At Your Service(formerly RadioRotary)

Rotarians Steven Caine and Laura Lee (Burnt Bills Ballston Lake Rotary) visit Radio Rotary to tell about their efforts to help bring medical facilities to Muchila Center, an isolated village in Zambia—the nearest hospital is two hours away. In addition to assistance from the Rotary clubs of Kusinta and Lusaka, the new clinic uses equipment supplied by Project C.U.R.E. Much needed dental facilities...

CAPE is the Council on Addiction Prevention & Education in Dutchess County. For this program, Dora Celestino, Community Educator, returns to Radio Rotary to talk about how CAPE uses education about the harm caused by substance misuse disorder—including addiction to tobacco, alcohol, prescription drugs, or street drugs— as a way to prevent such misuse.  Duchess County currently experiences...

Millbrook Rotary is 50 years old and celebrating the anniversary Radio Rotary welcomes Millbrook Rotarians past-district-governor Cindie Kish and charter member David Brinkerhoff to describe the history and activities of the Millbrook club. In 1973 a group of about 25 men—at the time only men were admitted to rotary—began meeting in the Cottonwood Inn and soon petitioned Rotary International and w...

Radio Rotary interviews Steve Gessner, Chairman of the Pleasant Valley Ecumenical Food Pantry. This is a local community food pantry sponsored by the four local churches in the hamlet of Pleasant Valley, NY. We serve the hungry and needy families in the district surrounding my local community. The Pleasant Valley Food Pantry is an agency the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley, purchasing most of the f...

Sarah O’Connell-Claitor and Kathy Kruger learn the latest development of  the Vassar-Haiti Project (VHP) from Lila Meade, Executive Director of Vassar-Haiti Project (VHP),  and Laury Senecal, Vassar senior who is president of the Vassar Rotaract Club and co-president of Student Executive Board.  For twenty-one years, VJP the has improved the lives of Haitians in the remote mountaint...

The Sparrow’s Nest charity that provides meals to the families of persons experiencing cancer is planning a big expansion, Krista Jones returns to RadioRotary with news of a $50,000 grant from Astra-Zenica  and a vision of the charity’s future. When a good friend developed stage-4 colon cancer, Ms. Jones recognized that cancer affects the whole family and began to provide daily meals for her...

Cara Mia Bacchiochi returnsto RadioRotary to describe progress of Hope on a Mission, her continuing ministry to homeless Poughkeepsie women (and men), many also addicted to drugs or alcohol. Seven years ago, as she was once-again in jail, Cara Mia vowed to help street women, aware of their needs because she had been one. When she was out of jail, she borrowed a car, filled the trunk with bottles o...

Toys for Tots in the Hudson Valley is updated in this program where cohosts Sarah O’Connell-Claitor and Jonah Triebwasser interview Mike Binns (Ulster County Coordinator), Marine sergeant Felipe Cabrera, and PAMAL radio host Randy Turner (who is also engineer for the Radio Rotary team). Toys for Tots was started by the Marines in Los Angeles 1947 to provide toys for children in need—distributing 5...

RadioRotary welcomes District 7210 Membership Chair and Past District Governor (2020-21) Highland Rotarian Tony Marmo who describes some of the many benefits of becoming a Rotarian. He personally likes the way that Rotary not only aids local community organizations but also has a global reach. With over 200 nations that have active Rotary clubs, Rotarians around the world can find partners to prom...

Rhinebeck Rotarians Joe Phelan, current president, and Michelle Andrick, fundraising chair, visit Radio Rotary to describe the club’s Shop ‘n Sip promotion for Small Business Saturday. A donation of $25 in advance of the event permits one to pick up a shopping bag loaded with coupons for discounts at local businesses.  The “sip” portion refers to an agreement with local restaurants, wine shop...

RadioRotary interviews Christa Hines, CEO of Hudson River Housing, a vital service primarily in Dutchess County (but with a few facilities in nearby counties). For the past 40 years Hudson River Housing has worked to solve the housing problems of those who my face housing choices that would be more than 30% of their income, providing more than 1,500 units of affordable housing as well as a homeles...

Ron Ferris, Sales and Marketing Manager at Mid-Hudson Works, re-visits Radio Rotary with more information about this unique Poughkeepsie nonprofit that provides skills, training, and paying work for veterans and persons with disabilities. Mid-Hudson Works, in a 53,000-square-foot brick building on Washington Street in Poughkeepsie helps veterans along with others prepare for such work as packing o...

