Category: Education

Time to chip in for the annual school supplies drive

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Screen Shot 2019-07-12 at 12.04.19 PMIt’s time for SRC members, family and friends, to once again help less-fortunate students prepare for their return to school — yes, it’s getting that close! — by participating in the annual Circles of Mercy Back-to-School Supplies Drive.

The program, as in other years, focuses on all high school grades (9-12) and on pre-school students, and SRC is always a major contributor. The shopping list recommended by Circles of Mercy:

• pencils (regular lead #2 and color)
• pencil sharpener
• erasers (for pencils)
• pens (black or blue ink)
• markers (dry-erase and Sharpies, assorted colors)
• pocket folders (assorted colors)
• 3-ring binders (in 2” and 3” sizes)
• loose leaf paper (college ruled)
• graph paper
• spiral subject notebooks (1-, 3- and 5-subject, college ruled)
• subject dividers
• plastic zipper pencil cases/boxes
• 3”x5” index cards
• highlighters (yellow)
• rulers (regular with metric)
• Kleenex tissues
• hand sanitizer (small bottles)
• Post-It notes
• backpacks (no rollers/wheels)
• hole reinforcement stickers
• combination lock (for gym lockers)
• flash drives
• ear buds (for computer use)
• scientific calculators

Donations can be dropped off at the following two SRC Summer Casual events, after which we will deliver them to the Circles of Mercy headquarters in Rensselaer in time to meet its August 19 deadline:

Thursday, July 25 — “Pool Party & Cookout,” Jim Leyhane residence, East Greenbush, co-hosted by Roberto Martinez.

Thursday, August 8 — “Picnic at Fox Hollow,” the Drumm residence in Valatie.

 

Meeting Clipboard: 6/13/19 (Scholarship Night)

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SRC ClipboardHeld at Quigley’s Restaurant
573 Columbia Turnpike
East Greenbush, NY 12061

Members Attending (16): Andy Leyhane, Murray Forth, Phil Kellerman, Pat Bailey, Debbie Brown, Peter Brown, Dick Drumm, Bill Dowd, Terry Brewer, Doris Calamaras, Ray Hannan, Roberto Martinez, Jim Leyhane, Geoff Brewer, Mike Simon, Mike Bennett.

Guests (9): Megan Shiffer, Max Brady, Abigail Utter, Brandy Cenci, Jim Brady, Mr. & Mrs. Utter, Mrs. Shiffer and interpreter.

PROGRAM: ANNUAL SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS

Screen Shot 2019-06-03 at 4.46.57 PMAll three winners of our $1,000 SRC Scholarship Awards were present along with school representatives and parents.

President Andy prefaced the presentation by announcing that special awards were being given to three members who were largely responsible for the fundraising efforts to underwrite the awards, and they in turn would make the check presentations to the students. They were Murray Forth for running our recycling program, Terry Brewer for coordinating the community awards dinner, and Roberto Martinez for securing the necessary district grant.

The scholarship awardees, and their chosen colleges: Megan Shiffer of Columbia High School (New England College in Henniker, NH), Max Brady of Rensselaer High School (Siena College in Loudonville), and Abigail Utter of Maple Hill High School (Marist College in Poughkeepsie).

mike bennett and abigail utter
Mike Bennett and Abigail Utter of Maple Hill flank presenter Roberto Martinez.
brandy cenci and max brady
Rensselaer HS counselor Brandy Cenci and Max Grady flank presenter Terry Brewer.
Meghan & Jeff
Presenter Murray Forth congratulates Columbia’s Meghan Shiffer as Jeff Simon looks on.

RI Gold LogoMEETING NOTES: President Andy welcomed members and guests. … Jeff Simon reported on the East Greenbush elementary school kickball tournament that raised $441 for the EG Student Advisory Council. The proceeds were donated to Rotary International’s Clean Water Project. … Bill Dowd gave an update on the creation of a Troy Rotary Club that SRC is sponsoring. Bill and Terry Brewer are on the steering committee for the new entity. Its first public meeting generated about 30 attendees, three corporate sponsors were pledged, and several people volunteered to be charter officers. He said all are welcome to participate in Troy activities, and that its summer schedule would be incorporated into our own website calendar page for easy reference. …

