Category: Activities: Local

Here’s our Adopt-a-Family information

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SRC Rotary Club / Circles of Mercy


We have just received the names and shopping lists for the two families SRC has been assigned for the annual “Circles of Mercy Adopt-a-Family” project. The information is on the two spreadsheets shown below.

Here’s how we’re handling it this year in view of the fact we are not meeting in person each week

• Please select which item(s) you would like to donate, and email project coordinator Bill Dowd via SRCrotary@gmail.com to let him know your choices. He’ll continually update the spreadsheet on the club website so everyone can see it and avoid duplicating gifts already spoken for.

• All donations must be gift wrapped and clearly labeled as to recipient.

• Any monetary donations should be done in the form of gift cards placed in envelopes marked with the name of the intended recipients.

• Donations may be brought to our dinner meetings at Moscatiello’s on either December 2 (when Circles Executive Director Richard Zazycki will be our guest speaker) or December 9. Those are the only dropoff dates.

NOTES: 

• Bill has to inventory and deliver all donations to Circles by December 15, so your dropoffs in a timely fashion are very important. 

• Even if you don’t plan to stay for the dinner and meeting on those two dates, Bill will be available in the Moscatiello’s parking lot at the side of the building from 5:30 to 6 p.m. to accept your donations.

As always, thank you for your generosity. In these unusually trying times you’ll be helping needy families have a holiday they otherwise might not be able to imagine.

How are your raffle gift baskets coming along?

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After a COVID-induced break in our annual Holiday Party & Gift Basket Raffle last December, we’re back on schedule with a 3B (basket bidding battle) dinner at Moscatiello’s on Thursday, December 16.

We’ve been dropping large hints on how to come up with a theme for your baskets (in the $35-or-so range to create) to help jump-start your imaginations. Here are some more.

To begin with, “baskets” can be any type of container, such as these:

Then, of course, the contents are up to you. In the past, we’ve had wine baskets, candy collections, cheeses-and-crackers, movie-and-popcorn combos, children’s toys, soaps and lotions, craft beers and munchies … It’s limited only by your imagination. And, if you feel particularly creative, don’t feel constrained to creating just one basket. The more the merrier!

For those new to the process, it’s a simple one. Baskets are arranged on tables with bidding sheets next to them. Party-goers jot down their bids, with the highest bidder winning the basket. All proceeds go to the club’s general treasury to help support our community service initiatives.

So, be sure to mark December 16 on your calendar and plan to join your fully vaxxed fellow Rotarians and their guests at Moscatiello’s to ring in the holiday season in fine form.

Wine treat basket

Green thumb collection

Bloody Mary in a basket
Italian dinner in a colander
Something to satisfy the sweet tooth

YMCA’s Thanksgiving basket drive under way

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SRC President Debbie Rodriguez (left) presents a club check for $250 to SRC member Shannon Romanowski, director of the Greenbush YMCA, to help support the Y’s annual “Community Basket Brigade” for Thanksgiving.

The event feeds local families in need for the holiday, and the Y is accepting donations of money and basket items through Monday, November 15. Go here for details on the event and how you can participate.

2nd annual fundraising letter in the (e)mail

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From President Debbie Rodriguez (sent via email today to all members):

Last fall, we successfully instituted a fundraising effort that gave members the opportunity to contribute to the club treasury or specific recipients of their choice.

The impetus was the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic on activities usually spent raising funds to support numerous local and global initiatives.

Although things have eased slightly, we’re still not able to undertake some of our past major events such as bowl-a-thons, virtual golfing, and recycling days. So, we’re again asking all members to make direct financial contributions according to their means and philosophy.

To decide on a contribution level, we’re suggesting that since we now are alternating virtual and in-person meetings, you may want to donate the $25 you are not spending for meals on alternate weeks: i.e., we have approximately 20 virtual meetings set for the remainder of the 2021-22 Rotary Year. That means $500 not being spent on dinner meetings over that period.

If you could contribute that amount, or any portion of it, to Rotary, it would help offset the lack of major fundraisers. Your contribution could be designated for the general treasury or toward specific efforts we’ve supported in the past — such as ShelterBox, Gift of Life, Circles of Mercy, Blue Star Mothers, Polio Plus, scholarships, the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards seminars (RYLA), various food pantries, Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI), etc. — or any combination of those items as you wish. And, if it is more comfortable to do so, you can split your contribution into two separate donations –- one now, one in March, for example.

Your contribution level will be kept confidential. Only Treasurer Murray Forth will have access to that information so he can distribute money as you and other members instruct.

Please send your checks, as soon as possible, made payable to SRC Rotary (with an accompanying note designating how you want the contribution distributed), to SRC Rotary, P.O. Box 71, East Greenbush, NY 12061.

Thank you for your ongoing contributions to the important work of Rotary, whether financial, personal effort, or both. By practicing “Service Above Self,” we do our best to make the world a better place.

