A coach and advocate of mindfulness and brain-heart coherence, he talked about "nonjudgmental awareness" and "the challenge of being present." Meditation exercises can start the mind-body connection, he said, and "the bridge is courage."
Clay is a past president of the Schenectady Rotary Club.
No meeting tomorrow, Thursday. Happy Thanksgiving.
Later Thursday, our member Bob Conner spoke about Juneteenth to the Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club, and sold and signed copies of his books with all proceeds (about $140) donated to the club's planned water project in Kenya.
Bob was invited to the Rensselaer County meeting by Phil Kellerman, who spoke to our club last month.
Some of our cleanup crew (minus Brian Farrell, who took the photo) on Dunning Street after last Thursday's meeting. They are, left to right, Chris Havens, Donna Kripfgans-Rawlin, Miles Cornthwaite, Murray Eitzmann and Steve Haydon.
Ugandan crafts on display at this year's Glenville Oktoberfest. We participated in "Rotary Row" under the sponsorship of the Malta Sunrise Rotary club and sold $800 worth of crafts, which will be sent to AOET Uganda to assist them in educating children who are living in poverty.
At Thursday's business meeting we voted to give $200 (in addition to any individual contributions) to Wait House in Glens Falls.
Upcoming fund-raisers are an Oct. 27 pancake breakfast at the Malta Ridge Fire House; and a pre-Christmas sale of pies from Smith's Orchard & Bake Shop, which are baked at a farm on Jockey Street in western Saratoga County.
Its services include Safe Harbour, protecting young people who may be sexually trafficked or exploited. There is also a Street Outreach program to youths who are homeless or at risk of becoming so, permanent housing assistance, crisis services, transitional living for homeless young women who are pregnant or parents, Child Home Health Care Management and Family Opportunity Center services.
The young people are typically dealing with "childhood trauma of some sort," McLaughlin said, and at Wait House "They finally feel safe. ... We are in a battle. Every day. Every day."
Sex traffickers, he said, "manipulate young people into thinking they're not being trafficked." Sometimes well-intentioned laws such as "Raise the Age" for criminal prosecution can have bad unintended consequences, he said.
Wait House has various sources of revenue, including donations from the public, which can help make up for recent funding cuts.
The case involved the kidnapping of a 9-year-old girl, a Saratoga County resident, from Moreau Lake State Park. The community immediately rallied in support of the girl and her family, and the search-and-rescue operation, "with a level of action, attention, intensity that I hadn't seen." It was quickly determined that it was likely a kidnapping, rather than a case of a child getting lost or playing hide and seek, and this prompted large-scale activation of resources.
After "a massive coordinated effort," the girl was rescued two days later by state police and other law enforcement personnel. A man arrested at the scene pleaded guilty to two felonies, including first-degree kidnapping, and received a sentence of 47 years to life in prison. Heggen's office had two staff members --
Early in his working life, Eitzmann was an "outside tech" worker in Verizon's Mechanicville garage. He was impressed by the insight and concern for safety of a unionized worker. He became vice president of the union local there, and after a layoff in 2008 started work doing social media for the AFL-CIO.
Union membership is up in New York state, he said, and labor is moving "from a top-down approach to bottom-up." Issues he's been involved with include establishing and maintaining health benefits for people affected by the 9/11 attacks, supporting nurses in their struggle for good conditions and limited hours, and steering purchasers (including New York state) toward American-made steel.
In other business, we mourn the passing last week of our friend and fellow club member Nancy Sausville (left). Calling hours and services for Nancy will be Saturday morning (see here for obituary and service details).
We inducted our newest member this morning, Donna Kripfgans-Rawlin.
And last Saturday, we participated in Malta Community Day at Shenantaha Park, running a cornhole booth and raising $128.
Below, left to right, Bob Bonney, Chris Havens, Dave Kruczlnicki and Dwight Havens fold up the canopy at the end of the event.
Our next event will be Monday Sept. 16 from 1 to 6 p.m., assisting a Red Cross blood drive at the Malta Community Center (a cause close to the heart of Nancy Sausville).
Pam Baxter, at end of table, chats before her presentation at Thursday's meeting. (Meanwhile Steve Ames, on right, looks skeptically at photographer.) Pam heads the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee for the new Central New York Rotary District, of which we are part.
DEI is "about relationships," she said, noting the high prevalence of Americans laboring under some form of disability. "As human beings," she said, "don't we all just want to be appreciated, and recognized?" We may need to watch out for "ableism," and "unlearn behaviors that hinder your own growth as a person."
Treasurer Cynthia Young reported that in the 2023-24 Rotary fiscal year starting July 1, we have expended through May $2,400 on charitable donations, an additional $1,500 on scholarships, another $1,584.92 on donations to the Rotary Foundation, $1,973.92 for Rotary International dues and $720 for Rotary District dues.
The slate of officers elected for the 2024-25 year is President Chris Havens, Vice President Paul Phillips, President-elect Dwight Havens, Treasurer Cynthia Young, Secretary Brian Farrell, Membership Chair Larry Levine, Foundation Chair Barbara Conner, Budget and Finance Chair Steve Ames.
