UPDATE (6/8/18): Facebook has announced it will enter the Guatemalan disaster relief field by matching donations made specifically for that purpose up to $250,000. (Click here for details.) As of today, the death toll is at 109, hundreds more are missing, and destruction is incalculable. Click here for the latest news and analysis of the situation.

(Originally published 6/6/18)

News on the volcanic eruption in Hawaii receives regular updates via the media. However, a deadlier eruption in Guatemala received some initial coverage, but it quickly has dissipated.

In the last 72 hours, the Central American nation has been left reeling by the most violent volcanic eruption in 44 years.

The Fuego volcano spewed lava, ash, rocks and deadly hot gas onto hillside villages, killing at least 65 people, according to early reports. More than 3,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, while the entire community of El Rodeo is said to be buried.

As always in the instances of natural disasters anywhere in the world, ShelterBox is taking immediate steps to help.

ShelterBox has aid pre-positioned in Guatemala and nearby Panama and is sending an assessment team to see how it might be able to help families who have lost everything in the most devastating volcanic eruption in Guatemala since 1974.

“We are in contact with colleagues and Rotary partners in the country to understand whether and how we can help,” the aid organization said in a statement. “:ShelterBox has deployed to Guatemala on four previous occasions. The first response was a flood in 2005, then another flood and a tropical storm in 2010, and an earthquake in 2012.

“Any donation you can give today will help families in desperate need. We need your support now to reach more families without shelter. Thank you. Your support will help us change lives.”

Anyone who wishes to donate any amount, large or small, to this effort or any of the many other ongoing ShelterBox efforts can do so by clicking here.

Meeting at Quigley’s Restaurant
593 Columbia Turnpike
East Greenbush, NY
June 7, 2018

Members Attending (13): Roberto Martinez, Murray Forth, Pat Bailey, Jim Leyhane, Peter Brown, Melissa Bill, Debbie Brown, Dick Drumm, Debbie Rodriguez, Ray Hannan, Phil Kellerman, Charlie Foote, Mike Ackerman.

Guests : None.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS/BUSINESS

OPENING: President Roberto Martinez welcomed members and guest.

SCHOLARSHIP PRESENTATION: We will be awarding our annual $1,000 scholarships to three graduating high school seniors at our Thursday, June 21, dinner meeting at Quigley’s.

DISTRICT CONFERENCE: The annual District 710 Conference held last weekend at the Rivers Casino Resort in Schenectady was attended by about 120 people, including a small delegation from SRC. Roberto showed slides of the activities. Click here to go to District Governor Fred Daniels’ report on the event.

STAR OF HOPE: SRC will join with a group of students from Columbia High School from 9 a.m. to noon this Saturday at the East Greenbush Public Library to refresh the Star of Hope memorial area. Plants for the project are being supplied by Faddegon’s Nursey at its cost, approximately $1,200.

SHELTERBOX: Aid is being sent to volcano-ravaged Guatemala, where more than 100 people have been killed and tens of thousands displaced, as part of a ShelterBox effort. This is not the first time Guatemala has need such disaster assistance. Click here for details and how to donate to the effort.

COLONIE COMMUNITY NIGHT: Jim Leyhane spoke about the “Community Night” in Colonie sponsored by their police department. Funding is needed for the event, to be held this Friday, because organizers once again are short of money. Jim said he donated $500, and requested that the club contribute $250. Next year, the Colonie Rotary Club will take over this event. Debbie Rodriguez made, and Peter Brown seconded, a motion to give Jim $250 to defray half his contribution. It was approved without dissent.

WEBSITE REMINDERS: Roberto reminded members that our website regularly displays an up-to-date events calendar, and he spoke about access to current and future information available via the website. (Please note that SRC also has a Facebook presence under “SRC Club.”)

CHANGEOVER EVENTS: The District presidential changeover event is scheduled for Sunday, July 8, at ​Dunham’s Bay Resort, 2999 State Route 9L, Lake George. Reservations, priced at  $32 per person, may be made by clicking here. … The Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club’s presidential changeover dinner is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, June 28. Save the date, and join us when Roberto passes the gavel to Andy Leyhane.

ROTARY LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE: RLI training will be held on Saturday, October 20, at the CASDA facility on the UAlbany Health Sciences Campus (formerly called the East Campus). Members wishing to participate are urged to contact Bill Dowd, who is coordinating our registrations. The club will pay the registration fees. We also learned that Rotaract members will be allowed to enroll.

FUNDRAISER: Debbie Rodriguez reported that a fundraising dinner for Ronald McDonald House is scheduled for Saturday, June 21, at the Glen Sanders Mansion in Scotia. Reservations are $75 per person, and may be made by calling Megan Rodriguez at 518-724-5004. Debbie is trying to put together enough SRC members to reserve a table.

