May News Article

Due to the continued presence of the novel coronavirus and the State of Emergency, Scituate Rotary Club has been forced to call off the Wine Tasting and the Earth Day Clothes Drive, both of which were scheduled for April 2020.  We have not formally made a decision on if we will cancel Wine Tasting outright for this year or if we will try to reschedule it for a later date in 2020.  We are paying close attention to the State and CDC guidelines in order to make a final determination.  We will make a formal announcement once a decision has been made.

In regards to the Earth Day Clothes Drive, we do plan on having a clothes drive after the restrictions lift and once Savers reopens.  For those unfamiliar with our event, Savers allows non-profits to do collection drives for clothes, shoes, and other soft goods and will pay for the donations by the pound.  In the past, this has been a good fundraiser for us near Earth Day – it helps our neighbors declutter in an Earth friendly way and lets us raise some funds for the Rotary Battey Meetinghouse Playground.  We normally also have Earth friendly activities for the children.  Once restrictions lift, we will make an announcement on when our new clothes drive will be.  Since many people are stuck in quarantine, now would be a great time to start cleaning out your closets!  Please save your bags of clothes, shoes and other soft goods for us. 

Following the Rotary credo of “Service Above Self” member Sharon Johnson and Marcia Caranci of Sueno Boutique in Greenville have been busy during lockdown at their sewing machines.  They meet every morning for a half hour of yoga and then get busy for the rest of the day. As of the time of this writing in early April, they have sewn over 300 cloth masks using many of their own materials and fabric donated by many people in the community. The masks have gone to the Rhode Island National Guard for soldiers, Johnston Housing Authority, family and community members, and medical professionals at Kent Hospital, Miriam Hospital, VNRI, Women & Infants, and other locations. 

The masks can be worn by non-medical professionals to help stop the spread of Covid-19 as it is reported that wearing a mask can help keep the person wearing it from touching their face and therefore getting and spreading the virus through contact with the nose and lips, as well as some protection from the virus being spread airborne.  Medical professionals are also using the cloth masks, due to the extreme shortage of medical grade masks.  Medical professionals have been told to wear the same mask throughout an entire shift and even re-use their masks.  A cloth mask worn over the medical grade mask helps to keep the medical grade mask clean and better able to withstand a shift. Some places are even out of the medical grade N95 masks altogether. Sharon and Marcia are continuing to sew masks throughout the lockdown and are still collecting fabric donations.  

Members Bill Vangel and Lola Smith have been busy getting the playground cleaned up for the kids.  They have spent time raking leaves, replenishing mulch, clearing branches, and other needed work.  The playground will be ready for the kids once the weather breaks and we no longer have to follow social distancing guidelines.

We are also still raising funds to replace equipment at the playground.  Without the Wine Tasting this spring, a lot of revenue has been lost.  If you are able to make a donation for the playground in any amount, it would be greatly appreciated! We are also still selling personalized bricks to go in the playground around the Peace Pole.  We have two sizes, the smaller one is $50.00 and the larger is $150.00.  All proceeds from the bricks are reserved for playground renovations.  If you would like to make a donation or have an engraved brick, please contact us on Facebook or write to ScituateRotary@Aol.com or to PO Box 461, North Scituate, RI 02857.

Quite a few people and businesses have already purchased bricks and are anxious to see them laid in the ground.  We were originally planning to lay the bricks this April or May after the weather breaks and with the return of one of our snowbird members, Alan Howe, an engineer.  We are anxiously awaiting his return from Florida and hope to begin laying them once he is back and out of any mandated quarantine. Alan has the laying all planned out with how to make sure they are properly leveled and what materials to use which would allow the bricks to lay securely and aesthetically around the Peace Pole. 

Members Bill Vangel and Lola Smith are also working with Jeanne Grover from the Trinity Food Closet to try to secure a grant from Rotary District 7950 for use by Trinity to continue funding their food closet during this difficult time.  Rotary District 7950 announced that it had $32,000.00 allocated for Disaster Response to use to purchase food and baby formula for local food pantries and baby centers with a max of $1,000.00 per club within the district.  Rotary District 7950 covers 65 clubs in Rhode Island, Southeastern Massachusetts, Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. We know getting the funding will be competitive, but Bill and Lola are determined to get all the paperwork completed and submitted.

With a staggering 10 million people on unemployment due to Covid-19, food pantries are under increased stress to keep up with demand.  You can contact Trinity Food Closet at (401) 647-2322 and 249 Danielson Pike, N. Scituate, RI 02857 if you have any questions, need assistance, or if you would like to donate directly.

Rotary Clubs worldwide have been responding to the Covid-19 outbreak, as “fighting disease” is one of our Areas of Focus. Here are some ways clubs around the world are responding:

Our club will continue to work with the food closet, Sharon is planning to continue making masks, and some of our club members who are medical professionals (Lynn DuBois, Colleen Rose, and Jennifer Huff) are still going to work daily to care for their patients despite the risks.  Stay safe and reach out to us if you, or someone you know, needs any assistance during this crisis.