At Your Service(formerly RadioRotary)

Tony Musso, freelance journalist and weekly columnist at the Poughkeepsie Journal , joins the Radio Rotary team for a discussion of his latest book, Mothball Fleet on the Hudson: The Post-World War II National Defense Reserve . Many residents and visitors crossing the Hudson on the Bear Mountain Bridge in the 1950s or 1960s have seen the flotilla of warships lined up along the river and wondered w...

Once again Radio Rotary reports from the annual Rotary Convention, this year in Houston, TX, where Dave and Kathy Kruger interviewed representatives of organizations that work with Rotary to make a difference in the world. Stephen Popper, president and CEO of Meals of Hope, tells about how that organization partners with Rotary clubs to pack five different nutritious meals for food pantries to dis...

Once again Radio Rotary brought its microphones to the annual Rotary Convention, this year in Houston, TX, where Dave and Kathy Kruger interviewed several representatives of organizations that are making a difference in the world. Tim Nelson, CEO of Hope for Justice, described the work that nonprofit is doing to end human trafficking and various forms of slavery around the world—a mission also of...

Lisa Loughran from Red Hook, NY, visits Radio Rotary’s microphone to tell about the story behind the annual Red Hook event, Roger’s Run for AMC Awareness. This is a community-wide set of runs and walks that had its inspiration in the discovery vis ultrasound that Loughran’s son would be born with a congenital condition, arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, usually called AMC. This condition affects...

Upcycling is taking something that might be discarded as trash and turning it into something more valuable. Unshattered is a charitable organization that helps women in recovery from addition stay sober as they upcycle donated textiles and leathers into beautiful handbags and other products. Radio Rotary’s guest for this program is Kelly Lyndgaard, who six years ago left her work as an engineer an...

Elizabeth Spira, CEO of the Community Action Partnership of Dutchess Country (CAP), visits Radio Rotary to describe the many programs that CAP offers to assist low-income residents with food, housing, energy needs, prescription medicine costs, and more. Community Action agencies originated as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” which began in 1964, and are an example of a federal...

Radio Rotary co-host Jonah Triebwasser and producer Kathy Kruger interview two Red Hook Rotary Interactors about their project of raising a puppy for the Bluepath Service Dogs, an organization that supplied trained service dogs that work with autistic children ages 5 to 12. The sisters, who both are active in service projects for in Interact and the Girl Scouts, also volunteer for the local food p...

The Radio Rotary team interviews a half dozen members of the cast of Romeo and Juliet (Or Dating Game Gone Wrong), directed by Emily Haupt, a production of Red Hook’s Linden Avenue Middle School’s. The concept is that a frame story based on television’s Dating Game leads into Shakespeare’s tale of star-crossed lovers. The show was presented on June 4 and 5 in the new, professional auditorium at Re...

Ron Ferris, Operations Manager at Mid-Hudson Works in Poughkeepsie, visits Radio Rotary to describe how this unique 75-year-old nonprofit helps veterans and persons with disabilities find work in the Hudson Valley. In 1947 as World War II veterans, many still in their early 20s or even younger, returned home and needed work, IBM (then International Business Machines) started a program to train the...

Poughkeepsie Arlington Rotarian Bernard Handel proposed in 2020 that his club undertake improvement of parks in the city of Poughkeepsie, The Rotary Club met with the city Parks and Recreation Department, which suggested that the club start with Spratt Park, which features a pool and trails, a children’s playground, and a former dog park—all in poor condition or nonfunctional. The following year,...

In a rare all-live show, Radio Rotary’s co-hosts visit Red Hook Rotary’s meeting in Taste Budd’s Café to learn about some of the club’s activities. Dave Wright is heading the 2022 Apple Blossom Day, the street festival that starts the spring-summer season in Red Hook and Tivoli with hundreds of food and craft vendors and live music by local bands. Linda Greenblatt is the club’s chair for Rotary Yo...

Hour Children connects incarcerated mothers with their children, who stay for a few days with volunteer families living near correctional facilities while they visit their jailed mothers.  Radio Rotary welcomes back Dr. Alethea Taylor, executive director of Hour Children, along with Kate Paletta, an Hour Children volunteer for the past 18 years. Ms. Paletta cares for children of the incarcera...

