News of this New York State club that practices "Service Above Self"
Author: SRCrotary
A volunteer service club located in Rensselaer County, NY, that is part of Rotary International, the 1.23 million-member international organization of men and women serving their community and their world.
The final picnic-and-pool-party of SRC’s “Summer Casual” season was held under friendly skies Thursday night, co-hosted by Jim and Andy Leyhane at Jim’s East Greenbush residence.
A nice turnout with plenty of kids frolicking in the pool and hot tub, adults frolicking through the beverage bar, family and guests mingling with Rotarians, and a dinner of barbecued chicken, mac and cheese and broccoli salad plus a lineup of member-contributed appetizers and desserts filled the evening and our bellies. Many thanks to the Leyhanes for their hosting skills and energy.
Next Thursday will be our visit to the Mac Haydn Theatre in Chatham for a performance of “Monty Python’s Spamalot.” Then, on Thursday, August 24, Ray Hannan will host a picnic at Eastwyck Village. If you haven’t yet let him know whether you will or will not attend — and how many will be in your party — please email him no later than Monday, August 21 at ray110b@yahoo.com one way or the other.
Meanwhile, here are some images from Thursday night’s event, courtesy of Bill Dowd, Roberto Martinez, and Carol Orvis.
Mary, one of our new members — with a future Rotarian?Tending to the youngest Leyhane generation.Is Len’s mind on his next distance running event?Bill never could get the hang of the spoon-on-the-nose trick.Staking out poolside seats.A poolside confab.A refreshment break from the pool.The cool table.The Koshykars eyeball the appetizer table.Practicing the royal wave.The Brewers with our newest member, Kevin Leyhane.Hot tub inhabitants.Debbie in seasonally-appropriate finery.Andy shows off a few of the school supplies collected for the annual drive.OK, what are they looking at? …
Joshua Kenna, one of the recipients of Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club scholarship awards this year, was featured in a story in the Times Union about his latest accomplishment — having his original short play produced at Capital Repertory Theatre.
Josh, who graduated this year from Rensselaer Junior-Senior High School as class vice president, still plans to enroll at Keuka College in the fall, but the experience has changed his plans for a major. Read on for the details.
Joshua Kenna, foreground, watches a rehearsal of “Inside My Head” with Capital Rep’s Margaret Hall. Behind them are Kenna’s brother, Joe, and father, Jack. (Photos by Claire Hughes/Times Union) Actors rehearse “Inside My Head” at Capital Rep. At top is John McCorkle, 16, of Troy. At the table, from left are, Matthew Bonacci, 17, of Bethlehem, Caroline Skrebutenas, 13, of Niskayuna, Jayden Wojcik, 12, of North Greenbush, and Liesel Gerstenbreger, 19, of Clifton Park.
THEATER
Inside his autistic brother’s head
Student wrote play in effort to understand sibling’s experience
By Claire Hughes
Times Union
ALBANY — When 18-year-old Joshua Kenna’s English teacher nudged him to write his first play, the high school senior knew what he wanted to create: words to help understand what his older brother Joe was going through as they grew up.
Joe Kenna doesn’t talk. The 19-year-old Rensselaer man has autism and is mostly nonverbal.
So Joshua put down on the page a character named Ethan who reveals what Joe might have said, if he could have, as his parents struggled with his diagnosis, where to send him to school and their divorce.
This weekend, Ethan will come to life on the stage as the completion of Capital Repertory Theatre’s Young Playwright Contest. Joshua’s drama, “Inside My Head,” is an effort of empathy that changed him in the process of writing it.
With a scant 10 minutes in which to pack the story of Joe’s life — that’s the limit for the plays entered into the Cap Rep contest — Joshua carefully chose four scenes, with the last one harkening back to the first.
He knew a key scene well. It’s a fight he and Joe had. But for two others — Joe’s diagnosis and his parents’ decision to place him in a school for special-needs children — Joshua had to do some research. So he interviewed his parents.
The result is an honest and heartfelt drama with a maturity that Margaret Hall, the assistant to the artistic director at Capital Rep, called rare for a teen playwright. Joshua doesn’t hold back on the tough scenes, but it’s not the anger in the play that’s unusual. It’s the fact that he moves through it, Hall said.
“It’s different in that it takes a positive spin, even when the moments are difficult,” Hall said.
The play begins with Ethan’s diagnosis at age 2 1/2, and with his parents’ struggle to accept it. Then it fast-forwards several years to a fight his parents have over where to send him to school. It’s the kind of conflict many parents will recognize, perhaps especially those who have argued over how to address a difficult-to-absorb diagnosis: It’s emotionally raw with lots of yelling.
