I can’t believe Thanksgiving has already passed and Christmas is just a few weeks away. November was a short month but very busy with our BU Concession season well underway and off to a successful start. Congratulations to Becky Hessler on receiving the Paul Harris Award! We are looking forward to participating in an exciting Endicott Holiday Parade on December 3rd, organized by our very own Darlene Leonard.Tom Latini has a well-planned Endicott Rotary Holiday Party for us at Celebrations on December 8th. We are happy that Endwell and Johnson City Rotarians will be joining us for great food, drink, entertainment, and fellowship. We look forward to working with our “Christmas Boxes Assembling Team” on December 20th at “The Lupo Center” on Dickson Street. This month we will be welcoming and officially inducting into our Endicott Rotary family, Jessica Corbett.
Reminders:
Our next Board meeting is on Wednesday, December 14 at 8:00AM at the Endicott Visitor Center.
There will be NO Rotary mtgs. on December 22nd, and 29th. We will resume on January 5th.
I hope the spirit, love, and peace of the holiday season remains in your hearts now and throughout the new year! Happy Hannukah, Merry Christmas, Joyful Kwanzaa, and Happy Holidays to all!
On November 15, I presented a check to Rob Pickett from Pickett's Painting for the painting of the Endicott Visitors Center in the amount of $2,800.00. It hadn't been painted in many years and was looking pretty bad. We were asked to actually do the painting but after considering it, the board decided to hire professionals to do it. Monica Jordan and I received two bids for the job and Rob came in $600 less than the other painting contractor. I personally have been responsible for getting the bricks on the inside walkway done for several years now. The bricks each cost $35.00 including engraving, which is now $15.00 per brick I believe, with the other $20.00 going into a separate account that is to be used ONLY for the Visitors Center. I asked if any amount could be used towards offsetting the cost of the painting and we received $500.00 towards that cost from Broome County Community Charities. The foundation's net cost was $2,300.00. This was approved by the board several months ago.
Nicole Wolfe sent me a request for the U-E Key Club for a donation of any amount. After speaking to her about the request, she said the Endicott Sertoma Club donated $500.00 to this cause. I am attaching her letter to me so that everyone can get an idea where our funds are being used within the community once we make a donation. The Foundation also agreed to donate $500.00 to them.
(Brian, can you open the link and print it into the body of the Gong? Insert it here)
We have also received a request from JoAnne Morak from the Girl Scouts NYPENN Pathways for $3,000. She was a guest speaker a few weeks ago. I returned an email to her explaining to her that we can not give $3,000.00 to them at this time and that I would let her know the amount, if any, that we can donate.
The board is trying to donate something to each organization requesting a donation. However, as I said earlier, once the funds have been allocated and have been donated, we can only donate additional money from the principle for an emergency situation, which brings me to another topic.
As you all know, in the past, Sam Lupo has been able to secure from Broome Catholic Charities the turkeys for the food boxes that are donated each year to the needy families of the U-E School District. This year, Sam was notified that they would not be able to help with the turkeys. Sam called me to see if the Foundation could purchase them if he could not secure the turkeys. This would fall under the emergency situation that I mentioned, plus it would not be a huge sum of money. As it turned out, John Karedes became involved and was able to secure the 125 turkeys needed from Rob's Market in Hallstead, PA, owned by Anthony Coppola. Anthony made a donation in the form of a discount of approximately $1,100 to $1,200, as well as Broome County Community Charities made a donation. Louie and John Karedes personally donated the balance. Due to the business relationships developed over the years by several people and the generosity of individuals, this highly worthwhile project will continue as always. I want to thank everyone who made this project continue.
I hope this gives all of you the insight of what's going on with the Foundation funds and allocations we work so hard to raise over the year.
If anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact me.
If you are planning to attend our annual Holiday/Christmas Party, kindly RSVP to Tom Latini at tomlatini51@gmail.com by December 5th by noon. Checks can be sent to Endicott Rotary, PO Box 427, Endicott, NY 13760. If you have any questions, please call Tom at 607-765-4303.
The cost will be $35.00 per person with the following menu:
Chicken Piccata
Beef Tenderloin
Penne Pasta
Mashed Potatoes
Glazed Carrots
Salad
Bread
Soda, Coffee, Tea, and Water
Cupcakes for Dessert
Entertainment will be Greg Neff singing sounds of the season.
We hope to see many of you at the Holiday Party on Thursday, December 8, at Celebrations on the Avenue (former Nirchi's on the Avenue), starting at 5:30 for cocktails and dinner at 6:30.
We have officially kick off the fundraising efforts for George F. Johnson Memorial Rehabilitation Project. We want to thank our November donors; Sam Lupo and Sons, and The Decker Foundation 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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