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Springfield Rotary Club’s Goal: 100 Holiday Bags For the Homeless
The Friends of the Homeless men’s emergency shelter on Worthington Street will be full again this year. The Springfield Rotary Club can make the season brighter and include a message of hope to an individual who is struggling by helping FOH provide a gift bag for everyone in shelter.
What to do: We are asking that each member of our club commit to bringing in a few gift bags to meet our goal of 100 total gift bags. Fill gift bags with the following new items and bring them to our 12/12/14 meeting. Kathy Tobin of Friends of the Homeless will be our speaker that day.
- Sweatshirt, Size Large, X-Large and 2XL are the most needed.
- Heavy winter socks
- Underwear and tee-shirts
- Gloves
- Travel Size Toiletries- shampoo, soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorant, razor, lip balm
- Crossword puzzle books, deck of playing cards, pens or notebook
- Granola bar or non-perishable snack
- Plastic Rain Poncho
- Add an inspirational or seasonal card with a message of hope
- Please label the exterior of each bag with the size it is intended for.
Questions? Call Amy Scott 413-265-5083 or amy@wildappledesigngroup.com
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 York Mayo, Bob Perry, Bob Delaney To Be HonoredThe Basketball Hall of Fame and The Rotary Club of Springfield have announced their honorees for the fifth annual Basketball Hall of Fame/Springfield Rotary “Service Above Self” Luncheon on Friday, December 5th, 2014 at 12 pm on the Basketball Hall of Fame’s Center Court. This year’s honorees – who live out the Rotary motto “Service Above Self” – are Local Honorees, York Mayo and Bob Perry and National Honoree, Bob Delaney.
York Mayo is a long time Community Volunteer and has served as Chairperson of a one million dollar capital campaign for ReStore Home Improvement. He is CEO and President of The Roger L.
Putnam Technical Fund. He has served on the Advisory boards of ROCA and is Co-Founder of the Mill- brook Scholars ’ Program. He is the Co-Founder of the Springfield Unity Festival, which was held the week of October 12, 2014. He currently mentors five people. In addition, he serves on several boards and committees regionally and nationally. York has been the recipient of several prestigious service awards including an honorary degree from Springfield Technical Community College, the 2010 William Pynchon Award, the 2010 United Way “Spirit of Caring ” Award, the Western New England University Presidential Medallion, and the National Conference For Community and Justice, “Human Relations Award ”. He is active in the Christ the King Lutheran Church congregation, Wilbraham, MA.
York Mayo graduated from Hobart College, Geneva, New York, with a B.S. degree in economics in 1963. After six years with Mobil Oil and Carborundum Abrasives, he joined American Saw and Manufacturing Company as a Lenox Sales Representative in Baltimore, Maryland. Over the course of his 30 year career with American Saw, he served in many capacities, including Sales Representative, Sales Manager, Vice President of International Sales, and Senior Vice-President of Sales and Marketing.
York resides in Wilbraham, Massachusetts with his wife of 50 years, Buffy. He maintains an active schedule that includes volunteering, mentoring, consulting, and public speaking.
 Bob Perry has always been involved in the community. A few of the organizations he has been involved with include the Exchange Club, the Greater Springfield YMCA, a platelet donor at the American Red Cross, Western Mass Lacrosse Officials Association, the Roger L Putnam Technical Fund, the Children’s Chorus of Springfield and Ronald McDonald House to name a few. His greatest passion has been Greater Springfield Habitat for Humanity. Recruited by York Mayo in 2000, Bob became committed to the organization. He is currently the Board president, a position he has held for 10 of the 14 years he has been involved. He and his wife celebrated their 35th anniversary with a ground breaking of Habitat’s 35th house, for which they were the major sponsors.
In 2011, he co-founded, with York Mayo and Dr. Mark Jackson, the Millbrook Scholars program, which provides housing, tutoring and life skills mentoring to graduating seniors from Springfield area high schools.
Perry is the recipient of the 2011 Hometown Hero from Reminder Publications; 2011 Difference Maker from Business West Magazine and 2012 William Pynchon Medal from the Ad Club of Western Mass.
Perry is a 1973 graduate of Northeastern University with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a major in accounting. He started his career in public accounting with Grant Thornton in Boston Ma, where he became a CPA in 1976. He later worked for Greenberg Rosenblatt, Kull and Bitsoli, where he became partner of the Springfield office in 1987 after 5 years with the company. He had his own consulting practice from 1991 to 1995, providing business planning services to closely held companies. In 1995, Perry joined Meyers Brothers and became partner in 1998. Perry retired as an active partner of the firm in 2008, but continues to provide technical and consulting services to the firm on a part-time basis.
Bob and his wife Bobbi, both avid golfers, have been married for 40 years and have resided in Wilbraham Ma for the last 27 years.
 National Honoree Bob Delaney is a dedicated and hard-working NBA referee and crew chief, consultant, public speaker, founder of two basketball officiating academies, and founder of the Delaney Leadership Academy Manatee County Florida School District (unique 5th-grade program). Delaney has influenced and inspired people, teams and members of the community over the years. He has helped countless individuals overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles, learn new skills and achieve ambitious personal and professional goals.