It wasn’t easy to watch as a parent, who remembered the moment from a different perspective, said Joshua’s father, Jack Kenna. When he watched it, he thought the father was a jerk. But Jack, as well as Joshua’s mother, Mary, and other brother, John, thought it would be OK to see some rough patches in their family history on stage if it would help others understand autism.
Jack and Mary are divorced, and that decision has a role in the play, too. Ethan blames the fighting on his autism.
But the real emotional kicker is the scene from Joshua’s own memory. Teenage Ethan and his younger brother Edward are fighting over getting to use the computer, when Edward screams in frustration, “Ethan, will you listen to me for once?!” “ARE YOU EVEN IN THERE?!” Ethan replies with a note: “Sorry for autism.”
Then Edward cries and apologizes. And an older Ethan, narrating, says to the audience, “That was the day when I finally understood nothing could or would change me. I am autistic, and that’s OK.”
And that is the message of Joshua’s play: It’s OK to be autistic or disabled. Or as Edward says to Ethan, “You’re my brother, buddy. You’ve nothing to be sorry for.”
Joshua, who graduated from Rensselaer Junior-Senior High School in June, thought he wanted to pursue writing in college. But he changed his mind after writing “Inside My Head.” He’s going to Keuka College to study occupational therapy, with a minor in creative writing.
“I realized I wanted to do something to help.”
YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS CONTEST
• Where: Capital Repertory Theatre, 111 North Pearl Street, Albany
• When: 4 p.m. Thursday-Friday; 11 a.m. Saturday; 6 p.m. Sunday. Admission: Free
• More info:https://school.proctors.org/therep
SRC’s Becky Raymond at Rotary-Peace Corps Partnership meeting in Denver.
Southern Rensselaer County Rotary member Becky Raymond attended the recent Rotary-Peace Corps Partnership meeting in Denver, CO, that preceded the annual National Peace Corps Association conference. Most of the participants were both Rotarians and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers.
The purpose of the meeting was to underscore the goals of the “Rotary-Peace Corps Memorandum of Understanding,” and for participants to leave with tools and resources that will help further strengthen the relationship between the two organizations.
At the conference itself, Becky led a breakout session entitled “Collaborative Partnerships.” It highlighted the collaboration between the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Northeastern New York, Rotary, the University at Albany, and the Freedom From Fistula Foundation to raise funds for prevention and treatment of obstetric fistula.
Speakers included Victor Barnes, Rotary Director of Programs and Grants; Ashley Bell, Associate Director of External Affairs at Peace Corps; Ellina Kushnir, supervisor of the Rotary Service and Engagement portfolio; Ted Adams, Peace Corps Director of the Office of Strategic Partnerships and Intergovernmental Affairs; several members of Denver area Rotary clubs, the District Governor, and a Rotary Scholar.
The second and final cookout and pool party combo on our SRC “Summer Casual” calendar is set for 6 p.m. this Thursday at Jim Leyhane’s East Greenbush residence, hosted by Jim and Andy.
It’s a family-friendly event, so feel free to bring the kids, friends, etc. The only requirement: email Jim at Leyhane@aol.com by Tuesday evening to let him know if you plan to attend and how many will be in your party or even to inform him if you do not plan to join us.
(The latter request is to help us be assured all SRC members are receiving our periodic electronic communications and not missing an opportunity to socialize with fellow Rotarians and friends.)
Jim and Andy are taking care of the bulk of the meal, but we do ask attendees to bring a small appetizer or dessert to fill out the menu.
PLUS …
If you have not yet made your contributions to our annual school supplies drive for needy kids in the Rensselaer City School District, you can give them to project coordinator Andy Leyhane at Thursday’s social event.
(If you need a reminder of the shopping “wish list” items, check the club website for a complete rundown. Please remember we need plenty of backpacks so the volunteers at Circles of Mercy can package the supplies for individual students,)
This is a major annual effort that fits into Rotary’s avenues of service mantra — education being one of them. We encourage Rotarians to get their kids or grandkids involved in the shopping for supplies to encourage a mindset of “kids helping kids.”
If for some reason you’re not involved in any of your club’s “Summer Casual” activities but nevertheless would like to contribute school supplies, please contact Andy for pickup. Couldn’t be simpler.
Xavier Schmitt proudly shows off his latest Legos success.
Xavier Schmitt, grandson of Debbie and Chuck Rodriguez, has been the happy recipient of a wide series of Legos building kits to keep him occupied as he undergoes a lengthy, difficult regimen of chemotherapy for leukemia.
Cole Schmitt a happy boy.
Debbie reports that Xavier sends his thanks from Connecticut after completing his latest Legos project — the futuristic fighter plane shown above — while he was in clinic.
Xavier now is in remission and out of the hospital, and, says Debbie, “The plan is for him to return to school in September. He also told me he would like to visit Rotary some day. Thank you to all for your support during this difficult time.”
