March 20, 2024
Reporter: Katie Marks
Wednesday’s meeting:Matthew Bull, Baden-Powell Council BSA Executive
Stacy Hall, Taughannock District Executive
“The Boy Scouts of America: Not Just Boys, But Still Scouting after 114 Years”
COLTIVARE and on Zoom
WELCOME & TRADITIONS
NOTE: you can watch previous meetings by going to our YouTube channel!
Welcome Spring! As we gathered for this first meeting of spring, the snow began to fall in giant, fluffy flakes. Comforting aromas of Coltivare’s chicken pot pie and coconut curry soup filled the room, and the accumulating snow could not dampen the spirits on this resplendent day that made all proud to be Rotarians.
President Geoff Dunn called the meeting to order, referring us to incoming VP Mike Katz’s email about the 2024 March Madness® brackets, which are now live.
All Ithaca Rotarians are eligible to play, and you may create a maximum of two brackets.
Register by March 21
st and select your winning bracket(s) for the men’s tournament. Mike will buy one Rotary lunch at Coltivare for the winner! Let the Madness begin…
Our guests included:
- Drew Noden, guest of Gertrude Noden
- Audrey Scott, guest of Jennifer Harris
- Susan Salton, guest of Sherrie Negrea
- Visiting Rotarian Ed Pasto, Ithaca Sunrise Club, guest of Linda Pasto
President Geoff then delivered his version of the “Crazy Eights.” This is the 80th day of the year, 8 days until baseball’s opening day, and 18 days until the eclipse. It is also National Ravioli Day, National Proposal Day, and International Day of Happiness, which segued into reciting what makes us happy—the Four-Way Test. Upon completion, President Elect Angela Sullivan piped in with an additional, “And will it be fun?” Perhaps we’ll be reciting the ‘Five-Way Test” next year under Angela’s leadership!
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Keeping the theme of being happy, a jubilant President Geoff introduced James Brown to give the Thought for the Day.
James was inspired by Jean McPheeters’s suggestion to choose baseball, a sport he loves, as his theme to coincide with the arrival of spring. Understanding that baseball is an acquired taste, and in a club this size there will be people who have not acquired that taste, James offered us two quotes from baseball and two from “the other world”:
- “It isn’t hard to be good from time to time in sports. What’s tough is being good everyday.” ~ Willie Mays (who will be celebrating his 93rd birthday in May)
- “I think about baseball when I wake up in the morning. I think about it all day, and I dream about it at night. The only time I don’t think about it is when I am playing it.” ~ Carl Yastrzemski, legendary Red Sox player
- “Opportunity is like a bald-headed man with only a patch of hair in the front: you have to grab that hair, grasp the opportunity while its confronting you or else you will be grasping a slick bald head.” ~ Booker T. Washington
- “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” ~ Maya Angelou
LAST WEEK’S PROGRAM
With a slight change to the agenda in order to be sensitive to the time difference of our African guests on Zoom, Geoff welcomed Gertrude Noden to lead today’s update on our Rotary International Grant for the 2023–24 year that promotes education and gender equity in South Sudan.
Joined on Zoom with student leaders and educators in Rumbek, South Sudan, Gertrude greeted us and the guests on Zoom with a “Good evening.” It was 6 PM in Rumbek and 108 degrees. School has been closed for two weeks due to the extreme heat, and Gertrude thanked the student leaders for supporting the teachers and staff by coming to their school to be present at our club meeting.
This program is a mid-year update on the district’s International Grant promoting gender equity in East African schools, particularly the Abukloi Secondary School in Rumbek, South Sudan. Gertrude recognized the co-applicants in our club that helped make this grant possible: Ann Coyne, Linda Pasto, Heidi Goldstein, past president Mary Kane, and Geoff Dunn. In addition, Gertrude acknowledged our partners on the other side of the world, including our host country’s Rotary Club of Munuki, represented by Dr. Isaiah Mutalemwa (also principal of the school) and the USA Abukloi Foundation, based in Virginia and represented by President Mary and Angelo Maker.
Gertrude then turned the program over to the students and staff of the Abukloi Secondary School. Dr. Mutalemwa began the presentation by introducing the school, followed by the students introducing themselves and sharing comments while updating the club with their progress and experiences; closing remarks were delivered by teacher Lilian Likicho.
Dr. Isaiah Mutalemwa began by thanking us for inviting their student leaders to meet us today. Just ten years ago, Angelo Maker, who as a Lost Boy of Sudan escaped civil war and genocide, founded the Abukloi Secondary School in the Rumbek Lakes District; the school currently has 647 students. With goals to build peaceful communities through collaboration, trust, and honesty, their educational curriculum fosters youth empowerment programs to achieve sustainable development goals and human rights. Through their collaboration with the Rotary Club of Munuki, the Rotary Club of Ithaca, the Abukloi Foundation, and Words Into Deeds, our students have been able to make strides in promoting quality education, gender equity, WASH, and economic development. They are excited to share their work with you today.
