Home Page | Rotary Club of Vestal

On Monday, December 30, 2019, the Vestal Rotary Club held its annual Kohls for Kids shopping program. 25 elementary-aged students from the Vestal Schools were treated to a morning of shopping at Kohls. The children arrived with a shopping list of specific clothes or shoe purchases that they needed. Rotary club members, their friends, and Vestal School staff served as personal shoppers, assisting the children with their purchases. Once all of the purchases were completed the children and their personal shoppers went to the Outback Steak House and were treated to a lunch of hamburgers and fries. Following lunch, the children's parents arrived to take them and their new clothes home.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this day a success. Special thanks to Rob Flanders, Kohls for Kids chairperson, Kohls General Manager Kyle Neil and Kathy Wood and the rest of the Kohls staff who dedicated two check out lines for our children, to Outback Steak House and our host GM Tom Conklin for the special arrangements for our lunch, to Melisa Brock and Linda Smoker from the Vestal Central Schools for their help with monitoring the children and to Regina Felice from VCS for taking photographs of the event.

Holiday Food Drive 2019

Each December the Vestal Rotary Club conducts its annual Holiday Food Drive. This event is supported by the greater Vestal Community. During the month of December club members bring canned food to each meeting at the California Grill. The Vestal School District collects the food and transports it to the Town Water Barn. Members of the community also make generous financial contributions allowing the club to purchase additional food items. This year the club collected more than 7,300 individual canned and boxed food items and an additional $4,400 used to purchase additional food. On the evening of December 18th, club members gathered at the Town Water Barn to pack food boxes for distribution to families in our community. They were assisted by members of the Boy Scouts, Troop 225 and Vestal High School students. The school district, churches and others in our community helped the club identify the families who would receive the food boxes. On Thursday, December 19, employees of the Town of Vestal delivered the food boxes to 31 very appreciative families.

Thank you to all members of the Vestal Rotary Club, Vestal School District and the Town of Vestal for making this project so successful. A special thank you to Carol Belva, chair of the Holiday Food Committee and George Schwarztrauber for their dedication, leadership and the countless hours they invest in this project each year!