Brattleboro Sunrise Rotary
President Marcy called the crowd to lower level of disorder at 7:15 followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
President Marcy’s Opening Remarks
- Happy rainy chilling morning
- Thanks Jacques for greeting
- Solicits greeter for next meeting and Mona volunteers
- Notes that Ross Gibson (5/8) and Josh Goldberg ((5/15) are the next scribes
- Quote of the day - “Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.” Napoleon Bonaparte
Today in History
- In 1852 Calamity Jane is born near Princeton, MO. The myths and fabrications concerning her life are so numerous it is difficult to discover the truth. Given to hard drinking and carousing, she attracted public attention with stunts like riding a bull down the main street of Rapid City. Ultimately, Jane was a performer, providing the public with the appropriately grand and mythic image of the West.
- In 1926 The Ford Motor Company becomes one of the first in America to adopt a five-day, 40-hour work week for factory workers (Thank the unions?). Extended to office workers the following August. Other Ford labor firsts: In 1914 upped pay of male factory workers $5 per 8-hour day from $2.34 for nine hours, did the same for females in 1916. Nearly double the industry average it turned out to be a stroke of brilliance, immediately boosting productivity and building a sense of loyalty and pride among workers (ah, the good old days).
- In 1931 President Herbert Hoover officially dedicates NYC’s Empire State Building pressing a button in the White House that turns on the building’s lights. The gesture was symbolic, someone else flicked the switches (It’s gotten a lot harder to know what or who is behind the curtain).
Notes that the Board Meeting is at the Legion at 7:15am on May 2.
Announcements, Part 1
- Debbie – Noted that schedule speakers couldn’t make it, but they are willing to come some other time. See her to arrange a speaker swap or fill a gap.
- Josh T- Notes that disc golf started and some work has been done on the course. Another work day is scheduled for May 11 from nine to noon
- Rob Szpila from the Brattleboro Noon Club invited us to the Golf Tournament on June 6, noting that there is a tournament within the tournament for Rotary teams, e.g. a team with at least one Rotarian.
Introductions
- Toni introduced students who need no introduction - Lucy, Josh, and Davie from BUHS
- Dan introduced John Mabbe from the noon club and Drew (guest or member, who knows)
- Josh G introduced another who needs none, - Ailaya
- Michelle introduced Rob Szpila, aforementioned
Announcements, Pt 2
- KJ- June 7th, Mt Snow, 3rd annual put and pour for Deerfield Valley Club. 1 pm
- Tristam - Three announcements 1) Coffee, 5 bags left, $12 each. 2) Conclusion of nutrition project, donations from the Works, Commonwealth Dairy, and Hannaford. Served 691 kids, 736 meals. Some kids go back for seconds. On Friday give food for kids to take home, average cost $1.25 per meal. 3) Canupa Gluha Mani, the primary contact at the Pine Ridge Reservation Arizona, has spoken at parole board on behalf of members of three tribes to advocate for permission for the performance of cultural cleansing rituals. One member acknowledged after 10 hours that their policies were acts of racism. “Just incredible” is how he described.
- Tom – Noted that he will have a sign up for Strolling of the Heifer parade marshals (a Rotary Community Service project) by next meeting
- Dan – Recruiting members to sign up for Touch a Truck and Camp for a Cause
Brags
- Will – Bragged for a great trip including Paris, Berlin and Prague. Described dancing to Edith Piaff with Tina on the deck of boat on Seine. He has eggs for sale, a dollar goes to Rotary
- Josh T - $5 brag for the nutrition project and notes that May 18 is Girls on the Run
- Debbie - back from travel to Nashville where she did the whole scene including the Grand Ole Opery and getting new boots. Also her grandson turned 3 years old and the next one is due in June. Also, Tony got a new saw, going up to work on her house.
- Mark - Davie got new shoes for the prom and he missed out on the purchase. In consolation other members noted he could probably buy her another pair.
- KJ - $2 brag for becoming a grandfather on Friday. His daughter in MN gave birth to a little girl, Nancy Lou.
- Michellle – Brag for Linda’s Closet in Keene which offers nice clothes at no charge. She is on the board and selling raffle tickets for a Mother’s Day raffle $10/ticket. First prize Red Sox tickets (4), second prize weekend stay at 4 bed home outside Mt. Snow, and more. Sadie suggested a club round up of donation for Linda’s Closet and Michelle said she’ll take any offered..
