Chango Principal

Chango Elementary School Principal Karin Skarka gave us food for thought at Thursday's meeting.

Chamber View

Pete Bardunias, president of The Chamber of Southern Saratoga County, spoke at our meeting Thursday.

Dunking and Zoning

Town Supervisor Vince DeLucia was among those getting dunked Wednesday at out booth for Malta Family Night, where we raised $200 for charitable work. Other dunkees included his fellow Town Board members Tim Dunn and Craig Warner, along with Rotarian Miles Cornthwaite. In the other pic, Morgan Zegers watches a star pitcher getting ready to dunk. Rotarians assisting at the event included Paul Sausville, Doug Martin, Helen Endres and Steve Ames.

The next morning, it was back to business with a presentation from Councilman John Hartzell, along with town planner Tony Tozzi, about the proposed rezoning of Route 67 west to permit commercial uses.

New Ways for Old Farm

Our speaker Thursday was Chip Ellm, of the Ellms Family Farm on Charlton Road in Ballston. He told us how his family bought an abandoned dairy farm and has turned it into an agri-toursim enterprise, full of activities for kids, which is open for several weeks every fall (Sept. 17-Oct. 30 this year). The land would probably have become a housing development had the Ellms not gone in this direction, he said.

Rotarian Paul Sausville praised the Ellms Farm as a way to preserve agricultural land and open space. Paul also noted that we're looking for volunteers this coming Wednesday at Shenantaha Creek Park, where Family Night will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. We'll have the dunking booth up, and politicians are expected to be among the dunkees. So if club members can help during that time or before or after, please contact Paul. And everyone else can come down, too, and dunk a Town Board member for a good cause.

Welcome Aboard

Morgan Zegers, second from left, was inducted at Thursday's meeting into the Malta Sunrise Rotary Club. She's a student at American University and has been active this summer in town government. Before that, she was interning in Washington at the office of U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, whose district includes much of Saratoga County.

Changing of the Guard

Arlene Schmidt, left, chaired her first club meeting as this year's president on Thursday, taking over from Mike Williams, right, who becomes membership chairman.