Brigitte Griswold, Groundwork’s Executive Director, expressed her gratitude for the recognition and support,Bronxville Rotary Covid Task Force
As part of the effort to support the community with effective emergency response, the Bronxville Rotary Club COVID Task force and the ROTARACT Club of Manhattan NYC completed distribution of a quantity of PPE FACESHIELDS to the Paramedics of the Eastchester Volunteer Ambulance Corps. 11/18/2020.
Bronxville Rotary Supports PPE
Face Shield Distribution
Bronxville Rotary is providing supplies to Rotaract Club of Manhattan, helping them build and deliver 1200 PPE face shields to front line workers. The Rotaract Club says "We have learned the importance of our frontline workers and the risks they take daily to save lives. As people of action, we have decided to do our part to help them make a difference."
"Rotaract" stands for "Rotary in Action." Through Rotaract clubs, young people ages 18 and older develop leadership and professional skills, exchange ideas with community leaders, and have fun through service. The Rotary motto is “Service Above Self.”
You can see Rotaract in action at the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/RotaManNYC/?ref=page_internal
"Rotaract" stands for "Rotary in Action." Through Rotaract clubs, young people ages 18 and older develop leadership and professional skills, exchange ideas with community leaders, and have fun through service. The Rotary motto is “Service Above Self.”
You can see Rotaract in action at the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/RotaManNYC/?ref=page_internal
Gift Cards Support Bronxville Downtown Employees
On Friday, July 17, 2020, Bronxville Rotary Club board member David McBride delivered 25 gift cards to the Bronxville Police department and Mayor Mary Marvin and the Village of Bronxville staff as a thank you for their service during the Coronavirus pandemic.
The gift cards were purchased by the Bronxville Rotary club from local business. The funds came from Rotary Club members as a way to help frontline workers during this pandemic. They were presented to our front line employees from Lange’s deli, Pete’s Tavern, Park Place Bagels, Bronxville Diner, Opa Opa, Blue Moon and Il Baccio.
Thank you to all who participated. Mayor Marvin and Chief Satriale were delighted to receive these cards and the staff were thrilled to have them.
Thank you to all who participated. Mayor Marvin and Chief Satriale were delighted to receive these cards and the staff were thrilled to have them.
Bronxville Rotary Club in Action
Pursuant to it’s motto “Service above Self”, the Rotary Club of Bronxville (RCB) continues its efforts to assist individuals, businesses, and front liners during the COVID19 crisis.
We are immensely grateful for the generosity of the Rotary Club Foundation, our Rotary Club members and so many generous members of this community in helping to build up this Emergency Fund. Through this generosity, and on behalf of all it’s donors, your Bronxville Rotary Emergency Fund Task Force has been able to make a meaningful difference.
We reached out to local business owners, and are currently supporting 14 furloughed village employees in need with biweekly stipends of $320 each to keep food on the table until government support arrives, or until reemployment. We expect this need to continue as we learn of additional needs, and as many of those we support do not qualify for government assistance.
Coordinating with Mayor Marvin, we delivered eighteen $100 gift restaurant gift cards to our DPW unsung front liners who are out there week in and week out keeping our village cleaned up. This special thank you had the duel benefit of also helping our restauranteurs (selected by the DPW workers) as they struggle to keep operating.
Similarly, our Task Force delivered restaur
ant gift cards to 50 Postal Service front liners who show up daily to keep the village mail moving.
Similarly, our Task Force delivered restaur
ant gift cards to 50 Postal Service front liners who show up daily to keep the village mail moving.Separately, Bronxville Rotary granted $5k to a sister club in Harlem to aid their efforts to feed their local residents impacted by COVID.
Our Foundation also responded to a separate request with a $5k grant to Groundwork Hudson Valley to help keep this amazing program afloat.
We will continue our support efforts as long as funds allow. If you would like to donate to the cause select the Donate button below. If you would like to attend a Bronxville Rotary Club Luncheon meeting via Zoom, or would like to learn more of our community service efforts, please contact me at richardpink@verizon.net.
Stay safe, and all the best.
Richard Pink, President
Rotary Club of Bronxville
Richard Pink, President
Rotary Club of Bronxville
Rotary Hosts DPW
The Rotary Club of Bronxville was happy to honor the 18 members of the Village DPW last Friday. Rotary presented these tireless workers with gift cards to local restaurants of their choice.....a win win. In the words of Mayor Mary Marvin, "your gift resonated at a level that is almost impossible to articulate. It was a level of kindness and connection that these gentlemen rarely know, really appreciated, and which truly touched them. They are out there every day picking up everything... including used gloves and mask, and as you might imagine most residents are cleaning basements and attics so they are working double duty. Your kindness is truly contagious."