Screen Shot 2019-06-03 at 4.29.32 PMSignup sheets were circulated for two events on our Summer Casual Calendar — a July 11 private-room dinner at the Schodack Diner, 1842 Columbia Turnpike, sponsored by Ray and Lois Hannan, and the July 18 pavilion picnic and ValleyCats baseball game at Bruno Stadium being coordinated by Terry Brewer. Also, Jim Leyhane said he will be hosting a pool party and cookout on July 25, with members of the EG Student Advisory Council as special guests. For the diner event and pool party, the sponsors are picking up the food costs, while guests are asked to contribute $15 per person or $25 per family to the club treasury. All available July dates on the Summer Casual Calendar now are spoken for. Anyone wishing to host or coordinate events the weeks of August 8, 15, and 22 is asked to let Bill Dowd know the date and details so they can be publicized ASAP. …

Screen Shot 2019-06-13 at 9.15.34 PMNext Thursday’s meeting will be “Musical Trivia, Part Deux,” with Kevin Leyhane as the quizmaster once more. … The following Thursday, June 27, Jim Leyhane will host the annual Presidential Changeover Dinner when Andy will pass the gavel to Phil Kellerman for the 2019-20 Rotary Year and Dick Drumm will become president-elect for 2020-21, our 60th year as a club. It will be a catered dinner, so RSVPs are quite important.

 

Checking in on Augie, our Bell Top pal

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It’s been a while since we last looked in on Augie, the therapy dog SRC is helping support at the Bell Top Elementary School. It seems he has been very busy.

If you visit Augie’s blog, “Puppy With a Purpose,” you can catch up on what he’s been doing, from training sessions (see video above) to classroom and library visits, to fun times with the kids during a rather messy “color run,” to getting a haircut. In addition, you can find out how to purchase Augie T-shirts (see below) online. Soon, he’ll be celebrating his first birthday (June 8).

Here are just a few scenes of what Augie has been doing:

Library
Spot the canine in the library.
Trio
Kind of messy fun in the color run.
Writing
When you’re finished, can we play?
shirts
Auggie is selling his T-shirts. (Note the name at the top of the list!)

Help your student get involved in ‘Peace Summit’

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Screen Shot 2019-04-06 at 8.59.35 PMThe upcoming annual “Peace Summit for Youth,” sponsored  by Rotary District 7190, should be of particular attention to all educators and parents of high school students in the Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club’s service area.

The event is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 11, at the First Reformed Church, 10 North Church Street in Schenectady’s historic Stockade neighborhood just off Union Street.

The summit is open to high school students from throughout the area with the goal of creating an environment in which the youths feel empowered and believe they can become the agents of change — that change is possible, that resources are available, and that just a few voices can create a movement.

Using the “World Cafe Model” and other techniques, the six-hour event will stimulate youths in a thought-provoking interactive manner that keeps them engaged. It will include inspirational participation by Flynn Jeb, a Rotary Peace Scholar who is the regional volunteer services coordinator for the American Red Cross in Massachusetts.

Educators and parents are encouraged to make their high schoolers aware of this opportunity, and to register for it online ASAP because space is limited and the event is open to those in a nine-county area. While there is no charge to participants, there is a cost to Rotary. To help offset that, donations are being solicited from clubs and/or individuals. It costs approximately $50 for each student to attend, so any contribution of $50 or multiples of that amount would be greatly appreciated.

Please make donations payable to the Glens Falls Rotary Foundation, which is helping underwrite the summit, or Rotary District 7190. In either case, please mail your checks to PDG Fred Daniels, 1413 Clifton Park Road, Schenectady, NY 12309.

 

 

 

 

Our therapy dog Auggie has T-shirts for sale

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class
Auggie the doggie goes to class at Bell Top Elementary.

Auggie the doggie, the therapy dog the Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club is helping fund at Bell Top Elementary School in East Greenbush, is keeping very busy.

Jaime Gibbs, school counselor at Bell Top and Columbia High School and one of Augie’s chief handlers, tells us today, “Our friend Auggie is doing great at school! I keep his blog/website updated regularly and hope you’ve been able to keep track of his progress there.

“We now have our spring apparel up for sale, including a very special T-shirt for Auggie which has his donors listed on the back. You might want to check it out. It is another way we can thank all of the donors, like the SRC Rotary, for their generous contributions to our therapy dog in training. All money raised through the sale of these shirts goes back to his fund, too.”

As part of his training to take the therapy dog international test this summer, Auggie has daily practices and weekly training sessions for preparation.

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You, too, can buy an Auggie T-shirt off his blog.
Screen Shot 2019-03-19 at 12.17.04 AM
The back-of-the-shirt sponsors.

School supplies drive nears finish line

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Supplies
Andy in collection mode.

From Andy Leyhane, coordinator of this year’s school supplies drive:

We’ve been doing a fantastic job with the drive for school supplies for the Rensselaer City School District kids.

