Gary Evans and Elmer Ellsworth

 

Howard C. Ohlhous photo

Our speaker today was Malta Town Historian Paul Perreault, who told us the bizarre story of daredevil serial killer Gary Evans and his connection to Malta's Civil War hero Elmer Ellsworth.

Last week's speaker was Councilman Craig Warner, who spoke about issues surrounding public water supply in town. The week before, Dwight Havens gave us an overview of what's going on with our volunteer fire departments in town.

On Saturday Oct. 1, two of our members will sell Ugandan crafts to help support AOET at the Malta Cultural Arts Festival at the Community Center.

Today we resumed our weekly deliveries of food to Chango Elementary School as part of the Shenendehowa Bountiful Backpacks program.

100 Acre Wood, Runners, Community Day, Blood Drive

Topics covered by Paul Loomis, the speaker at our meeting yesterday, included the 100 Acre Wood, a forested trail system open to the public in Malta's Luther Forest Technology Campus, which his Roundabout Runners Club maintains. They welcome volunteers.

He also spoke about the Malta 5K (and 10K) coming up this Saturday morning, September 10, in the tech park. The races start and finish at the Hudson Valley Community College campus. Money raised from the annual event provides assistance to the Malta Ridge and Round Lake fire departments, Malta-Stillwater EMS, and homeless veterans. It's not too late to register.

Saturday also is Malta Community Day, to be held in Shenantaha Creek Park. Our club will operate a cornhole booth.

On September 19, we are sponsoring from 1 to 6 p.m. a Red Cross blood drive at the Malta Community Center. Blood donors can make an appointment here, using sponsor code MALTAROTARY or ZIP code 12020.

Catching Up

 Our speakers in August included Pete Bardunias, senior vice president at the Capital Region Chamber, seen here at left with club President Larry Levine.

Others were Paul Phillips, who spoke about a recent visit to Uganda with AOET, which our club has helped support; and Malta Town Clerk Jennifer Holmes.

At last Thursday's business meeting, a thank-you card from the First Baptist Church summer feeding program for children in the Ballston Spa School District was passed around, recognizing our $200 contribution of Price Chopper gift cards. (Some of our members also did volunteer work for the program.) We also discussed whether Rotary could help distribute food next summer for needy children in Malta.

We voted to contribute $100 each to two institutions in Vermont, the Monkton Volunteer Fire Department and the Addison County Hospice, in recognition of losses in the family of our former member Estelle Genest.

We discussed plans for Malta Community Day on Sept. 10 at Shenantaha Park, where we will operate a cornhole booth; and plans for the Sept. 19 Red Cross blood drive at Malta Community Center which we are co-sponsoring.