Tom Slayton, a Vermont journalist, was the speaker at the morning meeting of the Chester Rotary Club on May 25, 2017. Tom spoke about the interdependence of rural Vermont culture and literature. There are two types of writers in Vermont; those that live in Vermont and those that write about Vermont. The latter helps the reader get a better understanding of Vermont culture which is characterized by its independence, commitment to community, unique sense of humor and skeptical attitude. Tom went on to talk about playwright David Budbill and novelist Howard Frank Mosher. David Budbill was known as the “People’s Poet” and Howard Frank Mosher was known as the “Voice of Vermont.” Both authors captured the history and culture of Vermont from the past. Today, the challenge is to keep that sense of place in a changing digital world.  

At Chester Rotary’s First Thursday April speaker series, Sierra Kehoe, Sadie Woods and Skylar White,  GMUHS Interact members, spoke to Rotarians and guests about their recent trip to Nicaragua. The girls from GMUHS joined eight Interact students from Woodstock to complete service projects in San Juan Del Sur. Accompanying the students from Chester were Bill and Leigh Dakin and Jeff Ladd. The students completed three service projects during the week that they were in San Juan Del Sur. The first project that they tackled was the completion of a water tower to supply drinking water to the school. They then spruced up the school with a coat of paint and later in the week helped install a coral reef. Each day, after completing work around 2:00 pm, the girls spent their time in town exploring the shops and vendors and dining in the local restaurants. The students and chaperones also took side trips to Grenada and Masaya volcano. Reflecting on the trip, Sierra, Sadie and Skylar all agreed that the trip was as important to the Nicaragua community as it was to their growth as teenagers. 

On March 30, 2017, Melissa Howe, owner of Endless Creations Pottery Studio, was the speaker at the morning meeting of the Chester Rotary Club. Endless Creations Pottery Studio, located at 23 Maple Street in Chester, is a local business where customers can find their creative self and paint pre-cast pottery pieces. Melissa offers a wide variety of paints and glazes and finishes the piece in her kiln. Formerly located on Elm Street, Endless Creations relocated to the corner of Maple and Main Streets. According to Melissa, the new  location has meant  everything for her business. Open Wednesday through Sunday, the shop offers a dedicated special events room, ladies night and classes. For more information, log onto her website here.  

On March 16, 2017, Jen Studin, Girls on the Run Certified Coach, was the speaker at the morning meeting of the Chester Rotary Club. Girls on the Run is a non-profit program that works to encourage pre-teen girls to develop self-respect and healthy lifestyles through interactive lessons, exercise and running.  At the present time, there are thirteen girls, from grades three through five in the Chester program. The program started on March 7, meets two times per week from 3:00 to 4:30 and will end with a 5K race in Bratttleboro on May 20. The weekly lessons include three parts: understanding ourselves, valuing relationships and teamwork, and understanding how we connect with the world at large. The outcomes are that the girls develop positive emotional, social, mental and physical development.

On February 23, 2017, Ellen Taetzsch, Regional Coordinator of the Springfield area Building Bright Futures, was the speaker at the morning meeting of the Chester Rotary Club. Building Better Futures is a state mandated program which monitors the well-being of children and families in Vermont. BBF looks at how a family, the community and the state can better serve children eight years old and under. The twelve regional BBF’s evaluate family and social relationships, health and development safety, early care and learning. Family economic well-being is assessed and subsidies for child care are provided if necessary. In addition to these services, they provide developmental screening to determine how a child is progressing. This public-private partnership “aligns community action with state policy in order to make improvements in access, quality and equity in early child care, health and education for families and children.”

Connie Snow, Executive Director of the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust, spoke to Rotarians and guests at the Rotary breakfast meeting on January 20, 2017. Connie has been with the organization since 1987 when it started out as the Windham Housing Trust. In 2011, it merged with the Rockingham Land Trust to form the WWHT, Windham & Windsor Housing Trust. Its mission statement is “to strengthen the communities of Southeast Vermont through the development and stewardship of permanently affordable housing and through ongoing support and advocacy for its residents.” WWHT has a variety of programs to accomplish its goals. These include housing development, property management and a home ownership program. One project that Chester residents are familiar with is the beautifully renovated apartment building across from Liasai's Chester Market. Connie gave examples of how WWHT provides services to support successful home ownership. In one example, a Brattleboro resident was spending 92% of her income per month on housing. WWHT utilized a variety of strategies to reduce her housing spending to 32%. More information about WWHT programs and links to other services can be found here. 

Samuel Fogg, a 2016 graduate of St. Michael’s college, spoke to Rotarians, Interact students and guests at the last Chester Rotary meeting of 2016. Sam spent seven months in Shanghai where with many life changing experiences eventually led him to his job in Boston as an auditor for PricewaterhouseCoopers. Shanghai, a city of thirty million on China’s central coast, is the country's biggest city and a global financial hub. Sam said that it was “crowded, polluted and littered.”  In Shanghai, he attended the university and worked as a volunteer at the U.S. Consulate. For a time, Sam lived in an apartment without hot water, slept on the floor and had his student VISA expire. During his time away from the university, Sam spent many hours visiting the country side and hiking. He left China with a greater understanding of people, an appreciation for our life style,  an understanding of international relations and the importance of networking.  

