The SRC Dinner Crew (l to r back row): Roberto Martinez, Julius Frankel, Peter Brown, Phil Kellerman, Debbie Rodriguez. Front row: Efrosini Frankel, Debbie Brown, Carole Spencer.Roberto posts the dinner menu on the chalkboard.
The latest cooking effort by Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club at Ronald McDonald House in Albany on Wednesday was a big hit.
As Roberto Martinez reported:
“Before we started cooking a couple came up to thank us. … They remarked how words couldn’t explain how much it was appreciated and what a blessing it was to have someone helping them with the food. Their child was in the hospital for the last week.
“I spoke to a child while he was eating and asked what was his favorite. ‘The tortellini, the broccoli in the salad, and the chicken nuggets’,” he replied.
“The family … reminded us of why we were there and what is means to be a Rotarian.”
Thanks to the volunteers in the kitchen, and to those who helped put the event together ahead of time.
If you know any students who will be in the 2017-18 junior class at their school and are looking for something different in the way of life prep — or any school administrators/counselors interested in getting their potential leaders into one of Rotary’s top training courses for young people — you’re in luck.
We have just posted the downloadable 2017-18 RYLA brochure here on our website. Just click here to go to it and follow the download link.
Everything anyone needs to know about participating in RYLA, a weekly series of events running from September through March, is on that page and in the brochure. Check it out.
A portion of the 70-plus relay participants gather to begin handing off (at left) the “beer bottle baton.”(Photos from the Falmouth Packet, UK)
ShelterBox, now a renowned global disaster aid organization, began in 2000 as an idea with the Rotary Club of Helston, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom.
Today, it regularly serves thousands and thousands of people in dozens of countries who have been hit with earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, hurricanes, avalanches, mudslides, cyclones, displacement because of warfare and terrorism, and other disasters.
To maintain the pace of aid requires money. Our own Southern Rensselaer County club is a “Silver Level Hero” award holder from ShelterBox USA (click here to see the award). Many individuals contribute to the cause, and many others around the world find ways to become involved in a variety of fundraisers that raise funds to support the organization. But, that doesn’t mean the folks in ShelterBox’s home area have relaxed and left the work to others elsewhere.
Recently, for example, a group of about 70 enthusiastic university students and others ran, swam, cycled, and kayaked around the Cornish coastline in the latest local effort, an epic 230-mile relay called “Rally 4 ShelterBox 2017.” It was a relay split into 23 grueling legs covered over a weekend — running swimming, kayaking and cycling. For a touch of fun, the “baton” passed from leg to leg was a bottle of local beer.
A relay runner “collapses” while swim relayers reach for the “beer bottle baton.”
Jake Dowling, FXU Geography Society president and event coordinator, called the effort “a weekend like no other, a chance to see amazing people pushed to their limits all for ShelterBox.”
The relay raised £3,000 (about $3,200 US) for ShelterBox. While the total was not an astounding amount, the event served to expand the public’s awareness of ShelterBox and its humanitarian work, something that no doubt will help raise even more funds in the future.
Natural and man-made disasters never stop, and ShelterBox has no plans to stop either.
A lighthearted reenactment of passing of the “beer bottle baton.”
“Certainly the weather today isn’t the best for outdoor activities, but remembering our men and women who have served our country can happen despite the weather. Thanks to Bill Dowd for the website post on the history and significance of Memorial Day. If you have not yet seen it, click here to check it out.
“Our guest speaker this week will be Alyssa Evans, Student Assistance Counselor working with students from Columbia High School and Goff Middle School. Her topic, an unfortunately timely one, is “Combating Heroin.”
“The dinner menu will include turkey and all the fixin’s, including salad, chef’s choice of sides, bread, dessert and beverages. And, as always, the cash bar is available before, during and after the meeting.
“The following members have indicated their intent to be with us. If your plans can include an evening with Rotary and you are not on this list, please let me know at mdbrown@nycap.rr.com no later than Tuesday evening. We also need to know if you plan to bring guests.”
Pat Bailey
Geoff Brewer
Terry Brewer
Debbie Brown
Peter Brown
April Dowd
Bill Dowd
Murray Forth
Julius Frankel
Ray Hannan
Roberto Martinez
Becky Raymond
Debbie Rodriguez
Alyssa Evans (guest speaker)
Club member A.J. Amato isn’t taking it easy while on vacation. Here’s proof — catching dinner on the Middle Provo River near Park City, Utah, one of several spots he’s been fishing on his western tour.
Fair warning: We’re probably going to hear a lot of fishing stories when we get together for our club’s “Summer Casual” events!
Not familiar with our “Summer Casual” lineup of family-oriented events?
For shame. All you have to do is click here and bookmark it to stay up to date.
Beyond the cookouts, the holiday sales, the family trips, picnics and parades there is a deep and profound reason for Memorial Day.
Although we honor all military personnel, Memorial Day is specifically designated as honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War but did not become an official federal holiday until 1971.
