More Seasonal Business

 At this morning's Zoom meeting we voted to give $200 to CAPTAIN to address local needs. This follows last week's donations of $2,000 split between three organizations.

It has not yet been decided exactly how $1,000 just received from the GlobalFoundries-Town of Malta Foundation will be used on our Stop the Virus campaign.

Season's Business

     At Thursday's meeting, we voted to donate a total of $1,800 to two African projects which we have been helping support in recent years. While $1,100 of that total comes from individual members' targeted donations, $700 comes from general club funds.

     We voted an additional $200 to help address local people's needs as identified by Malta Seniors.

    A $1,000 donation is going for projects in Uganda undertaken by members of the Presbyterian-New England Congregational Church of Saratoga Springs in collaboration with Aids Orphan Education Trust. Two of our members have made trips to Uganda to work on education, medical and infrastructure projects, while another has contributed $1,000 to the program through Malta Sunrise Rotary over the past year. PNECC and AOET facilitate sponsorships and provide services in Uganda mostly to children, not excluding anyone on the basis of religion.

    The other $800 goes to Qholaqhoe Mountain Connections, which sponsors scholarship and feeding programs in a remote area of Lesotho. We have been helping fund QMC since 2014.

    The club has often hosted speakers with news about how our support helps people in Uganda and Lesotho.

    

    

Stopping the Virus; Carrying on Scholarships

 

Rotarians Kristen Stanley (of Malta Sunrise) and Sue Austin (of Schenectady East) distributed face shields recently to Ballston Spa High School. This was part of a program discussed by District Governor Rich Griesche at our Oct. 29 meeting.

It is also part of our club's Stop the Virus campaign, which has included distribution of face masks; and, most recently, 8-ounce bottles of hand sanitizer in cartons of 12. One of our members, Glenn Rockwood, donated 100 cartons of hand sanitizer to the club. While six were taken to Shelters of Saratoga, the great majority of cartons and bottles have been given to people within the town of Malta, especially seniors. The last batch of 10 cartons will be brought Thursday to Chango Elementary School with our weekly Bountiful Backpacks drop-off.

Speaking of schools, our scholarship program is cranking up for another year.

The Malta Sunrise Rotary Club expects to award two scholarships in 2021 to two graduating high school seniors. The first-place selected student will be awarded a one-time scholarship of $1,000. Additionally, a one-time $500 scholarship may be awarded to the runner-up scholarship finalist.

Applicants should demonstrate strong involvement in community service and excellence in their core curriculum education as shown by a minimum 90 high school GPA. Consideration will be given to financial need as shown by the expected family contribution on the FAFSA. 

The applicants must reside in the Town of Malta, including the Village of Round Lake. This may include students enrolled at Ballston Spa High School, Shenendehowa Central Schools, any accredited private or parochial schools, and students participating in an accredited home-school program as long as their legal residence is within the Town of Malta. Postal addresses within the Town of Malta vary. School district officials and officials at Malta Town Hall may be able to assist you if you are uncertain about whether you qualify as a Malta resident.

The applicants should plan to attend any accredited university, college, community college or vocational/technical institute beginning in the fall of 2021.

Payment will be made directly to the student upon receipt of the award or disbursed in a manner in compliance with the student’s school district policies.

Applications are available in school counseling offices and/or by inquiry to Malta Sunrise Rotary Scholarship Chair Paul Phillips: (518) 584-4625 or email paulandjeanp@yahoo.com .

To Shelters

 

At Thursday's meeting, Cynthia Young brought along boxes of hand sanitizer donated as a fund-raiser by our member Glenn Rockwood. Each box contains 12 bottles. Some members paid $24 per box for six to be donated to Shelters of Saratoga, which were brought there after the meeting by Bob and Barbara Conner. Other boxes may be bought by members and donated, or the bottles may be resold as a Rotary fund-raiser. 

Larrys and Other Business

 

Larry Bailey, right, from the Twin Bridges Rotary Club, presented our president, Larry Levine, with the new "Rotary Opens Opportunities" banner, and gave pins to our members, at this morning's business meeting. He is also looking for members willing to serve on a nominating committee to designate a future governor for Rotary District 7190.

We donated $100 to Seeds for Peace, and plan to schedule a work day to help the local nonprofit sort and pack seeds for distribution to needy communities around the world.

We discussed an offered donation of hand sanitizer bottles from our member Glen Rockwood, and selling them for $2 each as a fund-raiser.

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.

Diner, Blood, Backpacks

 We are moving our meetings away from the Shenantaha Park and back to the Malta Diner, starting tomorrow, Thursday October 1, at 7:15 a.m. However, because of the ongoing Covid pandemic, several members will attend from home via Zoom. Any member who has not received the Zoom link via email and wants it should get in touch with Mike Williams or another Rotarian.

