Malta's Most Famous Hero

At Thursday's meeting, Malta Town Historian Paul Perreault talked to us about the young man who was Abraham Lincoln's friend and one of the first casualties of the Civil War, Elmer Ellsworth. The future colonel was born on the site of what is now the Malta Diner, where we hold our weekly meetings.

No meeting this Thursday, though, Dec. 28, as we take a break for the holidays, resuming our usual schedule in the first week of January. Happy New Year!

Business to Party

At this week's board and business meetings, we inducted new member Mark Braaten, and agreed to make an $800 charity donation which will be announced next month. We also OK'd $200 donations to ShelterBox and the Malta Food Pantry.
Members should contact by tomorrow (Sunday) evening either Estelle Genest or Miles Cornthwaite to sign up for our annual holiday party, to be held Thursday Dec. 14 at the National Bottle Museum in Ballston Spa, from 6 p.m.  to around 8. No morning meeting that day.

History Man

Roy Arnold (shown here with Malta Sunrise Rotary's Arlene Schmidt) was our speaker Thursday, talking about local history. He is a leader of the Malta Memories Historical Group, which meets at the Malta Ridge United Methodist Church.

From Malta to Uganda

Paul Phillips, left, a Malta resident  who has been leading volunteer teams to Uganda with AOET for the past 15 years, was our speaker yesterday. He is shown with Rotarian Dave Kruczlnicki.

Craft Fair, and Other Stuff

Part of our kitchen crew at work Saturday at our fund-raiser for the craft fair at Malta Community Center. Good work by all, and thanks to Hannaford for food donations (and thanks to Stewart's for contributions last month to our pancake breakfast).

In less exciting news, at the board and business meetings a couple of days earlier, we set up a vote for the December meeting on a proposed change to the by-laws providing for more flexibility in scheduling board meetings. Details will be emailed to members.

And the speaker this Thursday will be Paul Phillips, a Malta resident and retired university administrator, who leads volunteer teams to Uganda with AOET-Uganda. (http://www.aoet.org/uganda-locations.php)

Below are more pics from the craft fair, taken by Barbara Conner.

Just Folks

Last week's speaker, left, was Scott Hayden, executive director of the Adirondack Folk School in Lake Luzerne. Scott brought along a selection of crafts that students can learn to make at the school, including many woodworking items, along with baskets, tools, rugs, and others. With him in the photo are Malta Rotarians Al Schmidt and Larry Levine. (Scott, who moved recently to Malta, is a longtime member of the Glens Falls Rotary Club.)

This week's board meeting will be held on Wednesday morning at 7:15 at Panera restaurant on Dunning Street. The business meeting the day after will be held as usual at the Malta Diner.

Person of Action and Picking Up Trash

Rotary District 7190 Governor Fred Daniels, left, and Malta Sunrise Rotary President Bob Conner present Miles Cornthwaite, center, with a Person of Action award at this morning's meeting. Miles, a founding member of our club, has been heavily involved in recent fund-raisers and a bench-installation project, serves on the scholarship and membership committees, and will be a member of the new nominating committee. He even gave blood at a Rotary-sponsored Red Cross event (see photo in Oct. 2 post below).
Coming up this Saturday morning, Oct. 21, we'll be doing trash pick-up on Dunning Street. Meet at 8:30 at Forest Cleaners.

Pancakes and Politics

Tom Disinger has stepped up on short notice to run our pancake breakfast, coming up this Sunday Oct. 15 at the Malta Ridge Fire House which is located between Route 9 and Hearn Road, south of Northway Exit 13. Club members willing to help and not yet signed up should contact Tom.

The 8-11:30 a.m. breakfast includes sausage, scrambled eggs, coffee and orange juice, in addition to pancakes. It costs $6 for adults, $3 for children aged 6 to 12, and is free for younger children.

The breakfast will benefit both the Malta Sunrise Rotary Club and Leatherstocking Honor Flight, which has taken more than 1,000 local veterans to visit the World War II memorial in Washington DC.

At this morning's meeting, our speaker was state Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, shown below with fellow Rotarians (left to right) former Malta Supervisor Paul Sausville, Town Attorney Tom Peterson, and club President Bob Conner.

