Mayor's view; plus Cleanups

 

Frank Rossi Jr., right, chats with former Malta Supervisor Paul Sausville (a club member) at this morning's meeting. Rossi was our speaker, and told us about his first six months as mayor of the Village of Ballston Spa.

In other news, we've got our regular fall-and-spring cleanup of Dunning Street coming up this Saturday Oct. 15. Come join us if you like, meeting at 8 a.m. near Forest Cleaners.

Regarding that subject, a few of us (including photographer Barbara Conner) got together last Saturday for a little cleanup at the Pine Grove Camp on the western edge of Saratoga Springs, where we're part of an ongoing project to provide summer housing for the families of racetrack workers. Left to right, that's Kristen Stanley, Bob Conner, the Rev. Jim Hale, Chris and Dwight Havens.

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. 

Local Scholars

 

Yu Jie Loh, left, from Shenendehowa High School, and Madysen Thomas from Ballston Spa High School joined Scholarship Chairman Paul Phillips and fellow Rotarians this morning at The Ugly Rooster. Thomas was our $1,000 scholarship winner, while Loh and Elijah Ramos (also from Shenendehowa) were the runners-up receiving $500 each. 

Thomas is headed to the University of Delaware at Newark to study nursing, while Loh will go to Cornell to study applied economics and management. Both had records of academic excellence in high school along with extracurricular activity and community service. 

Local Programs

 

Deborah Dugan, liaison for families in temporary housing at the Ballston Spa School District, was our speaker this morning. Her position is funded by the federal government through the 1987 McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.

Dugan said she works with about 64 students classified as homeless and 79 others at-risk. Homelessness is increasing, she said.

A Rotary member gave her $200 in gift cards for use in the program. 

Later Thursday, five Rotarians helped out at the free summer lunch program operated by the First Baptist Church of Ballston Spa for children in the school district. 

A New Rotary Year

 

Mike Williams, left, hands over a $2,000 check to new Malta Sunrise Rotary President Larry Levine at last week's meeting. Mike was closing out his campaign fund (he ran for town supervisor last year) with charitable contributions. His Rotary donation is for specific causes we have supported: $750 for AOET Uganda, $750 for QMC in Lesotho, and $500 for our local scholarship fund. 

Larry took over from Miles Cornthwaite on July 1, the start of the Rotary year. He, Miles and Mike are also among the club members who have served previous presidential terms.

At the business meeting, we discussed the successful wrap-up of our project to assist the New York Race Track Chaplaincy in cleaning up cabins and brush at Pine Grove camp on the west side of Saratoga Springs, where the families of track workers will be spending the summer.

And we discussed plans to help with a free summer lunch program for children in the Ballston Spa School District (which includes most of Malta) operated by the First Baptist Church of Ballston Spa.