The September 22 Red Cross blood drive at the Malta Community Center coordinated by Mike was a success, collecting 50 units -- 15 more than the goal.

We will be resuming our assistance to the Bountiful Backpacks program in the Shenendehowa School District, delivering food to qualified students at Chango Elementary in Malta.

Blood Drive, Gift of Life, Youth Center

 

Contact the Red Cross (see flier above) to sign up for the blood drive on September 22, which we are sponsoring at the Malta Community Center. Hope to see you there.

At our meeting on Thursday at Shenantaha Creek Park, there were two speakers. Mark Juda from the Schenectady Rotary made a pitch for our Rotary District 7190's 22nd annual golf tournament to benefit Gift of Life International, which has a program through Albany Medical Center. If you can't play golf on that day, you could just send a donation in care of Richard Suker at the address on the flier below:

Our other speaker was Malta Councilman Craig Warner, who talked about his work with the Capital District Youth Center. While the facility is located in Albany County, Saratoga, Schenectady and Rensselaer counties also participate.

Craig's standing on the right, Mark is on the left, in photo below:

Different Drones

Rotarian Dave Kruczlnicki surveys a socially distant meeting Thursday at Shenantaha Park. Contact Dave (or club President Larry Levine) -- or come to this week's meeting at 7:15 Thursday morning -- if you're willing to help organize a food-based fund-raiser toward the end of this month.

On left, David Wood, designated speaker at last Thursday's meeting, shows off two frames of one of the bee hives he keeps in East Galway. (The headline above refers to last week's meeting where the speaker talked about a different kind of flying drones. David Wood's drones are male bees, and while he brought some along in those frames, most bees in the photo and in general are females, who do the work of the hive.)

Drones Club

Chris Spangler, center, of Down to Earth Aerial Productions, with Adam Ford, Gabi Giannini and drones at this week's Rotary Club meeting.
Chris was guest speaker at our temporary meeting site of Shenantaha Park. An FAA licensed pilot, he flew a drone briefly and talked about their various uses in everything from wedding photography (much better photos than this one) to mapping, archaeology and insurance claims.

Parkside

We've been meeting since late June at Shenantaha Creek Park. The regular meeting time is the same as the old one, 7:15 on Thursday mornings. If you'd like to join us, please stop by. We're talking about how to raise money and be useful, and there are speakers coming up on drones and bees for the next two meetings.
We'll be helping out a Red Cross blood drive scheduled for September 22 at the Community Center, and will be doing a trash pickup on Dunning Street on October 17.

Scholarship Winners

              Samantha DeVito, winner of this year's Malta Sunrise Rotary $1,000 scholarship, joined us for the Zoom meeting on Thursday. Samantha, from Ballston Spa High School, will be attending Princeton University this fall (coronavirus permitting), where she hopes to major in economics and play lacrosse. Her brother Jake, our scholarship winner from a few years ago, also chimed in briefly during the meeting. "Be humble and kind" was the message Samantha says she got from her parents.

              Runner-up, and recipient of a $500 award, was Lauren Vandenburgh of Shenendehowa High School. She plans to major in elementary education at the College of Saint Rose in Albany.

             In other business, we won't be Zooming next Thursday but plan to meet for the first time in person post-pandemic -- outside, for an early dinner, at a location yet to be announced. This changeover event will include installation of new officers elected last week, namely: Larry Levine, president; Chris Luhn, president-elect; Mike Williams, membership chair and immediate past president; Cynthia Young, treasurer; Bob Conner, secretary; Steve Ames, finance chair; Estelle Genest, Foundation chair -- plus non-board members Bob Bonney, sergeant-at-arms, and Barbara Conner, publicity chair.

State Government Update

NYS Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, a member of our club, was the speaker at this morning's Zoom meeting.
While the coronavirus health crisis has now passed, she said, and the Capital Region is starting to reopen, large fiscal problems have yet to be addressed.
Uncertainty remains about whether there will be a second wave of infections, but there is also hope for effective treatments and vaccine. On the fiscal front, federal aid may alleviate the state's plight. One of the issues she is working on is strengthening the local elements of the food supply chain.
Carrie hopes the state Legislature will come back into session to provide more vetting of government decisions.
 "I am hopeful, but I don't minimize the challenges in front of us," she said.

Masks and Meetings

The town will distribute masks tomorrow (Friday) morning from 10 to 12 at Malta Town Hall, said Councilwoman (and Malta Rotarian) Cynthia Young at this morning's Zoom meeting. You won't have to get out of your car. Next week, she added, the Zoom speaker will be another elected official and member of our club, state Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner.
        This week's speaker was Adam Horowitz, an investment officer for Glens Falls and Saratoga National Bank(s), and a former Malta resident and volunteer firefighter. He said about a third of the world economy is currently shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic. He expects stocks of big technology companies to continue to do relatively well, whereas companies such as Boeing will need government bailouts.

