At Your Service(formerly RadioRotary)

Representing Rotary, two members of the Haiti Team, Jim Kushner (Past President of Inwood Rotary in Manhattan) and Andrea Shiffman (Comprehensive Disaster Response Services), describe their experiences as they help to ease the incomprehensible suffering after the Earthquake: a man digging for his wife and baby for three days, women gang-raped because of lawlessness and lack of security, amputation...

Featured guest Bob Cohen, musician, humanitarian, and Cantor, discusses interfaith projects, his rehabilitation work with ex-convicts, and his unique personal story. Truly an amazing journey and fascinating interview.

Executives from New Horizons Resources, Inc. (NHR) Regis Obijiski, Executive Director, and Sam Laganaro, Human Resources Director, discuss NHR facilities and programs for the developmentally disabled, which help them lead happy, productive lives. Founded in 1974 by a group of parents seeking alternatives to institutionalized care for their sons and daughters, New Horizons today offers services to...

Featured guest Paul Banner, expert bankruptcy attorney, discusses current debt relief programs and the effects of bankruptcy on credit. Mr. Banner explains when to file for bankruptcy, when to contact an attorney, and what bankruptcy can and cannot accomplish.

Arnie Halling, Chairperson of the Dutchess Chapter, describes how SCORE provides important information for small business owners interested in free and confidential mentoring. SCORE is a nonprofit association dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and helping small businesses start, grow, and succeed. Training is provided by professional counselors who are experienced business owners or managers. Me...

Rotary District 7210 Governor for 2010-11, Phil Schunk, a prominent attorney, discusses the mission of Rotary and District 7210’s goals for his Rotary year. He describes the role of district governor (there are about 540 Rotary DGs in the world), why he has been an active Rotarian for over 40 years, and the successful humanitarian work Rotary does here and abroad to promote peace and understanding...

Architectural historian Susan Roth, AICP (American Institute of Certified Planners) and Principal of Hudson Valley Planning and Preservation, provides ideas to help residents understand their community assets and to build upon these assets, making their community a better place for residents, businesses, and the environment. Ms. Roth’s extensive professional background in such areas as municipal l...

Medical Response Corps (MRC) Coordinator Cathi Tegtmeier discusses local response to disasters and ways to make our homes and communities safer places. Ms. Tegtmeier describes some of her experiences, including emergency support administered during helicopter rescues. The MRC mission is to assist the First Responders of Dutchess County and local municipalities to prepare and respond to natural and...

RadioRotary presents a compilation of on-site interviews with humanitarians from around the world, recorded at Rotary’s United Nations Day. Guests include Hudson Valley Rotarian Bunnee Webb, discussing polio eradication worldwide, and a representative from the ShelterBox response team, a Rotary affiliate. ShelterBox responds instantly to disasters that leave people homeless by delivering aid to th...

Debra Bonnerwith, Deputy Commissioner of Dutchess County Social Services, and Donna Robinson, Foster Parent Liaison, discuss how Foster Care Services of Dutchess County improves the lives of children and families. The goal for each child is safe, nurturing temporary care with return to family if possible, or adoption if the family cannot be reunited. If neither is possible the agency provides prep...

In this fun-filled celebration of RadioRotary’s first anniversary on the Hudson Valley Talk Radio network, Co-hosts Jonah Triebwasser and Sarah O’Connell along with Station Manager Don Verity and Technical Producer Jay Verzi have a good time, often at each other’s expense. RadioRotary features Rotarians and other humanitarians in the Hudson Valley and beyond who help make the world a better place....

Mid-Hudson Children’s Museum Executive Director Ed Glisson and Rena Hill, Director of Development, discuss the newest attraction at the fabulous museum on the Hudson waterfront. The new exhibit is built around the Hyde Park Mastodon, a fossil skeleton found in Hyde Park. Children are able to learn what life was like in the Hudson Valley during the last Ice Age, 14,000 years ago, when elephant-like...

In a lively interview, sibling teen humanitarians, Gwenn and Roan Gideon from Rhinebeck, discuss their recent projects, which have helped thousands in developing countries. They describe how they organized and implemented fundraisers to raise awareness of human rights abuses around the world and to raise money for humanitarian efforts. Coming from a theatrical family, Gwenn created her own theatri...