The Civil War, which ended in the spring of 1865, obviously claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history because all combatants were Americans, and it required the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries.
By the late 1860s, Americans in various communities had begun holding springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers, reciting prayers and decorating their graves with flowers — thus the original name of Decoration Day.
Each year on Memorial Day a national moment of remembrance takes place at 3 p.m. local time. It is unclear exactly where this tradition originated. Numerous communities may have independently initiated the memorial gatherings. Nevertheless, in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the “Official Birthplace of Memorial Day.”
Waterloo, which first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866, was chosen because it hosted an annual community-wide event during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.
On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance later that month. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed.
The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it was not the anniversary of any particular battle.
On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried there.
Many Northern states held similar commemorative events and reprised the tradition in subsequent years; by 1890 each one had made Decoration Day an official state holiday. Southern states, on the other hand, continued to honor their dead on separate days until after World War I.
Although Memorial Day originally honored only those lost in the Civil War, American involvement in The Great War, later called World War I, made it evolve to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars.
For decades, Memorial Day continued to be observed on May 30, the date Logan had selected for the first Decoration Day. But, in 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, a controversial decision that moved several major holidays from their traditional or historic dates to Mondays that gave federal — and later on state and local — employees three-day paid weekends. The law went into effect in 1971.
REQUIEM
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie:
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you ‘grave for me:
Here he lies where he long’d to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
Here’s the flash drive containing our new video “Making Polio History: A Pioneer’s Story.” It will be shared with some key people at the Rotary International Convention in Atlanta next month that will be attended by Roberto Martinez, Jim Leyhane, and Dick Drumm.
Dinner Meeting at Quigley’s Restaurant 593 Columbia Turnpike East Greenbush, NY
May 25, 2017
Members Attending (16): Debbie Rodriguez, Roberto Martinez, Murray Forth, Pat Bailey, Jim Leyhane, Bill Dowd, Dick Drumm, Maggie Forth, Dean Calamaras, Doris Calamaras, Ray Hannan, Debbie Brown, Peter Brown, Julius Frankel, Phil Kellerman, Stewart Wagner.
Guests (8): Mary Drumm, Efrosini Frankel, Jeremy Forth, Robert Parzak, Troop 41 representatives Dennis Cicchino, Frankie Conrad, Mike Manning, and Alex Manning.
PROGRAM: “Toilet Paper and Its Connection To Albany”
Stewart Wagner describes some of the paper industry pioneers.Toilet paper holders/cutters from Stewart Wagner’s collection.
Club member Stewart Wagner, an eclectic collector and researcher in various fields, provided an unusual and interesting look at Albany’s role in the creation, production and popularization of something our society takes for granted — modern toilet paper.
Stewart showed slides of the first “official” toilet paper, made in ancient China. but noted that there was not widespread acceptance of the paper globally until the 19th Century. In 1857, a company founded by Joseph C. Gayetty made the first commercial product, originally sold in packs of 500 sheets. The company did not survive.
Sam Wheeler, who was born in Chatham, founded the APW Paper Company and in 1871 secured the first patent for a roll of “wrapping paper,” which it usually was called because the word “toilet” wasn’t used in polite society.
The toilet paper we know of today was an Albany invention. It came in a box and in 1891 Seth Wheeler received a patent for the roll of toilet paper.
Some of Stewart’s remarks were in a lighthearted manner, such as asking the audience whether they put their toilet paper in holders over or under. As noted in the patent drawings, he said, it should be over. That way there is less wasted paper, the roll can be controlled better, and the paper does not slide against the wall as it is being unfurled — something that was especially important in the days of outhouses.
Stewart also passed around a collection of antique paper holders, some of which were simple devices, others with cutting or perforating components. Many bore the names of Albany companies. APW not only made its own paper, it marketed and distributed papers produced by other companies such as the Fort Orange Paper Company in Castleton. He also displayed slides showing a collection of advertising posters and displays.
In addition to the slides, Stewart described how toilet paper is made, that it is important to use one-ply paper in homes and other buildings that have septic systems rather than sewer connections (the thinner paper breaks down more quickly and efficiently). And, he noted the environmental impact caused in one year by the paper manufacturing process — 1.5 million trees crushed, 253 gallons of chlorine used, 475 trillion gallons of water needed, and so forth.
BUSINESS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
Troop 41 Scoutmaster Dennis Cicchino displays a $450 check from SRC.
SCOUT TROOP GRANT — President Debbie Rodriguez presented a check for $450 to Boy Scout Troop 41 Scoutmaster Dennis Cicchino as an annual SRC grant to help support the troop’s activities. Dennis introduced Assistant Scoutmasters Frankie Conrad and Mike Manning, and 1st Class Scout Alex Manning, and outlined the activities the Scouts have been involved in during the past year and what they have coming up. He also confirmed that the Viking Gym project currently under construction by Eagle Scout candidate Lorenzo Gonzales at Schodack Town Park with support from SRC, Top Form, and the town will continue to be expanded by Troop 41 Eagle candidates in future years until the project is completed.