Student leader Monica Akoi Manguak said that during the entire COVID year 2021–22, the students joined with peers from other countries. Facilitated by Words Into Deeds, they called themselves the Youth Empowerment Summit (YES) leaders for a better world. “Every week we learned about pressing issues facing our world. We learned that the negative impacts of COVID were impacting women and children worst of all. We also learned how to design projects to improve these pandemic and challenging human rights circumstances. At the beginning of 2022, we launched our program to promote quality education, gender equity, WASH, and economic development. We learned that in our school alone, girls missed a combined 1000 days of school due to lack of hygienic supplies. That was very disturbing, but now our girls have the necessary supplies to attend every day of the month.
Elizabeth Adhieu Malou announced that their Sustainable Development Goal #4 advocates for quality education for all, aligning with the basic human right to free primary education. “Even putting aside two years of devastating school closures, once we resumed we now understood that many of our girl students were facing up to 25% absenteeism every month.” This puts girls at a big disadvantage, even resulting in dropping out of school and entering into impoverished early-age marriages. We wanted to make sure our girls get a quality education and are taken care of every day of the month so that they are able to support other vulnerable girls in our district.
Johnny Maker Ayui was pleased to meet us and cited Sustainable Development Goal #5, which strives to achieve gender equity and to empower all women and girls. “In YES we learned that woman and girls are not often treated as equal to men and boys. They experience more human rights violations, gender-based violence, forced marriages, and lag in political positions—even the numbers show that women have less access to cell phones and technology as compared to males. “We organized to make a difference. One thing that both girl and boy YES leaders could do to level the playing field for our girls was to provide sanitary kits. First, our partners in the US made sure every girl had a donated reusable feminine hygiene kit. Then to make sure more girls were taken care of, we looked for support to establish a vocational project tailoring our own kits. From all of our hearts, thank you Rotary Club of Ithaca for granting us our first five sewing machines. We are currently meeting up to three times a week to learn this new skill.”
Isaac Lent Mayek shared that Sustainable Development Goal #6 ensures availability and management of clean water and sanitation. “In our YES research, we learned that billions of people throughout the world still lack access to safely managed water and sanitation services and basic hand-washing facilities. We realized that many in our own community were part of the billions. Our team wanted to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 through hand washing. All WASH is critical to preventing infection and containing its spread. Our plan was to have students make liquid soap and supply our school, our families, and our local hospital.”
“Post COVID, we continue to make soap for hand washing, but also provide our girls with soap and privacy to tend to their washing needs. We use safety equipment such as aprons, gloves, and goggles, and are currently teaching younger students the process. We appreciate that the funding for making liquid soap came from the Rotary Club of Ithaca, and we are so grateful.”
Peter Sabit Majak extended greetings from South Sudan. “Sustainable Development Goal #8 promotes decent work and economic growth for all. In YES we learned that 22% of youth ages 15 to 24 were not enrolled in school, employed, or in training. That was not us. Instead together with our partners and supporters we at Abukloi were able to stay engaged and developed the entrepreneurial WASH soap and reusable feminine hygiene kits programs. These two programs are now emerging as viable marketable products. We even have acquired a license to sell at our local market. We believe in quality education, gender equity, WASH, and decent work—and through your support we have gained knowledge and skills to become real positive empowered youth. Thank you all.”
In closing, their teacher Lilian Likicho extended her sincere thanks to the Rotary Club of Ithaca. “Since 2019, we have been able to teach 40 students liquid soap making skills which has benefited our school, family members, and our community. We have made 8o liters of liquid soap to share with neighboring schools. I would like to make a final note of appreciation, and we look forward to our students’s continuing successes and celebrations. Your support had enriched our students, their families, and our community.”
Gertrude thanked the students and staff and shared with the club that these students are the children of genocide survivors. Their parents are the children who survived the Sudanese civil war in the 1990s, and Gertrude took a moment to recognize the students and their diligence, optimism, and willingness to go the extra mile, surpassing the school day to where they walk from afar (without a school meal) to join us on this Zoom call today.
HAPPY DOLLARS
ALL OF TODAY’S DONATIONS ARE GOING TO THE STUDENTS AT ABUKLOI SCHOOL
Angela Sullivan: sporting a sparkling “I LOVE ROTARY” hat that she acquired at the Rotary President Elect Training Seminar (PETS) the previous weekend, Angela proclaimed that she was happy to see us all. At the training she purchased some Rotary swag (stickers, pins) for us to re-purchase and funds would be put into Happy Dollars.- Heidi Goldstein: in celebration for her eldest grandson (who used to sit under the table at Rotary meetings with his Legos) who is now engaged to be married!