Ian Montgomery, Chester Rotarian and Anglican Missionary Minister, spoke to Rotarians and guests on December 22, 2016. As a representative of the Anglican Church, Ian helps to implement the goal of bringing a spiritual and social transformation in Peru. The representatives of the Anglican Church are known as the missionaries who work in the poorest and most dangerous regions of the country. Since 2008, Ian has been building churches and schools and transforming neighborhoods. Drinkable water is also a huge issue in Peru and there has been serious work to supply the people with affordable water filters. Ian told his audience that there is an emerging middle class but many Peruvians live in great poverty. During the presentation, Ian showed pictures of magnificent mountain ranges, semi-tropical rain forests and completely arid areas that only get one-half of an inch of rain per year. Peru was once part of the great Incan Empire but was conquered by the Spanish from 1531 to 1533. It is home to Machu Picchu, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

At the Chester, VT First Thursday speaker event in November, Karen Landsberry, Director of Residential Services, spoke to a group of thirty Rotarians and guests about Kurn Hattin school. Kurn Hattin was founded as an orphanage by Charles Albert Dickinson in 1894. Today, Kurn Hattin serves ninety-five at risk children ages five to fifteen. Children live in cottages with the appropriate age group and gender and attend school or camp depending on the time of the year. With over a century of service, Kurn Hattin’s program has become world renowned because of its emphasis and commitment to helping children grow physically, intellectually, emotionally, and socially. During the course of her presentation, Karen spoke in detail about the programs and activities that help to accomplish these goals. Other speakers included GMUHS Interact president, Sierra and Rotarians Malcolm Summers and Dave Nanfeldt. Sierra invited Rotarians and guests to Interact’s next community service project to be held on November 12, 2016. Volunteers will meet at 10:00 am in front of the Fullerton and will be picking up trash along the highways and byways of Chester. Malcolm told the audience about how Rotary International uses “Shelter Boxes” to help alleviate suffering caused by natural disasters such as the hurricane that struck Hatti in September. Dave explained how guests could participate in this year’s Kurn Hattin gift giving event to be held on December 15.

On October 20, 2016, Andrew Day, Director of Operations at Unity Homes, spoke to Chester Rotarians and guests. Unity Homes is an offshoot of custom homebuilder Bensonwood Homes and is based in Walpole, NH. For over two hundred years, the standard procedure for building a home was to construct it on-site. Homes built on-site are difficult to construct because of inefficiencies, unpredictability of the weather and inconsistent skill level and training of the workforce.  A Unity customer starts by choosing one of four platforms and then with the help of a design expert modifies the design based on needs and budget. Once the design is completed, the home is fabricated in a plant and then assembled on-site. The guiding principles of Unity are to montage architectural principles, design and building techniques and to utilize best practices to produce a quality affordable, energy efficient home. More information about Unity can be found here.

.Katherine Fogg, Principal of Chester-Andover Elementary School, spoke to Chester Rotary on September 22, 2016. Chester-Andover Elementary School is part of the Two Rivers Supervisory Union and serves students in Kindergarten through grade 6. Prior to becoming principal of CAES, Katherine was a music teacher and an assistant principal. Since becoming the principal, fourteen months ago, she has initiated several changes, including the hiring of four new teachers, the implementation of a Positive Behavior Support System, the utilization of data to improve instruction and personalized proficiency based plan for each child. In addition to the curriculum areas, Katherine oversees the building and facilities including the installation of a new roof this past summer. During the Q & A, Katherine answered questions about Act 46, homeschooled children, mentoring, common core and the time that school starts and finishes for elementary, middle and high school students. CAES can be found on the web by clicking here and Two Rivers Supervisory Union here .

At the July 28, 2016 meeting, our speaker was Tim Desilets, a youth pastor from King of Prussia, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia.  Tim is leading a team of 55 young people (junior-high and high-school age) on a two-week service project in this part of Vermont.  The goal is to take "mall rats" (Tim's term) out of the suburbs and into rural and small-town Vermont, and to teach them to make a difference and make an impact in the communities.  The kids also build long-term lasting relationships. Tim has family roots in South Londonderry, and when he first began to take kids up to Vermont, they stayed at the Baptist and Congregational churches in Londonderry.  But when the South Londonderry Baptist Church burned down, they had to find other accommodations.  For a while, they stayed at the base lodge at Magic Mountain, but when that no longer worked out, they moved their base of operations to Chester.  Last year they stayed at the Baptist and Congregational churches her in Chester, but they found that they had outgrown these accommodations, so they worked with the Chester-Andover Elementary School to provide accommodations.  Between Chester Baptist and the Elementary School, they have found this new arrangement satisfactory. They have done a number of varied projects during their time in Vermont this year.  They helped lead Vacation Bible Camp at an area church.  They did odd jobs such as stacking wood and weeding, and also scraping and painting houses.   They had 25 projects in all, including 11 in Cavendish and Proctorsville. The kids raise their own money.  They are forbidden to bring any technology on the trip, such as cell phones. In case of emergency, Tim will allow a kid to use his own cell phone, but other than that, all technological devices are forbidden.  Tim finds that without the use of technology, kids develop closer personal relationships with each other and get to know each other as people. Tim's talk was quite interesting, and there were a number of questions.