ELECTION WRAPUP — Dick Drumm offered a motion, seconded by Debbie Brown, regarding formalizing the club’s Board for 2017-18: “Move that Pat Bailey be approved as Secretary, Murray Forth as Treasurer, and Bill Dowd, Jim Leyhane, Andy Leyhane and Terry Brewer as At-Large Directors for the 2017-18 Rotary Year, in addition to the officers approved on May 18.” The motion was approved without dissent. Apropos the affirmative May 18 vote, as of July 1 Roberto Martinez will become President, Ron Annis and Jim Butterworth co-Presidents-elect, and Ray Hannan Vice President. Debbie Rodriguez automatically will become Immediate Past President and remain a Board member.
CHANGEOVER EVENTS — Peter and Debbie Brown again will host the club’s Presidential Changeover Dinner, scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, June 29 (details to come). And, the District 7190 Changeover Luncheon will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, June 25, at River Stone Manor, 1437 Amsterdam Road, Scotia. The District will put online registration information on its website. (Click here to visit it.)
RONALD McDONALD HOUSE — We have a sizeable contingent lined up to cook dinner for 40 to 50 guests next Wednesday, May 31, at the Ronald McDonald House complex in Albany. Volunteers include Roberto Martinez, Debbie and Peter Brown, Carole Spencer, Debbie Rodriguez, Phil Kellerman, and Julius and Efie Frankel (with Jim Leyhane helping in the purchasing process and Bill Dowd in the menu creation).
NEXT MEETING — 6:15 p.m. Thursday, June 1, at Quigley’s. Alyssa Evans, Student Assistance Counselor at Columbia High School and Goff Middle School, will speak on “Combating Heroin.”
The video “Making Polio History: A Pioneer’s Story” made its debut at the recent District 7190 Conference in Lake George. To help disseminate the word about this important development in educating all Rotarians and the public in general about this insidious disease that has long been a target of Rotary funding and action around the world, we are trying to make the video available to as many people as possible.
This is the story of the disease and the battle against it, as seen through the eyes of a local pediatrician who was among the early anti-polio researchers — Dr. Martha Lepow, seen above in the 1950s.
If you have not yet seen the video, we urge you to watch it now on the new page that has just been added to our club website (click here to visit it). Then, share it with others via Facebook, Twitter, email or any other method you choose.
The video was created through a cooperative effort of the Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club, Rotary District 7190, CASDA: The Capital Area School Development Association, and the UAlbany School of Public Health.
• Ron Annis reports on the Viking Gym construction at Schodack Town Park, a co-op venture of SRC, Eagle Scout candidate Lorenzo Gonzalez (shown above), Top Form, and the Town of Schodack:
“So many people helping on the Viking Gym project. A big thank you to Ken Holmes, Schodack Highway Superintendent and Bruce Goodall, director of the town Transfer Station, for arranging wood chips.
“Leo and other Troop 41 Scouts are arranging a final work day for Saturday, June 10, to spread chips and finalize small projects from 9 to 11 a.m. Want to help? Just email Leo at: 17gonzalle1@egcsd.org to let him know.
“We are almost there. The heavy-lift station is being finalized. Three stations to start: Chin up, crunches and heavy lift. Several Eagle Scout projects to follow over next few years should give us a complete gym.”
If you know any students who will be in the 2017-18 junior class at their school and are looking for something different in the way of life prep — or any school administrators/counselors interested in getting their potential leaders into one of Rotary’s top training courses for young people — you’re in luck.
“Certainly the weather today isn’t the best for outdoor activities, but remembering our men and women who have served our country can happen despite the weather. Thanks to Bill Dowd for the website post on the history and significance of Memorial Day. If you have not yet seen it, 
Beyond the cookouts, the holiday sales, the family trips, picnics and parades there is a deep and profound reason for Memorial Day.
Dinner Meeting at Quigley’s Restaurant
ELECTION WRAPUP — Dick Drumm offered a motion, seconded by Debbie Brown, regarding formalizing the club’s Board for 2017-18: “Move that Pat Bailey be approved as Secretary, Murray Forth as Treasurer, and Bill Dowd, Jim Leyhane, Andy Leyhane and Terry Brewer as At-Large Directors for the 2017-18 Rotary Year, in addition to the officers approved on May 18.” The motion was approved without dissent. Apropos the affirmative May 18 vote, as of July 1 Roberto Martinez will become President, Ron Annis and Jim Butterworth co-Presidents-elect, and Ray Hannan Vice President. Debbie Rodriguez automatically will become Immediate Past President and remain a Board member.
RONALD McDONALD HOUSE — We have a sizeable contingent lined up to cook dinner for 40 to 50 guests next Wednesday, May 31, at the Ronald McDonald House complex in Albany. Volunteers include Roberto Martinez, Debbie and Peter Brown, Carole Spencer, Debbie Rodriguez, Phil Kellerman, and Julius and Efie Frankel (with Jim Leyhane helping in the purchasing process and Bill Dowd in the menu creation).
Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club 