Delaney's career extends far beyond the basketball court. He has a background in law enforcement and worked with the New Jersey State Police. In a joint operation between the New Jersey State Police and FBI, he worked undercover for years. His work and testimony led directly to the conviction of 30+ Mafia criminals. However, years of living under the very real and ever-present threat of violence took a toll on his wellbeing and resulted in a diagnosis of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Delaney has built organizations, programs and high-profile partnerships (US Army, Naval Special Warfare, Special Operations Forces, FBI Academy, Department of Homeland Security, NFL, NBA, Florida State University Football and many other corporations, universities and schools) from the ground up, and conducted troop visits with The Center for the Intrepid, Wounded Warriors, Landsthul Hospital in Germany and Armed Forces/NATO Military Forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, Asia and Europe, working both formally and informally to increase awareness of Post-traumatic Stress (PTS).
Tickets to the luncheon are $50. For more information on sponsorships or to purchase tickets to the luncheon, please contact Jason Fiddler, Director of Museum Sales at 413-231-5540 or jfiddler@hoophall.com.
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Amy Dane, travel agent and art historian, will speak to our Club this Friday. Ms. Dane is a native of Longmeadow and says she has suffered a "lifelong addiction to travel." Her photographs and lectures capture that passion and cover a dizzying array of stops across the globe---95 countries at last count. She shares that passion in photography shows and presentations to libraries, hospitals and galleries.
Ms. Dane was honored in 2013 as one of "13 Most Extraordinary Women" by the Women's Philanthropy of the Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts. She is a graduate of Smith College, with a Master's in Art History from Williams. She serves a docent for the Michelle and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Art, and for eleven years served as education coordinator of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum.
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Molly Crouser, an AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America) serving with the Massachusetts Campus Compact at Bay Path University, will be our Rotary Club's speaker the Friday, October 31st. Her topic will be "What is AmeriCorps VISTA and how you can make a difference”.
Molly has partnerships with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampden County and The Gray House in the North End of Springfield. Her role is to build capacity for civic engagement as an essential fabric of the college experience at Bay Path, as well as leverage resources to her community partners. An established mentoring program with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampden County and Veritas Prep Charter School on Pine Street, has allowed her to grow the partnership with The Gray House. She tutors English as a second language, developed and currently teaches a Financial Literacy class to immigrant students, assists the Executive Director in grant research and leverages volunteers from Bay Path to the Gray House to meet the needs of the organization.
Since its inception in 1994, AmeriCorps has grown to 820,000 men and women who have served over 1 billion hours. According to Molly, “AmeriCorps is the most cost-effective solution to our nation's toughest problems. Volunteers serve in economic opportunity, health services, environment protection and conservation, education and youth, veterans and families and disaster relief. National Service is a solution, and its methods and results can prove it!"
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 Rotary needs a constant influx of leaders, since they change every year. So, every year, each Rotary club president is asked to nominate club members as potential future leaders. The next step is helping these members develop the knowledge and confidence essential to the task. You may not realize it, but leadership skills in volunteer organizations like ours are often different from those in the business sector.
Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI) goes right to the what, where and why of our organization and brings together more than 60 Rotary leaders from across District 7890 to exchange ideas and experience. RLI offers a full day leadership course curriculum in three parts. Completion of each part qualifies a participant for the next part. Course sessions include Insights into Leadership, Engaging members, Our Foundation and Service Projects. A Graduate session will also be offered for those who have completed the all three parts.
Faculty is drawn from all over the Northeast Region of Rotary. This year's session will be held November 8th from 7:30 Am to 3:30 PM, with a light breakfast and lunch included. The cost is $75 inclusive.
If you are interested in attending and would like one of the three remaining full scholarships recently approved by our Board of Directors, please contact Club President Rick Lee at raa.lee@live.com. While this is available to any interested member, new members of our Club interested in becoming more active in the Club's leadership in the future are particularly urged to apply.
For more information, click on the link below:
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 The Rotary Foundation has earned a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, the largest and most prestigious independent evaluator of nonprofits in the United States.
"Our foundation continues to operate at the highest ethical standard," said Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair John Kenny. "We are proud that Charity Navigator has recognized our commitment to accountability and transparency for the seventh straight year."
The 4-star rating, the highest that Charity Navigator awards, recognizes sound fiscal management, accountability, and transparency. Charity Navigator evaluates thousands of nonprofits each year, and only one of four earns 4 stars.
This year's top distinction marks the Foundation's seventh in a row, placing it in the top 3 percent of U.S.-based charities. In a letter to the Foundation, Charity Navigator President Ken Berger wrote, "This 'exceptional' designation differentiates The Rotary Foundation from its peers and demonstrates to the public it is worthy of their trust."
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.JPG) Anyone who knows Club Member Sue Mastroiani knows that she has a beloved dog named Chester. When Sue's husband Chris returned home after work a couple of weeks back he was met with a scene he just had to record.
In case the picture on the wall is a little too small for you to make out, it is of a dog, lying on a bed, in the same position as sleepy Chester.
And hanging on the wall in that picture is another picture of a dog on a bed---no, OK, actually I made that second part up.
So---is it life imitating art, or the other way around? You decide...
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