The 3rd annual “SRC Community Recognition Awards” dinner was held with a full house Tuesday evening at Moscatiello’s Italian Family Restaurant in North Greenbush. Students, educators, first responders, miiltary personnel, Rotarians, and others were honored for their contributions to their communities.
Some scenes from the event:
We’ll be resuming our weekly dinner meetings this coming Thursday at Quigley’s. Peter Brown has lined up Schodack Town Supervisor David Harris as our speaker. Look for Debbie Brown’s request for RSVP responses so we can have a nice turnout for our visitor.
Meanwhile, this is a good time to check off some to-do items on your Rotary activities list. Here are a few possibilities. You’ll note they are quite varied, which means everyone should be able to find something they can do to help,large or small:
• We still need someone to step up to coordinate our annual Easter basket drive for Circles of Mercy. Time is very short, so please let Andy Leyhane know right away if you can do your bit to make this a successful effort for underprivileged kids.
• Our first Rotary Home Cooking event of the season is set. Maggie and Murray Forth will host a roast beef dinner at 6 p.m. Saturday, March 16, at their East Greenbush residence. Seating, as it is for all such events, is limited. Please contact the Forths ASAP if you would like to attend. First-come, first-seated.
• We’ll be holding a painting party in our meeting room at Quigley’s at 9 a.m. this coming Saturday to finish up the renovations that have included Murray’s construction of cupboards, shelving, and a display case, plus some flooring, lighting, and ceiling repairs. If you can lend a hand to make the work go quickly, please let Murray or Terry Brewer know ASAP.
• Have you been distributing copies of our flyer for the April 13 “Recycling & Shredding Day” that is a major fundraiser for our scholarships and projects? Everyone has been sent a copy in JPG form (we’re sending one again today just to be sure) that you can share on social media, print out and post on bulletin boards at school, work, church, etc. We need everyone to have a hand in this effort, so we’ll also need volunteers to work a few hours at the event. Contact Terry or Murray if you can help.
Here’s the flyer for our upcoming SRC Recycling Day, as always a major fundraiser to help support our youth scholarship programs and community projects.
Please feel free to circulate copies on social media, websites, on bulletin boards at work, school, church, etc. We will be running newspaper ads, posting it on social media, our club website, and our Facebook page. The more we distribute the flyer, the more eyeballs we catch, the more potential dollars we’ll take in, so please help.
It’s that time of year, when SRC joins with Circles of Mercy to make a lot of needy youngsters in the area happy. It’s the annual Easter basket drive for kids ages 1 to 12.
Circles, a frequent public service partner with SRC, is an outreach center for poor and low-income families that is sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy Northeast Community. In 2002, Mercy Associates started for Circles what has become a yearly tradition, of providing Easter Baskets to children of our client families. This holiday program is known as “Easter Baskets for Cate’s Kids,” referring to the founder of Circles.
First up, we need someone to step up as coordinator/s of our effort. What that entails is:
(a) lining up a work partner — the Greenbush YMCA has been suggested since SRC member Shannon Romanowski is executive director there, and fellow member Len Leonidas at Community Care Physicians has been a frequent help through his Cub Scouts kids;
(b) purchasing a sufficient number of baskets, artificial grass, clear wrappings, etc. (the club will reimburse for expenditures) and delivering them to the work partners;
(c) being sure all assembled, clear-wrapped baskets are delivered to Circles of Mercy no later than Monday, April 15.
We strongly urge one or two of our members to step up to handle this short-term initiative, an excellent way to get your feet wet in community service for a grateful clientele. All who are interested are asked to contact President Andy Leyhane ASAP.
Meanwhile, here is the shopping list to distribute to our club and to our work partners:
Last year, more than 150 requests for Easter baskets was met, and the same number or larger are expected for this year. The April 15 dropoff deadline was established to be sure the volunteer staff at Circles has time to get the baskets to their client families in time for the April 21 Easter holiday.
Our annual “Rotary Home Cooking” series, a member-hosted set of dinners/social events, is ready to roll out from March through June. And, we have our first two events already spoken for.
• Maggie and Murray Forth will host a roast beef dinner at 6 p.m. Saturday, March 16, at their East Greenbush residence. Seating, as it is for all such events, is limited. Please contact the Forths ASAP if you would like to attend. First-come, first-serfved.
• Dean and Doris Calamaras will host a Hungarian dinner at 6 p.m. Saturday, April 13, with a Hungarian Beef, Miskolcz style, entree and all the trimmings. (If you can’t imagine what they are, the Calamarases will provide details closer to the time for reservations to be made. We guarantee they’ll be tasty!) Contact Dean or Doris ASAP to make your reservation.
For those of you unfamiliar with the “Rotary Home Cooking” series details, here are the essentials:
Members volunteer to host and create themed dinners with a limited number of seats available. The hosts supply the food and beverages as their contribution, and they set the price per-person, using a restaurant approximation (usually in the $25 to $35 range). All money raised by attendees’ donations goes to the club’s general treasury to support our many community service efforts.
