Heather Shouldice, the former owner of a well-known downtown business and currently a Montpelier-based lobbyist was recently named president of the Montpelier Rotary Club. She takes over from Andrew Brewer, the owner of Onion River Sports on Langdon Street, who served as president for the last year.
Shouldice and her family for many years ran The Country Store on Main Street, across from City Hall. The business was forced to close in 2003 after the building it was housed in was partly destroyed when a fire spread from a nearby building. Shouldice served as the executive director of the Montpelier Downtown Community Association and also served a stint in the Legislature as an Independent. She began government relations work by joining her father, Bill, at William Shouldice and Associates LLC in 2005.
Shouldice takes over a club that manages over $1 million in scholarship funds, this year awarding $34,000 to central Vermont Students. The club focuses on community, literacy and youth activities. They provide dictionaries to every third grader in the Montpelier school system; award more than $15,000 each year to deserving organizations and work tirelessly with 1.2 million other Rotarians worldwide to eradicate Polio. Additionally Rotary has sponsored a Montpelier student through an exchange to spend this coming year in Switzerland. The club also holds an annual speech contest and annually recognizes “Citizen of the Year.”
“With her broad experience in Montpelier, Heather will be a fantastic leader of the Montpelier Rotary Club,” Brewer said. “Her organizational skills are excellent, and her commitment to the Montpelier community is deep – we lucky to have her.”
In other changes at the club, Michael Dellipriscoli will take over the duties of secretary from Sherry Goulette and Dave Rubel will be replacing Tom Golonka, a past president, on the Board of Directors. Every year the Montpelier Rotary Club hosts several events to support the club’s giving. This coming year the club will raise the majority of its funds through the Annual Holiday Raffle in December, coordination of the Montpelier Mile foot race through downtown and the annual rose sale. Later this fall, the club will hold the Montpelier Rotary Golf Challenge. The event will take place October 15th at Stowe Country Club. Club members are seeking sponsors and players for the event.