February 22, 2023
Reporter: Joanne Lamoureux
Wednesday’s meeting:Suzanne Smith Jablonski, Executive Director
Downtown Ithaca Local Development Corporation
“Ithaca Community Convention Center”
St. Catherine of Siena and on Zoom
WELCOME & TRADITIONS
NOTE: you can watch previous meetings by going to our YouTube
channel!
The meeting was called to order by President Mary Kane, who started the festivities with a recitation of the Four-Way Test.
Our single guest was introduced: Emma Terwilliger from Concept Systems, Inc., guest of our President.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
The Thought for the Day by “Les Six” President-Elect Dale Johnson arose from Linda Pasto’s story (shared during a presentation by CMC about diversity, equity, and inclusion) about a nursing school lesson conducted exclusively in Portuguese. It made the point that the lack of access to a shared language creates exclusion.
Multilingualism is three times more prevalent in Europe than in the US and that, as a COVID project, Dale had resumed study of his “poor high school French” through online lessons. He was unexpectedly delighted with how enjoyable an exercise it has become in his daily routine.
Learning a new language helps build neural pathways and strengthens the brain, is fun to do, and makes us better global citizens. We have the technology. Monolingualism can be cured!
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Announcements commenced, starting with a review of the successful concert to benefit Ukraine on Sunday, February 19
th. It exceeded expectations with a standing room only crowd! $5100 was raised at the event plus $5000 in online and mail-in donations. The music was wonderful with 41 musicians participating in 8 different ensembles. It was a lovely event for engagement with more than 25 club members participating. In addition, the art auction featuring 10 artists raised $1,760. Organizer Sherrie Negrea reported that both
The Ithacan and the
The Cornell Daily Sun both reported on the concert.
President Mary announced that we currently have six members registered to participate in the Rotary Leadership Institute—our largest group of participants in several years (COVID notwithstanding). This is a positive sign for the future leadership of the club!
The Spring Highway Cleanup will be held on Earth Day, Saturday, April 22nd from 9 to 11 AM; meet at the Tops parking lot. Bob Gravani noted that we have a number of community partners who will be participating, so we encourage members to participate!
Jean McPheeters will be coordinating our linen closet donations in May (“Soap for Hope”); more information to come.
The State Theatre has donated two tickets to a performance of DakhaBrakha on Sunday, March 5th at 8 PM. DakhaBrakha is a Ukrainian folk music quartet that combines the musical styles of several ethnic groups. It was a winner of the Sergey Kuryokhin Prize in 2009 and the Shevchenko National Prize in 2020. These tickets will be raffled off at our next meeting.
BUSINESS OF THE CLUB
With a good deal of effort and good will on all parts, we will be returning to meeting at Coltivare, starting April 5. We are very hopeful that this will work out well. They support us by providing a solid home for our meetings, providing a great deal of the set up, as well as serving lunch. Our primary responsibility as we return to Coltivare will be to attend and buy lunch—we need to support the restaurant that supports us.
The Community Service committee will be working to establish an all-club calendar.
“Les Six” group of presidents for 2023-24 are beginning to look at next year’s budget, so will be working with committee chairs to gather information.
LAST WEEK’S PRESENTATION
Bill Highland introduced Arden Popora, who is a senior at Cornell studying economics, environment, and sustainability. She is a former Rotaract Club President. Arden attended COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt—Climate Change on the World Stage—a UN-sponsored conference on climate change. This year’s was dubbed “The Implementation COP.” Its top outcome was a fund for loss and damage.
COP stands for Conference of the Parties and is a part of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. It is attended by world leaders including presidents, activists, and scientists.
Arden was a member of a delegation from Cornell that included faculty and students. They were able to meet people in small sessions and share information about Cornell research.
Big words at global conferences can only do so much; this meeting focused on the need for action on the ground. Rotary is involved with an area of focus on the environment and the impact of climate change on countries that are already dealing with sustainable development. ESRAG (Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group) is a Rotary group in which anyone who is interested in the issues can participate.
What can we do here in Ithaca? The UN suggests a few local actions:
- Campaign to produce behavioral change
- Developing more sustainable commuting
- Producing products and food locally
- Providing services to people affected by climate change
- Local solutions for sustainable energy access and transformation
- Creating wealth from waste
- Reclaiming green spaces
- Implementing the shared economy
HAPPY DOLLARS
Happy Dollars were offered in support of our Community Grants program:
- President Mary: $25 for the Rotarians who participated in the fundraising concert on February 19th. We can continue to raise funds for Ukraine until March 15.
- Paul Martin: for his daughter Alexa, who is a youth exchange student abroad. Also, more than half the club responded with interest in helping with our Youth Exchange Program.
- John Barradas: $20 in memory of Susan Blumenthal who has passed away. She was instrumental in the Pride of Ownership program.
- Kelly Buck: $5, she and Bob Gravani and 45 others will be going skiing in Vermont
- Millie Clarke Maynard: $20 to honor two prominent women of color in positions of leadership: LeJern Terry Cornish, President of Ithaca College, and Senator Leah Webb
- Sherrie Negrea: $25 to thank the 25 Rotarians who helped at the concert
The meeting concluded a little early to everyone’s surprise!
THANK YOU ROTARIANS
Newsletter Reporter: Joanne Lamoureux
Photographer: Mike Brown
Greeter: Geoff Dunn
Newsletter Editor: Loralyn Light
Set-up/Tear-Down: Dave Martin, Steve Johnson, Harlin McEwen, Brad Carruth, Gary Reinbolt
Set-up Zoom: Bez Thomas
Recording Archive: Paul Martin; click
hereClub Service Facilitator: June Losurdo