Tansukh Dorawala, Rotary District 7210’s District Governor for 2011-12, discusses the world’s water crisis and the way Rotary specifically addresses water filtration in developing countries. Unsanitary water is responsible for about 80 percent of the diseases in developing countries and a huge number of deaths, especially among children. Specific devices provided through Rotary projects, such as e...

Helen Reisler, the first woman President of the Rotary Club of New York, discusses “the magic of Rotary” and her club’s powerful response to 9/11. Her leadership after 9/11 organized club members to give immediate aid to victims and rescue workers and to effectively coordinate contributions in a 9/11 Disaster Relief Fund, contributions that have assisted victims to this day. As a result of her lea...

Diego Aviles, Chief Operating Officer of the Hudson Valley Council of Boy Scouts, discusses how the organization helps build character, leadership, and personal responsibility. Mr. Aviles describes the origin of the Boy Scouts in England and in America, age levels of scouting, Merit Badges, and outdoor and indoor life skills that become the tools to succeed. Many interesting facets of Scouting are...

Professional educators Tom and Sue Mounkhall, volunteers for Teachers across Borders (TAB), discuss the valuable work done by this nonprofit organization. TAB’s original purpose was to assist Cambodia in reconstructing its teaching corps, which was destroyed by the country’s turmoil. TAB provides teacher workshops with expert educators from Australia, the U.S. and the U.K., inspired by the belief...

Volunteers for the Good Dog Foundation bring their trained dogs to health facilities and elsewhere to improve recovery rates through canine uplift. Rachel McPherson, Founder and Executive Director, discusses humanitarian tasks these specially trained dogs do for people. Some even work in classrooms with students having difficulty learning. Ms. McPherson became interested in this subject while prod...

Recorded at the 2009 U.N. Day in New York City, RadioRotary co-hosts Jonah Triebwasser and Sarah O’Connell interview Rotary International President, Scotland’s John Kenny (2009-10) and others. President Kenny discusses his Rotary background and his emphasis during his tenure on water and sanitation, health and hunger, and literacy, emphasizing the importance of Rotary clubs to carry out these proj...

Highland Rotarian Stephanie King discusses the need for clean water around the world. Explaining that one billion people in the world today are without safe drinking water, Ms. King describes the sand filter water system that saves thousands of lives, especially the lives of children. It is through the efforts of individual Rotary clubs around the world that fundraisers, such as Highland Rotary’s...

Wappingers Rotarian Louise Quartuccio, Director of Social Services at Elant, and Fishkill Rotarian Pat Usifer, Corporate Director of Activities at Elant, discuss Elderact, an important recent humanitarian component of Rotary in local District 7210. Designed for people in assisted living residences, skilled nursing facilities, or group homes, Elderact members meet monthly to work on humanitarian pr...

Community Foundations of Dutchess County (CFDC) officers, Andrea L. Reynolds, president and CEO, and Nevill Smythe, vice-president of programs, discuss how the various foundations within CFDC and its affiliates help to enhance the quality of life of individuals and towns in the Hudson Valley. CFDC supports a broad and diverse range of areas including the arts, education, community development, con...

LaGrange Rotarian Frank Evert, president and founder of the nonprofit organization Water without Borders, describes how his organization provides sustainable sources of safe drinking water to locations in the United States and throughout the world. Mr. Evert began Water without Borders after working in an international water-filtration company and learning that a lack of safe drinking water is the...

Group Study Exchange (GSE) is a cultural and vocational exchange opportunity open to the public for nonRotary businesspeople and professionals between the ages of 25 and 40. The program provides travel grants for teams to exchange visits in paired areas of different countries where participants experience the host country’s culture and institutions, observe how their vocations are practiced abroad...

Plastic surgeon Dr. Manoj Abraham discusses how he and his dedicated medical teams change the lives of children needing plastic surgery through a humanitarian project called Healing the Children Northeast. The nonprofit’s mission has been to heal children with burn injuries, cleft palates, and other deformities whose families don’t have access to or cannot afford treatment. Many of these children...