At Your Service(formerly RadioRotary)

Rotary District 7210’s District Governor Elect (2011-12), Tansukh Dorawala (Poughkeepsie/Arlington Rotary), discusses how Rotary International prepares all 531 District Governors worldwide with the leadership and specific knowledge necessary to change lives. Mr. Dorawala, a chemical engineer by profession, describes his personal reasons for his strong dedication to one of Rotary International’s ma...

Millbrook Rotary President (2010-11) Ellie Savoy discusses her background, her Rotary training, and her personal philosophy of commitment, compassion, understanding, thoughtfulness, ability to plan, attention to details, and flexibility. Together these help Ellie lead her club in its many humanitarian activities. Millbrook Rotarians annually publish a free directory of businesses and services in t...

In this heartwarming interview, Peekskill Rotary President and District 7230 Director of Gift of Life Joe Lippolis takes the listener through the steps that saved a 2-year-old’s life. Jostyn Baque, diagnosed in Ecuador as having a congenital heart problem that could not be corrected in his country, would have died within a few years had not Peekskill Rotary and another Rotary club teamed to sponso...

Ambassadorial Scholar Dr. Christine Guedri Giacalone and DGN Dr. William Bassett, Scholarship Committee Chair and District 7210 Governor for 2012-13, discuss the Ambassadorial Scholarship, which promotes international understanding and goodwill through study in country different from the scholar’s own. Dr. Giacolone describes her experiences in Jordan, both as a student learning Arabic and as a pr...

Red Hook Rotarian Rob Latimer, Executive Vice President of Northern Dutchess Paramedic Emergency Medical Services, discusses his experiences as a paramedic in the Hudson Valley. As a paramedic, Mr. Latimer has had over 2,000 hours of technical medical training. His emotional stories cover delivering babies and saving lives in extraordinary circumstances. Ambulance service continually needs volunte...

Kingston Sunrise Rotary Co-President Jeanine Lindhorst, Coordinator for Cooking Matters in the Hudson Valley, discusses her organization’s nutritional education program for people on a limited budget. Volunteer culinary and nutrition experts teach Cooking Matters course participants how to select nutritious and low-cost ingredients and how to prepare them in ways that provide the best nourishment.

Two financial experts, both Red Hook Rotarians, discuss today’s economic environment and the effects of recent world turmoil on investing. In this on-site interview at a Red Hook Rotary meeting Glenn Goldstein, Managing Director of Portfolio Management at Focused Wealth Management, and Susan Simon, Registered Life Planner and Vice-President of Third Eye Associates, Ltd., give their opinions about...

Leah Feldman, Project Coordinator of Universal Response to Domestic Violence, and Kathy Graham, Director of Battered Women’s Services of Family Services, Inc., discuss the Family Service agency’s 24/7 free domestic violence crisis intervention program. This program includes a hotline, counseling, advocacy, support groups, childcare, emergency transportation, youth domestic violence prevention educ...

Prominent attorney and Rotarian Charles Goldberger, Esq. (White Plains Rotary) shares his experiences teaching in law schools around the world, including those in Eastern European countries. Mr. Goldberger, who has visited more than 75 countries, discusses the differences in law between America and the developing countries and the progress towards constitutional law that these countries are making...

Rotarian Lenny Nathan (Congers/Valley Cottage Rotary), Chief Executive Officer of HealthSav, explains how easy it is to learn the mechanics needed to help save a life through cardiopulmonary resuscitation, better known as CPR. He describes how methods for performing this life-saving function have been updated by the American Heart Association. He also discusses why more schools should teach CPR to...

Sal Gambino, Carmel Rotary President, Carmel Rotarian George Knoechel, Food Bank Project Coordinator, and Judy Callahan, Executive Director of Putnam Community Action Program, one of four Food Bank programs supported by the Carmel Rotary project, discuss how Carmel Rotary has in a few years raised about $100,000 worth of food to benefit those in need. Another $50,000 worth of food is expected in 2...

Thom Johnson, author and historian, discusses the fascinating history of Bannerman’s Castle, a dramatic ruin located on an island in the Hudson River in the Hudson Highlands State Park. Travelers on Hudson Line trains are familiar with the view of the remaining portions of the imitation Scottish castle, built in 1901. The nonprofit Bannerman Castle Trust, Inc. is restoring the castle as well as it...