Schools and other biz

We've been meeting by Zoom at the usual time and day, helping the town distribute face masks, and, on Thursday this week, voted to OK a $200 contribution to a Ballston Spa Rotary program to recognize student athletes with banners. Most Malta residents are in the Ballston Spa School District, but we have also been active in supporting the Chango Elementary School, which is located in Malta but in the Shenendehowa district, and our scholarship program, on which work proceeds, is open to any student of high school senior age who lives in town.

News from Lesotho, in southern Africa

Our Rotary club has for the past six years helped support the work of  Qholaqhoe Mountain Connections (QMC) in a rural area of Lesotho, a small country in southern Africa. Through QMC, we sponsor students and help fund a feeding program.
A March 21 letter from QMC brought news about improvements in conditions there, including the apparent end of a long drought which has made possible the renewal of agriculture, and ongoing work on a road project which employs local people and will improve transport connections.
The package included two letters from sponsored students, with whom two of our members have been corresponding.
According to the QMC letter (from Linda and Roger Gorham, who visited in March):
 "Everyone in the Qholaqhoe Mountain area (about 50 square miles) uses the same post office box located in Butha-Buthe 50 km away. The principal, Me Mosaase, uses the school truck to pick up the mail every weekend and delivers it to a cardboard box on the school porch. The box is checked by anyone who might be expecting a letter, which is rare, except for the QMC scholarship students who are excited and hopeful that there will be a letter from you.
"Our annual parent meeting was attended by mothers, fathers, grandparents, neighbors, and extended family. There were speeches made by parents, administrators, and students. Parents were served cookies and juice, and school uniforms and shoes were distributed. It was a wonderful occasion with great gratitude expressed for your help in making it possible for a child to attend school.
"... Many of the students talked about Cultural Day in their letters. This event held at the high school every 2 years celebrates Basotho culture. The students were very excited about the event and were preparing songs and dances when we were there. We hoped to attend the celebration, but we were forced to leave a couple of days early due to increasing bad news about the coronavirus."

Rotary Still Rolls (2)

Following up Wednesday’s post on coronavirus-related news, the Malta Sunrise Rotary Club on Thursday (yesterday) delivered $300 in grocery cards to the Malta Community Center food pantry, and another $300 worth to Chango Elementary School to supply needy students, using grant funds from the Town of Malta/GlobalFoundries Foundation and a matching dedicated donation through our club. (We had previously directed $200 of grant money through Chango for transportation to medical services.)

In other business, our scholarship committee is deciding this year’s winners, whose names will be announced later this spring according to school district schedules.

Rotary Still Rolls

Schools are closed this week, and will probably stay closed for some time due to the coronavirus epidemic. For the same reason, we are no longer holding weekly meetings at the Malta Diner. But that doesn't mean we're out of the action. For the past several years, a volunteer from our Rotary club has delivered food to qualified students in the Bountiful Backpacks program. Normally, he picks it up from the main Shenendehowa School District campus in Clifton Park, NY, and delivers it to the Chango Elementary School in Malta. This week, the program has rebooted, and volunteers are being asked to make home deliveries. So that's what our guy did today, bringing supplies to 11 students at six residences, where everyone was gracious.

Blue Shield; Coronavirus

Stephanie Krieger, who is Medicare sales center manager, consumer markets, at the new Blue Shield of Northeastern New York office in the Shops of Malta plaza, was our speaker yesterday.
She said her office fits health insurance to the individual's needs, including their popular Medicare Advantage plans.

In other business, it was decided to indefinitely postpone the scheduled March 29 pancake breakfast, due to public health concerns about coronavirus.

In other, other business, the board voted last week to donate $50 to the Ballston Spa School District after-prom party, and $50 to The Alcohol and Substance Abuse Prevention Council of Saratoga County.

Fleet Feet

Charles Woodruff, who with his wife Arlene owns and operates Fleet Feet Albany and Malta, was our speaker on Thursday.
Fleet Feet has had a store for seven years in the shopping plaza that includes Price Chopper. "We're being successful in Malta," Woodruff said.
It sells running shoes and related items such as supportive insoles, but "our store in not about product," he said. Rather, it is about specialized customer service, including training programs and getting the right individual fit.
He suggested Malta needs more specialty retail stores to make it more of a destination, along with more use of facilities such as the Sausville Gazebo at Dunning Street and Route 9.

