Home Page | Rotary Club of Palmyra-Macedon

New Member: Morgan Hinckley

Our club received Morgan Hinckley into membership on Wednesday, September 28. Morgan has a law practice in our community.

In these photos, President Jeff Crawford, reads from the New Member packet; Michele Waeghe, who sponsored Morgan, places her Rotary Pin; President Jeff presents Morgan with our service apron.

Water Project in Yucatan

Linda Werts, from the Newark Rotary Club, joined our Zoom meeting to inform us about a service project in Yucatan, Mexico building a water purification building and system. The project will take place in a community of around 500 people in Tabi, Mexico. It requires a team of ten to twenty members and Linda is looking for volunteers.

The project includes installing a reverse osmosis water treatment system as well as educating locals about its operation and working with children and teaching hygiene lessons. The project is also an important economic development for the region. Volunteers are needed in trip planning, health education and the construction of the building and water system. Hopefully the building can be finished in the spring and the water system installation by the fall, but with present COVID restrictions these dates may be changed. A recent e-mail stated that the project has been put on hold for 6 months due to COVID. The project is a part of Living Waters for the World.

If you might be interested in volunteering or donating money please contact Linda Werts at lwerts@aol.com or LivingWatersfortheWorld.org

Web site for Living Waters What the building will look like The Reverse Osmosis System

The Crier is Back

The Crier is Back!!

Please bear with us as we work on getting the Canaltown Crier back on line. It may take us a while to work through the new system, but we are working hard to get back to communicating with all of you.

COVID has taken its toll on us and we need to at least get you the information coming from our meetings so here is a synopsis of the last few ZOOM meetings.

Set me start with the AWESOME Holiday Zoom meeting hosted by Sheryl and Colin Vega back in December 9^th . After much delay with the Clements getting on line the club gave delayed awards (normally handed out at the Changeover Picnic in June). Maurina Schmidt was awarded the Rotarian of the Year for all her hard work all the time, but especially during this crazy COVID year! Mark and Kim Clement were given the Margaret Brooks award for their dedication to all facets of Rotary. The Board of Directors recently voted to award certificates for future awards and the honoree gets to pick a charity to receive a $100 donation from Pal-Mac Rotary instead of a costly plaque. Mark and Kim’s plaques were already made up, but Maurina selected the
Green Angels to receive the donation!

After the awards Sheryl led the club through some fun games including Holiday Trivia and Bingo! Great fun! Thanks Sheryl and Colin.

Most of the Zoom meetings have centered around Fines and Happy Bucks and the club has donated generously. President Yost budgeted for $1,000 in this area and our members have already donated over $2,000! We have been either very happy or very naughty.

The Weekend Wellness program that gives food to needy students to make it through the weekends is doing well and our volunteers are set through February. If you would like to help, contact Leslie Vecchiotti to sign up. Leslie will also be looking for volunteers to help with the multi-district Rotary Great Lakes Clean-up on April 24^th (Earth Day). Rotary Clubs adjacent to the Great Lakes will be working on cleaning their regions near the waterways.

The Murder Mystery Dinner is once again postponed due to you-know-what. We are hoping to reschedule for sometime this fall. The Dessert Gala is postponed and changed to an on-line Bake-sale for sometime in late March before Easter. We need volunteer bakers and deliverers. If interested contact Sheryl Vega or Kim Clement.

Maurina and the Clements with their awards. Please excuse the quality of the pictures. A picture of a picture from an article in the Macedon times by Jeff Crawford. Thanks Jeff!

Palmyra-Macedon FB Page

March Maddness

The WWP (Weekend Wellness Program) presented by Eddie Chapman

The Pal-Mac Rotary Club presented a $2,000 check to the WWP, which used to be called the backpack program. The WWP receives the food from Foodlink including special dietary needs. About 107 bags of food are delivered per week, at this time the need has increased. Bags are colored coded and teachers discreetly delivered these bags to the students lockers during the school day. It takes about $1,200.00 a month to keep this program active and well funded, The Pal-Mac Rotary donates annually to this very important program for our community. This Friday, April 24th will be our next delivery date to the Pal-Mac High School at 9:15am and helping hands are always welcome. Please remember to stay within our new regulations; gloves, masks, and social distancing. Stay Safe everyone!

A very Happy Birthday to; Eric Chapman “he turned the big one” and Jon Simunic (17 years old)

Jan Simunic and Maurina Schmidt (president)

February fun

February was a busy month for our Rotary Club below is a summery of all our fun activities that we did and had fun doing.

On the 12th we had our yearly dessert/entree Gala which again was a great time had by all there. the peanut butterballs were a great bye and hit with everyone. also Sheryl and Colin Vega offered up a 100 dollar gift certificate to their gym very much appreciated.

On the 14th ,Valentines Day we participated in the Wayne County Nursing Home annual Valentine Celebration which we brought at least two big red balloons to each resident and wished them Happy Valentines Day. Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time visiting and just talking to the residents.

On the 19th our club was honored to induct Jeff Crawford into our club. He was originally a member of the Red Jacket Rotary for five and a half years. He is a retired Pastor and a veteran. We all are happy that Jeff has joined our club and look forward to working with him to help our community and beyond.

January Meetings

At our January 8 meeting Jon gave us a wonderful presentation about his home country of the Czech Republic including his home town, favorite foods, hobbies and scouting. Jon has one sister who is an exchange student and his parents are hosting an exchange student from Mexico. Jon lives in a suburb of Prague and has a one hour commute each day by train, bus and walking to get to school.