- Linda Pasto: waited for Jean McPheeters’s return to share that she was inspired by Jean’s challenge to us to donate blood. She started giving blood as a nursing student because she recognized the need and has also been the recipient of 11 units in her lifetime. She recently received notice from the Red Cross that if she gave one more unit, she will have donated six gallons of blood so far!
- Sherrie Negrea: thanked Gertrude Noden for taking on this South Sudan project and for her perseverance and hard work. “We would not have had the opportunity to meet these students without you.”
- Sarah Mirabile: a special shout out to Gertrude for all her efforts she has made with this program and also how great it’s been to meet the students
Dale Flinn: mentioned that if we were a “Fining Club” he’d probably have to pay much more, yet still graciously gave $120 because he said he “failed us as President in February” for forgetting to let us know that February 23rd was the 119th birthday of Rotary International- Stacy Hall: happy dollars from the Boy Scouts of America; scouting makes me happy and you make me happy!
- Mike Katz: also happy to attend last weekend’s inspiring Rotary PETS and happy to meet the students and staff on screen today
- Mary Kane: thanked the South Sudanese group for being an inspiration, as well as Gertrude’s leadership and everyone on the International Service committee
- Todd Nau: happy to donate $15 for each volunteer who showed up at Finger Lakes ReUse this week to sort; Rotary’s share was about $700. Sign-up days to volunteer are Tuesdays 2–5 PM and Saturdays, 10:30 AM–1:30 PM.
Drew Noden: Gertrude’s husband, saying hello to both Nabor and Lilian in Sudan (and on the Zoom), mentioning they both attended a teacher’s development event last January led by Gertrude and himself, which involved 50 teachers from Uganda and South Sudan learning about human rights, sustainable development goals, and youth empowerment. Also congratulations to the young men and women who presented at today’s program!- Mary Berens: thank you to Gertrude Noden and the students for bringing the international in Rotary International to us in Ithaca. And another shout out to Jean McPheeters who inspired her to donate three pints of blood since August.
President Geoff mentioned that on September 14th a Tompkins County employee-sponsored blood drive will be held at the health department.
WELLNESS WEDNESDAY
With “Wellness Wednesday” occurring the third Wednesday of each month, President Geoff thought we should discuss the solar eclipse on April 8th and invited Loretta Goss to teach us how to keep our eyes protected during the eclipse.
The path of totality, where the moon completely covers the sun’s bright face, will be north of us; it will begin in New York in Chautauqua County around 3:17 PM and make its way across the state to Plattsburgh by 3:25 PM. This exciting event occurs roughly every 400 years. Some areas within the path of complete totality could be in complete darkness for over four minutes! Note that Ithaca is not in the path of complete totality.
Ways to safely view a solar eclipse:
- Create a pinhole projector or a colander with holes
- Use specially designed ISO 123-12-2 Certified Eclipse Glasses, which should be purchased from a trusted source (check with your eye-doctor, find locally, or check the American Astronomical website.
- Protect your skin, as well, with protective clothing, hat, and sunscreen.
It is important to remember: Do not look at the sun! Viewing any part of the bright sun without a special filter will cause eye injury. While it may be tempting to catch a glimpse without protection or look through binoculars or a photo lens, resist the urge and protect yourself!
UPCOMING SPEAKERS
03/27 Matthew Bull, Baden-Powell Council BSA Executive; Stacy Hall, Taughannock
District Executive, “The Boy Scouts of America: Not Just Boys, But Still
Scouting after 114 Years”
04/03 Sherron Brown, Director, “College Initiative Upstate”
04/10 Noah Bassett, owner, Airy Acres Vineyard, “Spring Is a Good Time to Talk
about Wine”
04/17 Deb Mohlenhoff, Ithaca City Manager, “What Is a City Manager?”
04/24 Sarah Segal, Rotarian, “What’s Going on in Cuba?”
05/01 Nancy Potter & George Gull, Rotarians, “Rotary Adventures in Costa Rica”
05/08 Dr. Art DeGaetano, Professor, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences; Director,
NOAA Northeast Regional Climate Center, “In the Heat of the Night … Hot
Nights & Rainy Days in a Warming World”
05/15 Dr. Ryan Lombardi, VP for Student & Campus Life, Cornell, “Campus
Life at Cornell”
05/22 Nicki Moore, Meakem Smith Director of Athletics & Physical Education,
Cornell, “Athletics & Physical Education at Cornell”
05/29 Club Assembly, “A Club discussion about DEI”
THANK YOU ROTARIANS
Newsletter Reporter: Katie Marks
Program Chair: Mike Brown (March)
Photographer: Mike Brown
Greeter: Kellyann O’Mara
Newsletter Editor: Loralyn Light
Setup/Teardown: Steve Johnson, Todd Nau, Richard Kops
Cashier/Kettle Watcher: Gary Reinbolt
Audio/Visual Setup: Bez Thomas, Mike Brown
Recording Archive: Paul Martin; click
hereClub Service Facilitator: June Losurdo