Further Updates

The end of the month is fast approaching, and with it the application deadline for the Malta Sunrise Rotary scholarship for a graduating high school senior. Applicants must reside in the Town of Malta, which includes the Village of Round Lake, and be attending either public or accredited private schools, or accredited home-school programs.
Our scholarship committee is hoping to interest students who demonstrate excellence in their core curriculum education as well as involvement in community service. Consideration may also be given to financial need.
The selected student will be awarded a one-time scholarship of $1,000. Another $500 runner-up scholarship may also be awarded.

Applications and more information should be available in the school counselling offices at Shenendehowa, Ballston Spa, or Saratoga Central Catholic high schools. Applications should be sent to: Scholarship Committee, Malta Sunrise Rotary Club, P.O. Box 671, Round Lake, NY 12151. While the deadline for receipt of applications is Feb. 28, it may be extended to Feb. 29 this leap year.

And following up on this post from two days ago, anyone interested in updates on the Uganda service trip which includes two of our club members, should follow along on our Facebook page. 

African Updates

At this morning's meeting in Malta, mail was passed around from our contacts in Lesotho, including a letter from one of the students we help sponsor through Qholaqhoe Mountain Connections. 

Meanwhile in Uganda (pictured above), two of our members are entering their second week working on educational, medical and infrastructure projects with AOET. More information and links about the projects in both countries can be found here.

In local news, we have received a $250 donation from Hannaford through their CLYNK program, which we will put toward our pancake breakfast fund. (The next breakfast is coming up March 29 at the Malta Ridge Fire House.)

Finding the Why

Kate Forer, senior pastor at Presbyterian-New England Congregational Church (PNECC) of Saratoga Springs, was our speaker on Thursday, her topic being "Finding the Why", about how organizations gain or lose membership.

Kate recalled from her childhood the response of her mother to a question about the meaning of life: "To help other people"; as well as the mission statement recently adopted by her church: "Working to make God's love and justice real in our world." 

In conversation with our members at the meeting, we discussed potential statements/slogans for Malta Sunrise Rotary (MSR), such as: Together we can do more; Our differences are smaller than our shared compassion; Working for the common good.

Club President Mike Williams presented PNECC with a $500 personal donation to match MSR's recent contribution for a PNECC-sponsored trip to Uganda, to help fund educational, medical and infrastructure projects. Two of our club members are going on the two-week trip, which begins on Feb. 13.

A guest from the Rotary Club of Saratoga Springs mentioned two of their upcoming events, the Home & Lifestyle Show on Feb. 29-March 1, and the Education Foundation Basketball Tournament on April 4.

Malta Ridge Fire Department History

Chris Morrell has been a member of the Malta Ridge Volunteer Fire Company since 1958, which is most of its history, about which he spoke at this morning's meeting.

The first fire truck was purchased in 1947, used. It lacked a windshield, so the driver wore goggles. But a decade later they had the biggest tanker truck in Saratoga County. That truck and its successors were often called to help out other fire departments, including Saratoga Springs. Morrell worked as a professional firefighter in that city from 1966 to 1973, and then went into law enforcement. 

He spent 20 years with the Saratoga County Sheriff's Department, then worked in Vermont police departments, for the New York State Park Police, and the US Marshals Service. He also spent 11 years on the Malta Town Board, and continues to serve the town on committees dealing with ethics, updating the master plan, and water/sewer issues.

Brookside Museum Update

Jim Richmond, right, who was our speaker this morning, talks to Malta Town Historian Paul Perreault after the meeting.

Jim has co-written a history of the Town of Milton, and wrote a 2016 book, "War on the Middleline",  about a 1780 Revolutionary War raid in Saratoga County. A GE retiree, he is coordinator of the Saratoga History Round Table, and is involved with ongoing efforts to revitalize the Brookside Museum in Ballston Spa, recruit volunteers and stabilize its finances.

Club Donates $1,000 to African Projects

At this week's business meeting, we made donations of $500 each to two projects in Africa.
One of the donations was to Qholaqhoe Mountain Connections in Lesotho, which we have been helping support since 2014, and to which we last donated in November 2018. The contribution will help fund scholarships and a feeding program in a drought-stricken rural area.

The other contribution is to help fund projects in Uganda undertaken by a group associated with the Presbyterian-New England Congregational Church of Saratoga Springs (PNECC), which will embark on a mission trip in February. The group, which includes our members Paul Phillips and Barbara Conner, will work on medical clinics and educational projects, including building a new classroom and installing a solar water pump with underground tanks. PNECC partners with the nonprofit AOET, which facilitates sponsorships and provides services in Uganda mostly to children, not excluding anyone on the basis of religion. Participants in the PNECC trip pay for their own travel and other expenses. AOET-Uganda's child social welfare officer, Teo Nakubulwa, spoke to our club last June.

In other business, we discussed possibly holding a pancake breakfast on March 29 at the Malta Ridge Fire House, and a roadside cleanup on Dunning Street on April 4.