At Your Service(formerly RadioRotary)

Sue Doyle of the Poughkeepsie Arlington Rotary Club was given the 2019 Tansukh Dorawala Humanitarian Award of Rotary District 7210 for her service to the community. This RadioRotary Program covers some of the ways that Ms. Doyle, known to regular RadioRotary listeners as the voice of Absolute Auction & Realty, works with other volunteers in several organizations. Fishkill Food Pantry serves ab...

Rotterdam Sunrise Rotarian Miriam Cajuste visits RadioRotary to build support for improving the availability of clean water in Matogou, Haiti, a Global Grant project of the Rotary Foundation. The effort is led by New York State's Schenectady Rotary paired with the Rotary Club of Port-au-Prince Champ-de-Mars om Haiti. For several years the Schenectady club has been supplying gravity-driven water fi...

In the United States today, some 30 million adults are functionally illiterate, reading below the sixth-grade level. RadioRotary interviews Sam Slotnick, the Literacy Center Coordinator at the State University of New York at New Paltz (SUNY New Paltz), who works with with a program that brings together teachers who are becoming specialists in reading with elementary or high-school students with re...

Pleasant Valley Recreation Director Sandy Coe and local businessman Frank Mazzella visit RadioRotary to tell about the full-day celebration that is the Pleasant Valley Festival of Lights. The event, which combines food and Santa, pets and Santa, a parade and Santa, and many other holiday traditions, started a few years ago with a simple lighting of the Town Christmas tree. Today it runs from a bre...

RadioRotary interviewers visited the 2019 Rotary International Convention in Hamburg, Germany, where they found many Rotarian groups and other Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) doing good in the world. This radio program, the fourth in a series, covers a few of these projects. Roots of Life deals with land that has been planted with land mines, which linger long after wars have passed, and rep...

Cara Mia Bacchiochi returns to RadioRotary to describe her continuing effort to help Poughkeepsie women who are homeless, most addicted to drugs or alcohol. At the corner of Main and South Clinton every Saturday morning and evening, sometimes in rain or snow, Bacchiochi and volunteers distribute food, clothing, and personal care items to homeless women,restoring dignity to homeless, addicted women...

RadioRotary welcomed two guests from Dutchess Outreach, the sprawling organization that provides healthy food, good advice, emergency relief, and even clothing needs for the needy in the County. Sarah Salem, the Director of Development for Dutchess Outreach, explains the many services and the goals of this catalyst for community revitalization, while Nyhisha Gibbs describes the Children’s Coat Clo...

Krista Jones returns to RadioRotary with the latest developments at Sparrow’s Nest, the charity that provides food to the families of persons who have cancer. Ms. Jones started the charity in 2009 when a good friend was dying of colon cancer, Ms. Jones recognized that cancer treatment, which can wear a person out, affects the whole family, and a night off from cooking would help renew spirits. Soo...

In 1954 when she was 6 months old, Louise Rourke contracted polio, also known as infantile paralysis. Initially she lost the power of moving either leg or her left arm, although her left side eventually recovered with medical help supplied in part by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (the March of Dimes). After several corrective surgeries, she was able to walk with the aid of a brac...

The 2019 Rotary International Convention in Hamburg, Germany, was covered by RadioRotary interviewers; this is the third report on some of what they found. A Rotarian from the Netherlands told RadioRotary about efforts of her organization to reduce human trafficking with education and empowerment of youth. Another NGO (non-governmental organization) called Medair works to provide quick relief and...

RadioRotary interviewers discovered some great projects at the 2019 Rotary International Convention in Hamburg, Germany. Rotarians and other humanitarian groups are doing good around the world, improving hearing and sight, providing light and shelter, and preventing polio and other communicable diseases. Rotarians for Hearing work in Nigeria, South Africa, and even the United States, concentrating...

RadioRotary interviews Highland Rotarian Tony Marmo and Anna Palazzo Brett about the annual Italian-American Festival on the Strand Walkway at the Roundout in Kingston, NY, also known as the Kingston Waterfront. Ulster Country, like much of the Hudson Valley, has a rich Italian heritage, much of it stemming from the skilled masons and quarry workers imported to build the mansions and dams througho...

RadioRotary interviews Pari Farood, Executive Director of Miles of Hope, an organization that provides aid and comfort to breast-cancer sufferers throughout the nine counties of the Hudson Valley. Miles of Hope was founded in 2004 by Dana Effron and Cathy Varunok who had already devoted themselves to raising money for the fight against breast cancer but recognized that there needed to be a more lo...

