Thanks to the ongoing efforts of local club members Ron and Monika Annis, the Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club is partnering with the Rotary Club of Gefle, Sweden, in an effort to create a Viking equipment playground locally.
The club, which is in Monika’s hometown, is one of long standing, having been chartered in 1929.
Ron and Monika received a club pennant (shown here) from the Gefle group and, in turn, presented it to our club at Thursday’s meeting.
Members Attending (10): Terry Brewer, Murray Forth, Shannon Romanowski, Jim Leyhane, Andy Leyhane, Mike Dewey, Ron Annis, Marco Koshykar, Jim Butterworth, Peter Brown.
Guests (1): Robert DeBennedetti.
MEMBERSHIP — Murray Forth introduced his guest, Bob DeBennedetti, who he is proposing for membership.
SPEAKER — Club member Peter Brown was the speaker, providing an overview of “Behavioral Health Care Initiatives In the U.S.”
Peter, who has worked in the mental health field for decades, recently organized and managed a conference on the topic in San Antionio, TX. (To learn about that event, click here.)
He said the issue of behavioral health care and the impact of its management has significant costs and impact on our communities. Peter discussed costs, care providers and successful community approaches to working with individuals who have such needs.
NEXT BREAKFAST MEETING: 7 a.m. Thursday, March 15, at the Greenbush YMCA.
Save the date.
The next event in our annual “Rotary Home Cooking” series of member-hosted get-togethers will be a bit of a changeup from the first two that were ethnically-themed dinners.
The Brewer family will host “A Rotary Cocktail Party” on Saturday, March 25. The 4 to 7 p.m. event will offer hors d’oeuvres and beverages attendees can enjoy on the move as they get better acquainted with each other in a casual social setting.
“This will be an open event to encourage member participation similar to the summer event at Roberto’s,” according to Terry Brewer. As always, proceeds will go toward supporting our club’s community service efforts.
As you gaze around at all the mounds of freshly-plowed snow, a Lake George spring getaway sounds pretty good right about now, doesn’t it?
You can assure yourself of that possibility by making your reservation to attend the Rotary 7190 District Conference, scheduled for Friday-Sunday, May 5-7, at the Lake George Courtyard by Marriott hotel.
As has become the norm in recent years, day-of-service projects will fill up the first day, capped by a Cinco de Mayo party that Friday night. Saturday sessions will be time to share ideas to inspire innovation in Rotary, with free time Saturday afternoon in Lake George Village, then in the evening cocktails on the lake shore, and a gala banquet at the historic Inn at Erlowest on Saturday night. A closing memorial and awards session will finish the weekend on Sunday morning.
Rooms will be available at $129, plus tax, per night. Reservations may be made online.
After being snowed out of our dinner meeting last week, we’re making up for it with two (2) meeting possibilities this Thursday: 7 a.m. breakfast meeting at the Greenbush YMCA and 6:15 p.m. dinner at Quigley’s.
The breakfast event will offer a continental breakfast; dinner is expected to be the ham dinner we hoped to have last week. In either or both instances, please reserve your place no later than Tuesday evening by contacting Terry Brewer (breakfast) or Debbie Brown (dinner). We need accurate headcounts for purposes of food and seating,
Our after-dinner speaker will be Matt Sloane of Questar III BOCES who will update us on the Rensselaer Education Center being built in Schodack. The facility in Troy is outdated and does not accommodate the type of training and experiences students need for the current job market.
We have a strong initial RSVP list already. Won’t you join us?
Signed up as of today:
Pat Bailey
Terry Brewer
Debbie Brown
Peter Brown
April Dowd
Bill Dowd
Dick Drumm
Murray Forth
Ray Hannan
Phil Kellerman
Jim Leyhane
Carol Orvis
Debbie Rodriguez
Matt Sloane
P.S. Please be sure to bring some canned goods to either meeting to donate to the “CANstruction: Hunger Heroes” food drive we’ve been mentioning for the past few weeks. This week and next are the only time to donate for this Districtwide effort.
Effective Saturday, August 19, if you try calling a phone number in the 518 area code the way you always have, it won’t work.
That is the start date for full implementation of the new “Area Code Overlay” for the 518 area code. That means in addition to our current 518, the same geographic area will include a new code — 838. That is because they have virtually run out of new phone numbers for the 518 area.
You do not have to change your 518 area code. But, any new numbers issued on or after September 19 will begin with 838. However, to call anyone else with that code or with the new 838 code, you will have to use a 10-digit calling sequence just as you do now for long distance calls.
For example, if you normally call your cousin Mary locally at 555-5555 you will have to dial 1-518-555-5555. And, for local calls to people or businesses that have been assigned a new 838 code number, you also will have to dial a 10-digit code such as 1-838-555-5555.
If you want to get in the habit of doing this since it will become part of your way of life and there’s nothing you can do about it, you can begin practicing by using a 10-digit sequence as of March 18. If you forget and just use the usual seven-digit number your call will be put through until August.
Note: This change may require a variety of changes for some people. For example, all numbers you have stored for automatic dialing on your cellphones or landlines, for answering machine messages, call forwarding, fax machines, speed dialers, internet dial-up numbers, safety alarm security systems and other such equipment will have to be reprogrammed with a 10-digit sequence. Likewise for any printed material — checks, office stationery, websites, Facebook pages, pet ID tags, etc. Whatever you do not change will not work after August 19.
Additional information is available online by clicking here.
Debbie and Peter Brown played host at their residence Saturday evening for “A French Bistro Dinner,” part of our annual Rotary Home Cooking series.
The menu was based on recipes from the “Bistro Cooking” cookbook by Patricia Wells. Attending were Murray, Maggie and Jeremy Forth, Roberto Martinez, Pat Bailey, and Julius and Effie Frankel, in addition to the hosts.
The next home-hosted dinner in the series will be in March at the Brewer residence. Anyone interested in attending should contact Terry Brewer, who will be taking reservations on a first come-first served basis. All proceeds from this dinner series go to support club public service efforts.
Here are a few scenes from the evening, with Debbie doing a non-dramatic reading from the cookbook to her rapt audience. Thanks to the Browns for their hosting skills.
The SRC Club is joining a lineup of other District 7190 clubs to support “CANstruction Hunger Heroes,” a food drive for Food Pantries of the Capital District which serves pantries in Rensselaer, Albany and Saratoga counties.
If you would like to participate, please be sure to bring canned foods to our February 16 and/or February 23 dinner meetings and/or our February 26 breakfast meeting.
Terry Brewer has volunteered to collect and deliver the donations to the event weigh-in between 8 and 9 a.m. Saturday, February 25, at Grassland Equipment & Irrigation, 892-898 Troy-Schenectady Road (Route 7), Latham. All donations collected there then will be transported to the central “CANstruction” site later that day.
Last year, District 7190 collected the second-largest amount of foods among the numerous companies and organizations participating. This year, we’re shooting for No. 1, which would go a long way toward getting the Rotary name in front of the public.
Periodically, we post things on our club Facebook page that may not necessarily be on our website. This is one such item. Click here to go to our Facebook page and watch the brief video to see another example of Rotarians maing a difference.
Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club 