Sharon Irving and Lisa-Marie Birdsall of Cortlandt Manor Rotary (District 7230) discuss their club’s sponsorship of a Rotary Community Corps (RCC) at the Keon center in Peeksill, NY. A Rotary Community Corps is an organization for non-Rotarian men and women who share Rotary’s commitment to service. Although the Cortlandt Manor Rotary is less than a year old, with Sharon Irving as its founder and f...

Habitat for Humanity builds and restores homes for low-income families. Steve Biolsi, Project Manager of Putnam County’s Habitat for Humanity, tells of how the organization is supported by local Rotary clubs and other community organizations. Mr. Biolsi also corrects misinformation about Habitat for Humanity. Their projects are not free handouts but help low-income families build, own, and maintai...

Dr. Manoj Abraham (plastic surgeon) with Dana Buffin (New Milford, CT Rotary), Executive Director of Healing the Children, and Kathy Kruger, RN, (Rotary District 7210’s Rotaplast Chair, Pleasant Valley Rotary tell the uplifting stories of how children and adults are helped by corrective surgery, performed by volunteers who donate their time, skills, and finances. These medical teams set up an oper...

Martha Underwood discusses the enormous benefits to everyone, not only those with special needs, that she has witnessed during her years as a riding instructor with the non-profit Winslow Therapeutic Center located since 1974 in Warwick, New York. Ms. Underwood describes how horseback riding improves the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional well being of children and adults when working with...

Rotary District 7210’s PolioPlus Chair, Bunnee Webb (Congers/Valley Cottage Rotary Club), provides us with the most current detailed information about progress by Rotary and the United Nations in eradicating polio worldwide. She also discusses her personal heartfelt experiences inoculating children against polio in India, and she ends with a very moving poem about Rotary’s promise to the children...

Two of Rotary District 7210’s Past District Governors, Jim Yarmus and Jeffrey Keahon, describe recent successful clean water projects implemented by District 7210 clubs in Central America. These are already saving countless lives from water-borne diseases. They discuss how Rotarians provide on-site technical expertise with professional engineers, such as Dr. Yarmus, and actively facilitate other p...

Ms. Fredlee Ann Kaplan (Chairman’s Council, Gift of Life International) and Mr. Bill Currie (International President, Gift of Life International), both members of The Rotary Club of New York, discuss how Gift of Life has saved more than ten thousand children’s lives by addressing the medical needs of children who suffer from congenital heart defects and other similar conditions. Starting with hear...

RadioRotary host Jonah Triebwasser interviews Rotary’s humanitarians from around the world at Rotary International’s 2010 Convention in Montreal, Canada. Among the many featured guests are Rotarians from the Jaipur Limb Project, which provides inexpensive and long-lasting leg prostheses, and ShelterBox Founder Rotarian Tom Henderson.

Eva Corredor, Emeritus Professor of French and German and a Rotarian since 1989, discusses how her involvement in Rotary’s international service programs provides an opportunity to work towards world peace and understanding. A member of The Rotary Club of New York, Professor Corredor explains why she joined Rotary and describes the many international projects with which she has been engaged, inclu...

Manuela Roosevelt discusses the humanitarian organization called Soroptimist International, a worldwide organization for women in management and professions, who work through service projects to advance human rights and the status of women. Most recently, Soroptimist International has placed special emphasis on clean water projects, a Rotary International effort as well.

Kevin Voisin, an 8th generation Louisiana oysterman and Terrebonne Parish Councilman, discusses current events concerning the Gulf oil-spill and fishing situation, false impressions about the Gulf and its seafood, and his optimism about the future, despite the setback caused by the man-made spill.

This year’s Rotary International President Ray Klinginsmith (Kirksville, Missouri, Rotary Club) covers a broad range of Rotary topics. Here are just three: – The significance of his early experience as a student in Cape Town, South Africa, as part of Rotary’s Scholarship Program; – The positive (and uplifting) statistics about polio eradication; and – The meaning of President Ray’s theme for this...

Author Barbara Allen, mother of four young sons, discusses her book, Front Toward Enemy, about her husband’s murder by a fellow soldier in Iraq and how the military court allowed the killer to escape punishment. Snowball Express, an organization founded by Rotarians in California and supported by Rotary clubs all over the country, provides unique support to children of fallen soldiers and has been...