The Rotary Review

"Service Above Self"
by Jesse Katen

Thank you for visiting! Please return to this blog to read current and past postings of Jesse Katen's column, "The Rotary Review," published weekly in The Deposit Courier. Your feedback on the column and on the club’s activities are always welcome--simply add a comment by clicking at the end of each entry.


Saturday, January 26, 2008

January 30, 2008

The weekly meeting of the Deposit Rotary Club on January 23 proved to be interesting and informative.  We were happy to be joined by Chelsea Ward, a senior at Deposit High School, daughter of Rotarian Shelly Ward, and former outbound Rotary exchange student to Bolivia.  It was also great to have honorary Rotarian Deborah Stever joining us for lunch.
 
The agenda of the day's meeting included a presentation by Mary Hogan and Dave Bergstrom, representing the Deposit Family Recreation Group, a non-profit organization established to work toward developing an athletic park, including a running a track and other facilities at a site on Main St., adjacent to the Meadow Park Apartments.  In tracing the history of the concept, Mary Hogan referred to the spring of 1998, when Deposit's own Track & Field team qualified to compete at States, only to have no home facility at which to practice.  Listening to the presentation, it became clear that the youth who participate in these programs really deserve such a facility to call their own and their success thus far is truly a testament to their dedication to their chosen sport.  Mary and Dave also emphasized that countless individuals and groups would benefit from the completion of this project, as the entire community would have a place to walk, train, host events, and many other possibilities.  The benefit to the overall economy of the area was also explained.  
 
A vision of this magnitude, however, is not easy or cheap to accomplish.  A huge amount of work has already been invested in the project, and even more is necessary to make it happen.  The price tag is expected to be around a million dollars. As a result, the DFRG welcomes support in many forms including volunteering your time and talent, and of course, monetary contributions are essential in making this dream a reality.  For more information or to make a contribution to this wonderfully worthy cause, write to DFRG at PO Box 254, Deposit, NY 13754 or email dfrg@pobox.com.  
 
As always, you can see this and all my past columns online at the Deposit Rotary Blog at http://depositrotary.blogspot.com, where you can also share your comments.  I'd love to hear from you!
 
CORRECTION:  In last week's column, I wrote that Brenda Lee had printed out cheat sheets to help her team win in the Rotary Trivia tournament.  She informed me that this was untrue.  I'd like to apologize and set the record straight that Brenda and her team used only legitimate Rotary documents to gain unfair advantages and cheat at Rotary Trivia.  

Thursday, January 17, 2008

January 23, 2008


Pictured: Sponsoring Rotarian Tina Strong, new Rotarian Sandra Davis, and Club President Harry Dilello

It began like any other pleasant and enjoyable Deposit Rotary Club meeting on Wednesday, January 17, 2008. After Joy Felber's wonderful lasagna for lunch, the meeting began as usual with the Pledge of Allegiance and the introduction of our guests from the Sidney Rotary Club, Bill Davidson and Gilbert Malerk, who spoke about the Rotary District Conference to be held in Owego in May. It was a particularly special day because we inducted a new member, Sandra Davis, who I am very proud to say is my assistant teacher at my dance studio. Sandra was warmly welcomed into the club by all the Rotarians present. There was absolutely no indication of the riotous hysteria that was to follow.


The day had been set aside as a Rotary Trivia game hosted by our own Stan and Sue Elinsky. Teams were formed and it was clear from the beginning that Team #1, under the leadership of Bob Clemens and including Nancy Zacharias, Tina Strong, Jim Ficurilli, Shelly Ward, Brenda Lee (who had printed out cheat sheets with answers), and the new Rotarian Sandra Davis, would stop at nothing until victory was theirs, resorting to desperate tactics of cheating, intimidation, and all around unsportsmanlike conduct. Team #2, led by Pete Hempstead, was made up of Bonnie Hauber, Leo Cook, Bill Waldron, Joe Esteves, and Frank Verdon largely behaved themselves, but didn't seem to know much about Rotary Trivia, unlike Team #3, led by Rick Zacharias, which included President Harry Dilello, Carol Newman, Ray Cornwell, and myself, who really deserved to win the contest, all things considered. However, it was difficult to tell who knew their Rotary Trivia best, since despite the noble of efforts of exchange-student-turned-scorekeeper Paula Mazepa to maintain an accurate count, mass corruption precluded any sense of fairness and justice. While we were thankful to the Elinskys for organizing the game, the couple ran Rotary Trivia like the Marcoses ran the Philippines, maintaining complete control with their power to haphazardly levy fines and capriciously changing the rules whenever they felt like it, preventing our poor team from the win we justly deserved.


Things quickly escalated into an out-of-control riot when Team #1, burned by one of the dictators' whims, mounted a full scale insurrection led by Nancy Zacharias, a normally lovely person, who unfortunately turns into an unusually vociferous, competitive, and down-right hostile combatant when Rotary Trivia doesn't go her way. Despite a panicked attempt to hold onto power in which demagogue Stan commandeered the clock, we all realized it was one o'clock. We were spared what seemed to be an inevitable display of gross carnage when the Rotarians left the meeting to once again resume their roles as responsible citizens of the community. Until next week . . .


Saturday, January 12, 2008

January 16, 2008

It was great to see everyone again in the new year as Rotary resumed its weekly meetings on January 9 following a holiday hiatus.  During this first meeting of 2008, it was announced that the December Lottery tickets sold by members of our club earned $872.33 for the Deposit Rotary Club charities.  A big thank you goes out to everyone who sold or purchased tickets; we appreciate your support!
 
In other club news, it's that time of year to select new officers and board members for the next Rotary year.  Brenda Lee was elected Vice President, Rick Zacharias was reelected as club secretary and Nancy Zacharias will also retain her job as club treasurer.  Elected to the Rotary board were Brenda Lee, Tina Strong, and myself.  The club presidency is going to be run a little differently as we are going to have a different president for each month of the Rotary year.  Many club members volunteered to serve as President for a month.
 
I was also happy to announce that I've started an online blog for our club where all my columns published in The Deposit Courier will be posted and archived.  Feel free to log onto http://depositrotary.blogspot.com, where you will be able to not only read all the postings of my column, but to post your own comments and feedback on them.  Check it out and I look forward to hearing from you!