Business Meeting

Sandy McAlonie, assistant governor for our Rotary District, dropped by this morning's meeting (shown here with our Treasurer Cynthia Young and President Bob Conner). She picked up a $100 check to help fund the Peace Summit for Youth scheduled for Nov. 12. We also voted to give $100 to the planned Malta Veterans Memorial Walkway.

And the club elected Arlene Schmidt, who has served twice as president, as the new secretary (see updated list of board members/officers on this page).

Blood and Houses

Cynthia Young and Estelle Genest were among the Rotarians helping run the Red Cross blood drive Friday at Malta Ambulance Corps, while Miles Cornthwaite, below, another of our members, was a blood donor as well. Also giving blood were Rotarian organizer Barb Conner and Rotarian-to-be Mike Hensler and his wife Cheryl (sp?). Also helping from our club were Steve Ames, Doug Martin, Dave Kruczlnicki and Helen Endres.

Then on the weekend, the Showcase of Homes wrapped up, an event which raises money for Habitat for Humanity and Rebuilding Together Saratoga County. Rotarians Barb Conner (below), Helen Endres and Tom Disinger (along with his wife Barbara) helped out with that.

ShelterBox

Given the recent disasters in the Caribbean and elsewhere, the timing couldn't have been better for this morning's visit from District 7190 ShelterBox Ambassadors Jack and Nancy Faddegon, seen below with our club VP Bob Brilling. The photo above is one of their small boxes.

ShelterBox is a project partner with Rotary International. For more information about this highly rated charity, click on this link to their web site:https://www.shelterboxusa.org/

 On another topic, don't forget our blood drive Friday.

Coming Up

See above to schedule an appointment to donate blood on Sept. 29, at our Rotary-sponsored Red Cross blood drive. Or see Barbara Conner, who is also coordinating club volunteers on the day of the event.

And see Bob Bonney to get a flyer/poster and tickets for the Oct. 15 pancake breakfast at Malta Ridge Fire House, which will benefit both our Rotary club and Leatherstocking Honor Flight.

At our next meeting, on Sept. 28, Bob Brilling's guests will be Jack and Nancy Faddegon, speaking about ShelterBox, a project partner with Rotary International. By working together, these two organizations are able to combine resources to ensure support for more communities in desperate need of shelter. As our hemisphere continues to deal with the aftermath of hurricanes and earthquakes, now would be a great time to learn more about this highly-rated and effective organization. (It receives a 4-star rating on Charity Navigator.)
Please join us for a most interesting talk and demonstration.

Also on Sept. 29, after the blood drive, you might want to head down to Clifton Park, where the Twin Bridges Rotary Club is sponsoring a karaoke fund-raiser. Twin Bridges member Rich Griesche, below, stopped by our club meeting on Thursday to pitch that event. (Rich also told us about his 10-day trip to Haiti last November with To Love a Child, Inc.)

Duel of the Supervisors

Paul Sausville, longtime Rotarian and master of the dunking booth, takes aim at the red dot, aiming to plunge Vince DeLucia, Paul's successor as Malta town supervisor, into the water, as Steve Ames looks on. This was at Malta Community Day in Shenantaha Park, where the generosity of participants and dunkees enabled us to raise $413 for local and international charitable programs.
Dunkees in addition to DeLucia included town Councilman John Hartzell and Kristan Gottmann, along with Rotarians Doug Martin, Miles Cornthwaite and Larry Levine.
In picture below, Bob Conner observes DeLucia with New York State Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, another member of our club.

To Dunk Or Be Dunked

Malta Community Day is coming up this Saturday, Sept. 9, at Shenantaha Park, and we will be there operating the trusty dunking booth from 11 to 4. For a small fee, you or your kids can toss baseballs to dunk a politician, or whoever else we can persuade to take the hot (or not so hot) seat. If you're willing to be dunked, contact Paul Sausville, or just show up Saturday and let us know. Paul is also hoping to hear from more club members to let him know they can assist in running the activity, which helps fund our various charitable activities in this community and the world.

