Sunrise Rotary Meeting April 14
In Person meeting on June 2nd!
Update from Audrey and Megan - Student Rotarians from Hinsdale.
Audrey is getting ready for graduation! It’s starting to get real as the caps and gowns showed up this week.
Megan says, one we week away from April vacation, just did SAT testing, the week vacation is very much needed! Softball is starting up this week.
No Birthdays or Anniversaries this week
Announcements:
Josh T: Chasing Sunrise initiative has gone over 2,900 miles! Last week Mona, Josh T and Katja joined the Park City Utah Rotary club for their meeting. Got some great ideas for fundraising.
Katja: gave a synopsis of the meeting in Park City.
Brags:
Mona: shout out to her husband and friend who came over and chopped down some trees! Shout-out to Drew and KJ for the Covid shot, the setup is very cool.
Jon: Youngest daughter (Alexsa) is turning 16 this week. Going to be a lame birthday cuz it’s just Jon and Alexsa for her birthday as Alina and Kerry are going to Ohio to look at a College.
Jim V: Shout out to Dan and Sandy for a gathering at Saxons Distillery! It was super fun to see everyone.
Turner: On Sunday he went out to his barn to open the garage door, Ed Dews came and fixed it the next day! Shout-out to Ed!
Cindy: was back in the office yesterday! The sun was shining and the river was glistening and the plants were alive (shout-out to her staff for keeping the plants alive).
KJ: shout to Diane for being awesome; giving KJ the gift of golf.
Jim Verzino introduces our guest speaker Chris from the Vermont Innovation Box, new co-working space that is opening in Brattleboro.
Bought the 70 Landmark building (old CCV building) needed a lot of love. The idea was to take this building and create something that doesn’t exist. So they created an incubator style building. A meeting place for people in Vermont to create/think and congregate.
The building is designed in a few different ways. Someone can take a small office and then work with the folks at the incubator to get their businesses up and running.
A large number of people have contacted them to donate their time and help pay it forward.
They are also working on a business only crowdfunding platform.
They have a co-working space also have space for break-out meetings or in-person conferences (when allowed).
Working with the Strolling of the Heifers to present some agriculture info.
The building can host larger meetings in the co-working space, the furniture can be moved out. There is no commercial kitchen on-site, but may build one later in the days.
The folks that Chris works with have purchased a number of buildings around town and are working on bringing them back to life; the old outlet center. They have put in some kitchens (food court), a bar and the ability to drive foot traffic through the tenant space. This is going to be called Vermont Marketplace.
They also own a Brewery in Springfield, VT; used to be Trout River - now it is Vermont Beer Makers. They are getting into a lot of big venues and stores.
Purchased 80 Flat Street a month ago or so; no big plans for the building at the moment.
Purchased 214 Elliot St, Boomerang is staying, planning to put some residential units in.
Purchased 230 Old Ferry Rd, they’ll probably be moving Vermont Beer Makers down there, depends on the lease and environmental issues up there.
How did Paul (the benefactor) get so interested in Brattleboro? He had a second home in Guilford and just fell in love with Vermont the woods, mountains, trees and way of life. Wants to invest here and help shape it into a great place for people to live and retire.
Working on a marketplace for people who want to buy maple syrup for local farmers to sell it to keep the local farmers in business (Woot! Woot!)
Viking Village a very cool project tucked in woods in Guilford off of Weatherhead Hollow Road with 6 “cabins” and a great hall with a kitchen and bar. This can host weddings or retreats or other events. Very cool event space. The plan is to build another group of cabins at a different place on the property.
How to contact Chris Willett: chris@vtinbox.com