Members in Attendance (8):  Jim Leyhane, Roberto Martinez, Pat Bailey, Murray Forth, Debbie Rodriguez, Phil Kellerman, Kevin Leyhane and Andy Leyhane.

By Zoom (5): Dean Calamaras, Doris Calamaras, Charlie Foote, Chris Bystroff and Carol Heaney.

Guests (1): Dr. Anshu Chandra

President Roberto Martinez called the meeting to order.

Theme for the year: Grow membership, do good in the world, leverage social capital, & have fun!

Meeting Notes:

Storage: If you have things from storage, for historical record keeping, please send Pat Bailey a picture or list of the item(s) you have.

Speakers: Needed for this year. Contact Phil Kellerman with any speakers. 

Global Grant: Per Roberto Martinez, the Club’s 5K portion has been submitted to the Rotary Foundation. The next step is to see if the well is going to work or not.

Defensive Driving: The AAA course will be held on May 17th at the Nassau Library. We need a minimum of 25 people to sign up. If you are a member of AAA, the cost is $22. If you are a non-member, the cost is $27.

Circles of Mercy, Cate’s Kids Adopt-A-Family Program: Thank you to Carol and Tom Heaney for delivering the gifts to Circles of Mercy on December 16th. Thank you to all who donated.

CNY News: Information on all of this and more is posted to the website, cnyrotary.org.

ClubRunner Webinar Using the CR App, Jan 15^th at 7pmSalesium Webinar for Pros, Jan 22^nd at 7 pm.

CNY Member Orientation, 4^th Tues of each month, Jan 28^th, 7 pm.

Savvy Social Media Webinar, Jan 29^th, 7 pm.

Pre-PEL 1: Club Admin, Feb 2^nd , 7 pm.

Pre-PEL 2: Finance/ Risk Management, Feb 11^th, 7 pm.

Pre-PEL 3: Public Image/ Branding, Feb 19^th 7 pm.

Pre-PEL 4: Membership and Leadership, Feb 27^th, 7 pm.

Rotary Presidential Peace Conference: To be held February 20-22, 2025, at the Hilton Istanbul Bomonti Hotel and Conference Center in Istanbul, Turkey. Register at rotery.org/istanbul25.

RI Conventions: Calgary, June 21-25, 2025.  Minneapolis 2028.  Chicago 2030.

Next Meeting: Thursday, January 16 at 6:00 pm at Moscatiello’s Italian Family Restaurant, Route 4, North Greenbush. Also, you can join by Zoom using the link on the websites calendar page.

Entry Choices will be Antipasto Salad, Penne Alfredo and Spaghetti and Meatballs.

Dr. Chandra was born in India and grew up in the United States and India. She received her Batchelors in Biology at SUNY Albany and her Doctors of Optometry at SUNY College of Optometry in 2008. Dr. Chandra completed her Residency in Ocular Disease at SUNY College of Optometry and Woodhull Medical Center. Following her mother’s example, she looked for opportunities to give back. She ended up going to Fond-des-Blancs,Haiti where eye care is scarce and spent a month working there. She worked part-time jobs so she could continue missions to Haiti. She opened Bay Eye Charitable Foundation Clinic at a hospital in Haiti in 2015 and lived there for 4 years.

At the clinic, they do 12,000 to 15,000 eye exams per year. Staff at the clinic are volunteers and were trained by Dr. Chandra to perform comprehensive eye exams. She established a retinopathy of prematurity screening program in 2019 and pediatric vision screening for children 0-19 years of age. People come from all over Haiti for care making it the busiest clinic in the country.

They are now looking for a new site since the current location can no longer house the clinic. They are also trying to raise money to buy land and build. They are a 501(c )(3) nonprofit organization and all donations will go to building the clinic. To donate or obtain more information, email Anshu.Chandra@gmail.com. A short video is available at: https://youtu.be/zl_tGGOpJ28 and the website is www.globaleyeproject.org.

Happy New Year