Karen Jason, interim director of the Union Public Library, addressed the club members today. The UPL, just like Rotary, exists to serve the community. The UPL has facilities to copy, fax, scan documents and has a research data-base online directory of over 57 million corporate businesses. If you live, go to school or work in Union, you have free access to e-books, e-audio books, over 3,000 digital magazines, streaming services and Museum Passes, all for free! The library also lends out Chrome-book laptops with mobile hotspots. The interim library site is located at 1060 Stuyvesant Avenue, by Vauxhall Road, in Union Center while the Vauxhall Branch, at 123 Hilton Avenue, is also open. In 2024 the new state of the art, 40,000 square foot library is expected to open. It will house a community room, conference rooms, private meeting rooms, business services as well as a community theater and small cafe. For more information, visit www.uplnj.org
Our Rotary Club has been hard at work giving back to the community!
A project near and dear to our hearts is the Dictionary Project led by member Jim DiGiovanni. For the past few weeks, our Rotarians have been visiting schools in the area to deliver dictionaries. We've had such a good time with this project and love getting to see all of the kids' smiling faces!
We also recently held an Essential Items drive for our friends over at Turning Point Community Services. We collected diapers, blankets, bed sheets, and toiletry items to deliver to the women and children at Turning Point. https://portal.clubrunner.ca/6622/PhotoAlbums/dictionary-project-2022
We can't wait to get started on our next projects. Stay tuned!
On Jun 08, 2022, at 05:30 please join us for an evening of cocktails, delectable hors d' oeuvres, tapas, and a sumptuous Viennese dessert table as we confer Scholarship awards to 3 Speech Contest Winners from Union High School.We will also present the Rotary Excellence in Education Awards. We will honor all of their commitments to education and longstanding support of Rotary's Marvin Orella Speech Contest.
This event starts at 5:30 pm and is open to the public to hear the speeches and celebrate as the winners are announced. To help raise additional funds, there will be a 50/50 raffle, and Ad Journal. Event Page https://portal.clubrunner.ca/6622/Event/rotary-club-of-union-s-eloquence-soir%C3%A9e-1
The Union High School Interact Rotary Club held a sock drive and surpassed all expectations! Dr. Edward Boffa, advisor of the Interact Club, reported the club members held a drive last year and collected approximately 600 pairs of socks. This year, the students set a goal of 1,000 pairs of socks and beat that goal by collecting 1,099 pairs of new socks!
Jodi Pelano, Branch Executive Director of the Union Gateway Family YMCA, and Kathy Arminio of the Union Rotary Club, accepted and delivered the socks to the Elizabeth YMCA. Theresa McCoy, Housing Director of the Elizabeth YMCA and Laura Margeotes, Branch Executive Director,were thrilled to accept the bags of socks which will be distributed to the children and families in the temporary, transitional and supportive housing units.
The Interact Club is a service club for youth ages 12 to 18 and is part of Rotary International, the world’s first service club organization. Dr. Boffa and the members of the Interact Club, Union High School, are dedicated to fostering goodwill and enriching the community. Interactors sponsor a minimum of two community service projects annually.
The Interact Club, the Union Rotary Club and the YMCA were proud to work together to bring this gift of warmth to children and families in the Union County area.
Members of the Union Rotary Club worked together to grant sweet dreams to needy children and adults in the area. Each month the Rotarians conduct a drive to assist residents in the area. For the month of December, the members donated new pajamas and collected a total of 15 sets, two pants and one pair of shorts. Sharon Brangman, Geralanne Maglione and Kylie Nemeth at Hillman Consulting collected and sorted the donations. Cecil Cates delivered the pajamas to the Elizabeth Corp of the Salvation Army where they were distributed to needy adults and children.
Committeeman Figueiredo stopped by the Rotary Club of Union, NJ 2nd Annual Fall Family Fitness as the community enjoyed a day full of fitness classes, food vendors, arts & crafts, music, cornhole, and fun games for all.
The Rotary Club of Union was thrilled to finally be back in person to celebrate our 80th Annual Installation of Officers! We were honored to be joined by District Governor, Ann Walko who helped introduce our 2021-2022 Officers and Directors, including President-Elect, Kathy Arminio. District Governor Walko also helped us install Claudia Schiavone as club President for her second term! We didn't stop there... we got to celebrate 3 of our members who were recognized as Paul Harris Fellows this year as well! As always, thank you to every member who makes our club so amazing. We can't wait to see what the 2021-2022 year has in store for us!
On Friday, 14 members of the Rotary Club of Union & Hillmann Consulting Company - both sponsors of our programs - spent the day cleaning, painting and sprucing up the SSgt Moretti Stables.
We are so incredibly grateful for the amazing work done - what an incredible group of people!
We are so incredibly grateful for the amazing work done - what an incredible group of people!
