Good Morning fellow Rotarians! We are doing another double feature this week as my spinoff is coming out after two meetings have gone by!
Announcements:
- Adk Welcome Circle seeking to bring Afghan refugee family to GF area
- They need safe and reliable housing. If you or someone you know is a landlord with rent around $1,200 or less, please reach out!
- We are already planning for the Rotary 5k which will be happening on April 23rd, 2022!
- The board is looking for someone to chair the Fishing Derby, targeting April 30th
- May 14th - would love to see if we could do both events "Pet Fest"& Mountain Mayhem Soccer Tournament. Will be doing hamburgers and hot dogs as well as bread dough. We are going to need a lot of volunteers, and need all of the Rotaract kids as well.
- Aviation Road Clean up will be in May, LARAC Fundraiser is June 18th
- Publicity plan for the 5k - Patti Pepe will share the Facebook posts! A few articles in Chronicle and Post Star, Radio announcements, email campaign as well.
- We will be welcoming two new members! Rachel Hunsinger will be coming back to GF Rotary, also Attorney Jessica Vincent Hugabone will be starting soon!
- The 100 year anniversary committee logo has been made! Banner will go up on the corner of Quaker and Bay on May 2nd - 9th celebrating 100 years of Rotary
- We have been allowed the use of some office to gather all of the treasures from past presidents in Union Square!
- Looking for more people to help on the display committee!
- For the Month of February the board has agreed that we should plan on meeting virtually. With the rise of the Omicron Variant and case count in Warren County it only seemed logical to suspend in person meetings for the month of February.
- The Ben Osborne project is going well so far, we do have some other clubs helping to take over some of the stations on the "outer rim" of Warren County.
-The Rotary Park plans are currently on hold with The City and will be starting up again once the issues we are having are ironed out.
- The Beer Tasting went very well!
- And there is now an ADK Giving Circle committee within our club!
Programs:
January 27th - We had the pleasure of hosting Shane Jacobson of the V Foundation!
He spoke about their mission and the importance of research on life saving medicines and practices to battle cancer!
Shane resides in North Carolina now, but is originally from Vermont! The V Foundation supports cancer research and recovery, and works to get funding to further the research and eventually find a cure. Shane stated that the work connects to everyone, everyone will or has been affected by cancer. Whether it is someone close to you, a celebrity who you love, or a neighbor or coworker, cancer effects so many people. Research shows that cancer disproportionality effects people of color, and Shane stressed that this is because people of color just do not have access to the resources. The V Foundation is set on changing that narrative!
Shane states that research is the ONLY way that we will find a cure for cancer and unfortunately, that costs money. Just like anything else the V Foundation has to rely on generous donations fr4om citizens like us as well as breakthrough funding! The namesake of the foundation is esteemed basketball coach Jim Valvano and he named the foundation the "V" foundation to symbolize Victory over Cancer! Because of this tie to such a big name, the foundation was able to partner with ESPN to promote their mission and to find sources of breakthrough funding! How can we as a club help this amazing organization? What Ideas do you have? Let me know! I always love to hear from you!
February 3rd - For this meeting we had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Kris Duffy, President of our local college, SUNY Adirondack! She gave us an update on how to college has fared through the challenging Coronavirus pandemic, and what new an d excitign things the college is planning for the new year!
She gave some awesome stats about vaccination on campus, siting that 98% of students were vaccinated, 93% of employees are vaccinated, there is regular COVID testing being done, and they have administered over 20,000 tests so far! roight now they are at 50% capacity for housing as most kids are not really staying at school and it also helps with transmission of the virus. She also said that nursing students have assisted in vaccinating and testing at the college with is giving them invaluable job experience.
The College has also rolled out some major grants & initiatives! They aqre working to help support neediest students right now. This has looked like a revamped English Remediation course, the addition of the "Finish in 2" programs which allow students to complete their degrees in just 2 years, and a complete overhaul of the first year (freshman) experience and business processes. This has resulted in an increased graduation rate and much more amazing results!
Thank You Dr. Duffy for a great presentation, and I want to hear your ideas for supporting our local college? Let me know your thoughts!
I hope your team wins this weekend and you get to cash in on your SuperBowl Pool! We want to hear who won big at the meeting next week!
Just like usual, if you would like to watch the recording of the meeting from last week you can find it in the link above! I have included the passcode so that you may write it down and have it ready when you click the link.
Thanks for reading, and I will see everyone on Zoom today!
**Please remember that all of our meetings will be virtual for the month of February!**
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