We Give $1,000 to Gift of Life

 

We inducted our newest member, Lisa Elam, at Thursday's meeting, seen on left with President Chris Havens. Lisa is from Westchester County and a relative newcomer to Malta. She works as a caseworker for Tri-County Care.

Chris can also be seen in the photo above, following the banner being carried by her husband Dwight Havens (on left) and Murray Eitzmann. They were at the Military, Veterans and First Responders parade last Saturday in Malta.

It was announced at Thursday's meeting that we are donating $1,000 -- mostly raised from individual member contributions -- to Gift of Life International -- an organization long associated with Rotary which performs life-saving heart surgeries on children around the world.

Strengthening the Core

 

Malta resident Ivy White was our speaker last Thursday, talking about physical fitness. "The key is moving," she said. "The best time to exercise is anytime you can fit it in."

She runs Ivy White Studios at 81 Washington St., Saratoga Springs, focusing on pilates, barre, and core-strengthening exercises. She also does home visits and runs classes in places such as Prestwick Chase. She can be reached at ivytrends@aol.com, or 518-580-2308, or 518-879-9302. 

Gift of Life Marks 50 Years

 

Dr. Harm Velvis (seated at center) was our speaker last Thursday, interviewed by Bob Bonney (standing).

Velvis, a pediatric cardiologist, has been active for 30 years in Gift of Life International, which provides life-saving heart surgery to children around the world. Since his retirement he has stepped up his involvement, serving on the board and making several service trips a year to countries such as Bolivia, Guyana and Jordan.

Gift of Life, he said, has helped more than 60,000 children since its founding, and now serves more than 5,000 a year. It will celebrate its 50th anniversary in September with a gala and golf tournament on Long Island. 

In other business, Phil Kellerman from the Southern Rensselaer Rotary Club said the recent concert by the band Enjoyous, co-sponsored by our club, raised $600 for the St. Paul's Center shelter for women and children in Rensselaer.

We got a thank-you card from Qholaqhoe Mountain Connections for our $500 contribution to a food distribution program in the area served by QMC in Lesotho. QMC, which is phasing out operations, also sent a photo of a student there sponsored by our club.

Katherine Anne Porter and Malta

Town Historian Tom Williams spoke Thursday morning about the life and Malta connections of the writer Katherine Anne Porter (Tom also wrote the linked article). Porter, a Texas native, was staying at 

the Yaddo artists' community in Saratoga Springs in 1941 when she came upon a house on Cramer Road, Malta, south of Saratoga Lake. She bought it, called it South Hill, and worked on her novel Ship of Fools there, although that book would not be done and published until 1962, and she sold South Hill in 1946. There is now a historical marker there mentioning her and other owners of the house, which was built in about 1830.

Porter is perhaps best known for her long story or short novel Pale Horse, Pale Rider, first published in 1938 and in book form the next year. Its subject is the devastating Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-19.

In other business, the passing of Joe Legnard, a former president of Malta Sunrise Rotary, was noted and he was remembered.

We wrapped up a food and hygiene products drive for the Malta Community Center Food Pantry.

And our upcoming benefit concert for a Rensselaer women and children's shelter is coming up this Saturday, April 26, from 7 to 8:30 in Fellowship Hall at First United Methodist Church in East Greenbush. Suggested donation $15. Some refreshments will be available. It's all co-sponsored by the Rotary club in that area; one of our members, Brian Farrell, is in the band (at right in photo on poster below).

 Be there or be square.

Assisting Displaced Ellsworth Residents

 

Angela McFarland, former publisher of the online Ballston Journal, spoke this morning about efforts by the town of Malta and volunteers to help displaced residents of Ellsworth Commons whose apartments sustained water damage resulting from a stray bullet in a fatal shooting last week.

There will be a party from 10 am to 1 pm this Saturday in the community room of Building 2 -- use the middle entrance of Ellsworth's northern building. Angela encouraged people to attend with donations such as personal hygiene products, cleaning and laundry supplies, gift cards, and/or those with expertise in areas such as insurance and construction who are willing to offer advice.

In other business, Jim Hale interviewed Paul Phillips, who was honored with his wife Jean in April as residents of the month by the Malta Town Board. Paul spoke about his upbringing, values, Naval service and volunteer work in Africa.

Posters and Pics

 Shelter benefit concert coming April 26. Our member Brian Farrell is the tall bearded Irish guy at bottom right.

We're doing a donation drive for the food pantry at Malta Community Center. If you encounter a Rotarian, please fill up their bag.

We're promoting the arts in these parts.
 

And we (these four and three others) were picking up trash on Dunning Street on a wet Saturday morning.

Donations and other Business

 

Light catches the topmost sapphires on Bob Bonney's Paul Harris Fellow pin, awarded at last Thursday's business meeting to mark his contributions to The Rotary Foundation.

We voted to donate $500 to ShelterBox, $200 to Impactful Education (for libraries in Ivory Coast), $115.50 to a Saratoga County Sheriff's Department child safety initiative in collaboration with the National Child Safety Council, and $50 for the Ballston Spa High School after-prom party. 

Also discussed were an upcoming collection effort for the Malta Community Center food pantry; ...

... and the "Make Your Mark on Malta" project, in which we, along with the Malta League of Arts and funded by the Malta-GlobalFoundries Foundation, are planning to put up banners in town. For more information including how to participate, see poster below:

   In other business, Scholarship Chair Paul Phillips said his committee has chosen two winners of our scholarship awards, for $1,000 and $500. (Their names will not be released yet.)

Paul and his wife Jean also were honored this week as residents of the month by the Malta Town Board, for their work with AOET Uganda.

This Thursday's speaker will be Day Dream Farmer Aliza Pickering.

On Saturday morning April 12 we'll be doing our semiannual trash pickup on Dunning Street -- meeting at 8 am near Forest Cleaners.