Burlington Sunrise Rotary Club
Burlington Sunrise

Service Above Self

We meet In Person & Online
Fridays at 7:45 AM
In Person & Zoom; 2nd/4th Fridays Jan-Oct, 1st/3rd Fridays Nov & Dec
https://uvmcom.zoom.us/j/408861896
645 Pine Street
Burlington, VT 05401
United States of America
Meetings are held 2nd and 4th Fridays of each month (1st and 3rd Fridays Nov-Dec)
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Trotting of the Turkeys
Raising funds for Feeding Chittenden
(formerly Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf)
 
Imagination Library
Providing Free Books
for Burlington's Kids
 
Kenya Safe Water Project
Making Clean Drinking
Water in Kenya
 
Hope Lodge
Serving Meals to
Cancer Patients &
Care Givers
 
Dragon Boat Festival
Celebrating Cancer Survivors,
Funding Research &
Raising Funds for
Rotary Charities
 
Light the Night
Raising funds for the
Leukemia & Lymphoma
Society
 
Stories
It's time to Trot with the Turkeys

Registration is open for this years FUNdraising event: Our 9th Annual Trotting of the Turkeys!

Create a team and register to participate! You can choose to walk with us down Church Street on November 5th, 2022 in a safe family-friendly event, or choose to support the event virtually. The funds raised help support Feeding Chittenden. 

With inflation hitting those with the least resources hardest, food security is a major concern and we hope to help our most vulnerable neighbors maintain access to healthy and nourishing food.

Trotting of the Turkeys event on Church StreetSign Up Online!  

The $250-team, $100-family or $50-individaul registration donation covers the cost of the turkey and provides the needed resources for the Burlington Sunrise Rotary Club's community support efforts. Donations at any level are also welcomed.  You may need to select the "Use another Method to Pay" link- depending on how you access the site, the default may be direct debit (which saves us money), but most people prefer to pay with a credit or debit card, which you can do through the "Use another Method to Pay" link; click the Sign Up link above or visit trottingturkeys.com. 

The 2nd Annual Spelling Bee 
2022 Spelling Bee
 

Inaugurated in 2019 with the intent of making it an annual event, 2022 marks the return of our Spelling Bee!  

Thanks to Burlington Beer Company for generously donating their space and Hanson and Doremus for underwriting all other event costs- as well as the time and energy of volunteer Rotarians- 100% of donations, team sponsorships, and guest ticket sales will go to providing free books to Burlington kids.

The Rotary Spelling Bee is raising funds for the Imagination Library Program, which fosters early childhood literacy. The Imagination Library, started and sponsored by Dolly Parton and her foundation, sends a free monthly book to Burlington children ages birth through age five. That’s up to 6 years and 72  free books to each enrolled child!  Thanks to the efforts of Dolly's foundation, our cost in 2021 averaged less than $2.50 per book, but demand is high and we'd love to expand to surrounding communities.  

Burlington Sunrise Rotary has funded this program since 2008 and has recently partnered with the Rotary Club of Burlington to expand this already successful program.  To date, we've provided over 30,000 books to Burlington kids!

Event Details:

When: Tuesday, October 11, 2022, 5:30-8:30pm

Where: Burlington Beer Company, 180 Flynn Ave, Burlington, VT, 05401 (directions)

What: It's a Spelling Bee!  Our hosts will provide a word and a contextual example or definition to one of our teams of three spellers from local companies and organizations.  They'll have 30 seconds to confer before one team member steps up to the microphone to pronounce, spell, and again pronounce the word.  Levity is appreciated, but doesn't provide bonus points- spellers will have to know their stuff!

