Well, another Holiday Season has gone by but, we accomplished all year end activities in great fashion. The Holiday Parade, the Christmas Party, the Holiday food boxes, the seasonal shopping, and December’s BU Concessions…whew, all done! Maybe you might even were able to fit in some family time, fun, and relaxation in busy December. Many Rotary activities and programs will be coming our way in 2023. Be on the look-out for one of them in the next few weeks from Tom Latini with information about this year’s Dick’s Sporting Goods Open in June.
A new year…what resolutions have you made for yourself? I’m sure many of them are of a personal nature, but what about Rotary? Can you IMAGINE more involvement? Can Rotary IMAGINE more for you? Have you thought about becoming a Paul Harris Fellow? Talk to Darlene Leonard for more information on how you can participate in that endeavor. Have you thought about becoming a board member or even seek the presidency? See Kim Potter about your involvement in a leadership position. Rotary is what you make of it…resolve to make Endicott Rotary the best that it can be for you and you for Endicott Rotary.
Will 2023 be a fruitful year? That’s yet to be determined, but it is the Chinese Year of the Rabbit. We know how “fruitful” rabbits can be, right?
My wish for you is that the New Year brings you much happiness, prosperity, and great health!
The Foundation had two more requests for donations.
As I mentioned earlier, we had a request from JoAnne Morak from the Girl Scouts NYPENN Pathways for $3000.00 for use at Camp Amahami in Deposit, NY. We ultimately donated $500.00 in December.
The second request was from Boris the Skeleton for $350.00 to help provide gifts for the less children in the area. Since Boris the Skeleton is not a 501(c)(3) organization, we had to turn him down for his request. He suggested we donate the money to Watch Us Change Us which is a 501(c)(3), which is run by Kashif Summers. I am including a link to an excellent article about Kashif and his organization that he founded. We presented the check to Terri Farrell who assists with the organization. https://www.pressconnects.com/story/news/connections/giving-back/2022/07/12/watch-us-change-us-helps-binghamton-area-youths-learn-life-skills/65371008007/
We also donated close to $9,000.00 to pay for the food and boxes for our annual food project for needy families in the U-E School District. $833.73 was the cost of the boxes and $7,974.76 was the cost for the food that went into the boxes for a total cost of $8,808.49. We were also awarded $2,500 from The Community Foundation after they reached out to us with a grant opportunity for food insecurity. With this grant we were able to add 25 families this year. Please keep in mind, these figures do not include the cost of the turkeys. John Karedes was able to secure the turkeys for this project from Anthony Coppola who owns and operates Rob's Market in Hallstead, PA. Anthony gave Endicott Rotary a very large discount on his behalf. We also received a generous donation from Broome County Community Charities for the purchase. The balance due for the turkeys was graciously paid by club members Louie and John Karedes. The money that the Foundation paid toward the program was allocated for the project and does not impact the yearly limit set forth by the 3%/35% formula.
After these donations have been made, we have a total of $3,803.00 left to donate for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023. Once we have the yearend statement of the Foundations total investments, I will pass those along in a separate email.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to ask me.
The Endicott Rotary Club, and other members of the community, provided food for the holidays for 125 families! Each year we team with the Union-Endicott School District and the Southern Tier Community Center to provide food baskets to families in need.
We were able to give each family 3 boxes of food totaling approximately 100 pounds of food per household. Enough food is provided for a Holiday meal as well as food for the winter break.
A very special thank you to Sam A. Lupo and Sons for providing their facility for staging, packing and storing baskets, as well as a refrigerated delivery truck. We would also like to thank all of our community partners, as well as The Community Foundation for offering us grant funds for food insecurity. This allowed our team to provide food to 25 additional families this year.
Thank you, Nikki, Dave and Mike, for leading the project for Endicott Rotary and The Union-Endicott School District, especially Nicole, Pamela, Jenn and Chris.
We are truly grateful to live, work and be a part of such a caring community.
We have officially kick off the fundraising efforts for George F. Johnson Memorial Rehabilitation Project. We want to thank our December donors; Eugene Ianonne, Victor Fiori, Mario Salati and The Town of Union for making a donation to the project. We have a great opportunity through the Ralph J. Warner Memorial Fund to match private individual donations up to $5,000.
If you would like to make a donation to this project, please find the information below and on our webpage www.EndicottRotary.com
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