The meeting will be held both in person at the Golf Club of Avon and via Zoom.
Watch for an email from the Club for Zoom access and
please note we use a recurring ID for your convenience.
Sergeant-at-Arms Report
Rotarians Present: 24 in person + 2 via Zoom
Visiting Rotarians:None
Guests:Christian Heiden, Levo International (speaker)
Happy Dollars: $30.00
Raffle Winner: No winner
Fines:None today.
Birthdays: Colleen Grasso (6/12) Not present.
Happy Dollars
Larry Sullivan spoke on behalf of his daughter Colleen who was not present to celebrate her birthday today. Larry said that Colleen was born the day before his and Brenda's first anniversary and also the day he graduated college--A day to remember.
Larry Haber was glad to have survived the past month with having caught COVID. All his kids and grandkids have tested positive, so far he and Linda have not.
Gary Miller redisplayed the quilt that has squares for the signatures of veterans. He encouraged members to sign a square. The quilt will be given to Veterans Base Camp. Gary also reported that he and Debbie will finally attend his twice delayed 50th Dartmouth Reunion on Monday through Wednesday. Cherie Morris has finally retired from her job with the State of CT. June 1st marked 36 years of service.
Lou Daniels said that the Canton High School was holding commencement exercises for the Class of 2022 tonight. He asked if anyone knew when the first class graduated from the Canton School system. After a few guesses, he said that the first graduation was held in 1759 in the district school which was part of West Simsbury and now is Canton Center.
Announcements
Sue Buddeannounced that the planning for the 40th Annual Charity Golf Tournament has started with the launch of the website and Save the Date information on Facebook and emails. Northwest Community Bank will be our Event Sponsor again for 2022. The tournament is September 12th. All the information and forms are available on our website. Brochures will be available at the next meeting. Sue reminded everyone that the golf tournament from three-quarters of all the money we raise for projects and grants. We are currently looking for a member to chair the auction committee and a prospective 2023 tournament chair to work with co-chairs Sue, Gary and Phil. A short info session will be held next week.
Alicia Canning reminded everyone that the President's Installation Dinner is Friday July 8th at Golf Club of Avon. The website has the link to sign up, make dinner choices and pay. Alicia was also very pleased to see such a great write-up of TOTV 2022 in the Valley Press.
Salin Low is looking for at least one additional scribe to prepare the Early Riser one time a month. The current crew has worked together for about six years. They have a number of scheduling conflicts this summer, so it's a good time to try out your editorial skills. Gary Miller is a pro at training new scribes, so it's a fairly smooth learning curve. If you are willing to be a summer intern, please let Salin know.
Calendar
July 8th: President's Dinner at Golf Club of Avon. Dinner cost is $55. Meal choices are: chicken marsala; grilled salmon; filet mignon; and a vegetarian option. You can sign up and pay on the club website now: President's Dinner Sign-up
Induction of New Members
None this week.
Awards
None this week.
Community and International Service Grants
District Foundation Grant
Guiding Light Orphans - Jolly Lux
President Chris Lamadrid presented a check for $2550 to Jolly Lux from the District Foundation Committee. The check will supplement the $10,000 grant from our club for the GLO Water Project. Jolly thanked the District and our club members for supporting the work in Uganda. She was so pleased that Cherie Morris will be joining her on the next trip, saying how important having our members see the work in progress was to her.
PRESENTATION
Christian Heiden, LEVO International
President Chris Lamadrid introduced Christian who is a recent graduate of UCONN and the founder of LEVO International which creates food security in developing countries and locally. Christian stated that we have enough food resources worldwide that no one should be starving. Unfortunately those food resources are not available where they are most needed in developing countries. LEVO began as an Eagle Scout project using hydroponics to help families in Haiti. His project in Haiti wasn't supported by the Boy Scouts, but his father enabled him to go to Haiti and introduce his simple system for home gardening. The system uses PVC piping or buckets to do hydroponic gardening with 90% less water and small amounts of fertilizer. 300 families are currently part of the Haiti project. In Haiti, 50% of pregnant women and 60% of children under 5 have anemia. 1 in 9 children in Hartford have food insecurity.
LEVO has brought their systems back to the US to work in Hartford with gardeners in a "victory garden" setting. In Hartford and West Hartford, they have added a CSA component to leverage all the backyard gardens already in use. The produce is purchased and distributed to other families. The systems used in Hartford are similar to the ones in Haiti. They only need a 5 x 2 foot space for the frame and piping. About 5 gals of water is used a day. Solar power is used to circulate the water. These "Babylon" systems cost about $500 with the solar power unit. Simpler bucket systems cost about $30.
LEVO operates mostly on donations from individuals and volunteers. They are starting to get grants as their program grows. Christians father, Bill, helps with the non-profit organization and his brother, Nathaniel, is working toward a PHD in plant science.
The Babylon systems support about 20 plants. Production varies depending on what is being grown. Green vegetables and small fruit plants work best.
Zoom platform management expertise by Mike Mezheritskiy.
Editor's 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?
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LEVO began as an Eagle Scout project using hydroponics to help families in Haiti. His project in Haiti wasn't supported by the Boy Scouts, but his father enabled him to go to Haiti and introduce his simple system for home gardening. The system uses PVC piping or buckets to do hydroponic gardening with 90% less water and small amounts of fertilizer. 300 families are currently part of the Haiti project. In Haiti, 50% of pregnant women and 60% of children under 5 have anemia. 1 in 9 children in Hartford have food insecurity.
LEVO has brought their systems back to the US to work in Hartford with gardeners in a "victory garden" setting. In Hartford and West Hartford, they have added a CSA component to leverage all the backyard gardens already in use. The produce is purchased and distributed to other families. The systems used in Hartford are similar to the ones in Haiti. They only need a 5 x 2 foot space for the frame and piping. About 5 gals of water is used a day. Solar power is used to circulate the water. These "Babylon" systems cost about $500 with the solar power unit. Simpler bucket systems cost about $30. 