Rotary looking for speakers; here’s how to be one

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Our Rotary club is looking for speakers to visit our biweekly dinner meetings or biweekly Zoom meetings.

Anyone who is interested may inquire via email at SRCrotary@gmail.com. Just tell us who you are, what your topic might be, your credentials, etc. and we’ll get back to you very quickly. Presentations generally are limited to 20 minutes, with a few minutes afterward for Q&A.

We prefer hosting people from non-commercial entities, instead emphasizing community service, entertainment, history, the arts, sports, etc. — things that make our community a vibrant place to live.

If you’re not familiar with Rotary, learn about it by checking our website at http://SRC rotary.org or specifically about our club by going to https://srcrotary.org/about-our-club/.

YMCA’s ‘Basket Brigade’ Thanksgiving drive opens

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The Greenbush YMCA is seeking monetary donations to help underwrite its annual “Community Basket Brigade,” now under way.

“We would be grateful for any contributions to help fill our Thanksgiving baskets this year,” said SRC member Shannon Romanowski, director of the Y, adding, “We certainly could use the food donations. Donations can be dropped off at the Greenbush YMCA any time during our operating hours: 5:45 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 5:45 am/ to 7 p.m. Friday, and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.”

Here is the flyer containing details of the drive. Note that the deadline is this coming Monday, November 15:

We’re back at Moscatiello’s this Thursday

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Mural behind the main desk at Moscatiello’s.

As part of our club’s alternating schedule of virtual and in-person weekly meetings, we’ll be back at Moscatiello’s Italian Family Restaurant this Thursday — with a couple of small changes.

Rather than the usual 6:15 start for the dinner meeting, we’ll begin promptly at 6 o’clock, and end no later than 7. This is to allow sufficient time for a Board meeting immediately after the regular session.

The menu will be your choice of sausage and peppers or chicken Caesar salad or vegetarian baked manicotti. As always, a cash bar will be available.

If you do not plan to attend but would like to be counted toward a quorum, remember to email that fact to President Debbie Rodriguez (debannrod@yahoo.com) no later than Wednesday.

For an update on other activities of the club and the District, please regularly check our website calendar. And, if you’d like to reserve a date to present a program or a guest speaker, take a look at the spreadsheet on that same page to find out which dates are available, then contact program coordinators Becky Raymond or Kevin Leyhane with your details.

Join us on Thursday one way or another

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We’re scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. this Thursday via Zoom. We hope you’ll join us by going to the club website calendar page (http://SRCrotary.org/calendar) and clicking on the meeting link to gain access.

Don’t plan to join us? You still can be counted toward a quorum by sending your proxy via email to President Debbie Rodriguez (debannrod@yahoo.com) by this evening.

Meanwhile, keep up to date with everything going on locally with Rotary by regularly checking the club website or its Facebook page (called SRC Club).

See you Thursday!

2 ways to attend Thursday’s dinner meeting

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We hope you’re planning to join your fellow Rotarians at our dinner meeting this Thursday at Moscatiello’s Italian Family Restaurant in North Greenbush.

However, if you have other plans, you can be counted nevertheless by simply taking advantage of something our Bylaws allow: use your proxy!

To do so, just email your proxy (and its implied vote) to President Debbie Rodriguez (debannrod@yahoo.com) before the meeting and you’ll be on the record. (We need a total of 12 attendees at minimum for a quorum; without it we cannot vote on any club business.)

Our social time will begin at 5:30, with dinner and business discussions at 6:15 p.m. You can choose from among three entree options: chicken Caesar, baked ziti, or chicken Marsala. Price is $25, and we ask that you please bring the exact amount to facilitate group payment. A cash bar is available.

See you Thursday, one way or the other.

A proxy: Next best thing to being here

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The topic of obtaining a quorum at meetings to be able to vote on club business has recently arisen since our attendance during the pandemic has been erratic.

Rather than lowering the number of attending members to achieve a quorum, the consensus at our most recent in-person meeting was to remind members of an alternative way to participate.

Our Bylaws (Article 5: Section 3) specify: “Twelve (12) members constitute a quorum at the regular evening meetings of this club. Written proxy votes submitted to the president in advance of a meeting may be counted toward achieving a quorum.”

So, if you are unable to attend either our in-person or virtual club meetings — we currently are alternating them — you still can be counted toward a quorum and have your vote counted by following that simple procedure. Just email President Debbie Rodriguez at debannrod@yahoo.com in advance of the meeting date and give her permission to use your proxy. If you wish to have her cast your “yea” or “nay” on a particular vote, please be sure to specify; otherwise, she may cast your vote as she sees fit.

Using this procedure should alleviate our quorum problem without tinkering with the Bylaws or lowering standards. Considering that we currently stand at 33 paid members, a 36% attendance (12 members) — in person and/or by proxy — was deemed reasonable by the members at this week’s meeting.