At Your Service(formerly RadioRotary)

It is the custom each year for a Rotary District to elect a new governor, and on RadioRotary it is the custom to interview the incoming governor. For the Rotary year 2020-21, which began on July 1, the new District Governor (DG) of District 7210 is Tony Marmo from the Highland (NY) Rotary Club. Mr. Marmo is the 74th District Governor and has been deeply involved with his club and the District for...

RadioRotary interviews (via Zoom) Joe Ryan, the Coordinator for the Medical Reserve Corp of Dutchess County, an organization of 1,004 volunteers currently who provide disaster relief, emergency-medical training, and related services throughout Dutchess County. The Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) is a nationwide organization designed to prepare for and help hand disaster relief, started after the Septe...

Rob Raylman, CEO of Gift of Life International and 2020-21 president of the Manhasset Rotary Club, visits RadioRotary on Zoom to discuss the latest projects of the humanitarian organization that he heads. The purpose of Gift of Life International is to treat children with heart disease and where necessary to provide nutritional assistance to recovering children. Originally children were brought to...

Andrew O’Grady, Executive Director of Mental Health American Dutchess County (MHA) and the Mid-Hudson Recovery Centers, Inc. (MARC) returns to the RadioRotary microphones to talk about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected mental health, a veterans’ program, homelessness, and addiction. As MHA and MARC move toward a complete merger in 2021, the 200 full-time employees and 70 part-timers are deeme...

Millbrook Rotarian Brian Fried, Assistant Superintendent for Business, Finance, and Operations at the Millbrook Central School District, visits RadioRotary to describe how the District is handling the dislocation of normal practices caused by the steps required by New York State to slow the spread of COVID-19. Schools in Dutchess County were all required to stop holding live classes in mid-March,...

Rotarian Jason Gonzales, president of the E-Club of Wall Street, visits RadioRotary via Zoom to tell how the former Wall Street Rotary became an online E-club and still continues to do good in the world. When the Rotary Club of Wall Street recognized in 2018 that it was barely hanging in with only 10 active members, the members decided to reconstitute as an online E-club, which today is up to 32 m...

Millbrook Rotarian Cindie Kish, the current 2710 District Governor, visits RadioRotary via Zoom, to tell how the 55 Mid-Hudson Rotary Clubs are helping their communities and the world get through the pandemic. Unlike many businesses and other organizations, Rotary in the Mid-Hudson has not gone dark. Clubs have found innovative ways to meet and also members are able to join weekly District meeting...

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The Anderson Center for Autism returns as a topic for RadioRotary, this time with Chief Development Officer to describe the history and scope of the Center’s activities.  autism spectrum. The Anderson Center started as a school Autism is a complex syndrome that required a medical diagnosis to identify. The spectrum ranges from persons with slight problems functioning in society through to tho...

Erich Steffensen, Special Programs Manager at the Animal Farm Foundation in Amenia, NY, is the guest for this RadioRotary Program. The Animal Farm Foundation, although it does run an actual farm with rescue farm animals, is primary concerned with dogs—especially dogs that have been called “pit bulls” because of square-shaped heads and bulky bodies, although these are generally of no recognized bre...

RadioRotary Co-Host Jonah Triebwasser interviews Rabbi Jonathan Kligler of the Woodstock Jewish Congregation in this unusual and extremely interesting program based largely on Rabbi Kligler’s book Turn It and Turn It for Everything is In It. The book’s title comes from an ancient Rabbi’s saying about the Torah scroll that is a part of every Jewish temple and used in various services. The Torah’s t...

Millbrook Rotarian Jim Lubin and his wife Diane visit RadioRotary to tell how they came to be Peacekeepers for the United Nations and involved in two of the more significant conflicts at the end of the 20th Century. Jim Lubin grew up in England during World War II and as a boy observed the American Air Force heading for the D-Day invasion of Europe. As a young man be made a career of proofreading,...

Warwick Valley, NY, has a very strong Rotary Club; like other Rotaries in District 7210 (the Mid-Hudson), it has found a creative way to raise money for good causes, locally or internationally. In this show, two Warwick Rotarians—retired Lt. Col. Edward Lynch and Dr. David Dempster—describe “Bowling for a Cause,” a fun fundraiser that they produce along with the Warwick Valley High School Interact...

