Meeting Opening: David Dix played God Bless America; Pledge of Allegiance was led by President Randy Smith, and Al Barber provided the Invocation.

 

Guests: Jeff Roeger's guests were his wife, his mother and his neighbors. Bill Childers's guest was Stephanie Schulda from Axcess Point Health Center. Kathy Myers's guests were Mark Pennell, who is considering membership in Kent Rotary, and Steve Bossart, Coleman's new Vice President for Business Development and Marketing (& Kathy's boss).

 

New Member: Shawn Gordon introduced Kent Rotary's newest member Kelly Tremaine. Kelly is a media executive who most recently was with Gannett. He is originally from Florida and was a member of the Hartford, Connecticut Rotary. President Randy administered the oath of membership.

 

November Programs: David Myers announced the November programs being coordinated by Tom Hatch.

 

Announcements: President Randy reminded Rotarians that the Holiday Gala will be online this year and that nominations for Rotarian of the Year should be submitted. Bill Childers asked that the criteria for the award and past recipients be sent out. President Randy responded that there is a direct link on the newsletter for a list of past recipients. Last year's recipient was Todd Kamanesh.

 

100th Anniversary Moment: Jim Myers describted the 10th anniversary event held by the club in Lowry Hall of Kent State College. Wives (aka Rotary Annes) were the guests. A choral group, the 7th man, performed. Membership had dropped from 71 to 63 because of the financial hardships of the Great Depression.

 

Stanton Middle School Student of the Month: Principal Anthony Horton introduced Natalie Roeger. Natalie is an eight grader with a 3.8 gpa. She plays the flute in band, is a member of choir and girls volleyball team. Her teachers describe her as a pleasure to work with. She has taken dance lessons for 10 years. Natalie was a girl scout and is now a boy scout. She is active in her church, Kent United Church of Christ. After she graduates from high school, she'd like to go to MIT and major in engineering. Her proud parents are Jeff and Rachel Roeger.

 

Program: October Program Chair Curt Stumpf introduced Kent Waldeck of Crafted Artisan Meadery as the final fermentation program of the month. Kent is a Rootstown High School and Kent State graduate. He started brewing mead out of his home in North Carolina. The Waldeck's moved back to Ohio and started brewing mead in their Suffield home in 2009-2010. They opened Crafted Artisan Meadery in 2012 and Kent became full time at the meadery in 2015.

Kent said mead is classified as honey wine, even though it is not a wine. Beer is fermented from hops; wine from grapes, and mead from honey. He said mead tends to be sweet but there are some dry meads. His company uses different varietals but mostly wildflower honey.

 

They started out using local honey but found their need was greater than the suppliers could meet. They buy 35,000 pounds of honey a year, mostly from Dutch Gold Honey in central Pennsylvania.

They use fruit, juice and spices to make their modern meads. Alcohol content varies from 6% to 12%. A 30 barrel batch yields about 1,000 gallons.

 

Their meads are sold through craft beer wholesalers and can be found in 13 states from Manhattan to Florida to Wisconsin. Meads are gluten free and can be drunk any way you like.

 

Mead has been around for 9,000 years. The first recordings of mead are from China. Mead is still the main alcoholic drink in Ethiopia. Known as the "nectar of the gods," mead is the oldest alcoholic beverage. Fermenting honey was a way to purify water and had about 3% alcohol consistency.

 

The meadery is located in Suffield, 1189 State Route 43. The company needs more space and considered moving to Ashville, NC, but last September decided to stay in Suffield. Kent will soon be announcing details of that expansion from 2,500 square feet to 12,000 square feet with an expanded tap room and an eatery.

 

Rotarian tasters were Olivia Pilon and Brad Ehrhart. They sampled and commented on Banana Foster Forever, Polynesian, Dragon Heart and Peanut Banana Foster Forever meads.

 

Crafted Artisan Meadery products can be found at the Cheesemonger, 101 Bottles, River Merchant, Acme and Giant Eagle. The meadery is open Monday to Friday 9 to 5 to purchase bottles and the tap room is open Friday from 5 to 9 and Saturday from 12 to 5.

 

As mentioned by Bill Childers, Kent's son has always had a concern for the homeless. Kent worked with the meadery's suppliers to bottle Provision Honey, all profits of which go to charity. The first donation was of $900 to United Way of Portage County's COVID Relief Fund.

 

Response was by Brad Ehrhart, a history buff and one of the Rotarian mead judges.

 

Respectfully submitted by Anita Herington