Larry Palant joined Suffern Rotary Club on June 2, 2002. In these 22 years as a Rotarian he has served as club Foundation Chairperson for many years, Membership Chairperson, past club president 2008-2009, member of various club committees over these years such as the Project Warm, Strategic Planning Committee, Public Image Committee, etc. He has helped to develop club projects, grants and also fulfilled roles such as ”Web Master”, mentor & advisor to numerous club presidents. Larry is the “Go To Guy” for all information Rotary.
District Officer roles as District Governor 2022-23, Past District Officer as Membership Chair, a Paul Harris Fellow +1-9 and in the Paul Harris Society, Major Donor Level 1 & a Sustaining Member. Larry participates nearly all club events, District 7210 events and International events. Larry has good knowledge of technology & programs which he has used to support events as well as provide instruction on the workings of Clubrunner and My Rotary in District 7210. He has attended RI conventions & various learning opportunities offered.
Larry is dedicated to the yearly Thanksgiving Meals fundraising of 40-50 meals for Christ Episcopal Church Soup Kitchen in Suffern as well as procuring the food for these meals. Larry has been doing this for over 20 years.
Larry is dedicated to the ShelterBox Disaster Relief & has advocated fundraising for this cause for many years. In January 0f 2006, Larry became a ShelterBox Ambassador for District 7210 and has raised more than $240,000 for ShelterBox including $70,000 from District 7210 clubs after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. These numbers are as of 2022. He would visit other clubs and setup the ShelterBox at club and district functions to raise awareness and donations. He also served as his District’s Disaster Relief Chair from 2005 through 2017 and orchestrated, through a relay to four New Orleans area Rotary Clubs, a delivery of generators, batteries, fuel cans and tarpaulins immediately following hurricane Katrina in 2005. A similar collection of generators was purchased and delivered to a central location in District 7490 to be distributed following hurricane Sandy.
The year Larry became District Governor, a club member organized a fund raiser within our club. He was able to raise $20K from club member donations which is in the Suffern Rotary Club Foundation account with the purpose of buying a ShelterBox every year in Larry’s name. We have purchased 2 boxes to date with another one due the end of this Rotary year. Even with the purchase of 2 boxes we still have over $20K in the account so we should be buying boxes for much more than 20 years.
Numerous club project ideas have come from Larry: two outdoor community billboards in the village parks, a Peace Pole at Suffern High School, Buddy Benches at the local elementary schools, and Little Free Libraries in two village parks to name a few. The newest “Buy a Slice-Give a Slice of Pizza” to fight food poverty in our town.
Currently, Larry has taken on the role of Rotaract Chairperson for Suffern Rotary and is in the process of establishing a Rotaract Club at Rockland Community College. He made a connection for the RCC Sustainability Club Supervisor to attend an Eco-Club meeting so that she could get ideas and support starting an RCC garden to supply their food pantry. He has made plans for Rotary to be represented at the Sustainability Fair in April at RCC.
Larry has the pulse on the members of the club as well as the Suffern Community. If he sees a need, Larry makes an attempt to find a way to support or provide comfort, whether it be someone with an illness or displaced by fire. He was an instrumental member of a team of community members helping a Ukrainian woman with a young son to immigrate to America and establish a home & new life in the US. Other members of her family have come to the US with the help of this team of people. Maybe you have seen the movie “Julia’s Story” which documents this effort & clearly shows the valuable role Larry played in this journey.
Larry is resourceful and has a quick mind with an amazing talent of making connections or making a new application of an idea. He loves a good joke and has his one & only signature joke but he makes this situation an opportunity to laugh at himself.
Suffern Rotarians are in awe of his dedication to “Service Above Self” & to our community and to Rotary. We are grateful to have our own “Mr.Rotary”, he is a living legend and feel he deserves to be in District 7210’s Hall of Fame.
Submitted by Suffern Rotary Club members: Pam Hess, Bob Nachbaur & Ira Emanuel
