July 30, 2008

After the many long hours put in at a rainy but successful Lumberjack Festival, I feel that I've had the chance to really bond with my fellow Rotarians.  Many members of the Deposit Rotary Club put in hours at the festival under the tent selling clams, shrimp, beer, and duck tickets for the Fifteenth Annual Duck Race in Oquaga Creek.  With 724 ducks sold this year, this was our bestselling race.  Rotary was able to earn about $2,100 for our community projects from the duck sales!  Special thanks must go out to the Village of Deposit workers who very generously cleared fallen trees from the creek just so that we could have the race.  All the Rotarians really appreciated your help!

 

Also, treasurer Nancy Zacharias' preliminary figures from the shrimp, clam, and beer sales suggest that Rotary earned something in the neighborhood of $4,567, which is a really great chunk of change to make sure our club can continue to contribute to Deposit through our various projects.  Thanks to the festival committee and to everyone who helped and everyone who made a purchase under the beer tent at the Lumberjack Festival—you helped support some great services to the community!

 

In other exciting news, Sue Elinsky was happy to report that as a result of the Feinstein challenge,—you might remember our local Food Pantry working hard to collect donations in March and April in order to win a portion of the million dollars given to hunger organizations by the Feinstein Foundation—the Deposit Food Pantry received $302 for its share of the nationwide challenge.  Again, thank you to everyone who donated food or cash during the challenge!  More Rotary news next time!

July 2, 2008

Sunday, June 22 was a big day for the Deposit Rotary Club.  It was the day of the annual Paul Harris Dinner held at Scott's Oquaga Lake House.  Named for the founder of Rotary International, the Paul Harris Dinner is the occasion when our club bestows its two most important awards: the Service Above Self Award and the Paul Harris Fellowship.  After an enjoyable social hour, a ride around the lake on Scott's Showboat and a delicious dinner, the two award recipients were honored. 

 

The Service Above Self Award is given to any community member, Rotarian or not, who exemplifies Rotary's motto of "Service Above Self."  This year, the award was given to Ellen Jogo for her years of incredible service in the community, but especially for her work for the Deposit Historical Society.  Friend Kay Hoban from the Board of Directors of the Historical Society gave the speech detailing Ellen's accomplishments.  Seeing Ellen happily surrounded by family as well as guests from the Historical Society Board, I'm sure every Rotarian felt that we had found a truly deserving recipient for this prestigious award.

 

 Following the Service Above Self Award, the Paul Harris Fellowship was award to club president Harry Dilello to recognize and thank him for all his work for the Deposit Rotary Club and for serving as such a fine president.  Rick Zacharias gave the speech offering a biography of Harry and a list of all the qualities that make him a deserving candidate for the highest honor that can be given to a Rotarian.  I'm so happy to congratulate Ellen and Harry for their achievements and awards.

 

The Paul Harris Dinner was really a special and inspiring event and once again reminded me that Rotary is not only an organization that contributes so much to our community and the world, but is also a group of truly extraordinary people, all of whom are friends who respect and value each other and it's always striking how warm, friendly, and high-spirited Rotary events are—not just the special ones like the Paul Harris Dinner, but each and every meeting.

June 4, 2008

The beginning of summer means one very important thing for the Deposit Rotary Club: preparations for the Lumberjack Festival.  At our weekly meeting on May 28, our resident amazing Rotarian, Nancy Zacharias, distributed the tickets for the annual duck race.  Most people in town are familiar with the Lumberjack Festival tradition of launching hundreds of fake ducks in a race down Oquaga Creek, giving cash prizes to the "owner" of the ducks that come in first.  Our goal this year is to sell all one thousand possible ducks.  The annual race proves to be a very profitable fundraiser for Rotary and its charitable programs, so please take part in the fun and buy your duck now from any Rotarian!

 

At our previous meeting on May 21, we were visited by guests from the Hancock Rotary Club, sharing their new international project.  As you may know from reading my columns, Rotary clubs are committed to making considerable contributions to the local community, but simultaneously to the world as a whole through the entire Rotary International organization.  The Hancock Rotary Club has realized that, with Rotary's recent near total success of the Polio Eradication Initiative, it's time to turn to the next huge global health crisis: HIV and AIDS.  In particular, since nearly 85% of all AIDS cases can be found on the African continent, many in the Rotary organization are looking at ways to produce HIV and AIDS medications locally at small factories in Africa in order to significantly cut down on the cost of these immensely expensive medications, which currently must be shipped from abroad.  Perhaps we will see these programs grow into the next big Rotary commitment.

