BRATTLEBORO — The Brattleboro Rotary Club recently inducted Cindy Jerome as its 61st club president for the 2010-2011 club year.
Jerome is the executive director of Holton Home, a nonprofit residential care home in Brattleboro that has served the community's elders since 1892.
Rotary club members serving as officers with Jerome this year are: President-Elect Liz Harrison of Nutrition Education Services, Treasurer Norb Johnston of NBJ Management and Financial Services, Secretary Marty Cohn of Cohn Public Relations, Vice President Rick Manson of The Richards Group and Past President Jeff Morse of River Valley Credit Union.
Jerome has been active in the Brattleboro Rotary Club since 2003, serving as secretary for three years. A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and with a master's from Antioch University New England, she has worked in the nonprofit human services world for more than 20 years, including seven years at Kurn Hattin Homes and 11 years at Holton Home.
Jerome was a Dummerston Selectboard member for seven years and served on the Brattleboro Food Co-op Board, chairing both for several years. She is also a Corporator of Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and serves on Rotary's Gateway Foundation Board.
Jerome and her husband, Peter Wrenn, and children, Ben and Jesse, live in Dummerston.
Founded in 1950, the Brattleboro Rotary Club is an active community service club of about 90 members. Every year, the club awards more than $50,000 to the greater Brattleboro area, including: $24,000 in scholarships to eight local high school seniors annually; $5,000 in awards that support more than 30 local community organizations and up to $25,000 for various community projects that have included playground equipment, snowmaking guns, ice rink bleachers, and a water park at Living Memorial Park.
The funds are raised through the club's annual Christmas Tree Sale, Charity Golf Tournament, International Film and Food Festival, and other fundraising endeavors.
In addition to fundraising, club members volunteer their skill and time to projects for such community organizations as the Christmas Stocking, the Senior Center, Habitat for Humanity, Living Memorial Park and Youth Services.
The club's community outreach each year also includes hosting a Sugar-on-Snow event at the Brattleboro Winter Carnival in February; welcoming local high school students into the club's Student Rotarian Program; and providing for senior gift-giving during the holiday season.
The Brattleboro Rotary Club also sponsored the launch of the Brattleboro Sunrise Club in 1995 and co-sponsored the launch of the Deerfield Valley Club a decade later in 2005.
One of the Club's proudest achievements is the founding of Pure Water for the World, which can be found online at http://www.purewaterfortheworld.org/welcome. The initiative began with Brattleboro Rotary Club member Peter Abell, a dentist who traveled with other local dentists and eye doctors to provide medical services to villages in El Salvador.
He decided to organize a club effort to help Salvadoran villagers achieve potable water year-round. The Pure Water initiative has since spun off into a private foundation that has had much success.
For more information about the Brattleboro Rotary Club, visit www.BrattleboroRotaryClub.org or contact Jerome at [email protected] or 802-254-4155.