The Gift of Life

 

Dr. Melissa Ehlers, director of pediatric anesthesia at Albany Medical Center, was our Zoom speaker Thursday. Her topic was Gift of Life International, with which she, Rotary and Albany Med have long been associated.

While she has gone on several mission trips to Honduras and the Dominican Republic, she said her most recent focus has been on Romania, Bolivia and Kosovo.

Ehlers noted that the 25th anniversary Gift of Life golf tournament will be held Sept. 14 at Fairways of Halfmoon. Register and/or donate here.

Woerner's Working

This year's regular state legislative session wrapped up around 8:30 last Wednesday evening at the Capitol in Albany, according to Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner. Less than 11 hours later she joined us as speaker for our weekly meeting at the The Ugly Rooster. (Woerner is herself a member of the Malta Sunrise Rotary Club.)

She has been working with Helen Endres, former Saratoga County public health director (on right in photo at Thursday's meeting) to secure more state funding. One result this session, Woerner said, is money to expand youth mental health services at Glens Falls Hospital and Four Winds in Saratoga Springs.

She also helped secure funds to help preserve Snake Hill on Saratoga Lake, and for the new Champlain Canal Regional Visitors Center in Schuylerville.

Woerner lauded legislative actions to raise the minimum wage and index it to inflation, to clarify that historical re-enactors are exempt from recent gun control legislation, and to give judges more discretion over when to set or not set bail.

One item passed in the state budget which she does not support is the planned phaseout of gas stoves. "It's crazy," she said.

 

From Luzerne to Schenectady

 

Scott Hayden, the new executive director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Schenectady, speaks at Thursday's meeting.

Hayden has spent his career at nonprofits, first working for the Boy Scouts in Glens Falls, where he was a member of the Rotary Club. (He and his family are currently residents of Malta.) Then he ran the Adirondack Folk School in Lake Luzerne, in which capacity he spoke to our club in 2017.

According to their website, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Schenectady serve youths aged 6 to 18 in four clubhouses in the city and one in Rotterdam. They also run Job Junction and after-school programs at six city schools.

The clubs run summer programs in Altamont (Camp Lovejoy), Rotterdam, and at five city parks (three of which have swimming pools they have helped keep open). Also on offer is a career exploration workshop at Schenectady County Community College.

Hayden stressed how the clubs provide safe spaces and mentors, greatly improving graduation rates, and are "a conduit to meaningful jobs." Asked about social problems, he said: "Maybe we can't solve all of it. We can solve some of it, instead of just lamenting."

Next week's speaker will be state Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner (a member of our club).

Memorializing Saratoga Battlefield

 

Paul Perreault, left, speaks at Thursday's meeting about how local Rotary clubs, notably in Ballston Spa and Mechanicville, a century ago helped establish what has now become the Saratoga National Historical Park.

Perreault is a member of the Ballston Spa Rotary Club and a frequent guest of ours in Malta, where he serves as town historian.

In 1927, on the 150th anniversary of the battle (and well before our club in Malta was founded), 100,000 people attended a ceremony at the site. There was a 150-cannon salute, Perreault said, and speeches by three state governors including New York's Al Smith. His successor Franklin Roosevelt, who went on to become president, also helped memorialize the battle.

The Battle of Saratoga in 1777 (or battles -- there were two clashes three weeks apart) was a complete American victory over the British, whose army surrendered shortly afterward. It was the turning point of the Revolutionary War. That makes it one of the most significant events in American -- and arguably world -- history.

Working at it

 

Dwight Havens, Cynthia Young, Barbara Conner and Helen Endres were four of our members who worked on site prep for a Sunday ceremony at the Malta veterans memorial near Town Hall.

Dwight also was formally elected club president-elect at last week's meeting. He will take office as president on July 1 for the 2023-24 Rotary year.

In other news, following the presentation in April by Dr. Harm Velvis, club members and friends have raised $800 for Gift of Life International.

And we donated $200 to the Malta food pantry at the David Meager Community Center for hygiene products.