RadioRotary interviews Literacy Connections Coordinator for Southern and Rural Dutchess County Marian Thompson and Book Bodies Coordinator Katherine Stikkers about the annual Spelling Bee. For 29 years the organization has raised money from sponsors of two-person teams who compete for the glory of best spellers. The money is used to help Literacy Connections in its principal effort, which is to te...

Poughkeepsie South Rotary Club president Cristina Boryk and vice-president Mike Mullaney join the cohosts at RadioRotary to tell mostly about the Hudson Valley Auto Show, now it its 10thyear, and also about another event sponsored by their club in conjunction with Wappingers Rotary, A Cup of the Valley, a coffee and tea show now in its third year. The Auto Show is much like the new-model auto show...

Rotarians Marjorie Keith and Jessica Vanacoro of the Carmel (NY) Rotary Club visit RadioRotary to describe and promote the way their club has found to induce the community to donate to the many worthy local nonprofit organizations. Instead of having a fundraiser for donations to the club and then distributing the money as requests for help come in, the Carmel Club along with the Carmel High School...

Victor Guirma and Pascal Guirma along with Bob Rich visited RadioRotary from their home Rotary Club, New Paltz. All three are part of Friends of Guirgho, a 501(c)3 nonprofit that is trying to improve the school and other facilities in the village of Guirgho, Burkina Faso, the ancestral home of the Guirma brothers. Burkino Faso (formerly known as Upper Volta) is a landlocked nation in West Africa w...

RadioRotary interviews Branka Bryan, Executive Director of Grace Smith House, a shelter for persons confronted with domestic violence in Dutchess Country, about 10% of whom are men. Domestic violence includes psychological as well as physical abuse of a person in an intimate partner relationship. The abused and the abuser can each be any age, ranging from children in middle school to persons over...

Back in 1980, Dutchess County Executive Lucille Pattison recognized that there was a homeless crisis in the county and appointed a Task Force to address the problem, which resulted in the formation of Hudson River Housing and the first emergency shelter for the homeless. This vital service has been at the heart of the program as Hudson River Housing expanded over the years to include transitional...

Jessica Davis is interviewed about her experience of taking a “gap year” after graduating from SUNY New Paltz. She is living with other young persons who are working to help others in a program called “Grace Year.” Grace Year allows recent college graduates to spend a year of intentional living from a base in Grace Episcopal Church in Millbrook, NY, focusing on spirituality, religion, and justice...

RadioRotary interviews Poughkeepsie South Rotary president Christina Boryk, executive director of Rebuilding Together Dutchess County. Rebuilding Together is the nonprofit organization (once known as “Christmas in July”) that for the past 27 years has repaired, revitalized, and rehabilitated homes for homeowners who because of age or disability or poverty are unable to make the necessary repairs t...

New Paltz Rotarian Laura Rooney has had many adventures all over the world, but she still had Mount Everest on her “bucket list” until recently when she turned 50 and thought it was time to get on with it. Not quite true mountain climbers, some 40,000 persons each year hike far up Everest with no desire to use the special equipment most climbers need to reach the 27,000-ft-high peak—Everest Base C...

Navy Veteran Nelson Eddy Rivera , now Director of the Dutchess County Division of Veterans Services, is interviewed about the many ways both man and women veterans in Dutchess Country (or other New York State Counties) can get help. Every country in the state has been mandated since 1946 to have veterans’ services available. These include help in filing disability claims or obtaining educational b...

Pastor Steve Dambra visits RadioRotary to tell about the Odyssey Church, which serves the developmentally disabled community of Dutchess County (and others who choose to attend). Located at the ARC Vocational Center in Poughkeepsie, Odyssey provides the all the services you expect from a Christian Church—a Sunday service at 10:00 a.m. that is filled with hymns and prayers, Bible study, even baptis...

RadioRotary often discovers remarkable people living in the mid-Hudson region who are not well known to the general population. Cari Swanson of Wind Rock Farm in Amenia is an example. When asked if she is a horse whisperer, she replies that she is a horse listener . Whatever you call it, she is able to train horses to act in movies and on television as well as teaching rescued horses how to live w...