I want to take this opportunity to thank our Foundation for their support of various community organizations and non-profits. Inviting their representatives to our meetings to receive their monetary awards and to learn about how they are going to use the funds are important and refreshing for us to witness. We welcome new members Victor Fiori and Jim Testa to our Rotary family. Their induction will take place on October 13th, and we wish them much success as they immerse themselves into our many programs and activities.
A few reminders:
Collection of new or slightly used hats, gloves, scarfs, and socks for Little Italy’s Halloween event. Bring to our mtgs. through October 22nd.
Buying Halloween Candy? How about an extra bag for STCC’s Trunk or Treat? (Leftover candy can be used for the Holiday Parade.) Give to Jessica Haas/Mike Tanzini or bring to meetings.
District 7170 Youth Celebration Day at Cortland Country Club on Oct 8th…meet exchange students, RYLA students, and Interact students. Chicken BBQ and sides - this event is FREE
District 7170 Foundation Reception at the Norwich Northeast Classic Car Museum on Nov. 5th…cost $20.
Annual Riverbank Clean-up Day- October 22nd.
World Polio Day is October 24th…more info to follow.
Our once-a-month evening mtgs. will commence on Thursday, October 13 at 5:30PM, family members are welcome.
Place the date on your calendar; Our Holiday Party: Thursday, December 8th at Celebrations. (Endwell and Johnson City may join us)
GFJ Monument Restoration Committee Mtg. – Thursday, October 6th at 11:00AM - Celebrations
Next Board mtg. – Wednesday, October 12th at 8:00AM – Visitor Center.
Sign Up for BU Concessions!
Happy Autumn Everyone…Take a little breather, take a ride, and enjoy the beautiful colors throughout Upstate New York.
(A note from Boris the Skeleton – Happy Halloween!)
In keeping my commitment to transparency, I would like to update the club membership and anyone who missed our September meetings where the Foundation presented checks to awarded grant applicants.
At the September 15th meeting we presented three checks:
The first check was presented to All Saints School to help with funding a school project called Farm-to-School Movement. It's a program that teaches children in school how to grow organic foods in the school and be able to take this knowledge forward. The food will be used to feed the children at lunch. All Saints was awarded $500.00.
The second check was presented to Joe Griswald at the Endicott Fire Dept's for their child safety program. The funds will be used to purchase books for elementary school age children to instruct them about fire safety. Endicott Fire Dept was awarded $400.
The third check was presented to Darlene Leonard the Chair of the Endicott Holiday Parade. The foundation has consistently supported the holiday parade for years. We feel it is an important event for the community. We awarded the Endicott Holiday Parade $1,000.00
Finally, the request from Mario Salati and Brian Steele for the restoration project of the George F. Johnson Rehabilitation Project on Main St. between the high school and the district office was approved. The project has been awarded $5,000; $2,500 this fiscal year, $2,500 next fiscal year.
At the September 22nd meeting we presented three checks:
The foundation presented Crystal Sackett from the YWCA in Binghamton a check for $1,000.00. This money will be used for their women's unit, helping homeless women find housing, employment and other basic needs.
If anyone has any questions, please contact me via email or give me a call.
The recent detection of the vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 case in New York and isolates in several environmental samples collected in London are stark reminders that as long as polio exists anywhere, it is a threat everywhere. It also highlights the importance of vaccination as the only form of protection against polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases and the work that needs to be done in our communities to encourage the uptake of vaccines. Also, as the world gets closer to zero wild poliovirus cases, it is increasingly important to track all forms of the virus wherever they may appear, including in polio-free regions.
The U.S. is still considered low risk for paralytic outbreaks of polio due to the high level of vaccine coverage across the population. If a child has received the entire course of vaccines, the risk of becoming paralyzed by polio is negligible. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 92.6% of children aged 24 months are fully vaccinated against polio, slightly below the 95% World Health Organization target.
The best things countries can do to protect themselves from polio until the disease is eradicated from the world are to: maintain high vaccination coverage and robust disease surveillance and be ready to respond in the event of an outbreak to minimize the risk and consequences of polio re-introduction or re-emergence anywhere.
The world currently has a unique opportunity to stop virus transmission for good. Still, all parties, including donors and country governments, must re-commit to polio eradication by fully supporting the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) 2022-2026 strategy. This focuses on adopting an emergency posture while generating greater accountability and ownership from country governments to eradicate wild polio and end variant poliovirus (cVDPV) outbreaks.
Rotary, a global service organization with over 1.4 million members, has been at the center of the worldwide effort to eradicate polio for over three decades. Every year, through our funding partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Rotary commits $150 million to the global effort to eradicate polio. We have contributed more than $2.6 billion and countless volunteer hours to end polio forever. Together with our partners, we engage communities everywhere to encourage high vaccination rates, immunizing over 400 million children annually. More than 20 million people are walking today who otherwise would have been paralyzed because of our efforts and those of our partners in the GPEI.
The time for urgent action is now. A new vaccine has been deployed – novel oral polio vaccine 2 (nOPV2) – which is more genetically stable to stop outbreaks of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus effectively. With sustained political and financial commitments, the GPEI is confident that we can achieve a world in which no child is paralyzed by polio again.
District Governor, Rocky Martinez visited our club in September.
Rocky shared Jennifer Jones' leadership and programmatic goals for the 22/23 Rotary year. She has traveled the world connecting with Rotary Clubs for the last 4 years, which has guided her mission, vision and values for her presidential year. Jones is the first female president of RI and has the vision and passion of expanding our membership. Two demographics she is focusing on are younger people and women. While here in the US Rotary has welcomed women into their clubs, making up 40% of US membership, this has not been the case worldwide.
Rocky also shared his vision of district 7170. He challenged all of us to expand membership especially to younger people. They are the future of Rotary. He also will be holding many district events, all for $20 and under, many for free. He wants to bring the district together without breaking our wallets. He also spoke about the district combining into CNY Rotary and how this will affect our club.
We have officially kick off the fundraising efforts for George F. Johnson Memorial Rehabilitation Project. We want to thank our September donors; The Town of Union, Coughlin and Gerhart, The Yalamanchili Family, The Golub Corp (Price Chopper), Lou Karedes and Angeline's Florist 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