RadioRotary interviews Asheville (NC) South Rotarian Peter Marks, President and CEO of Seed Programs International (SPI), a global effort to improve food supplies by providing vegetable seeds and gardening advice especially to regions of the world where poverty is endemic. The nonprofit repurposes excess seeds provided by seed companies and other donors. Most vegetable seeds are tiny and many vari...

This week’s guests on RadioRotary were from the Pleasant Valley Lions Club—Fred De Wald and Pam Highbridge. Every year the Lions Club raises money and improves the Town’s health with its annual Bike-A-Thon, a chance for bikers of all ages to ride together on what has so far always been a beautiful fall day. In 2019, the Lions devoted the occasion to the “Ride to Rebuild” the Pleasant Valley Free L...

For the past 12 years, Crisp Architects has presented the FineHome Source Home Show in Millbrook, NY, every September, becoming bigger and better each year. This RadioRotary interview with Millbrook Rotarian Jimmy Crisp, live from a Rotary meeting, describes it all. The show features many artisans and manufacturers displaying every possible artifact for enhancing, improving, or creating an excelle...

Diana Bellissimo, owner of the Lilymoore Alpaca Farm, visits the RadioRotary studio (sadly without an alpaca) to describe the activities that the farm celebrates on National Alpaca Day and to tell the RadioRotary cohosts about the pleasures of raising 25 alpacas (and a llama) on a 40-acre farm in Pleasant Valley, New York. While alpacas are primarily known for their amazing wool, the sweet-tempere...

Once again RadioRotary interviewers haunted the halls of a Rotary International Convention, which in 2019 was in Hamburg, Germany. Our team found many fascinating stories about the projects of Rotarians and representatives of other organizations that are trying to do good in the world. These include fighting hunger in third-world nations; uncovering the roles Rotarians played during the Nazi reign...

RadioRotary co-hosts Sarah O’Connell–Claitor and Jonah Triebwasser interview Millbrook High School student Joe Richard about his year spent in Germany as part of the Rotary Youth Exchange Program. Participants are generally high-school students and are sponsored by a Rotary Club to spend a school year abroad in a country with a different language from their native tongue, living with local familie...

Highland Rotarians Steve Laubach and Tony Marmo tell about the glories of eating barbecue (and listening to music) at the fifteenth annual Ribfest, Ulster County Fairgrounds just outside New Paltz.  In addition to great food and music by local performers, the Ribfest has many activities for children and some special events. The $7 admission--$5 on Friday night with free parking always-- allow...

For 100 years, the villages of Red Hook and Tivoli, New York, have been served by their respective volunteer fire departments, so they are jointly celebrating the anniversary in 2019. RadioRotary gets the whole story of the history and of the celebration from guests Stephen Fell, Chief of the Red Hook Fire Company, and Marc Hildenbrand, Chief of the Tivoli Fire Department. In the 19th century, fir...

The dynamic duo of Doris and Ken Obremski, both Past District Governors of Rotary District 7210 and both members of The Rotary Club of Goshen, New York (Ken is once again president of the club after a long hiatus), come to RadioRotary to be interviewed by old friends Sarah O’Connell-Claitor and Jonah Triebwasser. Much of the interview consists of reminiscences of Ken’s 50 active years in Rotary (b...

RadioRotary interviews “Mr. A,” also known as retired Red Hook math teacher Nick Ascienzo, founder of The Ascienzo Family Foundation, a unique resource for helping to alleviate poverty, provide educational services, and serve senior citizens. Many of Mr. Ascienzo’s former students have become Ambassadors for the Foundation, people who seek out local needs and write grant proposals so that the Foun...

In Flight, Inc. for over sixteen years has provided housing in group homes, day habilitation in locations in Ulster and Columbia Counties, person-centered services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and training for transition to independent living in the community. RadioRotary interviews Bob Lang, a Direct Support Professional who helps resolve the specific needs of the...

Mary Albrecht of the Town of Pleasant Valley returns to RadioRotary to describe the annual event known as Pleasant Valley Days Weekend, a festival of food, fun, fireworks, music, and a parade. The festival is largely at Cody Field behind the Town Hall, but the parade is all along Main Street on Saturday evening, followed by the fireworks. The Pleasant Valley Fire Department plays a big role in the...