Bronxville Rotary Club continues its ongoing efforts, through its Emergency Fund, to help furloughed employees in need as they await government assistance.
Covid-19 Bronxville Employees Emergency Fund
The Bronxville Rotary Club Foundation is raising funds to be used for the purpose of meeting COVID-19 related needs in Bronxville and surrounding communities including for such needs of businesses and their employees in those communities.”
Our Foundation is immediately contributing $5,000 and we have asked all of our 45 members to contribute at least an amount equal to the weekly Club luncheon meeting fees over the next 8 weeks while we hold only virtual meetings. We have established an Emergency Food Fund task force to oversee distributions, and are in contact with The Village and The Community Fund to determine how we can partner to meet these immediate needs.
If you would like to join this effort, hit the donate button on this site and specify Emergency Food Fund with your donation. Any amount will make a difference.
If you would like to join this effort, hit the donate button on this site and specify Emergency Food Fund with your donation. Any amount will make a difference.
Dear Friends of Rotary,
Pursuant to Government Policy, and with an abundance of caution and concern, The Rotary Club of Bronxville is postponing its Annual Benefit scheduled for April 24th, 2020. Albeit optimistic, under these fluid circumstances no future date is scheduled at the moment. We thank you for your continued support, and wish you and your families GOOD HEALTH.
Sincerely,
Richard Pink,
President, Bronxville Rotary Club
March 17, 2020
Richard Pink,
President, Bronxville Rotary Club
March 17, 2020
Daanyal Agboatwalla Speaks on Islam
Rotary welcomed Daanyal Agboatwalla who gave an extremely effective presentation on 
Islam. Daanyal is a Bronxville resident and a junior at the Horace Mann School in the Bronx. His mission is to build bridges and promote peace in this world by eliminating hate and distrust.
Islam. Daanyal is a Bronxville resident and a junior at the Horace Mann School in the Bronx. His mission is to build bridges and promote peace in this world by eliminating hate and distrust. Daanyal has been scheduling presentations on the true message of Islam at various churches, synagogues and educational institutions in the Westchester area. He is trying to clarify the many misconceptions plaguing Islam and also celebrating the values and beliefs that are also shared with Judaism and Christianity.
Chapel School Choir Sings Christmas Carols
The Chapel School Choir led by Chapel School music teacher Mr. George Heath sang carols for Rotary including extraordinary renditions of "Silent Night" and "Christmas is Coming."
Students in grades 3-8 audition for the choir which performs for churches, nursing homes, and major events. They have even performed the national anthem at Shea Stadium before a Mets baseball game. "This is just extraordinary. "What an amazing musical resource for young people right here in Bronxville." said one Rotarian.
On Wednesday nights at 7:30 pm, look for the guy with the bright orange vest in front of Mt. Sinai West Hospital (10th Avenue & 58th Street). That's Billy. He's giving away suits. He gives them to the homeless so they can "look nice and get a job."Billy Preston has been doing this, or something like it for almost twenty years with the Midnight Run. If you donate suits or shoes or a neck ties in the bin behind the Reformed Church, it's likely that Billy and a group from Bronxville Rotary will fit them to one of his wards. Billy says, "Last week was a good week. We gave away twelve of our twenty suits." At our Monday lunch meeting Rotary members called Billy "a remarkable blend of compassion and toughness and an inspiration to us all."
What You Can Do
Billy says, "Give Shoes". We're desperate for shoes. The suit helps but it's nice if our guys aren't wearing sneakers." Starting in September (it's not open during summer) you can put suits, shoes and accessories in the bin in the little parking lot behind the Reformed Church.
Former Bronxville resident Tania Weiss makes an excellent case for Cancer Support Team. We discovered a wonderful photo of Tania and Alan on the web site which we can't resist reproducing here.Cancer Support Team is the only Westchester based nonprofit home care program, licensed by the New York State Department of Health, providing access to essential health care services, professional nursing, social work counseling, case management and other supportive services free of charge and without regard to insurance coverage to our patients at any stage of the illness.
What You Can Do
Give any time but the annual gala is May 9 at the Bronxville Field Club (the day before ours). If you can't stand two consecutive days of beneficial fun, then certainly consider contributing to this excellent cause. Online tickets available at https://cancersupportteam.org/events-page/registration/
A Call to Membership
At a recent meeting Cecily Smith reminds us that Rotary is becoming "21st century Inclusive," screening the short (3 min) youtube video "All That We Share." To join, contact any of our officers (listed in the left column). Check out the Rotary FOUR WAY TEST which asks:
- Is it the TRUTH?