Our Personal Hygiene Kit Drive was a success! Yesterday, we dropped off 40 bags full of personal hygiene essentials to Bianca F.L.O.W.E.R.S. in Plainfield, NJ. Thank you to everyone who contributed! We couldn’t have done it without you! 😊
Did you know our club's Facebook Page is turning 10 this year? We have 448 Likes, and 79 of those likes are from people who live in Union Township. 48% of those likes are from females and 51% are from males. Our highest age bracket is over 65 and that represents over 25% of our fans. I encourage all of our members and fans to like our posts and share with your friends and family. I see no reason to pay Facebook for boosts or ads so why not click the like button on our club posts. Once you conquer that monumental task you can like our member's company's and posts as well. You can find our page at www.facebook.com/unionrotary. Let's see if we can hit the 500 like mark and share our good news with the community and friends. Once you like our page you can also invite others to join our page. We also have a group just for Union Rotarians to share club news and events from the comfort of our smartphone. You can join that group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/unionrotary/ and right now we have 25 members. Once you join please share your business page so we can easily follow that as well. I will update the above stats at the end of the month to see how our campaign did.
Happy Monday! Rotary Club of Union, NJ recently partnered with to host a food drive for the Union Township Food Pantry. Today, Rotarians Geralanne Maglione, Sharon Brangman, Kylie Nemeth & friend of Rotary, Rebecca Nehlsen, dropped off a HUGE food donation just in time for the holiday. We are thankful for our amazing club and everyone who supports our community. From our family to yours, we wish you all a happy and safe Thanksgiving!
Rotarian Sharon Brangman got to visit our friends at Turning Point Community Services and drop off all the diapers we collected through our Diaper Drive! We were so excited to be able to help the women and children in our community for two years in a row with this drive. Thank you so much to everyone who donated and made this possible!
Shout out to our President Rob O'Connell and members Geralanne Maglione & Sharon Brangman for their amazing efforts in donating to the Union Township Food Pantry. On behalf of our entire club, Rob, Geralanne, and Sharon have already made three separate trips to drop off food for those in need. Check out these pictures from the last two drop-offs!
What a perfect day to celebrate two amazing people! We had the pleasure of honoring and sending off Rob O'Connell, our President for the past two years who accomplished so many great things during his term. We also had the pleasure of welcoming our new President, Claudia Schiavone! Claudia is going to be an incredible leader for our club and we can't wait to see what this year has in store for her!
On June 18, we had a wonderful speaker during our Zoom meeting at 12:00 noon. Thomas Arminio, son of Kathy & David Arminio, spoke to us about a project he has been involved with since college after joining the Peace Corps called One Acre Fund.
One Acre Fund is an NGO (non-governmental organization) whose mission it is to supply smallholder farmers with the financing and training they need to grow their way out of hunger and poverty. Instead of giving handouts, One Acre Fund invests in farmers to generate a gain in farm income.
Thomas works with the farmers in Tanzania and Rwanda and helps them with 4 primary functions: Distribution, Training, Market Facilitation and Repayment. He manages the field staff and ultimately trains them to become managers of their own local villages. Through Thomas' efforts and the work of One Acre Fund, the farmers are learning to become better farmers and business people. Thomas' talk was enlightening and so interesting as was Kathy and David's experience visiting with Thomas in Africa, specifically Zanzibar.
To thank Thomas for sharing his world with us, we thought we would make a donation to African farmers through the Kiva Loan Program which we are involved in at Union Rotary. Also, Thomas was familiar with this program and I believe he said some of his farmers benefit form these loans as well.
For those who are not familiar, Kiva Loan Program, like One Acre Fund, is similar to Go Fund Me except Kiva loans (and One Acre Fund loans) are expected to be paid back.
We have decided to make 7 loans to farmers in Rwanda, Nigeria and Kenya (Tanzania was not an option) in Thomas' honor. We chose 3 women, 2 men and 2 agriculture groups to support. Genie will follow these loans and report back to us on the status of our farmers and their repayments. To learn a little more about the specifics of the loans...check out our Kiva Loan Page https://www.kiva.org/lender/unionrotary
The Union High School Interact Club was busy before life got crazy with COVID-19! Club members actively participated in community service events both in and out of town as well as fundraising activities throughout the academic year. With their fundraising proceeds, the club made a $500 donation to the PTA for UHS Senior Scholarships and a $2,000 donation to Gift of Life NJ! Our Union Rotary Club is very proud to sponsor such a great group of young individuals and we appreciate all of their efforts. Keep up the great work and we look forward to seeing all of your amazing accomplishments! 
President Rob O'Connell dropped off 100 N95 masks, 30 face shields, and 60 disposable gowns to Overlook Medical Center earlier today! Fellow Rotarian, Michael Atanasio who is the Director of Food & Nutrition, Parking and Patient Transportation at Overlook Medical Center, was there to accept the packages. A huge thank you to all of our healthcare workers for everything you are doing to get us through these difficult times. Another special thank you to Rob for delivering the supplies. We hope everyone and their families are staying safe and healthy!! ❤️
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President
President Elect
Secretary
Treasurer
Rotary Foundation
Membership
Web Master
Sunshine
Club Service
International Service
KIVA
COG Editor
Club Administration
Sergeant-at-Arms
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Donna Bday
May 27, 2022
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Rotary Club of Union's Eloquence Soirée
Galloping Hill CaterersJun 08, 2022
5:30 PM – 10:00 PM -
Board Meeting
Jun 16, 2022 11:00 AM
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Claudia Bday
Jun 23, 2022
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Marie Bday
Jul 01, 2022
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Antonio Bday
Jul 07, 2022
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Kathleen A Birthday
Jul 17, 2022
Union, NJ 07083
United States of America