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Russell Hampton
National Awards Services Inc.
ClubRunner
Bulletin Editor
Gary Miller
Speakers
Apr 27, 2018
2018 Recipients
May 04, 2018
Kateri Medical Clinic in Nigeria
May 11, 2018
Tanzania
May 18, 2018
Summer Sunrise Serenade
May 25, 2018
This Year's Rotary Global Grant Project in Guatemala
Jun 01, 2018
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Executives & Directors
President
 
President Elect
 
Immediate Past President
 
Treasurer
 
Secretary
 
Sergeant-at-Arms
 
Foundation Chair
 
Board Member-at-Large
 
Board Member-at-Large
 
Asst Treasurer
 
Club Information
Rotary Club of Avon-Canton - Founded 1973
Avon-Canton
Service above Self
We meet Fridays at 7:30 AM
Avon Old Farms Hotel
279 Avon Mountain Rd.
Avon, CT  06001
United States
DistrictSiteIcon District Site
VenueMap Venue Map
 February 16, 2018
 
John McCormick of CB Richard Ellis
Hartford Market Office
 
Sergeant-at-Arms Report
February 9, 2018
 
Members Present: 33
 
Make-Ups: None  
Guests: Canton Interact Students
 
Fines: None  
Happy Dollars: $ 171.00 (Donated to Canton Interact Club)  
Raffle Winner: Peter Vignati
 
Birthdays
         
Kurt Lux has been working with disabled individuals for the past 37 years. He and his wife, Jolly Lux, founded Guiding Light Orphanage (GLO) which has grown from basic medical care to a well organized medical mission. He thanked everyone for helping him celebrate his birthday.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Don Bonner was happy to have many of the students from our new Canton Interact Club at the meeting this morning. He has enjoyed being our President for the past year and a half. He is looking forward to turning over the reins to Mike Mezheritskiy.
 
 
 
 
Canton Interact Club
 
 
Eight Students from the new Canton Interact Club joined us this morning along with their club advisors, Superintendent Kevin Case and teacher Michelle Traub.
 
 
 
 
 
Each of the students introduced themselves and spoke briefly about their role and hopes for the club: Alex Leaderman (Co-president), Chris-Ann Brown (Co-president), Zahra Kahn (Vice president), Shian Earlington (social media), Madelynn Dunahoo (PR), Tom Eayton (Treasurer), Anna Melendez (Secretary), and Evan Adams.
 
 
Happy Dollars
 
President Don Bonner stated that Happy $'s from today's meeting would be donated to the Canton Interact Club.
 
Sue Budde said that she saw a Robin this morning. She was hoping that meant that spring might arrive soon. She also wanted everyone to know about a special service at the West Avon Congregational Church this Sunday. GLO has been adopted by their mission outreach committee. Jolly and Kurt Lux will be introduced at the service. A reception would be held afterwards.
 
Paul Mikkelson thanked the new Interact club for coming to our meeting. He also made a plug about shopping at ShopRite.
 
Rick Heath offered Seabury's services to help with navigating the maze of senior services.
 
Chuck Joseph had $20 for Interact.
 
Larry Haber was flying off to Denver to be with family.
 
Greg Demanche had a call from his oldest son, Bear. He wanted to let his Dad know that he was planning on flying home to help celebrate his sister Katie's 16th birthday.
 
Bob Case had $5 for Interact.
 
Alicia Canning, Interact Chair, emptied all her money from her purse to give $3 to the Interact club.
 
Gary Roman announced the birth of a granddaughter, Amelia, on Monday. Their grandson, Sam, has already decided that his sister's name will be Millie. Sam, 5 ½, confided that with his grandmother, Angie Roman, that he wasn't quite sure what to do with his new younger sister. A quick trip to the bookstore provided some lessons on being the big brother and have a new baby in the house.
 
Peter Vignati gave $20 for the students.
 
Gary Miller said that he would be in Lake Placid next week to watch the Olympics from the Olympic Village and ski at Whiteface Mountain with Debbie and his daughter, Gina's, family.
 
Len Dunstan thanked the Interact club for coming to our meeting.
 
Jolly Lux announced that it was Kurt's birthday. She also remarked that GLO now has 12 local Rotarians help 4000 people at the clinic.
 
