President Mike B. was joined today at Cafe Spiga by 14 other club members plus a guest -Jenn's husband, Will- and a virtual speaker, Anahita Dalmia (www.altereainc.com). Today was an OPEN CUPBOARD COLLECTION DAY. Thank you, generous donors, and especially to Dennis, who kindly collected the donations and delivered them to their destination.
Our President began today's meeting with a number of announcements:
Mark Snyder, who was to be (re-)inducted as a member of our club today, called in sick. The ceremonial welcome will be rescheduled for an upcoming meeting.
At next week's meeting (9/20), we will be honoring the memory of Bill Jaeger at Cafe Spiga. A plaque in Bill's memory has been ordered. It will be presented to Lee Silberman, CEO of Habitat Long Island, who will be our guest speaker. Bill's wife and daughter will attend the meeting; and Al will share a few remembrances about Bill. Rob has offered to contact TBR Media and invite them to send a reporter to cover this special meeting.
Our members have been invited to attend the special anniversary celebration at Pax Christi on Thursday from noon 'til 2 PM.
Kevin Mann, President of the Rocky Point Rotary Club, has invited our club to participate in a joint meeting in the near future as well as in future joint activities. President Mike will contact Kevin to set up a luncheon date. Cindy suggested that we invite the Rocky Point Rotarians to join us as we make use of our District Grant (and perhaps make donations, also) in the maintenance of the Chandler Estate.
Jenn's message: Tickets! Tickets! Tickets! She reminds us to sell all 25 of ours and then to feel free to come back for more. Sell! Sell! Sell! You can hand in your ticket stubs and $ to her at any time. The final date for ticket stub and money collection will be September 23rd. ALL OF OUR MEMBERS ARE EXPECTED TO SELL THEIR RAFFLE TICKETS. Please let your friends and family know that they can also purchase our raffle tickets on line via our club website. There will be a prize for the Rotarian who sells the most tickets. The Drawing will take place on September 29th.
Sharon updated us on the Past President's Dinner (honoring Rob Dooley) at Savino's on September 29th, when festivities will begin at 5 PM with a cocktail hour. She and Deb have been working hard on the event details. So far we have 38 people signed up to attend, including member spouses/guests. She has been phoning the non-respondents to our Dinner Invitation. ( Please RSVP to Sharon if you haven't yet done so. ) We have contracted to pay for 43 dinner guests. Remember: dues-paying members are entitled to attend with a guest for free, while Corporate Members will have to choose a member to represent them. Others pay $60 to attend this event. All guests are welcome. Our ANNUAL RAFFLE DRAWING will take place at this dinner!
Cindy asked us to keep Judi in our thoughts and prayers.
Cindy also reminded us of several upcoming Village events: Saturday,October 15th is the date of the Historical Society's Annual Antiques Auction, held on the grounds of the J.T. Mather House (Prospect St.-off East Main) from 8 AM to 2 PM. In addition to the always-interesting auction, food of all sorts will be sold from breakfast through lunchtime.
Also on October 15th: It's Dump the Junk Day at the P.J. Library from 11AM-noon. This event will be repeated on November 12th.
This Sunday,9/17: The Annual Dragon Boat Races, from 8 AM to 5 PM at Harborfront Park. In addition to the racing competition, there will be many exhibitions and performances reflecting a variety of aspects of the Chinese culture, including dance, songs, martial arts, and food. This is a great family-oriented event!
The Rotary Club of Rocky Point invites you all to consider participating in Hope Children'sFund's18th Annual KENYA/USA Bi-Continental 5K Run/Walk that will take place on Sunday, October 16th. This event, now named The Larry Hohler Memorial, will be an occasion to compete against Kenyans who will be running/walking simultaneously on the other side of the world in Meru, Kenya. Here, it will begin at 10 AM at the Port Jeff Station end of the Port Jefferson Station-Setauket Greenway Trail. (Enter the parking lot at the Hallock Ave. traffic light- between Enterprise Car Rental and the 7-11 on Rte.112.) Registration for the competition will begin between 9:00- 9:30 AM at the western end of the parking lot and the trail's beginning. There is a suggested donation of $30.* Runners/walkers who can secure more than $100 in pledges can participate for free.
All finishers will receive medals. *All proceeds go to support the Jerusha Mwiraria Hope Children's Home in Meru, an orphanage co-founded by Larry Hohler. ***For those who cannot participate on 10/16, there will be a VIRTUAL RUN/WALK any time up to October 23, 2022. For more information or to receive pledge sheets, contact Kevin Mann at kevinmannmail@gmail.com, Ed Hyshiver at edhysh@optonline.net, or Yvette Hohler at hohlerlj@aol.com . ***To learn about Hope Childrens Fund, go to hopechildrensfund.or
Are you ready to participate in Mather's Paint Port Pink Campaign and breast cancer awareness fundraising projects?
Today's Super Sergeant, Jenn, asked questions primarily about The Chandler Estate. Did you know that the property was a girls' camp in the 1920's? Can you name at least 2 famous people who lived in the vacation cottages that replaced the camp? (Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller). After the period of the land being home to a vacation resort, an "apartment complex" replaced it, which one of our honorary members who lived there for a while referred to as a commune. According to a colorful article that Jenn read, it seemed to draw a variety of society's "marginal" inhabitants. The buildings were described as firetraps, so it was not surprising that the complex eventually burned and was demolished. The 40 + acres that make up the estate today are still remembered by some in the neighborhood as being "bewitched", and some residents remember references to "Satin's Trail" on the property, where cult activities are said to have taken/take place.