Dr. Sarah Litvin, Director of the Reher Center for Immigrant Culture and History and Dr. Sarah Gardner, Curator of the museum, join another Sarah (co-host Sarah O’Connell-Claitor) and co-host Jonah Triebwasser for a program updating the story of the Reher Center, a unique asset of the Kingston, NY, waterfront (the Roundout). The Reher Center is housed in the former Reher Bakery, a Kingston institu...

Greater Newburgh Rotarian Bob McCurdy visits Radio Rotary to explain how a fundraiser, or “fun-raiser,” for his Rotary Club also aids many different local nonprofits. The Hoops and Swish event, scheduled in 2022 for Saturday, April 30, from 9:00 a.m. until noon at the Newburgh Free Academy gym, was initiated by Newburgh Rotary in 2016, but in the past couple of years has been suspended because of...

Red Hook Rotarian BJ Mikkelsen visits Radio Rotary to tell a fascinating tale of how he became involved with the Ukrainian refugee disaster.  Mr. Mikkelsen had been invited to help a friend in Berlin, Germany, celebrate his birthday. When Mr. Mikkelsen arrived in Berlin, the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a week old, and the plight of the Ukrainian refugees streaming west was already recogni...

For an international program, the Radio Rotary hosts, Jonah Triebwasser and Kathy Kruger, interview Roger Cassidy and David Hood from the Wirkswirth Rotary in England along with Tim Lynch of the Red Hook (NY) Rotary concerning Aquabox, a source of water filters and other emergency supplies that was formed in 1992 by the Wirkswirth Rotary Club. Aquabox now operates as an independent charity associa...

For this show Radio Rotary was joined by Jan Miller, current president of Millbrook Rotary (Sarah O’Connell-Claitor’s club), and Mona Staaf-Gunther, past president of Millbrook Rotary, who is spearheading the 2021-22 edition of the “Millbrook Rotary Business Directory,” a publication that not only provides vital services for Central and North-Central Dutchess County but also is the source of funds...

Mike Carber of the MARC Foundation Board of Directors visits Radio Rotary to describe some of the programs funded by the Foundation and to announce some of its fundraising events. The main focus of the MARC Foundation in the spring of 2022 is a new Overdose Awareness Garden, developed in partnership with Mental Health America of Dutchess County, Gold’s Gym (LaGrange), and Dutchess County. The Gard...

Hour Children is a remarkable group of programs that, among other assistance, connects incarcerated mothers with their children. Its name acknowledges the key hours that impact the life of a child with an incarcerated mother – the hour of her arrest, the hour of their visit, and the hour of their reunification. In this show, RadioRotary welcomes Dr. Alethea Taylor, executive director of Hour Child...

Dr. Toni-Marie Ciarfella, Deputy Commissioner for Special Needs of Dutchess County, comes to RadioRotary’s microphone with news of the county’s several programs available for people with special needs. The campaign, which includes local businesses as well as the county, is called Think Differently. Related to it are the awards and events dealing with employment, called Think Jobs , and an educatio...

You may have heard of the Astor Home for Children in Rhinebeck, NY, but that is only the original part of what has become since 1966 a wide-ranging service for mental health and education that is a major humanitarian force in the Hudson Valley and the Bronx. Sponsored by the Archdiocese of New York, Astor Services is now an essential part of many of the programs for children and young persons, inc...

Brian Doyle , CEO for Family Services, returns to RadioRotary with the latest news from his organization, the lynchpin of social services in in Dutchess, Orange, and Ulster counties. The Behavioral Health Centers in urban locations from Beacon to Kingston are undergoing an expansion in hours and staff, which includes psychiatrists, therapists, nurses, and social workers.  The program also has...

Samara Enders, Director of Philanthropy at Greystone Programs, is interviewed by co-host Sarah McConnell-Claitor and Jonah Triebwasser about the annual Leap for Autism and other aspects of Greystone’s work with developmentally disabled individuals. Greystone Programs is a privately-run non-profit organization that provides essential services and life-enriching opportunities to more than 600 childr...

Melissa McCoy, the Chief Advancement Officer of Abilities First, Zooms into RadioRotary to describe this organization that provides schools for children and group homes for adults with developmental disabilities. The name Abilities First is meant to signify that the organization values what people can do, what they can learn, and what they accomplish rather than their limitations or disabilities....

RadioRotary welcomes Jessica Ames, Outreach & Events Director for Angel Flights East, to the program. Angel Flights East provides free air transportation for medical needs to children, individuals, or families all over the Northeast region of the United State—fourteen states, Maine through Virginia through Ohio. Nearly all of the flights are in general-aviation aircraft with at least four seat...