SUMMER CASUAL SCHEDULE: The second event on our traditional July-August calendar is being firmed up, with Debbie Brown working on choosing a summer theater production at the Mac-Haydn Theatre in Chatham. We already have a picnic and ValleyCats baseball game at Bruno Stadium scheduled for Wednesday, July 25  (note it is not on our usual Thursday activity night), with Terry Brewer handling the arrangements. Click here to see the available dates for summer events.

NEXT MEETING: 6:15 p.m. Thursday, June 14, at Quigley’s. Debbie Rodriguez will speak on our club history.

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PROGRAM: “Trivia Test”

Melissa Bill presented a trivia test in place of her originally-planned program which was postponed due to a scheduling conflict by the speakers.

It was a multi-category, multiple-choice test consisting of 20 questions on geography, Broadway shows, basketball, music, space, art, and pop culture. The winner was Peter Brown, fresh off a win in our “4th annual North American Whizbang Trivia Test” three weeks ago. Debbie Brown and Phil Kellerman tied for second.

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Can’t get enough trivia? This week’s new meeting topic may help.

If you didn’t do as well as you might have liked at our annual trivia competition three weeks ago, Melissa Bill will be holding a test with, she promises, a little prize for the winner.

What’s behind the late change is a cancellation by the scheduled speakers Melissa had lined up from the organization Eyes Wide Open of NENY. We may try to schedule them for a visit in the next Rotary Year since we’re almost out of dinner meetings before we go in to our summer casual mode.

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Americans are dying of drug overdoses at an alarming rate. One report cites an estimated 1,000 deaths each week, mostly from overdoses of opioid drugs.

The Rotary Club of Niskayuna will host “Losing Our Loved Ones,” a breakfast forum open to the public from 7:15 to 8:15 a.m. next Tuesday, June 12, at the Blue Ribbon Restaurant & Bakery, 1801 State Street, Schenectady.

The primary speaker will be Robert A. Kent, general counsel for the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS).  He is leading OASAS efforts to implement Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Heroin and Opioid Task Force.  (After the meeting, Kent will be speaking to fifth-graders at Schenectady’s Lincoln Elementary.)

If you would like to attend the breakfast, be sure to call Lon Penna at  518-312-6588 no later than Sunday, June 10.

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Deborah Fowler and Patricia Carley, founders of Eyes Wide Open of NENY, will be our guest speakers at Thursday’s dinner meeting at Quigley’s.

Their organization seeks to “provide restorative care and a sanctuary of healing and hope for women survivors of sex trafficking.” Melissa Bill will introduce the program.

The dinner menu will include sausage and peppers, antipasto salad, chef’s choice of sides, bread, dessert, and beverages.

As always, guests are welcome, but they need to be included in the headcount we provide to Quigley’s for food and seating. The list of those with reservations is below. If you’re n ot on it, but would like to join us, please email dinner coordinator Debbie Brown at mdbrown@nycap.rr.com no later than Tuesday evening.

Pat Bailey
Melissa Bill
Debbie Brown
Peter Brown
April Dowd
Bill Dowd
Dick Drumm
Charlie Foote
Phil Kellerman
Jim Leyhane
Roberto Martinez
Debbie Rodriguez
Carole Spencer
Deborah Fowler (guest speaker)
Patricia Carley (guest speaker)

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The annual District 7190 Conference went off in style from Friday through Sunday, with community service projects throughout the community the first day followed by sessions at the new Rivers Casino in Schenectady on Saturday and Sunday.

Southern Rensselaer Coumty Rotary Club was well represented throughout the event. Here is a report from District Governor Fred Daniels, followed by a few scenes from the event.

“In the first few days of June, the District Conference was held in Schenectady, also known as the birthplace of General Electric. Albert Einstein, who vacationed in Saranac Lake and knew both of the founders of GE (Thomas Edison and Charles Steinmetz — what did they all talk about?), once said:

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”

The District Conference theme,”Sparking Action in the Capital Region,” included the notion that change can serve as a spark to action, and the conference focused in part on change and change leadership. Whether we are considering ways to attract young professionals to Rotary, or to be more relevant to our communities, or to engage the highly complex issue of opioid addiction, we recognize that our clubs must change, that the ways Rotarians think about serving our communities must be more radical, and that we must focus on impacting outcomes — moving the needle — if, in fact, we want to change the world.

When we think about change, we sometimes focus on problem solving rather than creating the desired outcomes. We say “Our clubs are getting smaller. What must we change to stop that from happening?”  We say,”Our service projects are great, but they only seem to have limited impact.How can we change the project so that our impact is more significant?

And, there is nothing wrong with approaching things in this way. The answers can return our clubs to the sizes they used to be and make our service projects more successful by many measures.

