Rotary Club of Port Jefferson (Jun 10, 2020)

News of the Meeting of February 16th

Posted by Yvette Hohler on Feb 16, 2021

Rob presided over today's hybrid meeting, which was attended by 11 members on Zoom, 3 in person at Cafe Spiga, along with 1 guest via Zoom, Julianne Mosher, the new Editor for TBRnewsmedia.

Nancy announced that Dean Jenkins, upon hearing about our efforts in Rotary's Million Mask Project, donated $100.

Bob H. announced that so far our club has raised $12,719.47 for The Open Cupboard. Bravo!

Rebecca has volunteered to join with Kim and Sal as they plan our upcoming Virtual Bingo fundraiser. Other volunteers are requested/invited.

Rob introduced our visiting speaker, Julianne Mosher. Julianne is the new Editor for the TimesBeaconRecord news organization. She had been a freelancer for 10 years with "Newsday" and similar regional newspapers as well as having authored articles for some city magazines. Julianne also worked in TV for 5 years. Kyle Barr, a school journalism classmate who was TBR's most recent editor, alerted Julianne that he was leaving his position for another, and suggested that she apply for the job. Deciding to change paths, she did apply and was hired. Julianne assured us that she is "big into community news" ("Newsday doesn't cover everything") and wants to share information with our neighbors- especially good news, but as she is new to this area- she just moved to Port Jeff -she would welcome our input on any matter needing publicizing. Rob explained to Julianne that in this time of Covid, it is especially difficult for us to raise funds to help fellow-organizations locally, nationally, and internationally. We definitely need the local newspaper's help in publicizing who we are and what we do. Rob encourages our members to reach out to Julianne to highlight their own organizations and spread the word of their various efforts, as well. Al K. informed Julianne (and reminded us) that her newspaper's first editor was a Port Jeff Rotarian!

Deb was today's great Sergeant. Her questions to our members were in the "Name that Rotarian..." category (ie., Which of us was a professional singer?, Which member is a vegetarian?, etc.) Deb was successful at stumping a few of us and equally successful at collecting Happy Dollars. Yay, Deb!

Mike S. is eagerly awaiting the birth of his son in 3 weeks- and might still be able to get in some skiing in the meantime.

Welcome home, Judi! (Judi is back after some needed rehab following illness.)

NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS:

OUR NEXT MEETING: Tues., February 23rd at Cafe Spiga and via Zoom, will feature guest speaker Nancy Hoefler, RN, Nursing Director for the soon-to-be Mather Hospital Northwell Health Cardiac Catheterization Lab.

All members are welcome to attend the next Exec. Board Meeting via Zoom on Friday, February 19th, at 8:00 AM. (Please let Rob know you will be attending so that he can send you the Zoom invitation.)

You are invited to become a member of the Port Jeff Village Community Garden Committee, which has already begun meeting and is in its planning stages for the village's 1st such project to be achieved on village parkland in upper Port. The garden is expected to elevate the sense of place for residents and visitors, and will undoubtedly be supported by the local business community. The garden will provide a space for residents to grow their own local produce. The Community Garden Committee, which already includes some of our club members- Sal and Rebecca- is seeking other members with experience related to gardening, who have an interest in community outreach, nutrition, and food security, who can attend 2-3 online meetings per month (approx. 1 hour each) and occasional on-site meetings, who can perform independent tasks/research/outreach between meetings (approx. 2 hours per week), and who are able to commit at least 1 year on the committee. Interested? Contact trustee-kassay@portjeff.com.

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 Rob 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 Rob's invitation to our next meeting and plan to join us!***

MEANWHILE, STAY SAFE AND WELL!