On the day before World Polio Day 2022 North Rockland Rotarian and 7210 Past District Governor (2006-07) Carole Tjoa, currently the District PolioPlus Chair, once again joins Radio Rotary to update the progress on polio eradication. In 1985 in the Philippines Rotary became the first to use the vaccines to eradicate polio. In 1988 Rotary began a worldwide eradication program, working with the World...

Radio Rotary once again comes live from the Taste Budd’s Café in Red Hook. On this program Carl Dowden, Chairman of the Red Hook Rotary Foundation, introduces Amy Smith, Red Hook Rotary’s Citizen of the Year for 2022. Smith is Director of Programs and Youth Services at Red Hook Public Library, but also is engaged with Red Hook Village in several other ways. She worked with Rotary and the Town of R...

Radio Rotary interviews both Broomall (PA) Rotarian Paul Quintavalla and Pleasant Valley (NY) Rotarian Kathy Kruger (producer of Radio Rotary) about their experiences helping teams of Rotary physicians and nurses treat children—and some adults—for the birth defect known as cleft lip or cleft palate in locations around the world where the local economy does not offer the option of surgery, includin...

On Columbus Day weekend you can expect the annual Italian Festival at the Kingston waterfront, known as the Roundout, sponsored by the Ulster County Italian American Foundation. Festival Chair Anthony Tampone and Highland Rotarian Tony Marmo join Radio Rotary to describe this year’s fun-filled festival, which takes place on October 9 from 11:00 a.m. ‘til 8:00 p.m. The Festival celebrates the Itali...

Each year Radio Rotary interviews the current District 7210 Governor (DG); for Rotary year 2022-23 the DG is Suffern Rotarian Larry Palant, who in 20 years of Rotary membership has previously handled a number of important assignments, including promoting ShelterBox and leading the Membership Committee. DG Palant discusses how the District focuses on different causes throughout the year, warm cloth...

Glenville Rotarian Jimmy Thomas has embarked on a five-month journey to support providing veterans with service dogs, dogs trained to aid in handling a specific medical need. A veteran Army MP himself, Jimmy knows first hand the difference a service dog can make. His dog, Boots, had been trained to prevent seizures and was remarkably successful, with Thomas going from a couple of seizures a month...

The Radio Rotary team visited Millbrook Rotary at the Millbrook Café to broadcast a show about the Food of Life/Comida de Vida food pantry run by Amenia’s St. Thomas Episcopal Church. Interviewees included AJ Stack, who is not only Rector of the Church but also the current president of Millbrook Rotary; Jim Wright, co-warden and facility manager of the church who was among the founders of Food of...

The chair for the 2022 edition of the Pleasant Valley Weekend in 2022, Terri McCormick, and the publicity director, Cindi White Halupke, visit Radio Rotary to describe the event. The traditional activities at Cady Field (behind the Town Hall) and in the hamlet will include such favorites as Pleasant Rotary’s Beer & Wine Tent, several kinds of popular music, typical carnival foods and more, bon...

Mental Health America of Dutchess County (MHA) provides a wide range of services to veterans, families, children, and those who, because of poverty, need help from local nonprofits or government-sponsored services. MHA’s CEO, Andrew O’Grady, returns to Radio Rotary to describe several of the programs that MHA has in place to provide community-based solutions to mental-health problems. The 250 work...

Jessica Madden, Director of Crisis Services at Mental Health America of Dutchess County (MHA) visits Radio Rotary to describe the revamped Mobile Crisis Center, previously run by the county but now operated by MHA under the supervision of Ms. Madden. In addition to mental health issues, the Mobile Crisis Center also helps persons affected by substance misuse. Typically, intervention is triggered b...

Poughkeepsie-Arlington Rotarian Darcy McCourt, Executive Director of Rebuilding Together in Dutchess County, is the guest on this week’s Radio-Rotary program. Rebuilding Together grew out of an annual event called “Christmas in April,” for which volunteers on one day in April would repair homes of low-income senior citizens. The name was changed to “Rebuilding Together” to reflect its transition t...

Sabrina Jaar Marzouka, Commissioner of the Dutchess Country Department of Community and Family Services, and Ashely Tilton, case manager for foster care for Dutchess County, visit Radio Rotary to explain how foster care provides a safe environment for children newborn up to age eighteen who are unable to live with their birth families. The goal of using foster care is to provide a temporary refuge...

Greater Newburgh Rotarian Doug Hovey, founder and CEO of Independent Living Inc. and Independent Home Care, visits Radio Rotary to talk about his 501(c)3 that aids persons with any type of disability to live independently. Although the first thing that you might think of is adapting a home for wheelchair living (they do that), Independent Living, Inc. also helps those with mental illness, substanc...