Our speakers today are Captain Michael Arcovitch and Col. Brent Ziegler from the Vermont National Guard.
Carrie called the meeting to order at 7:30.
Nancy shared opening words.
Carrie welcomed Michael and Brent.
Linda G shared a visual of the certificate for the upcoming Hero Project presentation.
Linda also shared the Honduras update with the club for their upcoming trip to Tela, leaving on February 8. Tela has a new mayor who has made many updates to the village as well as a new director at the hospital who is doing updates there, all positive things. Linda has been working with them all.
This year the volunteers will have several painting projects at the NICU and hospital. One volunteer nurse will be working in delivery, baby clothes and hats will be distributed. At the schools, fluoride applications will be provided, school uniforms will be distributed as well as paint two classrooms. She continues to work on donations of ten computers and fifty plastic chairs for the school pavilion. Dental, eye and hearing clinics will also be conducted and a cement waiting area will be built at one of the facilities. Finally, they will conduct CPR training with The Red Cross.
Amanda announced there are currently no speech contestants.
Dan shared that he is on the board of Green Mountain Curling Club and learned the So. Burlington Rotary Club is having a tournament to support The Howard Center on March 18. If you are interested, let Dan know.
Board meeting tomorrow morning at 7:30.
Happy fines were collected by Dave Micklas.
Diane introduced Michael and Brent.
Mike graduated from Essex High School and Penn state. In 2007, he returned to Vermont, taught at BHS and coached football and lacrosse. He enlisted in 2012. Served in Afghanistan and became the Public Affairs Officer June 1, 2022.
Brent is the Human Resource Officer of the Vermont National Guard and has thirty years in military with twenty in the National Guard and eight deployments. He entered the military right after high school noting the benefits drew him to the service.
The mission of the Vermont National Guard is to support the President of the United States and the Governor of Vermont.
Brent shared what they have been working on recently. His division assign missions for training with other nations, for example with 750 citizens of Senegal, which had never been done before.
The Guard Army division conducts security support, recently involved 950 people, in several different global areas.
They have a partnership with Canada annually, which provides local storm support mission training. This group has several biathletes who competed in the 2022 Winter Olympics.
On the Air side, there have been recent missions with our F35’s, where eight of the Guard’s F35’s were deployed to Germany to fly over the Russian coast, involving 230 airmen.
Finally, they have State partnerships in North Macedonia, Senegal and now Austria. These partnerships involve medical ready training and force on force fighting. Vermont is the only state in the country now in partnerships with three other countries.
Captain Arcovitch reported on the evacuation of the Afghanistan airport where they were providing security for the refugees. He will be leaving soon on a mission to the Arctic Circle.
They work with Defender Europe, which conducts training exercises between NATO allies.
Aviation unit is going on a mission trip soon as well in Afghanistan; they built a range as The Ethan Allen Firing Range in Senegal and hope to build one in North Macedonia as well. And finally, the Army Mountain Warfare school in Jericho is welcoming new students right now.
Dan presented our speakers with two books to be donated to the Charlotte Library, “Shoot Like A Girl” by Mary Jennings Hegar and “Fly Like A Girl” by the same author for younger readers.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:30