Ray Hannan wins the (imaginary) prize for being the first SRC member to respond to the request for pledges for our annual “Adopt-a-Family” for the holidays project. Thank you, Ray!

Wonder who will be next? Maybe it will be you. Or, if you didn’t get around to reading your email yet, simply click here to catch up on what we’re doing for our annual push and what you can do to be part of it.

We sincerely need all our SRC members to get involved in one way or another — by purchasing items on our two-person family’s wish list or by putting together a batch of personal hygiene kits from the shopping list we’ve provided to you. Please just let us know ASAP what you plan to do by emailing us a note to SRCrotary@gmail.com.

The hard deadline for donating items is Thursday, December 13. We’ll be collecting your donations between now and then and then delivering them to Circles of Mercy.

Thanks for all you do.

Bill & April Dowd
Adopt-a-Family project coordinators

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We’re headed into the major holiday season, a time of family, friends, and celebration. It also is a time for sharing, and once again the Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club will be involved in making the season a happier one for some of those less fortunate.

We are again partnering with Circles of Mercy to adopt a family, but this year with a couple of twists. The family we’ve been assigned is a small one — just a mother and one child. However, a second family, consisting of parents and three kids, will be adopted by Columbia High School in its first year of involvement in this effort.

The other change is that SRC will be creating individual personal hygiene kits for as many people as possible — a target number is 50 to 100 kits. These simple items are distributed to many people during the winter by Circles of Mercy. Details on kit contents and our two-person family and what they need is shown below.

Please be sure to email project coordinator Bill Dowd (billdowd4troy@gmail.com) ASAP to let him know what aspect of the two-pronged drive you plan to be involved in. If it’s the hygiene kits, let him know how many you will create.

The deadline for turning in gifts (wrapped and tagged with recipients’ names, please!) and personal hygiene kits is at our Thursday, December 13, dinner meeting.

PERSONAL HYGIENE KIT / CIRCLES OF MERCY

Each kit should contain all the items below and be small enough to fit into a backpack pocket with ease. Odorless products are best due to allergies. Items to be placed in Glad-brand zip-lock heavy duty bags (one gallon size). All need to be travel-sized containers of:

• shampoo
• hair conditioner
• toothpaste
• dental floss
• toothbrush
• breath strips
• mouthwash
• small first-aid kit (i.e. assorted Band-Aids and antiseptic such as Neosporin)
• very small travel-size sewing kit (minimum thread and needle)
• deodorant
• soap or bodywash
• hand sanitizer
• lotion
• lip balm (such as Chapstick)
• combs, brushes and hair bands

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