I’ve been leaving our “Summer Casual” events with my car trunk full, and my basement is better stocked than the back-to-school aisle at Target.

We’re nearing the end of the collection period, and I’ll be dropping off the supplies by this coming Monday at Circles of Mercy in Rensselaer where they’ll be collated and then distributed to needy students.

If you have more contributions, Jim Leyhane will be able to collect them at this evening’s event at the Mac Haydn Theatre.

Thanks to all for the huge success of this program.

SRC scholarship winner has play produced

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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.

Screen shot 2017-08-11 at 12.33.49 PM
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)
Screen shot 2017-08-11 at 12.35.01 PM
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

 

‘School Supplies Drive’ gets under way

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Screen shot 2017-07-14 at 1.14.26 PMOur annual “School Suplies Drive” for pre-school and high school students in the Rensselaer City School District is under way.

Andy Leyhane has taken over coordinating duties this year from Bill Dowd, and is working with the sponsoring Circles of Mercy organization to collect as many items on the checklist below as possible. (Contributions are tax deductible.)

“I’ll be present to collect donations at our ‘Summer Casual’ events or will arrange to have a helper collect in my absence,” Andy says. “If you can’t make any of the events but still want to donate, not a problem. Just reach out to me and we can coordinate a pickup that is convenient for you.”

As always, the club encourages members and friends to involve their kids, grandkids, etc., in this drive as part of a “kids helping kids” effort. Anyone who would like to involve their business, non-Rotary organization, neighborhood, etc., in this drive is welcome to collect donations and get them to Andy. Please remember when purchasing items that our focus is on high school and pre-school students.

Circles is requesting the following types of school supplies:

• pencils (regular lead #2 and color)
• pencil sharpener
• pencil erasers
• pens (black or blue)
• markers (dry erase and color)
• pocket folders (assorted colors)
• 3-ring binders (in 2” and 3” sizes)
• looseleaf paper (college ruled)
• graph paper
• spiral subject notebooks (1, 3 and 5 subject, college ruled)
• subject dividers
• plastic zipper pencil cases / boxes
• 3×5” index cards
• yellow highlighters
• rulers (standard measurement with metric)
• Kleenex tissues
• hand sanitizer (small bottles)
• Post-It notes
• backpacks (no rollers/wheels)
• looseleaf reinforcement stickers
• combination locks (for gym lockers)
• flash drives
• ear buds (for computer use)
• scientific calculators

FLASHBACK!

This is how the District 7190 newsletter, The Toolbox, covered our effort last year.

Screen shot 2017-07-14 at 1.13.56 PM

SRC’s Jim McHugh named EGSCD assistant superintendent

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Screen Shot 2017-05-12 at 8.24.53 PM
Jim McHugh

Jim McHugh has been appointed the new Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction by the Board of Education  of the East Greenbush Central School District.

Jim, a member of the Southern  Rensselaer County Rotary Club, had been serving as principal on special ssignment at the district office since returning on from a medical leave of absence in February.

In his new role, Jim will oversee all academic programs and services in the district. He also will supervise instructional technology, administer testing, lead and participate on a variety of committees, and seek grant opportunities.

“I am excited for this new challenge and to be able to help all of our students receive an excellent K-12 education,” he said. “The most important thing is that I still think like a teacher.”

Jim had been the principal at Bell Top Elementary School since 2007. Prior to that, he was an administrator at Columbia High School and spent 17 years in the district as a classroom teacher. Marty Mahar will continue to serve as interim principal at Bell Top while the process of selecting a permanent principal is conducted.

“The District is extremely fortunate to have Jim McHugh step into this important role,” said Board of Education President Dr. Shay Harrison. “Jim is an expert in pedagogy, not just in present delivery but also in being fully informed about and anticipating the directions that classroom instruction will take in the future. He’s demonstrated his leadership and creativity throughout his educational career, from classroom teacher to building administrator and now as an assistant superintendent.”

 

5 from Maple Hill in RYLA Class of 2017

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RYLA Class of 2017
Graduating group photo courtesy of RYLA

Five members of the current junior class at Maple Hill High School were among graduates of the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) program recognized on  Saturday night at a dinner in Saratoga Springs.

The students, sponsored by the Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club:

  • Allison Felts
  • Kassidy Berger
  • Matthew Riordan
  • Meg Albanese
  • Shirah Strock

Not familiar with the details of RYLA? Just click here to go to the page on our website that explains it all.

And, here are several others scenes from the event, courtesy of Jennifer Felts of Our Towne Magazine.

ryla 2

ryla 1
The whole Maple Hill group: Matthew, Shirah, Allison, Meg and Kassidy.

ryla 3