Members in Attendance (12):  Roberto Martinez, Jim Leyhane, Debbie Brown, Pat Bailey, Peter Brown, Dick Drumm, Debbie Rodriguez, Ray Hannan, Kevin Leyhane, Phil Kellerman, Andy Leyhand and Jeff Simon.

By Zoom (1):  Charlie Foote.

Guests (1): Pam Simon.

President Brown called the meeting to order. 

Theme for the Year: “Building Community”

MEETING NOTES:

Holiday Schedule: There is no Rotary meeting next week.

Adopt a Family: Richard Zazycki, Executive Director of Circles of Mercy, will assign either a family of six or two familes of three to the Club. They are in the process of getting the gift lists from the families and will contact us when the information is complete. Donations are due by Friday, December 15th. Debbie Rodriguez and Debbie Brown will collect the donations and deliver them to Circles of Mercy.

Holiday Party and Silent Auction: The party will be held on December 14th at Moscatiellos. The cost is $30 per person. If you have not yet done so, please contact Roberto Martinez and let him know your intention to participate and the number in your party. Phil Kellerman is organizing a silent auction this year. He is seeking donations. Please call or email him at philkellerman77@gmail.com about your donation. Past donations have included gift baskets, bottles of wine and gift cards.

Water for Kenya: During Peter and Debbie Brown’s recent trip to Maasai Mara Kenya, they connected with the local people in the area. They found that there is a need for a well (bore hole). Women walk long distances to obtain water which creates both physical and economic issues. Peter Brown spoke to the person in charge of water projects at Rotary International. There is a grant available to develop water projects. We need a partner club in the Kenya/Ethiopia District. Peter is looking into which club in the area is appropriate for the project. They must have the capacity to do the project. He is focusing on Narok County. Per Jeff Simon, the students from the East Greenbush Central School District might be interested in this project.

Next Meeting: Thursday, November 30th, 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 Cathy Krueger from Saint Joseph Place.

Entree choices are Chicken Ceasar Salid, Cheese Ravioli or Spaghetti and Meatballs.

Jeff Simon came up with the idea of starting a District wide book club. The district has 4,000 students and 800 staff. The district had worked through a lot of challenges and a book club would be a way of bringing everyone together incorporating diversity, inclusion, belonging and promoting connections. The Committe to Promote Global Education implemented Superintendent Simon’s idea. The Committe selected the book “The Elephant in the Room” by Holy Goldberg Sloan, about a girl, missing her mother who befriended an autistic boy and the widow of one of her teachers who won a lottery and rescued an elephant from a circus. The book was appropriate for elementary, middle and high school students. Everyone in the District was invited to join the project.

With the help of local organizations such as Rotary, Kiwanis, the Elks, the Green Meadow PTO, the East Greenbush Teachers Association and Wayne Pratt and Sons, enough books were purchased so that anyone who wanted a book got one.

The project ran from March through April 2023. Families were encouraged to read the books together. Guest speakers were recruited to read chapters. The district set up a guest speaker Video Library which was posted on their website. They hosted family reading nights at the school with discussion groups. The “Where is Vita?” part of the project involved students visiting community businesses and organizations such as, the YMCA, Hannaford, Stewarts, and the Nassau and North and East Green Libraries where they looked for the stuffed elephant, Vita (which traveled around the community). If they found Vita, snapped a picture and posted it at school, the student was eligible to participate in a raffle for prizes.

The service portion of the project involved the collection of spare change for earthquake relief in Turkey. The students raised around $1,200 dollars. Students also worked together. High school students went to the elementary school and helped the students with writing and art projects based on the book. The author, Holy Goldberg Sloan, visited with 4th and 5th graders on April 3rd and spoke about her writing process, career and the importance of reading. The visit was video streamed to the rest of the schools.

Per Superintendent Simon, the project was a great success. They received a lot of positive feedback. They do plan to do the project again.