We now are looking for hosts for May, and June, with dates to be selected by the hosts. We can, of course, have more than one event per month which means we can take more in March and April. If you’re interested, please contact Bill Dowd or Andy Leyhane ASAP.
In the past, themes have spanned a wide range, from “A Greek Evening” to “A Plaza Hotel Recreation” to “Surf & Turf” to “A Beer & Wine Tasting” to “A Taste of New Orleans” to “A Rotary Cocktail Party” to “A French Bistro Event” and more.
We’re a mere 30 days from the start of spring, plus Thursday’s weather forecast is for temps in the high 40s, but we still need hearty dinner fare.
So, be sure to plan to participate in our 6:15 p.m. meeting at which the menu will feature Quigley’s popular lasagne entree, accompanied by an antipasto salad, chef’s choice of sides, bread, dessert, and beverages. Plus of course, the cash bar always is available.
We have a good early RSVP list of Rotarians who plan to attend, but if your name isn’t on it please be sure to email dinner coordinator Debbie Brown at mdbrown@nycap.rr.com no later than Tuesday evening. We need to know who’s coming, and whether they’re bringing guests, so we can have sufficient food on the buffet and seating at the tables.
Here’s the will-attend list so far:
Our monthly Third Thursday Breakfast meetings have been put on hiatus until further notice. Dwindling attendance is the culprit, but the Board will revisit the effort if we get enough requests from members.
Meanwhile, thanks to Terry Brewer for creating the alternative meetings that helped bring in a number of new members, and to Shannon Romanowski for hosting the breakfast sessions at the Greenbush YMCA.
Meanwhile, please make a point of checking the website CALENDAR page for news of what events are on the schedule for the club and the District. Just click here to get caught up.
Next week the world ushers in the Chinese New Year, or Lunar New Year as it is known in some areas.
To mark that occasion, SRC will have a Chinese New Year-themed dinner meeting at 6:15 p.m. Thursday. Where? Where else but at an Irish-named sports bar — in our very own Quigley’s meeting room.
In addition to having an Asian-accented buffet dinner from the Quigley’s kitchen, Bill Dowd is putting together a brief fun quiz focusing on the nation and culture that gave rise to this major international holiday.
Debbie Brown will be sending out her weekly RSVP request in a few days. When she does, please be sure your name is on the reservation list or email her (mdbrown@nycap.rr.com) to have it added so you can join your fellow Rotarians in a social setting.
Looking forward to seeing you on February 7!
Food pantries in the Capital Region supply a lot of demand year-round. However, special circumstances sometimes add to the pressure.
Right now, Code Blue weather emergencies and the temporary partial federal government shutdown reportedly are pushing more people than usual to seek assistance from the pantries. So, as SRC member Shannon Romanowski informs us, the local YMCA branches and the CP Com Federal Credit Union are making an effort to help, and are asking members of the Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club to assist in the effort.
Through Thursday, February 28, YMCA locations such as those in East Greenbush and Troy will serve as drop-off locations, as will all CAP COM branch locations. They will be accepting non-perishable food items and personal care items.
Items in high demand:
Canned tuna
Canned chicken
Kidney beans
Black beans
Peanut butter
Stuffing
Spaghetti-O’s
Pancake mix
Sugar
Obviously, any other non-perishable food and personal hygiene items (diapers, oral care, feminine hygiene products, powdered milk, uncooked pastas, canned fruits and sauces, etc., would be helpful.
Food and funds will be distributed to benefit the following locations in Rensselaer County and elsewhere:
• Hope 7 Community Center, Troy
• Joseph’s House, Troy
• Unity House, Troy
• Interfaith Partnership for the Homeless, Albany
• Food Pantries for The Capital District, Albany
Sharpen your scissors. We’re going to host a no-sew “Blankets for Vets” work session at our Thursday, January 31, meeting.
For those of you new to such an effort, we began back in 2016 holding occasional hands-on sessions in conjunction with the Blue Star Mothers organization to make blankets for military veterans. This year’s output will go to the Albany Stratton VA Medical Center.
It will be a convivial session requiring only a sharp pair of scissors, a willingness to help out, and, of course, your presence. No special sewing or weaving skills are needed with this sort of creative effort.
Blue Star Mothers, with whom we partner on a regular basis, is a volunteer organization with chapters across the country that provide assistance and support to active and veteran military personnel and their families in many ways year-round. SRC has helped the organization in the past with financial grants from our annual “Bowling for Vets” fundraiser, BSM dinner gala attendance, and hands-on cooperative efforts.
This certainly is a more-the-merrier sort of event that should appeal to most of our members, so please mark your calendars and plan to join your fellow Rotarians.
Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club 