CHIPS March 23rd, 2015

Mac Slivka, Rushad Thomas, Amity Shales, Rebecca Sears, all guests of Catherine Nelson and 3 of whom are from The Coolidge Foundation

Peter O'Brien-from Granville club

Matt Parker-guest of Brian Perkins

 

Speakers: Ludy Biddle- executive director of Neighborworks and Sara Gilbert, also of Neighborworks

 

Catherine bragged for the Wisconsin Badgers in NCAA basketball.

Kwame bragged that one year ago today he joined our club

Lou bragged about Steve, Chuck, and Krista's hard work on the golf tournament fundraiser. He then segwayed into the centennial project saying that if we only worked as hard as the three of them did on that on this, we'd have it wrapped up soon. He urged us to come up w/ ideas that will help change the social situation of those around us.

Elias bragged for his daughter who is in college. She was going on a trip to Florida to see a friend and Elias asked her if she needed any money. She assured him he didn't. After she got back, he said did you have enough money? Her reply was, "I had mom's Amex".

Joe fined all RHS grads after the girls won cheer competition for all of New England (i believe?)

Krista bragged that she got to shoot skeet and trap this weekend at Hudson Falls Gun Club and said she was a great shot. She then reminded people that if they don't sell raffle tickets, she's a great shot.

Catherine bragged about The Coolidge Foundation.

Chuck fined for cell phone going off.

Nick fined as well for cell phone

 

 

Colie announced the RYP mixer at Knights of Columbus.

Mike announced The Breakfast Club is playing at The Paramount on Thursday. There is a prize for best 80's costume.

Will announced the upcoming committee meeting for Boys and Girls club joint Rotary initiative happening April 1st at noon at Boys n Girls Club.

 

Amity is the author of Coolidge, a biography of the late President. Each summer, Plymouth Notch comes alive with hundreds of High School students from around the country who come to learn and grow at the annual Debate Competition. Amity reminded us that a lot of kids today don't know how to effectively communicate because they spend too much time texting, video gaming, and generally checked out. Debate is a powerful tool and has been proven to make kids smarter. She encouraged us to come and help!

 

small pot $35   Big pot $400

 

Barb won BOTH POTS!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!

 

Luddy Biddle, Executive Director of Neighborworks of Western Vermont. Luddy has been the exec since 2001. She knows many Rotarians because she said we are very involved in the community. Heat Squad has helped over 1,000 homes in Rutland county since inception. She lives in Shrewsbury on a farm raising grass fed beef. She thanked us for all of our support.

 

Neighborworks was funded in 1986 and was originally only in Addison, Rutland, and Bennington counties. It was originally set up to help low income people make health and safety changes to their home. Now they help with homes ownership services, from buying, sell, avoiding foreclosure, to maintenance, etc.

 

They actually have $12,000,000 in a revolving lending pool at their disposal to grant loans. They focus on lending, not granting monies.

The Heat Squad was formed when they applied for a grant from the Dept. of Energy and were awarded $4,000,000 unexpectedly (thought they wouldn't get anything).

So far, 5% of Rutland County homes have gone through the Heat Squad program, which is basically an energy audit that is then followed up with finding the right contractor to make a home more energy efficient. They have helped the average home save 30% in energy and also created 62 jobs.

 

Another topic she hit on was how affordable homes really are right now. She feels that Rutland, in particular, is a very attractive place from a buyers stand point. It is affordable and up and coming. She said that she use to know a blighted area in Washington DC (former resident) that no one would ever want to live in, but it slowly was brought back to life and now hippest place and most expensive. Said our NW district will look like that in the future with all of our help.