At our board and membership meetings this week, we elected Bob Brilling as vice president, Cynthia Young as treasurer, and Stephen Ames as chair of the Budget and Finance Committee.

Scholarship Winner

Our speaker this morning was Paul Ruger (right, with club President Bob Conner). He was the 2017 winner of Malta Sunrise Rotary's $1,000 scholarship for a graduating high school senior living in town. Four runners-up received $100 book awards.

Paul is the son of Joan and Karl Ruger. In June, he graduated from Saratoga Central Catholic School and was the salutatorian of his class. In September, he will attend Siena College with a planned major in business.
Paul is already involved in the business world, as he works with his dad in their family maple business on Atkins Road in Malta, Sugar Oaks Farms http://www.sugaroakfarms.com/. Paul is also very active in 4H, and has worked for two years for Staples in Wilton.

The Year Without a Summer

No, not this year, though it has been a little cool and rainy in these parts, with a partial eclipse of the sun under way today.
Rather, "the year without a summer" refers to 1816, and was the subject of our speaker last week, Malta Town Historian (and Ballston Spa Rotarian) Paul Perreault.
Caused by the eruption of a volcano the year before, in what is now Indonesia, the ill omens locally began with a crop-damaging "dry fog" in the fall of 1815. (That volcano in the photo, Mount Tambora, blasted off a third of its height.) The next year, 1816, the snows and frosts never went away, and weather troubles around the world continued for the next few years, with disastrous results for the farm-based local economy.
In the absence of federal and state aid, Paul told us, the burden of assisting the destitute fell to local people, including the Town of Malta government, which massively increased the budget for the "overseer of the poor."

Physician Recruiter, Food Drive

Our speaker last Thursday was Denise Romand, physician recruiter for Saratoga Hospital, and guest of our member Dave Kruczlnicki.

President Bob Conner also updated members about our summer food drive to benefit the Malta Community Center food pantry. Members have been donating at meetings, and we also have a collection box at Hannaford on Round Lake Road, where Bob picked up donations last week.

Chickens in Tajikistan

Our speaker this morning was Dan Emerson, a guest of the Rev. Jim Hale. Dan lives with his wife and their six children in Tajikistan, where he works with Stichting Assistance International. Dan said Tajikistan, which was part of the Soviet Union until 1993 and then suffered through a civil war, is the poorest country in Central Asia.
He spends much of his time there on an agricultural/small business training program on poultry production in the vicinity of Tursunzoda, near the border of Uzbekistan.

Youth Shelter

Our speaker on Thursday was Ashley Chandler, director of the Emergency Runaway and Homeless Youth Shelter, which is part of CAPTAIN Youth and Family Services.

This is the only shelter in the greater Capital Region for the 13-17-year-old age group. It takes donations of items such as clothing, toiletries and, at the moment, swimsuits. Barbara Conner (barbarajane@nycap.rr.com) is our Rotary contact person who can collect and deliver contributions.

Thanks to those members who brought in something for our continuing summer food drive for the Malta Community Center food pantry.

Food Drive

At our board and business meetings last week, we discussed helping out the Malta Community Center food pantry with a summer food drive. Coincidentally, among the thank-you letters passed around at Thursday's meeting, were some from kids at the Chango Elementary School who participated in the Shen school district's Bountiful Backpacks program, which we deliver food for. Now that kids are out of school, and other people have moved to Malta to take summer jobs which may not pay well, the need for food increases.
So members are asked to bring in a can Thursday and/or otherwise contribute. Talk to Barbara Conner if you want to help her organize the food drive.

Also, we're looking for volunteers to serve on a new Nominating Committee to help pick club officers.

Pioneers

Tom Amell, president and CEO of Pioneer Bank, was our speaker Thursday (shown here with Pioneer colleague and Malta Rotarian Estelle Genest).

It was also the last meeting to be chaired by Arlene Schmidt, who is winding up her second successful stint as president of Malta Sunrise Rotary.

