About Our Club

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SOUTHERN RENSSELAER COUNTY ROTARY CLUB
P.O. Box 71
East Greenbush, New York USA 12061

email: SRCrotary1960@gmail.com

website: SRCrotary.org

Geographic Designations: Club #4919, Area 8, District 7190, Zone 5

Board of Directors for the 2022-22 Rotary Year (July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022)

President: Kevin Leyhane
President-elect: Peter Brown
Vice President: James Leyhane
Treasurer: Murray Forth
Secretary: Patricia Bailey
Immediate Past President: Debbie Rodriguez
Directors-at-Large: Roberto Martinez, Dean Calamaras, Becky Raymond

The Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club was chartered on March 2, 1960, as the East Greenbush Rotary Club. The name was changed in the 1990s to reflect the expansion of its area of membership and service.

From September through June we conduct dinner meetings at 6:15 a.m. each Thursday. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic we began holding virtual meetings via ZOOM at 7 p.m. each week. Current plans call for alternating virtual and in-person meetings, although arrangements still are being developed. If you are fully vaccinated and would like to be involved in an in-person meeting, please let us know no later than Tuesday evening and we will see to it that you are emailed the details; if you request virtual attendance we will email you the ZOOM link.

During July and August, also under normal circumstances, we hold a series called “SRC Summer Casual,” social events such as informal picnic-style events at various members’ homes, club-wide excursions such as attending professional summer theater performances, professional baseball games and picnics, etc. And, we hold an annual December holiday party and gift basket silent auction event, with proceeds from the latter going to the club treasury to support numerous public service initiatives. All of these events are designed to be social and family friendly. (Click here for a revolving calendar of our activities, updated on a regular basis.)

SRC is part of Rotary District 7190, which covers 40 individual clubs in a nine-county area of Upstate New York and which itself is a segment of Rotary International, a global organization of more than 33,000 clubs in more than 200 countries comprising the 1.23-million-member organization now in its 115th year of public service.

The men and women of Rotary are volunteers working together in an inclusive manner in many fields to improve the lives of people everywhere.

Rotarians focus our efforts in six areas:

  • Peace and conflict prevention/resolution
  • Disease prevention and treatment
  • Water and sanitation
  • Maternal and child health
  • Basic education and literacy
  • Economic and community development

We are especially dedicated to ending polio in our lifetimes. For more than 30 years Rotarians have persevered in the fight against this infectious disease that once occurred everywhere on Earth, and have helped eradicate endemic polio in all but two countries — Pakistan and Afghanistan. In  each of those countries our immunization  efforts have been stymied by ongoing terrorist attacks against polio volunteer workers and even against their police and military protection. Yet, we persevere despite that and COVID-19.

Here is a sampling — and it truly is just a sampling — of SRC’s work in our community during normal times:

Locally, we regularly provide assistance in the categories of:

• youth scholarships, leadership training, and foreign exchange study

• aid to military veterans and their families

• curriculum and supplies for schools

• food pantry support

• holiday adoptions of children and families in need

• recycling and conservation

• athletes with disabilities through The Miracle League

• assisting helping-organizations such as Circles of Mercy, Ronald McDonald House, the YMCA, and Scouting

Globally, we support:

• lifesaving pediatric cardiac surgeries through the Gift of Life program

• aid to victims of natural and man-made disasters through the ShelterBox relief agency

• ongoing vaccination efforts through PolioPlus that have nearly eradicated the once-prevalent disease from the planet

• hygiene and medical training programs for women in African nations through the Freedom From Fistula Foundation

You can keep up with Southern Rensselaer County Rotary’s activities via our website or our Facebook page.