Here’s an event from an organization SRC has helped financially over the years.
Blue Star Mothers sponsoring golf event
Category: Activities: Local
Have you checked our calendar lately?
We have scheduled an interesting mix of in-person and virtual programs for the coming weeks. Here’s an excerpt of the lineup from our website calendar page. Note the open dates, ready for you to supply a program or speaker. Just let Becky Raymond and/or Kevin Leyhane know which date you would like to reserve.
SRC headed to Iceland on Thursday
Well, at least those who attend this Thursday’s dinner meeting at Moscatiello’s will be.
Peter and Debbie Brown are scheduled to make a presentation on “Iceland In the Off-Season,” an illustrated travelogue on their visit to the distant island nation.
Join us from 5:30 on for a social period (cash bar) until the 6:15 p.m. dinner. Or, if you can’t make it, please email your proxies to President Debbie no later than Wednesday so you can be counted toward a quorum.
The menu will be your choice of Chicken Caesar Salad or Spaghetti & Meatballs. Attendees now will be able to order a la carte salads for $3.49 each, the same as they order beverages — from the waitstaff.
See you then!
Wanted: Easter basket project coordinator
Your club is looking for a volunteer coordinator for our annual participation in the Circles of Mercy “Cate’s Kids Easter Basket Program.”
Club President Debbie Rodriguez will be asking at Thursday’s dinner meeting at Moscatiello’s for people to work on coordinating our effort to provide baskets for needy kids in Circles’ area of service in Rensselaer County. It’s a short-term but important role that will allow people to continue Rotary’s community service component.
Easter this year falls on Sunday, April 17. We hope to have completed baskets delivered to Circles no later than Monday, April 4, so they can be assigned and delivered to client families the week before the holiday. That also provides sufficient time for Circles to spend any monetary donations to fill the recipient families’ needs.
We will be publishing on our club website and Facebook page a shopping list for the project. Meanwhile, please consider your level of participation in this very worthwhile undertaking.
Dinner meeting, board session this week
After President Debbie adjourns the regular meeting, the club’s board will go into session to discuss a variety of topics. If you have items you’d like placed on either meeting agenda, please be sure to email them to Debbie no later than Wednesday.
P.S. We’re still looking for speakers to round out the remainder of the Rotary Year, mostly by Zoom but with a few dinner slots remaining. Take a look at our schedule below to see which dates are available. If you want to use one for a program, please contact Kevin Leyhane or Becky Raymond.
Why ShelterBox needs you right now
Any Rotarian who is not familiar with ShelterBox hasn’t been paying attention.
Luckily, members of the Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club have paid attention in a big way. In the past decade, the club and its individual members have contributed more than $25,000 to support ShelterBox’s global emergency services to people hit by tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, revolutions, and other insurrections.
Well, no good deed goes unpunished. ShelterBox needs you now more than ever.
Weather-related emergencies in Haiti and the Philippines and Africa, civil war casualties in Yemen, and now the horrors of the Russian invasion in Ukraine have been added to the seemingly endless stream of emergencies worldwide. What to do? You supply the funds, ShelterBox supplies the first-strike aid — getting there long before governmental entities are able to grind through the red tape to do so.
SRC already had donated hundreds of dollars in the 2021-22 Rotary Year to ShelterBox, and will continue to do so through the Clynk recycling program we are involved in as a steady stream of modest but regular support. However, we now are asking for your individual generous donations to ramp up support during this particularly trying period.
Each ShelterBox — as described by District 7190 ShelterBox liaison Larry Jones at a recent SRC meeting and as found on our club website — costs $1,000, and is tailored to the geographic and cultural needs of the hard-hit areas with a tent habitat, tools, solar lights, water purification items, etc.
We’re hoping to buy several boxes in addition to those we already have paid for. And, the process is simple — and tax deductible.
All you have to do to make your deductible donation is:
• Write a check in any amount — from $5 to the full $1,000, and anything large or small in between — made payable to “ShelterBox USA.”
• In the memo line, enter “Southern Rensselaer County Club #4919.”
• Give the check to Bill Dowd, SRC’s ShelterBox liaison, who will collate SRC funds and get your contribution to the right people.
You eventually will be informed where your donation went as part of ShelterBox’s global efforts. In any case, your contribution is deductible.
So, we thank you for your consideration, and hope you will respond in a timely fashion since, as we tell incoming Rotarians, “No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.”
Zoom along with us on Thursday
When it comes to this Thursday evening …
• Got nothing nice to wear?
• Running a little late getting home from work?
• Too busy to spend a lot of time in a meeting?
Well, you’re in luck!
• It doesn’t matter what you wear to a Zoom meeting.
• We don’t start the meeting until 7 p.m.
• We meet for less than an hour.
So, no excuses. We hope to see you on Thursday. As always, just go to the website calendar page and click on the link for March 3.
(If, after all this, you can’t join us, how about emailing President Debbie no later than Wednesday with your proxy? That will count toward a quorum.)
Wine & Whiskey Tasting to End Polio
• From District Governor Bruce Connellee
There is a world of breweries, distilleries, and wineries right in our own backyard. If you have not had the chance to tour the various selections in the area, have we got a night planned for you!
We are going to celebrate two of our neighbors while we raise funds to end polio. And, and if this sells, we’re going to celebrate many more.
Join me for a “Wine & Whiskey Tasting to End Polio” at 6 p.m. Saturday, March 26. Our host will be Galway Rock Winery & Vineyard, located at 998 Saratoga Road, Ballston Lake. We will be sampling three of its wines plus three whiskies from High Peaks Distilling of Lake George.
Each tasting will be presented by the creators themselves, giving you the opportunity to learn more about how each selection is made and what goes into creating these wines and whiskeys.
Registration is $75 per person, which covers the tasting and heavy hors d’oeuvres. Click here to register online. Seating is limited, so grab your tickets early.
You will also have the opportunity to purchase additional beverages or bottles to bring home.
Reminder: This week’s Zoom session
A reminder that this Thursday we will be assembling at 7 p.m. via Zoom for our club meeting. So, your choice of food, beverage, and attire is anything laying around the house.
While we hope you plan to join us, if you can’t it would be helpful to email your proxy to President Debbie (debannrod@yahoo.com) no later than Wednesday. That will count toward attendance (we need a quorum to conduct any formal business decisions), and allow her to cast your vote as needed.
We have no guest program this week, so the session should be relatively brief. But, if you have any topics you’d like Debbie to put on the meeting agenda, please email her, also no later than Wednesday, to be sure you’re heard.
As always, you’ll be able to access the Zoom meeting by clicking on the link for that date on our website calendar page.
See you on Thursday.
Rotary trivia test returning this Thursday
What do these categories have in common?
• Famous Beaches
• Food Fest
• Where In the World
• AKA: Also Known As
• Potpourri
They are, as veteran Rotary trivia fans might have guessed, what goes into the upcoming “7th Great North American Whizbang Trivia Test.” The friendly competition will be held this coming Thursday at our first in-person meeting of 2022, at Moscatiello’s Italian Family Restaurant at 6 p.m.
PLEASE BRING A PEN OR PENCIL WITH YOU. You’ll need a writing implement to jot down your answers and keep a running score.
You’ll be able to fortify yourselves with the cash bar and a choice between Moscatiello’s sumptious chicken Caesar salad or bountiful meatballs and spaghetti as your dinner entree.
As always, no need to RSVP. Just show up and let your Rotary hosts know your entree choice. Also as always, the more the merrier, but we do prefer all attendees to be fully vaccinated and boosted.
Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club 