Charlotte-Shelburne Rotary Club
June 7th Meeting
Minutes
Guests: Margo Plank and Frank McHenry
The meeting began with a beautiful poem about peonies read by Kris Engstrom.
Business: Bob Sanders, a Rotarian since 1998, was named as the Paul Harris Fellow; 4, $1,000 donations were made on his behalf and made this honor possible. His pin plus 4 sapphires to Bob Sanders presented by Terrell Titus.
Announcements:
- Rotary Board meeting on June 17th, note this is one week early because Judy is having surgery the following week.
- Changing of the Guard dinner on June 14th at Fisher Brother’s Farm 6:00pm, hence there will be no morning meeting.
- Golf Tournament on Wednesday, June 14th as well; we have two teams participating.
- Belmont Horse Race on Sunday, June 18th—join and play the Belmont Stakes
- Gary Marcotte story in Business People magazine…
- Phil Denu drew the raffle number and picked a 5 of hearts so the raffle rolls over another week.
Program: Kevin Toohey from Bijou Chocolate, Ajur Moulaert from Vermont Tortilla Company and Deborah Douglas from Douglas Sweets all came to discuss their new businesses located off of Route 7 in the South end of Shelburne. They all brought wonderfully delicious samples!
- Ajur Moulaert owns the Tortilla Company which he started one year ago after much research into the right kinds of machine to make his tortillas and the right farmers to provide the corn and wheat. He explained the history of tortillas and corn migration. His local variety of corn is from a farm in Essex, New York. He and the farmer stay in close touch and have become good friends.
Ajur looked all over the world to find the right machine to make his tortillas.He settled on a distributor in California.Ajur is currently making 180 dozen tortillas a day!Pretty amazing, he invites anyone to come in on a Tuesday or Thursday to visit his store and see how he makes his tortillas.
- Deborah Douglas told how she started her company, Douglas Sweets out of her home 8 years ago. Deborah’s family is from Scotland and her mother taught her how to make authentic shortbread. She started to get requests from friends for her shortbread so she started making it every week and selling it in local neighborhood stores. Deborah then experimented with all kinds of dips like chocolate and her creations became a hit. She out grew her home and decided to start her own store. She spoke with Kevin Toohey who told her about the opportunity to participate in this unique Shelburne marketplace and she did. Her shop is doing terrific and she invites us all to come and visit.
- Kevin Toohey started his small family company in Shelburne about a year ago as well. His story is very interesting he is a trained chef from Switzerland where he participated in a 3-year apprenticeship which is incredibly intensive training. You learn every aspect of the business and spend hours and hours working for those three years learning from the master. Kevin believes in the traditional European style which is all about finding beauty and goodness. His chocolate shop conveys a certain goodness that takes in the seasons beauty and coveys a sense of taste and feel that matches the season for which it is created. He believes his chocolates remind you of basic goodness. Kevin’s presentation was incredible and his Bijour Chocolates truly are more than delicious; they are delicacies, you do somehow taste the seasons!
- Kevin spent a bit of time explaining to us how the Shelburne Green is an artisan spot in the village started with the “slow food movement” in mind. This is a shift in focus for tourism, a slow food movement that is really catching-on! All three of these owners are artists in their own right; I believe it would be truly worth the trip to visit their shops.
Happy Offers:
Gary Marcotte – happy to be recognized in Business People Magazine.
Linda – happy to have such wonderful presenters
George – happy that Gary was featured in a magazine
Dave Rice – happy his house is on the market
Alan Hathaway – happy for Bob Sanders to be named Harris Fellow
John Duped – happy it isn’t raining
Mike Clapp – happy strawberry picking season has begun
Dave Rice – happy strawberry picking season has begun
Dennis Delanie – happy to be back
Ric – happy for sunshine
Sam – happy over grandson
Terrell – happy for sun and Bob Sanders to be named Harris Fellow
Linda G. – happy to have planted her garden and for Margo and Frank
Phil – happy about the peonies and loved the poem
Kris – happy for the sunshine and peonies and business sharing
John Hammer – happy his boat is in the water and cataract operation is latr today
Judy – happy for the sun
Jon – happy for the sun
Keith Walsh – happy for sunshine
Alan Bates – happy for sunshine
Jessica Brumsted – happy for her son making it to the final lacrosse game, and sunshine