 

On June 4^th, I will be bringing some of my dancers to the weekly Rotary meeting to dance and show off some pieces from our upcoming Fourth Annual Summer Recital on June 13 and 14.  If you've been meaning to check out Rotary, you are always welcome to attend any meeting, but this one will also offer you the opportunity to check out some of Deposit's finest and most enthusiastic dancers: my adult class and also members of the Jesse Katen Dance Company!  Stop by the Methodist Church at noon to join us for lunch and a great meeting!

May 21, 2008

The Deposit Rotary Club was treated to an especially interesting program at our lunch meeting on Wednesday, May 14.  Our very own Rotarian Richard "Smitty" Axtell presented pieces of antique glass to the club and we were happy to be joined by his wife, Sandra, for lunch.  I found the day particularly enjoyable since I know both Smitty and Sandy well from the Deposit Historical Society Board of Directors, of which Smitty is the President and Sandy is the Treasurer.  Both are wonderful people with absolutely incredible knowledge of antiques and their historical contexts.

 

Smitty took the opportunity to announce that the Dr. Oliver T. Bundy House will be opened to the public on May 25 and the historical society is very excited about it.  The house, directly adjacent to the society's museum on Second Street, is now owned by the society and will house not only the society's curatorial and genealogical offices, but a recreated turn-of-the-century doctor's office.  If you're interested in history and, specifically, the rich history of Deposit, you won't want to miss the opening of the Bundy House on May 25.  

 

Smitty brought with him several pieces of cut glass and talked about the history of glass-making and –cutting both in general and in Deposit.  As you may know, Deposit was well-known for its famed glass created at the Kelly & Steinman glass factory, once located on the site of the current Deposit High School.  He spoke about cut glass from the "brilliant" period, which lasted from 1893-1921 and elaborated on the technique and artistry of cutting glass.  If you are interested in seeing pieces of Deposit glass as well as other objects of local history in the society's vast collections, come check out our local museum this summer!

May 14, 2008

The weekly meeting of our club on May 7 got off to a happy start when it was announced that our very own Frank "Pete" Hempstead had received the prestigious "Commitment to Service Award" at the annual Rotary District Conference.  At the conference, this year held in Owego, District Governor Dave Reynolds presented the award and plaque to Pete in recognition of his more than 25 years of service to Rotary.  The Deposit Rotarians gave their share of proud dollars this week on behalf of Pete, especially after he spoke to us movingly and humbly about his pride and encouragement that the contributions of someone from our very own hometown would be noticed and recognized by the Rotary organization.  I think we all felt very proud of Pete, our club, and the work that Rotary does in general.  Congratulations, Pete!

 

Club president Harry Dilello also announced that at the District Conference, the Deposit Rotary Club was awarded a Rotary Shares Presidential Citation for bringing in several new members this year.  Despite our club's small size compared to other clubs across the district, we welcomed four new members just this year.

 

Another great piece of news is that the final results from the Feinstein Challenge during the months of March and April are in!  Organizer and Rotarian Sue Elinsky was happy to announce that $16,268 was raised on behalf of the Deposit Food Pantry.  A huge thank you goes out to Sue for her hard work and to everyone who donated cash, food, or time to the Deposit Food Pantry.  Everyone should be very proud!

 

The program of the day was a presentation of the 2008-2009 budget by our Superintendent of Schools Bonnie Hauber.  She announced that the district was very happy to say that there would be only a 2.91% tax levy, which is the lowest levy we have seen in recent years.  During the presentation, she was asked why the budget needs to increase when it appears that we have a declining student enrollment.  She responded that even if the district loses students—right now we have an enrollment of around 690 students—many of the district's expenses remain the same.  For example, utility bills remain the same no matter how many students are in the building and the number of teachers in each subject area and grade level can't be decreased because every subject and grade level needs to be offered.  Ms. Hauber also included some interesting information such as the fact that out of the 15 districts in our BOCES, 11 of those districts had spending increases higher than ours in Deposit.  She also reminded everyone that the budget vote will held from 1-8pm on Tuesday, May 20 at the high school.  Voters will be considering the budget, the Board of Education, the purchase of 2 school buses, and the establishment of a capital reserve fund, which is like a savings account with a particular purpose in mind. 

 

Thanks for reading! I will have more news next week and don't forget that you can read my past columns and offer comments on our Rotary blog!