Health, Learning and Change

Last week's speaker was Cathi Duncan, director of public health for Saratoga County Public Health Services. She noted that for the second year in a row, Saratoga was named the healthiest county in New York state, but also raised concerns about issues including rising obesity rates and pre-diabetes diagnoses, and problems related to excessive drinking, opioid and substance abuse, and issues related to mental health and suicide. You can find more information and links to community resources for these and other health issues at the county website: http://www.saratogacountyny.gov/departments/publichealth/ 

In other news, Malta Sunrise Rotary announced the winner and commended finalists in our 2017 scholarship program for graduating high school seniors residing in the town of Malta, NY.
Paul Ruger, a recent graduate of Saratoga Central Catholic School, received the 2017 scholarship for $1,000. Paul is the son of Joan and Karl Ruger. Paul will be attending Siena College as a business major this fall.
Four additional Malta high school seniors were named commended finalists in the scholarship program and each received a $100 textbook award.
Ben Balet, the son of John and Sandi Balet, is a senior at Ballston Spa High School. Last year, as a high school junior, Ben was also chosen to participate in RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) sponsored by our Malta club. Ben will be attending the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
Ashley Waite, the daughter of Regan Bouleris, is also a senior at Ballston Spa High School. Ashley will be attending SUNY Plattsburgh, with a planned major in Childhood/Special Education in their five-year master’s program.
Cetera Moore, also a Ballston Spa High School senior, is the daughter of Wendy Perreault and William Moore. Cetera plans to attend Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, NY, with a major in Childhood Special Education with a concentration in Spanish.
Logan Vandenburgh, a senior at Shenendehowa High School, is the son of Eric and Megan Vandenburgh. Logan will be attending the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

Finally, there will be no Thursday meeting this week, because instead we held our change-over dinner last night at Andy's Adirondack Grille. Here's incoming president Bob Conner (who takes over on July 1 from Arlene Schmidt) greeting his wife and fellow Rotarian Barbara Conner at the event.

Bob Bonney, Paul Harris Fellow

Bob Bonney, second from left, was awarded a well deserved Paul Harris fellowship from Rotary International at our meeting Thursday.

Bob is a key player in our fund-raising, organizing pancake breakfasts at the Malta Ridge Fire House, and recently getting us involved with the CLYNK recycling program through Hannaford. If you want your empty bottles and cans to benefit Malta Sunrise Rotary, Bob can help make it happen.

Heart Story

Malta Sunrise Rotarian Glenn Rockwood was our speaker Thursday, talking about his heart transplant. Glenn is also raising funds for the American Heart Association.

And below are some pictures of Rotarians on two recent occasions at the Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery, putting out flags on veterans' graves on the Saturday before Memorial Day, and picking them up on the Tuesday after.

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Coming Up

Tomorrow, Saturday, May 27, volunteers will meet at the Saratoga National Cemetery to place flags on the graves of veterans. Meet at 7:30 a.m. near the main flag pole for a brief ceremony and instructions.
On Tuesday, May 30, there is a greater need for volunteers to return to the cemetery to respectfully remove and bundle the flags that were placed for Memorial Day. Come at 8:30-9 a.m. to help with this effort.

On Thursday, June 1, Tom Disinger's guest speaker will be our own Glenn Rockwood, who will speak about his plans for raising money for the American Heart Association and bringing awareness of heart disease, following his own recent heart transplant.
June 7/8: Board and business meetings.
June 15: Helen Endres' speaker will be Catherine S. Duncan, director of public health for Saratoga County Public Health Services. Ms. Duncan will speak about issues including pre-diabetes and suicide prevention.
TUESDAY, June 20: Change-over dinner at Andy's Adirondack Grille, 6.p.m. There will be no breakfast meeting on June 22.

Malta Med Administrator Speaks

Emily Wright, left, our speaker this morning, is shown with club President Arlene Schmidt. Emily, a nurse and MBA, is site administrator at Malta Med Emergent Care, where they are breaking ground today for the parking lot of a new building. It will include medical services such as physical and occupational therapy, as well as a new branch for the Malta YMCA.
In other news, we got a report on last Sunday's pancake breakfast fund-raiser from Bob Bonney. Its success was due to Bob, his wife Cheryl, Doug Martin, Tom Disinger, Miles Cornthwaite, Chris Luhn, Estelle Genest, Barb Conner, Steve Ames, Cynthia Young, Paul Sausville and all the other members who pitched in. And thanks for showing up to eat to a couple of local pols, Vince DeLucia and Tim Dunn.