Jon loves Taco Bell and feels that the Pal-Mac school lunches are too small. He enjoyed his trip to Universal Studios where he experienced his first huge roller coaster. He also noted that at home Halloween is just celebrated by carving pumpkins. He loved dressing up as a unicorn this year!

We were also introduced to Jon's next host parents Kim and Jamie Johnson.

A view of Prague Jon goofing around

Jon and new family Kim and Jamie Johnson

On January 22 Marylou Reisdorf gave a program about the Wounded Warriors in Action Foundation. She and her husband Jim (who was a purple heart recipient and has since passed away) started hosting annul retreats for Purple Heart recipients suffering from significant mental or physical injuries as a result of the service to the US. Events for veterans and spouses include hunting, relaxing wine tours or brunch in a spa. It is a local event held via donations from the public.

If you would like to find out more about the WWIA Foundation you can visit the website at www.WWIAF.org and click donation on the toolbar, You can also write a check to WWIA and mail to: Mary Lou Riesdorf

WWIA Associate

2391 Murphy Lane

Macedon, NY 14502

585-455-7044

Mary Lou and Jim Riesdorf Flier about the retreat

Weeks of News

Posted by Kim Clement on Nov 19, 2019

A lot has happened in the last few weeks, Here are a few of our activities and community service projects.

On Nov. 2 a crew of Pal-Mac Rotarians went to Pat VerPlank's house to rake a few acres of leaves!

Colin Vega, Pat VP, Kim Brooks, Leslie Vecchiotti, Dianne Sloan, Maurina Schmidt and Bob Sloan all pitched in to clear Pat's lawn.

On Nov. 6 Kim Clement, Leslie Vecchiotti and Maurina Schmidt handed out Armed Forces Lap blankets purchased with district grant money, to over 30 local veterans.

Maurina and a grateful vet Leslie handing out blankets Veterans and Rotarians!

On Nov. 18th Rotarians headed to the Pal-Mac Intermediate School to hand out Dictionaries to all 3rd graders and thesauruses to 4th graders as part of our Literacy project.

Rotary dictionary and thesaurus deliverers Jon, Bob Sloan, Exchange student Jon helps the club promote the Exchange program too.

Sheryl Vega, Margaret Brooks, Leslie Vecchiotti, Dianne Sloan and Kim Clement

Red Wings Announcer

Posted on Oct 09, 2019

Sports fan Eric Chapman introduced today’s speaker Josh Whetzel, announcer for the Rochester Red Wings Baseball team. Josh started out by stating that he had heard the

Coverlet Museum was haunted. He noted that the Red Wings used to host a haunted house during the Halloween season and one year put out a fake news release that the stadium was actually haunted. A couple years later ESPN did a story about haunted stadiums and interviewed Josh. Josh kept up the ruse and never admitted that Frontier Field is not haunted.

In an unplanned moment Josh told about his cancer diagnosis at age 17 where he had to have a lung removed. The Dream Factory sent him to see the LA Dodgers where he was interviewed by a local radio station. After the interview he was offered a job interview and has been doing radio ever since. Josh has been in Rochester since 2003.

One of his favorite memories was being able to work with Joe Altobelli who later went on to coach and manage the Orioles to the World Series.

DG Dave Hannon spoke earlier in the month and

gave a check for $100 to be used for a new

Literacy project

President Maurina gives Johnny a Pal-Mac Rotary

duffle

Red Wings announcer Josh Whetzel addresses the club

Changeover Picnic

Posted by Kim Clement on Jun 26, 2019

On Wednesday June 26th the club conducted its changeover picnic at Gravino Park. President Leslie, leading her last meeting, had Sophia Clement lead the Pledge of Allegiance after which she led the club in the National Anthem as well. (Such a shy kid!) After a great pot luck dinner with hots and burgers cooked by Bob Yost and Mark Clement, awards were handed out.

Mark Clement gave this year’s Rotarian of the Year Award to a very deserving Marie Fessler

Jim Bush gave out this year’s Margaret Brooks Distinguished Award to our own Anne Morrell for all the years of service to Rotary and our community.

Bob and Dianne Sloan were thrilled to give 2 Paul Harris Awards to Bill and Marya Doyle for their Green Angels Project that has helped so many Wayne County residents in need.

Leslie then brought her President’s year to a close with different Rotarians reading quotes from former Interact Club members about volunteering. She then thanked Rotarians for all the work this year and handed the gavel to new President Maurina Schmidt. Maurina then handed Bob Yost his President Elect Pin.

50-50 winners were Kim Brooks and Bob Yost (who gave his winnings to Nacho)

The next meeting will be at the Legion on July 10^th.

Editorial privilege here: Let’s hope we have more members attend than attended the June 19^th meeting…a RECORD BREAKING (Not to the good) 10!!!!! C’mon club. We can do better

Sophia Clement and President Leslie reciting the

Pledge of Allegiance

Marie Fessler accepting her Rotarian of the Year Award

Margaret Brooks Award winner Anne Morrell and

Jim Bush and previous winner Joan Shaffer

Dianne and Bob Sloan with Paul Harris Fellows

Bill and Marya Doyle

The following are our current meeting times and locations:

1st Wednesday of the month 12:00 p.m. lunch meeting -
Zion Church
120 East Main Street, Palmyra

3rd Wednesday of the month 6 p.m. dinner meeting -

Zion Church

120 East Main Street, Palmyra

Other meeting days/times for projects and social events

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