Seeds for Peace

 

Linda LeTendre, the speaker at yesterday's meeting, is shown with Kristen Stanley in background, along with Mike Williams on Zoom screen and a few other Malta Rotarians in mirror.

Linda, a member of the Burnt Hills Ballston Lake Rotary Club, spoke about Seeds for Peace, a local nonprofit which donates seeds to people who need them in places ranging from Bosnia to Haiti, multiple countries in Africa, and the United States. The organization is looking for new volunteers, for tasks ranging from sorting and packing to serving on the board. It also can use cash donations.

Paul Phillips, a Malta Rotarian who has for many years done volunteer work in Uganda, said gardens have become increasingly important for food supply there with much of the economy shut down because of the Covid pandemic. Seeds for Peace, he said, was a great help in supplying the garden of a school in northern Uganda which is sponsored by AOET.

Also at the meeting was District 7190 Governor Rich Griesche, who told us he and Sue Austin are working to distribute donated plastic face shields to institutions such as schools, where band members, for example, can play instruments with them whereas they could not while wearing masks. 

Rich is also planning a November 24 evening fund-raiser on Zoom for the Rotary Foundation, with participation from Jennifer Jones, who is slated to become the first female president of Rotary International in 2022-23.

Cleanup Crew (with Helen behind Camera)

 

This morning's crew for our Dunning Street cleanup included, from left, Larry Levine, Miles Cornthwaite, Bob Conner, Kristen Stanley and Dave Kruczlnicki. Also working was Helen Endres, who took the photo.

Ask for a Mask in Malta (Updated with Video)

 

We have spent $300 of club money, and are applying for additional grant funding from the GlobalFoundries-Town of Malta Foundation, to acquire face masks for Malta businesses in order to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Rotarians are now contacting businesses in town to encourage them to participate in the program, supplying each with free emergency masks for potential customers or clients who left home without one. 

Rotarian and former town Supervisor Paul Sausville, who is spearheading the effort, said "The masks are a three-ply, high density layered screening system." Posters (see above; they also have information on the back) are being distributed to businesses willing to display them. 

The current Malta supervisor, Darren O'Connor, said in an email: "Thanks very much for taking the initiative members!!! Great work. I'm copying the Town Board."

Also involved in the effort are former Saratoga County Public Health Director Helen Endres, a Rotary member, and club President Larry Levine. For more information, contact Sausville (engineer@nycap.rr.com; 518-885-4533) or Levine (llevinepe@gmail).

In other recent business, we allocated $200 for a Schuylerville family whose uninsured home was destroyed by fire, after being contacted by a relative who is a former member and president of our club. 

And we got an update from a Lesotho project which we have helped support. One of our members at Thursday's meeting said she noticed an improvement in the writing of a student from that African country with whom she has corresponded.

Here's NBC affiliate Channel 13's take on the story.