Sean Kelleher, right, in friendly discussion with fellow historian Paul Perreault at this morning's meeting. Kelleher, the longtime Town of Saratoga historian, is a member of the board of the Saratoga County History Center at Brookside Museum in Ballston Spa, and also serves on the county's 250th commission marking the anniversary of the Battles of Saratoga.
The 250th anniversary of the 1777 battles (fought three weeks apart) won't be for another three years, but the commission is marking other events in the meantime. Late next year, for example, will mark the 250th anniversary of Col. Henry Knox's midwinter trek hauling cannons from Ticonderoga to Boston, which helped drive the British out of that city. It will be marked by events in upstate New York through Massachusetts.
The commission has also been focusing on the role of women in war, including Lady Harriet Acland, wife of a wounded and captured British officer in the Saratoga campaign, who displayed extraordinary courage and devotion.
The Ballston Spa club meets Wednesday mornings at The White House, and the first and third Tuesdays for lunch at Ballston Spa Country Club. But today they were at our home base, The Ugly Rooster in Malta.
Upcoming events and volunteer opportunities in Ballston Spa include an April 27 cleanup day, and a May 3 barbecue at Brookside Museum.
Ms. Turner is not a member of either club but has connections in our area, and told us about Baja Bridges on the West Coast.
Saturday morning's Dunning Street trash pickup crew consisted, left to right, of Rotarians, Bob and Barbara Conner, Dwight and Chris Havens, Paul Perreault, Miles Cornthwaite, Paul Phillips, Kristen Stanley, and our junior helper, young Master K., in the front. Plus Helen Endres, who took the photo.
No meeting on Thursday April 11, because members may choose to attend this event instead.
Pete, who was our speaker, is senior vice president for community advancement at the Capital Region Chamber. (Cynthia is our club treasurer, and the town of Malta supervisor.)
Pete talked about "keeping the lights on" as possibly his top priority, and a new geothermal energy company in town.
He also plugged "Inside Malta: A Community Business Forum", which is an 8-9:30 am breakfast event to be held April 11 at the Malta Community Center. Panelists will include leaders from GlobalFoundries, HVCC North, Arnoff, and Signature ONE Real Estate.
The club decided to cancel its scheduled April 11 meeting because members might want to attend the Chamber event. That breakfast is open to the public, and to register and purchase tickets, or find out more information, click on this link.
Brian Farrell, contractor (518-795-7784) and musician, and one of our newer members, spoke to us last Thursday about his recent trip home to Dublin. Like many Irish families, his has members scattered over the world. Like many reunions, his was bittersweet, with a sister battling cancer and friends still caught up in the "Irish stereotype" of alcohol abuse. He returned with enhanced appreciation of the strengths and support of family love.
In other business, President Dwight Havens presented Bob Bonney with his two-sapphire Paul Harris Fellowship pin.
While Cynthia Young was our speaker on Thursday, this photo is from the next day, Feb. 16, when she was sealing a purchase of development rights deal with Malta Avenue Extension resident Miles Cornthwaite. The deal was negotiated under Cynthia's predecessor as town supervisor, Mark Hammond. Cynthia and Miles (former chairman of the town Planning Board) are both longtime members of the Malta Sunrise Rotary Club, which she continues to serve as treasurer.
Cynthia talked about that and other issues coming up in her first several weeks as supervisor, including the forthcoming passive park on the former Mangino's property on Saratoga Lake (also a Hammond project), and new water districts. She said the town has applied for a grant to build a sidewalk on Route 9 in front of Malta Gardens, and that NYSERDA is trying to sell property it owns near GlobalFoundries for clean light industrial use. She also said Saratoga County is considering using the former State Farm property in Malta south of Route 67 and west of Northway Exit 12.
He described living in South Africa as Nelson Mandela was freed from prison and the apartheid system of racial discrimination came to an end. He said it was a system of "white supremacy" and described himself as "a recovering racist," comparing the condition to that of an alcoholic in recovery.
In other business, the club voted to purchase two $100 bricks at the veterans monument near Town Hall to memorialize deceased members Al Schmidt and Earl Greenleaf, and to benefit the Malta Veterans Appreciation Program.
We voted last week to donate $100 to the Ballston Spa School District after-prom party.
Last week's speaker was Miles Cornthwaite talking about the town's purchase of development rights on the Malta Avenue Extension property behind his mid-19th-century farm house. It is in the Saratoga Lake watershed.
Murray worked as a power systems engineer in Nebraska. His career then took the family to Sweden and Wisconsin, before he got a job with General Electric Co. in Schenectady and they moved to Malta in 1989. Now retired from GE, he works part-time for Jedson Engineering and serves on the Malta Zoning Board.
In other business, President Dwight Havens presented Barbara Conner with the Paul Harris Fellow award from Rotary International.
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At last month's business meeting, we donated $500 (in addition to another $500 not long before) to local efforts coordinated by our member Paul Phillips to help AOET Uganda.
At yesterday's business meeting for January 2024, we voted to give $500 to Gift of Life International. (Individual members may donate to increase this total amount.) We also discussed a potential "wonderbooks" project for the Round Lake-Malta libraries.