But, we don’t spend much time thinking about the most desirable outcome — the actual result. What would we want our clubs to be like? What are the fundamental issues underlying the usefulness of our service project,and what is the plan that solves those root issues?

Rather than getting our club to be the size it was 10 years ago, a different approach would be to agree that our club should look like the community it is serving.

Does this mean more diversity — racial, age, gender? Does this mean that if our community is filled with youth who have significant needs that the club should demonstrate capabilities to engage youth?

If so, then what is the plan to start an Interact Club, Early Act club, and attract youth workers into the membership? If the club today had 10 members, but seven of them were directly connected to the youth in the community, would that club be more relevant to the community and produce greater impact?  If so, it barely matters how many members there are in the club.

In the same way, if the opioid crisis is gripping the community, then what is the desired outcome? It could be to rid the community of opioids. Or, it could be to provide better education about avoiding addiction. Or bringing folks out from the shadow of addiction into the sunlight of treatment. Each of those is a great service project, but the plans would be dramatically different depending on the best anticipated outcome.

There is a constant in any of these scenarios. It is that the members of the club and the community work together to identify the community needs, strategize on the plan to achieve the best outcome, and work together to implement the plan for success. In Rotary it is not about the ideas or actions of one person, no matter how astoundingly great that Rotarian is.

Mother Teresa said it best: “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples.”

Rotary is changing the world, one person and one community at a time. Whether you know it or not, you are a change agent, and each of us has a unique opportunity to cast a stone across the water.  When we join together and cast many stones, the ripples are stronger and affect the shoreline more significantly. They can be seen further away, so that others know it is time to cast their stone.

See that stone over there? Bend down and pick it up. Better yet, find another Rotarian and bend down together and pick up the larger stone right next to it. Now, make some ripples!”

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Our traditional lineup of casual events for July and August already has one event scheduled.

We will enjoy a picnic and a ValleyCats baseball game at Bruno Stadium on Wednesday, July 25. (Note it is not on our usual Thursday activity night.)

Terry Brewer again is making the arrangements, and will be working with the District administration for this to be a Rotary Night event at the ballpark. Friends and family are very welcome to join us for this family-oriented evening. Please see Terry if you plan to attend. Tickets are $26 each, which covers food, the game, and souvenirs.

Other available dates for hosting outings or suggesting group “field trips”are:

• July 12

• July 19

• August 2

• August 9

• August 16

• August 23

(Traditionally we do not hold events on July 4th week or the week leading into the long Labor Day weekend.)

Anyone who wishes to host an event or look into other possibilities such as a MacHaydn Theatre performance, a wine dinner at Goold Orchards, dinner on the riverbank at a marina, or anything else you’ve enjoyed in the past or would like to try for the first time is asked to see President-elect Andy Leyhane since he’ll be the person in charge as of July 1.

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Meeting at Quigley’s Restaurant
593 Columbia Turnpike
East Greenbush, NY
May 31, 2018

Members Attending (14): Roberto Martinez, Murray Forth, Pat Bailey, Jim Leyhane, Peter Brown, Ron Annis, Terry Brewer, Geoff Brewer, Debbie Brown, Bill Dowd, April Dowd, Dick Drumm, Debbie Rodriguez, Charlie Foote.

Guests (5):  Olivia Sterantino, Abbey Utter, Dan Sterantino, Amy Utter, Jacklyn Hill.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS/BUSINESS

OPENING: President Roberto welcomed members, plus five guests — RYLA students Olivia Sterantino and Abbey Utter and parents Dan Sterantino and Amy Utter, and Maple Hill High School principal Jacklyn Hill.

YOUTH INITIATIVES: SRC is in the process of informing local high schools about the opportunity to enroll students in the 2018-19 Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) program, with the club underwriting the associated costs. … An application for a $1,500 grant from District 7190 has been submitted with the intent of covering half the cost of the annual $1,000 scholarships given to three graduating high school students each year.

STAR OF HOPE REFURBISHING: Terry Brewer is seeking adult volunteers to assist in the sprucing up of the Star of Hope memorial on the grounds of the East Greenbush Public Library. The effort, which primarily will be by students from Columbia High School with some adult supervision and assistance, is scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, June 9. Faddegon’s Nursery will supply planting materials. The memorial honors CHS students who passed away before they could graduate.

CIRCLES OF MERCY AWARD: SRC will be the recipient of the Sister Gail Rieth Award at the annual banquet held by Circles of Mercy. Roberto, Jim Leyhane, Murray Forth, and Maggie Forth will attend to represent the club.