Happy dollars were collected in celebration of the imminence of Autumn, end-of-summer travels with family, and the like. We wished a Happy 20th Birthday to Scott Engelhardt, celebrated a Giants win, are looking forward to upcoming weekend events, and heard about Cindy's reunion with a friend who she had not seen in 27 years.
Mike held up a laptop screen so that we could welcome and hear from our visiting speaker, Anahita Dalmia, who works for Altrea. She spoke to us about Fighting Misinformation With Gaming and the Agents of Influence (AOI) Project. She began by asking about a favorite Rotary project, Polio Plus. Is Polio gone? Is it the truth? During the height of the COVID pandemic, newsfeeds were bombarded by all kinds of misinformation or "fake news". The Rotary Club of Newport Beach, CA has chosen to support a project that fits with our times: Fight Truth Decay. Anahita then spoke of the AOI video game created to fight misinformation usually found on internet social sites. The video, planned for use in Middle School classrooms, is intended to empower youth to find the truth and uncover inaccurate information. AOI is a spy-themed educational game. In this game, "students learn about topics including data collection and tracking, algorithms, echo chambers, imposter content, logical fallacies and data fallacies, while practicing 3 critical thinking skills: research, document analysis, and conversations." The video begins by telling the watcher that he/she is a new student at Virginia Hall High School, which was built on the headquarters of the Omni-directional Organization for Propaganda Surveillance (O.O.P.S.), a defunct Cold War-era spy agency. Things at the school are not as they seem. Students have been disappearing; and there is strange activity in the old OOPS tunnels underground. A shadowy organization called Harbinger seems to be behind it all and is using misinformation to manipulate the student body. "You (the student playing the game) will join forces with Taylor Jones, a brilliant outcast senior, to create the Agents of Influence, a spy group dedicated to stopping Harbinger's schemes and saving the school..." The 3 key learning objectives of this video game are: to question the trustworthiness of information received; to determine the trustworthiness of the information; and to use the knowledge gathered to inform decisions and build better information consumption habits. There are 4 core games: Conversation, Research, Analysis, and Final Duel. Through playing the games, the player should learn, via research and critical thinking, how to separate fact from fiction- how to cross reference for accurate or misleading statements. This video game is a 2 1/2 hour module that can be broken down into 30 minute individually-played segments. (The "Agents of Influence" comes from a cold war spy term describing spies sent to foreign countries to subtly influence foreign policy.) The video is thought to teach students to design solutions for real world problems. The goal of Rotarians spreading the word about "Agents of Influence" is to have the game eventually played by youth throughout the world. The video game introduces Rotary International principles to the world. Is it the truth?
Cindy picked the blue raffle ticket that won her the chance to pick a card from the deck and hope for the Ace of Spades to win the pot. She picked the 4 of diamonds; so the pot continues to grow. Next week, will you win it? Ya gotta be in it to win it!
NEXT WEEK, Tuesday, 9/20, we will meet at Cafe Spiga at 12:15 PM to honor the memory of Bill Jaeger and to welcome guest speaker Lee Silberman, CEO of Habitat for Humanity of LI.
HERE'S TO A HAPPY, HEALTHY WEEK!
CHEERS!
Remember: If a member would like to send out an email to the membership, use the following email address: pjrotaryclubmembers@googlegroups.com.
Bob Huttemeyer is still seeking volunteers willing to host an evening meeting (5:30 PM-7 PM) at a member's home or place of business. Contact Bob if you'd like to host an upcoming Rotary evening social gathering.
Rebecca invites us to get acquainted with HOMETOWNHOPEPORTJEFFERSON.ORG. Hometown Hope provides resources and support in times of need to all residents of the Village by promoting a movement of spreading kindness. It "strives to uplift through wellness, resilience, and compassionate understanding in our community." Among the services/goods it will provide: meal boxes; home deliveries; and the like for those suffering illness, loss, etc., as well as help for healthcare practitioners during the pandemic. You can also sponsor a family.
Want to volunteer? Contact hometownhopepj@gmail.com .
***If you have ideas or items to be discussed at our next meeting, let Michael B. know. And if you'd like to join one of the club's special committees, let him know this, as well. The more, the merrier!***
*** Watch for Michael B's invitation to our next meeting and plan to join us!***
***The following is a list of donation requests from The Open Cupboard :***:
juice boxes-
shampoo-
conditioner-
deodorant-
toothbrushes-
baby wipes-
healthy snacks-
boxed milk-
peanut butter-
jelly-
pancake mix-
syrup-
coffee-
healthy snacks-
diapers sizes 3 and 6-
***Whatever you can spare will be helpful!***
***Kindly select the item that you wish to contribute and bring it to the Collection Day Meeting. Once a new list of donors and their matching donations is completed, it will be noted above.
***Bring contributions to Cafe Spiga on the 2nd Tuesday of the month, or give to another Club member who will be attending.
*** If you would like to be reimbursed, bring receipt(s) to the meeting.
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