- Is it FAIR to all concerned?
- Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
- Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
GiGi's Playhouse
Jennifer Cook (yes she grew up in Bronxville) changed our view of Down Syndrome. She is volunteer co-president of Gigi's Playhouse Westchester in Ardsley where exercise and educational programs improve lives for individuals with Down syndrome, their families and the community. Gigi's provides support, tutoring and exercise. Improvements in muscle tone and fine motor control can improve speech, and mobility. Training in literacy and math can maximize opportunities for daily achievement and lasting acceptance. 
What You Can Do
60% of Gigi Playhouse Westchester funding comes from their yearly Gala tickets, journal ads, sponsorships and an online auction. The gala is on March 23rd. Information is available on their web site: https://gigisplayhouse.org/westchester/gala/.
Groundwork Hudson Valley
Bridgette Griswold (Executive Director) gave a spirited presentation on the Groundwork Hudson Valley. The Yonkers-based organization works with community residents to restore the urban landscape, promoting long-term economic and environmental neighborhood renewal. Groundwork has uncovered polluted rivers, turned an abandoned train line into a new greenway, and transformed vacant lots into urban farms and playgrounds. Their Science Barge is an important educational resource on the Hudson River.
The National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service consider Groundwork’s youth programs among the best in the nation. Groundwork Hudson Valley won the 2017 Outstanding Careers & Technical Education Partner of the Year Award from Yonkers Public Schools and the National Park Service 2016 Centennial Volunteer Challenge Award among others.
What You Can Do
Join their impressive list of major funders. Contact Sara Brody, Director of Development at sarab@groundworkhv.org. Or join the Green Team (photo below).
Bronxville Rotary Club and RI International grant helps fund COMACO, a joint project with the WCS, to convert illegal wildlife poaching to legitimate businesses, harvesting honey and other products and bringing it to market. Thousands of lioves, changed by thousands of hives! Wonderful work by PP Doris and PDG Bob Benson of Bronxville New York Club, District 7230.
Our 2017-18 co-recipient of funding for ongoing Literacy and Education support is Destination College.
Please take a moment to view the attached video, you will recognize some very familiar faces of our Bronxville neighbors, mentoring and volunteering to assist local, neighboring student-athletes in their quest for college acceptance.
![Sup.t Edwin Quezada, Yonkers Public Schools with [l] Judith Schwartzstein, Bronxville Rotary Committee Chair and Alix Schnee, Pres Yonkers/East Yonkers Rotary](https://clubrunner.blob.core.windows.net/00000003651/Images/YPS_Rotary_JS-and-Alix-Schnee--Yonkers-Rotary-Pres-and-Superintendent-Quezada.jpg)
This Society teaches women, who then teach five others within their village. This spreads valued education basics at a much faster rate with little or no costs, among the people suffering from the harshest levels of poverty and lack of formal education.
As in years past, your Club Foundation has included among its grants a small award to sponsor the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr breakfast on the anniversary of his birth. You may know, this holiday is dedicated as a Day of Service, which dove-tails neatly with our Rotary objects of service.
This year, County Executive George Latimer [Rotarian from Rye NY club] delivered the keynote address to those gathered at the breakfast, held at the Bronxville Reformed Church. Among our members who attended, a consensus that this speech was both heartfelt and moving, deserved to be sent to all of us. Here then, is the transcript of this address given on Monday, January 15, 2018 by George Latimer:
Keynote Address
George Latimer, Westchester County Executive
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Day Event
January, 2018
There is a song that was popular over 25 years ago – perhaps you remember it – a soulful song by a man named Marc Cohn; the song is called “Walking in Memphis”. It sets a scene of Memphis that the tourist board would love – the lyrics tell of the singer walking with his “feet on Beale Street, the home of the Delta Blues”. He sings of Rev. Green – Al Green of 1970’s music fame. There was catfish on the table, gospel in the air; the singer saw the ghost of Elvis up on Union Avenue – followed him up to the gates of Graceland, and saw him walk through. WC Handy. Blue suede shoes. The wide Mississippi.
Several summers ago, I had the opportunity to be in Memphis. Yes, I walked on Beale Street, and, I confess, I went to Graceland. I saw the Peabody ducks march across the lobby of that grand hotel; and I saw the massive presence of Fed Ex headquarters at the Memphis airport.
And I visited something not mentioned in the song.
I visited The Lorraine Motel.
If you’ve been there, you know that on that site has been built the National Civil Rights Museum, and it includes the motel as it looked on that fateful night in April 1968, when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with Rev. Ralph Abernathy, stayed during the Memphis Sanitationmen’s strike. Dr. King stepped out on the balcony of The Lorraine, and he stepped into history.
