MEMBERS ATTENDING (13): Jim Leyhane, Roberto Martinez, Peter Brown, Debbie Brown, Murray Forth, Pat Bailey, Dick Drumm, Andy Leyhane, Ray Hannan, Debbie Rodriguez and Phil Kellerman, Via Zoom: Charlie Foote and Carol Orvis.

GUESTS (2): Jimmy Thomas and Ruth Samuels.

Vice-President Peter Brown called the meeting to order.

Theme for the Year: “Growing Fellowship and Service Locally and Globally.” 

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 President Kevin Leyhane or any board member who will be attending the meeting. Proxy votes can also be submitted using the Remind App. Text to the number 81010.

MEETING NOTES

Circles of Mercy Easter Basket Program:  Partnering with Shannon Romanowski of the East Greenbush YMCA, over 30 Easter Baskets were assembled and delivered to Circles of Mercy in Rensselaer.  Thank you to everyone who donated and delivered donations to the YMCA.

Rotary Bowling Event:  The event was a huge success.  The Club raised $1088. Phil Kellerman drooped off the donated food along with a check for $544 to the Anchor Food Pantry. The remainder of the money will go to the Water for South Sudan Project, organized by 7th grade students from the Maple Hill junior/Senior School. Phil will check with Christine Fowler regarding the possibility of presenting the check to the students at school or at an upcoming meeting. Thank you to Phil for organizing the event, and everyone who donated time and money especially Pat Bailey, Debbie Brown and Peter Brown for manning the tables and to Murray Forth for making the signs. We are planning to make this an annual event.

Website Updates:  We are in the process of updating club information on our websites, currently there are three of them: MYRotary (International), ClubRunner (District), and SRCRotary.org.  As you use these websites, please check please check the information for accuracy, especially your contact information.

Exchange Program: Peter Brown and Jim Leyhane met with students and parents (approximately 20 people) at an evening event at Maple Hill. The School’s International Club will be making a couple of trips on their own, one to Montreal. There is an exchange request for next summer for a student to visit Australia.

Next Meeting: Thursday, April 13, 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. This will be a Club Assembly.

Entree choices will be Chicken Rustica Salid, Lasagna and Penne Ala Vodka.

Jimmy Thomas is a member of the Glenville Rotary Club. He is also an Army Veteran who recently lost his service dog Boots. Service dogs are trained to assist individuals with physical and/or emotional problems, for example, providing help to someone experiencing seizures, calming someone with PTSD and helping those with visual or hearing disabilities navigate. Having Boots changed Jimmy’s life. Jimmy will be getting another service dog in the future who he will name Duke.

Many veterans suffer from traumatic brain injury, PTSD or amputations. They have a 50% higher risk of suicide. More than 114,000 veterans have died by suicide since 2001. Veterans are in need of service dogs. The military does not provide nor does insurance cover the cost for service dogs. Trained service dogs can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $75,000. Jimmy and the Glenville Rotary Club established Doggie Paddle in order to help veterans obtain a service dog.

Jimmy travelled 2,000 miles by kayak from Albany, New York to Key West Florida and he biked 1,945 miles from Key West to Albany “to raise money and awareness for those veterans in need of a service dog.” Along the way, he attended many Rotary meetings and was hosted by a number of Rotarians. Some of his experience included being forced out of the Hudson River because of six-foot waves produced by a hurricane. He reentered the water in New Jersey. A ferry boat hit him in the Delaware Bay. He met two Rotarians who loaded his kayak on top of their car and drove him across the Bay. Kayaks are only 8 inches out of the water which was very scary during a bad storm in Titusville. At one point, sharks swam around the kayak. Jimmy thought that was because the local fishermen used chum and the sharks were then drawn to the kayak looking for food. He was also rammed by a 12-foot alligator. One of the manatees he encountered lifted the kayak up out of the water. Dolphins swam back and forth under his kayak. While biking back, he was hit by a car twice and, at one point, his eyes froze shut. His determination kept him going to prove to those who thought that he could not do this that he could.

Jimmy Thomas has raised a quarter of a million dollars so far for Doggie Paddle. For more information, visit the website at http://www.doggiepaddle.org. You can also attend the Glenville Rotary Foundation Dinner on April 8th.