Left to right: Miles, Chris, Doug.

Pancakes, members, benches and trash

Malta Sunrise Rotary is sponsoring a pancake breakfast this Sunday, May 7 with the Malta Ridge Volunteer Fire Co., which will share in the proceeds. The event will be at the fire house, between Hearn Road and the east side of Route 9 south of Northway Exit 13, from 8 to 11:30 a.m. Tickets are $6 for adults and $3 for children aged 6 to 12, with younger children free of charge. Thanks to Stewart's for their donations.
Club members are also bringing in stuff for sale and raffle. We'll be setting up Saturday at 5 p.m.

Last weekend, we picked up trash on Dunning Street and Malta Avenue Extension, and installed two benches near the gazebo in downtown Malta. And on Thursday, we inducted two new members, Estelle Genest and Dave Kruczlnicki.

Left to right, Bob Conner, Dave Kruczlnicki, Helen Endres, Doug Martin and Larry Levine (with Barbara Conner behind the camera). Miles Cornthwaite and Tom Disinger put in the benches, after preliminary work by others including Paul Sausville, Mike Williams, Al and Arlen Schmidt.

"It's been a really great year for us."

Sue Filburn, Malta Sunrise Rotary President Arlene Schmidt, and Stuart Williams at yesterday's meeting.

Our Rotary Facebook editor Barbara Conner is a former teacher and school board member (not in the Ballston Spa district), so she gets to describe yesterday's meeting (the quote in the headline is from Sue Filburn):

Thank-you to our guest speakers today, Sue Filburn, VP of the Ballston Spa Central School District's Board of Education, and Stuart Williams, Coordinator of Community Relations for the Ballston Spa district. Sue gave us the highlights of a number of changes and achievements for the district, as well as an overview of the proposed budget. Among these are the reinstatement of a full time orchestra teacher and a full time computer technology teacher. Ballston Spa offers a wide range of opportunities to students, from classes in the building trades to Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses, programs and extra-curricular opportunities in the arts, and district-wide athletic programs.
The school district budget vote and school board elections will take place on May 16th this year. Polls will be open from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm. In addition to the budget and BOE candidates, there will be three propositions on the ballot.

A Meet the Candidates Night will be held in the high school library on May 1 at 6:30 pm. There will also be several opportunities to learn more about the proposed budget. In Malta, the budget presentation will be on May 10 at 6:30 in the Malta Community Center, but district residents may attend any of the six meetings scheduled around the local towns.
Need more information? Check out the Ballston Spa district's website www.bscsd.org or call the Business Office at 884-7195 ext. 1320.

In other news, tomorrow, Saturday, will be busy for us. A cleanup crew will meet at Forest Cleaners at 8 a.m. to do trash pickup on Dunning Street and then Malta Avenue Extension. Also tentatively scheduled that morning is installation of two benches near the gazebo at Routes 67 and 9 in downtown Malta, which Al Schmidt is coordinating. (And thanks to Paul Sausville, Mike Williams and Miles Cornthwaite for working Wednesday on the bench project, which is funded by a grant from the Town of Malta/GlobalFoundries Foundation.)

Trash Time

We'll be doing our regular cleanup on Dunning Street this Saturday morning, April 29. Meet at Forest Cleaners at 8 a.m. sharp; bring bags and gloves. 

Doing What You Love

Brad Gardner, head golf professional at The Edison Club in Rexford, was our speaker Thursday. Brad, 28, is a graduate of Florida Gulf Coast University, where he was a business major with a concentration in golf management. As a sideline, he plays guitar and banjo for the Big Sky Country band.

"It's like anything else," he said of his day job. "It's not so much work if you enjoy what you do."