To sponsor please visit

https://secure.givelively.org/donate/burlington-sunrise-rotary-club-inc/rotary-spelling-bee

You may also mail a check payable to Burlington Sunrise Rotary Club to PO Box 4328 Burlington Vermont 05406 or text to donate
 
 
 
Rotary and Food Security
With half of the world's wheat coming from Russia and Ukraine, the risk of hunger is increasing globally, as the cost of even the most basic food items increases.  Internationally, Rotary will be stepping up relief efforts.  Locally, the Sunrise Rotary promotes the Little Free Pantry concept and opened the Little Free Pantry in Hinesburg.  We also hold the annual Trotting of the Turkeys to support Feeding Chittenden, their food shelf, and their other hunger relief projects.  You can support the pantry by texting "LittlePantry" to 44-321.  Above, Alison and Jesse from the club after grilling for the cancer patients staying at the American Cancer Society's Burlington Hope Lodge.
Burlington Clubs Collaborate on Literacy Project
The Burlington Sunrise Rotary Club would like to thank the Burlington Rotary Club for partnering with us on our Imagination Library Initiative.  Imagination Library is a charity established by Dolly Parton, whose organization sources top quality children's books from publishers at low costs and then works with local partners, like our Rotary clubs, to enroll participants and share in the cost of distributing the books.  In the past 8 years, the Sunrise Club has facilitated the donation of over 30,000 books to children in Burlington.  Any parent can register their child to receive a book in the mail monthly through age 5.  The program has been successful, and the partnership between our two clubs will help make it more sustainable. 
 
Our clubs will also be collaborating on this year's Rotary Spelling Bee, which will be held on Thursday, September 30, in the Maple Ballroom at UVM's Davis Center.  Companies or groups can sponsor teams of 2 or more spellers to participate in this fun event, and our hope is that it will be successful enough to not only keep the books flowing into the homes of Burlington kids, but to expand the program to include other towns.  Please use the contact options on our website if you're interested in participation.
Benefit Bake at American Flatbread to Support Imagination Library
Benefit Bake at American Flatbread to Support Imagination Library
Join us on Tuesday, 3/22, 4-10pm.
American Flatbread, Burlington
 
Every Flatbread you buy that night helps Burlington children become better readers! 
American Flatbread donates $3.50 per large and $1.75 per small flatbread for the entire dinner shift (4pm - 10pm)... including take out orders!
The Burlington Sunrise Rotary club believes that improving childhood literacy should be a top priority. With that in mind, we are committed to fund all the free books provided by the Burlington, VT chapter of Imagination Library
Special Speakers
The lack of in-person meetings creates opportunities for unique virtual speakers! Upcoming speakers include Vermont Congressman Peter Welch and Navy Rear Admiral Douglas Perry.
 
These meeting (like all of our meetings) are open to the public. Please join us on 9/18 to hear Congressman Peter Welch at 7:45 am. Then on 9/25 Rear Admiral Douglas Perry will be speaking at special time at 11:45am to accommodate his west coast location. The login information for the Zoom meetings is in the speaker events.
 
Read more...
The Little Free Pantry Succeeds Thanks to Community Support
Our club's Little Free Pantry in Hinesburg has taken off, addressing and exposing the issue of food security in our community.  Installed at the Hinesburg Community Church in 2018, the pandemic has led to a large increase in use of the pantry.  Anyone can access the pantry at any time to take or donate non-perishable food items, and recently the pantry has been seeing a complete turnover of contents daily, sometimes even more frequently.  
 
We could not have done this without support from the community, so thanks to:
- https://vermontdiscountstore.com/ for food donations and providing us with a discount on food purchased with donations from club members
- Aubuchon Hardware in Hinesburg for help with rebuilding the doors of our pantry
- Giroux Body Shop in Hinesburg for providing metal plates for the door latches- nicely fabricated and finished with only 15 minutes' notice.
- All of the community members who have dropped off food items at the Pantry
- The Hinesburg Community church for hosting and promoting the pantry and helping to keep it full
- Steve Hartmann from Affiliated Associates for organizing a food drive
 
We've helped coordinate, advise, and inspire the installation of additional pantries, including one that opened today, June 5, at the Jewish Community of Greater Stowe, a pantry located inside Champlain Valley Union High School, five recently opened pantries in Burlington neighborhoods.  Our goal is to spread the word and get a free pantry opened in all 14 Vermont Counties.  
 
Our work on food security also involves support for Feeding Chittenden, and their broad efforts to make sure our entire community has access to food and to address the underlying causes of food insecurity.
 
See more about the pantry in this video created by club member Andy Duback: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BurlingtonSunriseRotary/permalink/10157203474393947/