Our first speaker this week was Stace Kitner, who will be officially retiring as Vestal Police Chief at the end of January! He thanked the club for our support over the years, including The Youth Academy which has grown 900% since it's inception! He shared a few things he is proud of during his tenure with the Vestal Police. The K9 program has been re-established and has been deployed over 100x in 2025. There are currently 2 dogs/officers and they are called in on narcotic & tracking regularly. There has been 12% growth in Vestal Policer Dept including establishing a narcotics team. There are 44 officers and a total of 50 staff. We thank him for his service to the Vestal community!
Our second speaker was Katie Whaley, site manager for GiGi's Playhouse. She shared the story of how the organization came to exist. Nancy Gianni started the oranization in 2003 in Chicago after GiGi was born - Nancy wanted to change the way the world views Down Syndrome! Today there are 60 GiGi's Playhouse locations across the US and 88 countries. They provide FREE OF COST services in fitness, art and cooking. GiGi's is 99% volunteer run, support 30,000 families and over 298,000 FREE program hours annually! AMAZING!! About - Southern Tier NY
50/50 - $16 won by Kevin Yeager
Fines - Total raised in fines this week was $77! ALL HAPPY FINES: Carol for a successful Holidy Food Drive (reminder to make YOUR PERSONAL CONTRIBUTION), Kevin who donated his 50/50 winnings back to the club, Aaron for 3 successful events over the weekend (Holiday Food Drive, Ring the Bell for Salvation Army & Holiday gift party at Willow Point) all of which he attended himself. He challenged all in attendance to pay $1 for each of the 3 events they DIDN'T participate in themselves! Lori & Andy BOTH were happy for all Carol's work on the Food Drive. Sal put in for the work done by the Children's Home. Siobhan was amused by Andy's “mail call” reporting. Ted was excited for the upcoming weather forecast shoing 45*.
Nate shared that our leftovers from the Holiday party at Siobhan & Alan's house were delivered to Salvation Army! What a way to make someone's day brighter!
Member tidbits:
Next MEETING on December 29th will be COATS FOR KIDS. No lunch at Cali Grill…
MERRY CHRISTMAS to all!! See you in 2026 for our next regular meeting on January 12th!