Giving It Away

At our business meeting yesterday, following up on last month's, we agreed to donate $1,000 of Malta Sunrise Rotary Club funds to the clean water projects in Haiti and Honduras sponsored by the Glens Falls Rotary Club and Pure Water for the World. (Ian Williams of the Glens Falls club spoke to us about the program at our Jan. 26 meeting.)
Closer to home, we also voted to expand our scholarship program to award $100 book awards to runners-up -- a sign of the strength of this year's crop of applicants for our $1,000 scholarship award.

Nite Owl

Our speaker this morning was Dawn Vavala, a charter member and past president of Twin Bridges Rotary (and a two-time Paul Harris fellow). She is president of Nite Owl Marketing, through which you can buy Rotary clothing and other promotional products.

New VP

Tom Disinger was elected this month as vice president, although he is also continuing as secretary. That will put him in line to become president-elect in July, and president next year. Among other things, Tom is our main contact with, and a volunteer for, Rebuilding Together Saratoga County, a regular platelet blood donor through the Red Cross, and co-organizer of our upcoming pancake breakfast. Bob Bonney announced at our meeting this morning that May 7 is the date for the next pancake breakfast, for which we will partner with our host, the Malta Ridge Volunteer Fire Company, which will share in the proceeds. Bob and Tom also should be contacted by those wishing to participate in the ongoing CLYNK fund-raiser through Hannaford. They can get you a bag for your returnable cans and bottles.

Among our guests this morning were Rotary District 7190 Assistant Governor Doug Ford, of the Ballston Spa club, and Sandy McAlonie  of Twin Bridges Rotary, who will succeed Doug as assistant governor in July.

State Budget Update

Malta Sunrise Rotarian and state Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner gave us an update on the ongoing state budget process at today's meeting. She said she supports Gov. Andrew Cuomo's push to make ride-sharing legal upstate, but has reservations about his shared services plan for municipalities, and the proposal to "raise the age" of criminal responsibility.

RYLA Dinner

Malta Sunrise Rotary is one of the annual sponsors of our district's Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, and our president, Arlene Schmidt, has been a longtime volunteer with the program. Four members of our club attended the annual RYLA dinner on Saturday, held at Skidmore College, including, of course, Arlene, pictured above at the event.

We had a business meeting last week. This Thursday, our speaker is Carrie Woerner, a member of both Malta Sunrise Rotary and the New York State Assembly.

GlobalFoundries update

Greg Connors, second from right, was our speaker yesterday, and is shown here with, from left, Malta Rotarians Paul Sausville (former town supervisor), Carrie Woerner (state assemblywoman) and Arlene Schmidt (club president). Greg is himself a former Stillwater supervisor and current Malta resident, who now works for GlobalFoundries.

GlobalFoundries has, he pointed out, "the most advanced semiconductor factory in the world" located in our town, along with a research facility pushing for ever more high-tech advances. About 3,046 GlobalFoundries employees work at the site, along with another 575 contract workers. 

Scholarship update, GloFo coming up

The deadline has passed for our $1,000 scholarship application, and a committee led by Barbara Conner will be interviewing applicants.
Next week, Feb. 23, our speaker will be Greg Connors from GlobalFoundries.

Meeting cancelled this morning

Due to the ongoing snow storm, President Arlene Schmidt has cancelled this morning's meeting (Feb. 9, 2017).
Last week we had a business meeting, and made a couple of $100 donations to the Rotary district food drive and CAPTAIN homeless outreach.
The deadline for our scholarship application is coming up (see Jan. 7 post below) on Feb. 15.

Rotary's vital work

Guest speaker on Thursday was Ian Williams of the Glens Falls Rotary Club, which helps support Pure Water for the World. Ian has made three trips to Haiti and one to Honduras on behalf of this organization, which provides filters like the one pictured above that he brought to our meeting. They can be a family's permanent source of clean water, preventing diarrhea and diseases that are often fatal to children and other people in these poor countries.

The non-profit trains "community agents" to provide hygiene education and monitor the filters to make sure they keep working. Ian spoke movingly about the life-changing and uplifting experience of making these trips, and noted that the Schenectady Rotary Club is also involved in providing clean water to Haitians. Providing clean water worldwide is a major focus of Rotary International and the Rotary Foundation.