Dr. King had preached from a pulpit in Atlanta. He had accepted a Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. He marched from the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. He wrote a letter from the Birmingham Jail. He stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and looked out on the rows and rows of people on the Washington Mall and shared that he “had a dream”.
All of those stops along the road, in 39 short years, lead to Memphis, and the balcony of The Lorraine.
Walking through the Civil Rights Museum, the path takes you through all the dramatic moments of the Civil Rights movement 50 years past: Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott. The Little Rock Nine at Central High School. The lunch counter sit-in, Greensboro, North Carolina. Bull Connor’s dogs and fire hoses. Room after room after room – the stark reminders of how hard it was for human beings to receive the simple dignity and human rights every person deserves. Dignity granted by Almighty God, but denied by prejudice and hatred; years of slavery followed by years of Jim Crow. Protected by “law” in the Supreme Court, by Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896) – “separate but equal”.
Lynchings and degradations done with the sanction of sheriffs and lawyers. Some churches – houses of God – that turned a blind eye, and at times, gave justification, to heinous acts of hatred.
This too, was walking in Memphis.
On that night in April in 1968, I was a 14 year old boy, living on the south side of Mount Vernon – the only white kid in an African American neighborhood. We had tired ourselves playing stickball earlier that day, and I was in my parents’ home on South 14th Avenue, consuming mass quantities of spaghetti, as hungry 14 year old boys do. The breaking news came on the living room TV, followed by my father’s calls to watch the unfolding story. I “understood” that my black friends would be angry over the assassination of Dr. King. I “understood” it would be dangerous for me to go back outside that night.
I “understood” nothing, really, on that day. The 14 year old George Latimer could not comprehend the magnitude of the pain and suffering; the magnitude of hope Dr. King generated; the magnitude of loss being felt from Memphis to Montgomery to Mount Vernon that night.
What the 14 year old George Latimer could not grasp that night, the 64 year old George Latimer can finally see clearly – seeing all the pieces put together during that walk in Memphis, leading up to the balcony of The Lorraine Motel.
When those Freedom Riders boarded the buses, they did so to free blacks from Jim Crow. What they were also doing was to free White America from its shackles of prejudice.
When those lunch counter protestors sat-in in Greensboro, N.C., they sat-in to assert the dignity of the black man; but in doing so they also were asserting the dignity of all men and women, for all mankind’s dignity, not just African American dignity. The dignity of Italian Americans, demeaned as wops and dagos and considered all members of crime organizations. The dignity of Irish Americans demeaned as Micks, with signs that said “Nina” – no Irish need apply. They were asserting the dignity of those who are Jewish, those who are Native American, those who are Asian, those who are Hispanic, those who are Catholics and those who are Buddhists, and those who are Muslims and those who fall within any number of demographic descriptions.
The march from Selma to Montgomery asserted the right of black men and women to vote – to select their leaders – to govern themselves, but by doing so, they asserted that right for all men and women.
I heard, in the days after Dr. King’s assassination, a voice on the radio of the man who was our then-U.S. Senator from New York; he said “no one can be certain who next will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed.” In the next 60 days, we found out who did in fact suffer next; that voice belonged to Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. And yet, the violence of those days did not deter the dream.
We are here tonight remembering the life of Dr. King, not his death. But he was not just a dreamer – he was a doer. The bravery he showed, in the face of constant physical threats, is a model for all of us; to show bravery in standing up for beliefs and principles, even if they are unpopular. Especially if they are unpopular.
Dr. King preached non-violence, but he did not preach passivity and timidity. He dreamt that there would be a better day for all of us, but he worked every day of his life to achieve that better day, knowing that good works and faith go hand in hand.
For those of us in the Christian faith, as joyous as Christmas time is – the birth of Christ – the greater celebration is the rising of Christ after his crucifixion, his triumph over death that we celebrate at Easter.
The ideas and the dreams of Dr. King have triumphed over his death. They have triumphed over those who set fire to the Freedom Rider buses; they have triumphed over those who taunted the Little Rock Nine, and triumphed over those who stood in the school house door at Ole Miss and Alabama. The ideas have triumphed over Bull Connor’s dogs, and over those who placed the firebomb in the church on Sixteenth Street that killed little girls in 1963.
Rosa Parks now has her seat -- in heaven. And we here on Earth must continue forward to complete the unfinished business of Dr. King’s legacy.
As the song concludes:
Put on my blue suede shoes, and I boarded the plane.
Touched down in the land of the delta blues / in the middle of the pouring rain.
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