most mentoring situations are within the area schools either during school hours or in after school programs.
Peter also shared some of the reasons why too many of us are Mentors Dodgers!
80% of Vt. prisons are filled with men and most Mentors at this time are women. He also offered that one can support Mentoring financially if they cannot spare an hour or two each week.

Mentors are Friends
–help with academics
–engage the youth in shared interests/hobbies/learning to cook.

Peter shared with the club a sign up sheet for new mentors or to be added to the emailed Mentoring Newsletter.

Contact Peter by email at LVMP@pshift.com or by cell phone at 802-793-7210

Submitted by Marcia Marble