And, of course, little brother Cole also says thank you for the Legos kits he received from our club as part of a project conceived by Jim Leyhane.
Thanks to all the individual SRC club members who have contributed financially to the effort.
SRC’s latest “Summer Casual” event went off beautifully when more than 30 people showed up Thursday evening at Roberto Martinez’s residence for a picnic-style meal and a lot of socializing.
In addition to many of “the usual suspects,” we also had an international flavor to the evening when we welcomed former Rotary Exchange Student Jasmine Bromberg of Denmark who spent the 2011-12 academic year here. Jasmine was in town for a visit, and presented a Rotary pennant from a Danish club to us. And, we heard from Michaela Rossetti who recently returned home after spending the academic year in Italy under the Rotary Exchange Student program.
Our thanks to host Roberto for all his efforts, and for everyone who contributed food as well as donations to our annual school supplies drive.
The next “Summer Casual” event is a pool party and cookout — guaranteed family friendly, so bring the kids — to be co-hosted by Jim and Andy Leyhane at Jim’s East Greenbush residence, 6 p.m. Thursday, August 10. Look for details in an upcoming email.
Our next “Summer Casual Event” is scheduled for 6 p.m. this Thursday, August 3, at the East Greenbush residence of SRC President Roberto Martinez.
Some of you already have RSVP’d your intentions to attend, but we’re asking for something slightly different this week as far as communications are concerned:
Roberto is requesting that you reply — no later than Tuesday — whether you will or will not attend. (And, if you will, how many guests you plan to bring.) This not only will help us get a more accurate headcount for purposes of food ordering, it also will assure us all SRC members are receiving our regular communications and are not missing an opportunity to socialize with their fellow Rotarians. (Our host’s email address is rrmtz@aol.com.)
Please plan to bring a small appetizer of dessert to help supplement the fare for this family-friendly get-together. And, if you missed last week’s event — a picnic and baseball game at Bruno Stadium — go to the club website or Facebook page for photo coverage.
A SCHOOL SUPPLIES REMINDER — If you have not yet made your donations to our annual school supplies drive for needy student in the elementary and high school grades in the Rensselaer City School District, time is growing short. Please bring your contributions to the get-together at Roberto’s home, or contact project coordinator Andy Leyhane if you need pickup service. (Don’t remember the shopping list? Click here to have your memory refreshed.)
A contingent from the Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club braved threatening skies to attend the club’s annual outing to Bruno Stadium on Thursday evening for a pavilion picnic and ValleyCats baseball game.
The ‘Cats won, 5-2, on a grand slam home run by first baseman Colton Shaver, appearing in his first game with the team, defeating the visiting Staten Island Yankees who lead one of the New York-Penn League’s three divisions.
Several youngsters were selected to throw ceremonial “first pitches” before the game, among them Jim Leyhane’s grandson Ryan Malone, who looked particularly strong given the distance from mound to home plate in the professional game is 60 feet compared to the 46-foot Little League distance he is used to.
Here are a few scenes from the evening, courtesy of Bill Dowd, Terry Brewer, and Roberto Martinez.
Souvenir caps remind everyone the New York-Penn League All-Star Game will be held at Bruno Stadium on Tuesday, August 15.
The Northville Rotary Club’s annual woodworking and crafts show is a tremendous fundraiser and draws large crowds to the Great Sacandaga Lake community. Among the visitors this year were our own Geoff Brewer and Terry Brewer, shown here flanking former SRC member Chas Owens who, with wife Sue, co-chairs the event.
Southern Rensselaer County Rotary’s first pool party and cookout of our “Summer Casual” season went off in fine fashion Thursday evening at Canadian Meadows, otherwise known as the Forth residence in East Greenbush. Many thanks once again to hosts Maggie and Murray for their generosity.
We have several other family-friendly events scheduled before the second pool party and cookout (August 10 at Chez Leyhane). Next up is our annual outing for a picnic and ValleyCats pro baseball game at Bruno Stadium next Thursday. All tickets in the reserved block have been sold, so if anyone else wants to attend they will have to obtain tickets for that date on their own. Then, on Thursday, August 3, we’ll be having a picnic at Roberto Martinez’s residence. Check the club calendar for the other events on the August schedule.
Meanwhile, here are a few scenes from Thursday’s get-together.
The second and final cookout and pool party combo on our SRC “Summer Casual” calendar is set for 6 p.m. this Thursday at Jim Leyhane’s East Greenbush residence, hosted by Jim and Andy.
If you have not yet made your contributions to our annual school supplies drive for needy kids in the Rensselaer City School District, you can give them to project coordinator Andy Leyhane at Thursday’s social event.
A contingent from the Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club braved threatening skies to attend the club’s annual outing to Bruno Stadium on Thursday evening for a pavilion picnic and ValleyCats baseball game.
Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club 