Chocolate Extravaganza

Our meeting began in Chat Rooms set up by Michael Juric where we brainstormed ideas for live and silent auction items.   Good ideas were captured from Chat and sent to Live and Silent Auction Chairs.

CHOCOLATE EXTRAVAGANZA!  THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS TOO MUCH CHOCOLATE

Pledge of Allegiance – Catherine Hanron

Song:  JB Leep offered us “Day-o”, a song by Harry Belefonte, also known as the Banana Boat Song.  The kindest review offers that we did “not terrific”.

No visiting Rotarians or guests today.  37 participants, club members only

Carol Martin offered us her Rotary moment.  During the 2018 fundraising process, she was moved by all the people seeking funding for their projects.  She loved the Kidspree event where children were offered school supplies, clothes and services to start the school year.  Kidspree was selected for the Fund-a-Need portion of our fundraiser.  They were seeking two or three thousand dollars.  But as this part of the event began, the money mounted up.  There was such excitement in the room.  There was tremendous energy and excitement and in the end, $18,600 was raised!  Carol’s moment was, “this is what Rotary can do!”  She recognized how powerful Rotary can be.  The force of energy of a Rotary Club was amazing. 

President Pam recognized and thanked Chris Landwehr for being January Rotarian of the Month

Leslie Lewis returned with her cheerful and always humorous recognitions and fines.  Birthdays, anniversaries, spouses birthdays, trips, and one of 43 District-wide Rotarians of the Year  – it was an abundant field of fines.  Pegi Ball turned the tables and had Leslie acknowledge that she had a new Mazda CX5, for which Pegi fined Leslie. 

JB Leep took us on a tour of our new website,  windsorrotary.org.  The goal was to have a calendar which always showed what was scheduled, access to all members’ phones and e-mails, and our Bulletins posted and available.   This website, hosted by DACdb, meets all those criteria and more.   Go !!   Visit and become familiar with our website.

Announcements:

President Pam announced that Domingo, a former special exchange student, has relocated to Windsor and is looking for handyman jobs.  Hi, Domingo, from your Rotary family.

Jo Timmsen announced that she is putting together the Live Auction item of an “Instant Wine Cellar” for our March 26 event.  She is looking for 50-60 bottles of wine, each a $35 value or above.  Each club member is asked to donate at least one bottle of wine for our Instant Wine Cellar.

Michael Juric and Maureen Merrill offered their warm thoughts to each other about sharing time together with no agenda items for once.  They were brought together in this way by President Pam’s idea of Rotarians sharing time together outside of meetings just to get to know each other better.  Michael said he had known Maureen for 30 years and she was a dear friend and (sort of) family member.   It was a treat and a gift to have lunch together.  Maureen echoed those ideas and said lunch together was nice and she was grateful to Pam for creating this great experience.  Next week we’ll hear from Mike Merrill and John How.

JB briefly introduced our guests, Jeff and Susan Mall, owners and creators of Volo Chocolates. 

And, we were off and running in our quest to learn about chocolate making.  Jeff took us on a virtual tour of their tiny (500 square feet) factory  in Windsor (The Shiloh Center) where the chocolate beans are crushed and processed in refiners.  Last year they made 6 tons of chocolate.  We learned that chocolate is grown in different parts of the world and each region has its own terroir, just like grapes.   Jeff and Susan source chocolate beans from both Guatemala and Haiti, and they have distinctly different characteristics.  Jeff described the various flavors of the chocolates they make, and everyone on the zoom was oohing and aaaahing.  They are doing custom zoom virtual chocolate tastings now, and our committee chairs for our March 26 Spark Success event were quick to ask them if they would consider donating a zoom chocolate tasting.  Looks promising. 

Susan Mall covered the health benefits of chocolate – turns out they are for real.  Chocolate is a vasodilator – it can reduce blood pressure.  It has anti-oxidant properties, and by expanding the blood vessels in the brain, it sends more blood to the brain. 

Word on Chat is that this would have been a favorite program of our founding father, John Lewis, and that was seconded by many members who said Yes! It was their favorite program, too.   Best Ever!

Next week we wil hear from Jacqui Salyer of Habitat for Humanity.  We are still on zoom, likely through mid-February.

President Pam ended with her own chocolate story.  Her Nana made the kids memorize the names of the chocolates in the SEE’s candy box.  We all know that life is like a box of chocolates . . . you just never know what you are going to get.  But the other way to think about it is this:  chocolate is the solution to most problems, the answer to most questions, and by far, the cheapest and most effective therapist on the planet!