- Jim M – His son is graduating MFA in Acting from Perdue, heading to NYC.
- John – Brag for both clubs to ongoing commitment to scholarships. Estimated that we have provided $220K and the noon club $500K.
- Mona – Asked Lucy to stand up and share a bit, joint brag. The brag is for the exchange student weekend in NYC. Sixteen students, four chaperones (lost not one student) did and “saw everything”, including Lion King, Statute of Liberty, Ellis island, United Nations. Amazing how much foreign students know about this country
- Rob Szpila - Bragged for the club for welcoming student traveling to South Dakota. Students noticed the fun, you guys have something special here.
- Nick - back from Savannah, saw his father, awesome place, great eats, great history, shrimp and grits, feels like Burlington south, very alive. An awesome weekend.
Birthdays - Drew Hazelton (apparently is a member, despite some understandable confusion) hasn’t been here since his birthday on the 30th of January. He was appropriately serenaded.
Cards - 7 of hearts was in the deck. Ed added extra flair to the usual and customary announcement to the joy of the assembled.
Student Rotarian reports
- Davie - First day of long block ace (sic?), kind of like a study hall with teacher you pick, gives you a longer period of time for your own discretion. Student Council put it into effect. Another round of SATs May 4th, same day as prom.
- Josh – The National Honor Society is doing a fund raiser to cover costs: he’ll pass around a sheet. Lacrosse against MAU tonight. He took a hard crash mountain biking and will be out for a week. Fortunately, no head injury.
Bowl of life – This Rotarian broke into many hotels in their youth - Josh G, guessed Dan Dietz, who asserts he has never been arrested or convicted. Deb suggested we ask what he took home from hotel. Dan fessed to a glass from the bar and guessed Debbie Cox, The thread was from Debbie to Toni to Sandy, to Tom to Josh U to Turner, to Will to Val to Jim M until we got the hint “She is not in the room” Jim guessed Allie, then Sadie, and finally Cindy, who was it. NOTE: Lisa later reported that Cindy texted that they were thirteen and the hotel was abandoned. (In retrospect, shouldn’t the President have been fined for allowing it to go on so long with the party absent)
Speaker – Michelle Pong
- She is the speaker coordinator. She thanks the club for their efforts and will try to make arrangements when things fall through. She notes that everybody in the room is an expert at something. If you can talk about something for 10 minutes please let her know. She wants to have people in hopper to call the night before.
- Putting on an old hat from the time when she worked at Lead Safe and Healthy Homes and was arguably was the expert on lead in Southern VT. She can talk about lead for 8 hours and will share a little bit of knowledge today.
- Kids don’t get poisoned by eating paint chips, but mostly by typical hand-to-mouth behavior.
- Lead disrupts brain development and it can’t be retroactively repaired.
- In Windham Cty have some of the highest levels in VT. Fortunately they have come down in last 15 years.
- 10% of kids in Bellows Falls at one point had lead in their blood
- State of VT requires testing at age of 1, and another test at 2, although it is not being done uniformly
- State of VT requires landlords to be certified and that every painted with more than one square foot of peeling paint be repaired.
- EMP - essential maintenance practice. Make sure you get your certification if you are a landlord (class about 3 hours).
- Contractors must be certified and take appropriate precautions for remediation.
- Thresholds 1 sq ft interior for Vermont. Federal are more than 20 sf exterior or 6 sf interior
- If you hire somebody, make sure they are certified.
- Less than a teaspoon of lead in 700sf of soil will poison a child.
- Recounted the case of child in MN circa 1998/99. The child swallowed Reebok charm, died because it was 99% lead.
- Don’t allow your children to drink from garden hoses (lots of lead)
- Keys all contain lead, get plastic keys for kids
- Lead is a cumulative poison, it can be chelated out, which is physically demanding, but that won’t reverse the damage.
- The US is/was behind most other countries. As a result of a 1918 outbreak in Australia in 1920 it was banned by League of Nations, most countries stopped using lead in paint a long time ago. We kept slapping it on our homes until 1978. Taking lead of gasoline cut blood levels in half, children were inhaling it all. All that lead in gasoline is still in the dirt. Lead doesn’t travel and it’s everywhere.
- Dan asked if there wasn’t a ban on lead containing objects in VT. Michelle said there is a consumer products ban, but you can’t count on it being observed, e.g toys from dollar stores.
Meeting closed on time with the Four Way Test.
Please inform me of errors and omissions. Thank you. Tom Franks