MEMBERS ATTENDING (14): Kevin Leyhane, Jim Leyhane, Andy Leyhane, Roberto Martinez, Pat Bailey, Becky Raymond, Ray Hannan, Debbie Rodriguez, Peter Brown, Debbie Brown, Phil Kellerman, Dick Drumm, and Terry Brewer. By Zoom: Murray Fourth, Charlie Foote.

GUESTS: Line (pronounced Leena) Hendriksen and Mike Stangl.

President Kevin Leyhane called the meeting to order.

MEETING NOTES:

Hybrid Meeting:  Please let Kevin Leyhane, Jim Leyhane or Roberto Martinez know if you plan to join the weekly meeting via Zoom.

Proxy Votes:  If unable to attend please submit your proxy votes to Kevin Leyhane. Proxy votes can also be submitted using the Remind App. Text to the number 81010.

Student Exchange Program: We are in communication with Maple Hill High School.

Cafe Capriccio Raffle: Tickets are now available from Andy Leyhane. All members are asked to sell ten raffle tickets for $20 each. The drawing is planned for January 17th. The dinner will be held sometime in February on a date mutually agreeable with the Restaurant and the raffle winner. Raffle proceeds will be used to fund the Student Exchange Program.

Circles of Mercy Adopt a Family:  The Club has adopted two families this year. Their wish lists are now available on the website. Gifts should be wrapped and tagged with family member’s name. Please bring your gifts to the December 8th meeting ore conact Kevin Leyhane to make alternate arrangements. Gifts are due by December 12th. Kevin will deliver them to Circles of Mercy.  The due date may be extended to Dember 15th if Richard accepts our invitation to the Holiday Party.

Holiday Party: Our party is scheduled for December 15th at Moscatiellos. Dinner is $30 per person. The menu is a choice of Eggplant Parmesan, Chicken Caesar salad, Meat Lasagna, or Chicken Marsala plus a side salad and cookies. If you have not yet done so, please let Roberto Martinez know if you are attending and if bringing a guest(s). Please bring your baskets for auction. It was suggested that the cost of assembling the baskets be $30. This has been a successful fundraiser in past years.

Next Meeting – Thursday, December 8, dinner at 6:00 pm at Moscatiello’s Italian Family Restaurant, Route 4, North Greenbush. Also, you can join the by Zoom using the link on the websites calendar page. Our speaker will be Megan Keil, US Peace Corps Recruiter and Rotary member.

Entree choices will be Chicken Ceasar Salad, Meat Lasagna or Cheese Ravioli with marinara or meat sauce.

Line Hendriksen spoke about Apparel Impact which is a textile recycler. The Company was founded in 2014 and is New England based. They have 830 partners that allow Apparel Impact to place recycling bins on their property. The bins are emptied once or twice a week. At the warehouse, the clothing is placed in large sacks that hold 350 to 400 pounds each. The clothing is not sorted. When they have collected 40,000 pounds of textiles, the sacks are picked up and are sold to wholesale brokers. The sacks end up in sorting centers are then shipped to Central and South America, Africa and Mexico. Apparel Impact has recovered 6.5 million pounds of textiles. Over 700,000 tons of used clothing is sent to other countries annually. The economies in these countries are positively impacted through the creation of markets and jobs. 87% are women owned businesses.

Did you know:

70% of the world population can’t afford new clothes.

8% of global carbon emissions are produced by the textile industry.

1.3 million gallons of water are used per year in fabric dyeing. You can see next seasons fashion colors in Chinese rivers.

It takes 750 gallons of water to manufacture one tee shirt.

14 million tons of textile waste are generated in the U.S. annually.

Only 15% of textile are recycled. The rest end up in landfills.

American taxpayers spend 900 million dollars per year on landfills.

We can address some of these issues by keeping the textile waste out of landfills by recycling them. You can also have clothing swaps. Textiles can be upcycled. Used textiles are used for stuffing seats in cars and for insulation. Ideally, rethink clothing purchases. Do we really need that article of clothing?