VALLEYCATS OUTING: Our annual trek to Bruno Stadium for a pavilion picnic and ValleyCats baseball game has been scheduled for Wednesday, July 25 (not our usual Thursday night activity).  Terry Brewer again is making the arrangements, and will be working with the District administration for this to be a Rotary Night event at the ballpark. Friends and family are very welcome to join us for this family-oriented evening. Please see Terry if you plan to attend. Tickets are $26 each, which covers food, the game, and souvenirs.

BOARD RETREAT: The discussion and planning meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, June 4, at the Community Care offices in Schodack. Roberto is putting together the agenda with the aid of suggestions made by Board members.

ROTARY LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE: This year’s RLI training is scheduled for Saturday, October 20, at the Health Sciences Campus (formerly the East Campus) in East Greenbush. Members who have not yet attended RLI are urged to sign up for Level I. If there is enough Districtwide interest, a Graduate level workshop will be offered for those who have completed Levels I, II, and III. SRC will pay the registration fee for all our attendees, which covers instruction, lunch, and materials. If you are interested in participating, please contact Bill Dowd who will coordinate our group reservations.

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PROGRAM: “The RYLA Experience 2017-18”

Abbey Utter and Amy Sterantino, two of the juniors from Maple Hill High School who participated in the 2017-18 Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) under SRC sponsorship in this academic year, paid a visit to briefly discuss their experience.

From September through March, they met with other RYLA students from across District 7190 in monthly workshops and activities at Skidmore College meant to enhance their planning, public speaking, and leadership skills.

Both girls said they enjoyed most of the experience and liked the opportunity to plan events — including a dinner held at the end of the sessions, meet other students — including three who were studying in the U.S. under the Rotary Youth Exchange program, and have been encouraging other students at their school to submit their names for inclusion in next year’s RYLA.

Abbey and Olivia both are very involved in activities at Maple Hill, and both are members of the National Honor Society.

For anyone who would like more information on the RYLA program, click here to go to the proper page on our website.

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NEXT MEETING: 6:15 p.m. Thursday, June 7, at Quigley’s. The program scheduled by Melissa Bill will be on the “Eyes Wide Open” mentoring program.

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• From dinner coordinator Debbie Brown

I hope that any Memorial Day plans you may have aren’t adversely affected by the weather. Friday wet and soggy; Saturday, hot and humid. Sunday and Monday clearer and warmer. One never knows what the weather may be in the Great Northeast.

We are nearly at the end of our formal Rotary meetings for the 2017-18 year.  This Thursday we will host our Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) students as they report on what they learned through this important youth training program our SRC club financially supports.  It is always a great meeting as we meet some future community leaders.

Our Thursday dinner meeting at Quigley’s will feature the sports bar’s popular chicken Parmesan, with antipasto salad, chef’s selection of side dishes, breads, desserts, and beverages.

The following members have indicated their intent to be with us.  If your name does not appear and you are able to be with us, please let me know at mdbrown@nycap.rr.com no later than this evening. When students are our program, they are often accompanied by their parent, so we may have a full house. We want to have enough seats and food for everyone.

Bailey, Pat
Brewer, Geoff
Brewer, Terry
Dowd, April
Dowd, Bill
Foote, Charlie
Forth, Murry
Hannan, Ray
Leyhane, Jim

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[Reprinted from a May 2017 posting on this website]

Beyond the cookouts, the holiday sales, the family trips, picnics and parades there is a deep and profound reason for Memorial Day.

Although we honor all military personnel on Veterans Day, Memorial Day is specifically designated as honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War but did not become an official federal holiday until 1971.

The Civil War, which ended in the spring of 1865, obviously claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history because all combatants were Americans, and it required the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries.

By the late 1860s, Americans in various communities had begun holding springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers, reciting prayers and decorating their graves with flowers and flags — thus, the original name, Decoration Day.

Each year on Memorial Day a national moment of remembrance takes place at 3 p.m. local time. It is unclear exactly where this tradition originated. Numerous communities may have independently initiated the memorial gatherings. Nevertheless, in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the “Official Birthplace of Memorial Day.”

Waterloo, which first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866, was chosen because it hosted an annual community-wide event during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.

On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance later that month. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed.

The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it was not the anniversary of any particular battle.

On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried there.

Many Northern states held similar commemorative events and reprised the tradition in subsequent years; by 1890 each one had made Decoration Day an official state holiday. Southern states, on the other hand, continued to honor their dead on separate days until after World War I.

Although Memorial Day originally honored only those lost in the Civil War, American involvement in The Great War, later called World War I, made it evolve to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars.

For decades, Memorial Day continued to be observed on May 30, the date Logan had selected for the first Decoration Day. But, in 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, a controversial decision that moved several major holidays from their traditional or historic dates to Mondays that gave federal — and later on state and local — employees three-day paid weekends. The law went into effect in 1971.

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REQUIEM

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie:
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you ‘grave for me:
Here he lies where he long’d to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.

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