Announcements
 
Tastes of the Valley - Joanne Santiago said that all the restaurants have been lined up. Josh Gillooly, TOTV Chair, thanked everyone for all the calls about where he has been. He said he is working out his schedule so that he can have better attendance. He was very grateful to all the TOTV committee members for picking up the load. Ann Clark announced the next committee meeting would be held at Farmington Gardens rather than at Dish 'n' Dat. She also requested volunteers to help with a variety of tasks at the event: setup, cleanup, greeting guests, helping M&R, etc. Chuck Joseph said that we have sold more VIP tickets than last year and still have room for more due to the new venue. Gary Hyde said that regular ticket sales were lagging but hoped they would improve over the next week or so.
 
 
 
 
Calendar of Upcoming Events
 
Saturday, February 24: Tastes of the Valley at Farmington Gardens.  Each member has been provided 4 regular tickets ($50) for personal use or to sell. Anyone wishing to obtain VIP tickets should contact Chuck Joseph. Tickets can also be bought online on the Club's website. Checks should be made out to "Avon-Canton Rotary Community Fund, Inc." which is our 501c3 charity. Gary Hyde has asked that the ticket numbers be written in the Memo field. The information on the back of each ticket should also be filled in.
 
Friday, June 8: 2018 President's Installation Dinner at Farmington Woods Club House. The new slate of Officers and Directors will be installed for the 2018-2019 Rotary Year. Several members of the club will receive Paul Harris Fellowships for club service. Tickets will be $45 each.
 
 
 
Awards and Community Service Grants
 
 
President Don Bonner presented a check to Tom Eayton, Canton Interact Treasurer, for $171 Happy Dollars collected from members.
 
Main Presentation
 
Ojala Maeem, Managing Director, of
 
Ojala Naeem is the Managing Director of reSET, which is a Social Enterprise Trust located in the Parkville section of Hartford. reSET was founded in 2007 by Kate Emery to transition her company, The Walker Group, into a social enterprise. reSET then turned its attention to developing the social entrepreneurship sector in Connecticut. In 2010, reSET hosted its first Beyond Business as Usual conference, bringing together more than 200 people for a lively conversation about changing our expectations of business and how to add a social purpose to the bottom line. Committed volunteers went on to develop reSET’s initial strategic priorities: introducing the benefit corporation, a new type of business organization in Connecticut for social entrepreneurs; education and business development services to support emerging and scaling entrepreneurs; and better access to financing and investment.
 

reSET, Social Enterprise Trust is a non-profit organization whose mission is to advance the social enterprise sector. Its strategic goals are threefold: to be the “go-to” place for impact entrepreneurs, to make Hartford the Impact City, and Connecticut the social enterprise state.

reSET serves all entrepreneurs, but specializes in social enterprise ― impact driven business with a double and sometimes triple bottom line. In addition to providing co-working space and accelerator and mentoring programs, reSET aims to inspire innovation and community collaboration, and to support entrepreneurs in creating market-based solutions to community challenges. reSET’s goal is to meet entrepreneurs wherever they are in their trajectory and to help them take their businesses to the next level.

reSET has three models for distributing profits to the community. (1) Profiteering - donating profits for social causes, example, Newman's Own. (2) Operation - employment and hiring structure that trains local people for future jobs. The Firebox Restaurant on Broad Street in Hartford is a gourmet restaurant that is staff by local people learning skills needed to open their own cafes and businesses. (3) Product - create products that have a positive impact on people and the environment, vis-a-vis, Tom's Shoes.

In 2015, reSET expanded to embrace more entrepreneurs by moving to the Parkville area of Hartford at 1429 Park Road. They now have multiple avenues including:

Business Accelerator Program to help focus on meeting goals. 87 companies are participating in this program.

Summer Internship Program - Students learn about entrepreneurship during a 6 week training period. They then move on to project work. Professional Networking involving 115 businesses that help with expertise, provide pro bono legal work, marketing and mentoring.

Incubator Space provides a place for businesses to be supported and developed.

Over 700 entrepreneurs are currently being served. reSET has only 3 full time staff that focus on engaging their stakeholders. 

Learn more by watching this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/bZMtOowSAio

Mail Bag
 
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Photo Credits 
Photographs courtesy of Phil Worley unless otherwise indicated.
 
Editors Notes
Submission Deadline: Members are kindly encouraged to submit all materials for each week's Early Riser as early as possible. Please note that some editions may be published and distributed as early as the Saturday following our meetings, and during those weeks further contributions to the Early Riser will be included in the subsequent week's edition.
“The Four-Way Test of the things we think, say or do”:

1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all Concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?