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Today, Rob hosted a regular meeting at Cafe Spiga, joined by 15 members and 2 guests, today's speaker, Deborah Blair, as well as former member/club President, now prospective corporate member representing 1st National Bank of LI, Jackie Brown. Among Rob's announcements: Reminder: Our Golf Classic (Putt & Pub Crawl) will take place in the Village on Saturday, April 9, 2022. All members are expected to contribute by getting a foursome to join up or by having a business or individual sponsor our event AND by obtaining gift baskets (from businesses or associates) or items for our Gift Basket Raffles (of $100 value). Donations must be dropped off by March 31st at a weekly meeting or at the home of Dawn & Rob Marder (12 Woodstork Dr., Mt. Sinai). The baskets will be assembled at a General Membership meeting, similar to our Holiday Gift Wrapping Event. A listing of General Membership Meeting Roles and Responsibilities has been sent out to all members. If you have questions/comments, contact Michael B. or Rob. The Membership Committee will meet tomorrow, Wednesday, March 2nd, at 5:15 PM at the office of Tara Scully on Main St., in Port Jeff. If you are interested in joining this committee, you are welcome to attend. Pat invites you to join a group from Maryhaven on Wednesday, March 30th, between 9AM and noon, to perform some cleanup at the Chandler Estate. We all send our Best Wishes for a speedy recovery to Judi, who is currently a patient at Mather. Our speaker, Deborah Blair, President of Three Village Meals on Wheels, Inc., presented information about the organization she represents. A retired Three Village school Principal, Deborah joined this non-profit as a tribute to her late mother. Meals on Wheels, which began in 1983 by serving meals to 13 clients, now serves around 72 clients from Smithtown's borders to our section of northern Brookhaven. This is a home-delivered meal program for the homebound, handicapped, chronically ill, or convalescent persons in our community who have no family nearby and are unable to prepare their own food. In partnership with meal providers Mather Hospital, St. Charles Hospital, and the Setauket Gourmet Diner, Meals on Wheels delivers 2 healthy meals- one hot, for lunch, and the other cold, for dinner- for $7.50 per day (partially or fully subsidized) Monday through Friday, usually at around noon. With over 100 volunteers making sure that this service gets provided daily, over 90 drivers, working in pairs, pick up the meals and drop them off at the clients' homes within an hour, knowing which door to use for each drop off. While it is understood that social contact between the driver and recipient is of utmost importance, since the start of the pandemic, drivers may no longer actually enter the clients' homes. The drivers do make sure, however, that the clients pick up their deliveries and report back to the Meals on Wheels office if no one comes to the door to receive a delivery so that a follow-up can be done to further check on the client's well-being. At the Meals on Wheels office (216 Christian Ave., Stony Brook), there are 3 part time paid staff members, including an office manager and a bookkeeper. Referrals come from doctors, social service agencies, hospitals, neighbors, family members, or the clients themselves. Prior to entering the program, a nurse volunteer visits the home to collect pertinent information regarding the client's condition, evaluates needs, and learns the best way for deliverers to gain access to the home. Most drivers volunteer one day a week, provide their own transportation and fuel, and serve 8 clients in their area. There is currently a waiting list of potential clients. All volunteers are trained to perform their service. Deborah thanked our club for its financial backing and asked that we let people know about Meals on Wheels, what it is/does, and promote donations to this service. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, you can contact the organization online (www.3villagemealsonwheels.org) for information.  Our rather effective Sergeant today, Kim, chose as the theme for her questions the fact that today is National Peanut Butter Lovers Day. As she collected dollars from our members (and guests) with her questions, we learned, among other things, that peanut butter was invented for people with poor or no teeth in 1895 by Dr. John Harvey; that it takes 540 peanuts to fill a jar (peanut butter must be made up of at least 95% peanuts); and around 3,000 pbj sandwiches per person are consumed in a lifetime. Many more Happy Dollars were collected- mostly to welcome our guests- and we were reminded with a Sad Dollar to keep Ukraine in our hearts and prayers. |
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