April 6, 2022
Reporter: Gail Lyman
Wednesday’s meeting:
Michael Stitley, Director
Tompkins County Department of Emergency Response
Hybrid Meeting at Coltivare and on Zoom
President Elect Mary Kane invited us to recite the Four-Way Test—and then asked us to reflect on it at the end of the week to see how we did!
Mack Travis announced himself as a guest!
ANNOUNCEMENTS - Jean McPheeters provided a message from Janet Desch (widow of Noel) thanking our club for remembering him on our Ithaca Rotary Club Adopt-A-Highway Program sign to which an extra panel, “In Memory of Noel Desch,” was added. Janet is planning a July memorial service for Noel; let Jean know if you want to receive notice of it.
- Bob Gravani reminded us of our Highway Clean-Up Day scheduled for Saturday, April 23rd, a great opportunity to share our Rotary pride with the community! Meet at 9:00 AM at the Tops on Triphammer parking lot. For registration and questions, contact Mary-Lynn Cummings, mlcummings101@gmail.com or call (607) 227-5790.
Mack Travis filled in for his wife, Rotarian Carol Travis. He recited from The Prophet by Lebanese-American poet Kahlil Gibran. Thirty-eight years ago, it was part of their wedding vows. Mack and Carol appreciated his words of wisdom imparted in the 1922 poem “On Children”:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you
with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.
LAST WEEK’S PRESENTATION
“Update on TC Sheriff’s Department re: Pandemic & Service Improvements”
As program director for the month of April, Harlin McEwen announced all of the speakers for April, as he chose to highlight public safety in Tompkins County. Today we are pleased to have Derek Osborne, Tompkins County Sheriff.
As a joint effort between the City of Ithaca and Tompkins County, Sheriff Osborne described the recent implementation of the re-imagined Tompkins County Public Safety Plan that includes alternative response models, training and recruitment reforms, expert analysis of data, and procedures and objectives aimed at healing the community’s relationship with law enforcement.
Sheriff Osborne spoke about the four initiatives that were started this year to improve public safety in our community:
- establishment of two sergeant positions to handle logistics and training for jail and road patrol
- hiring two civilian sheriff clerks who will receive non-emergency calls
- centralizing arraignments by having judges come directly to the correction division twice a day
- open satellite offices in the Town of Newfield and the west side of the city (W. Buffalo St. and Taughannock Blvd.), along with the existing one in the Town of Enfield
The sheriff also cited great strides in the accreditation process towards excellence and standardization in the training of the department’s road patrol.
Linda Pasto gave anecdotal evidence of her recent interaction with the Sheriff’s Office, citing that her experience was “warm and affirming” and infused with a “culture of caring.”
HAPPY DOLLARS- Loretta Goss: sang with the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers who performed for the first time at Carnegie Hall last Saturday night. She’s still on “cloud nine!”
- Nancy Potter: “called out” Rotarians Josephine and Loretta for being members of the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee singers
- Larry Thayer: $67.00 for the reception honoring his 67 years of marriage to Alice (wedding date: April 9, 1955)
- Heidi Goldstein: thrilled that son Joey and Alicia are getting married this summer
- Linda Brisson: remembering the amazing presentation given to the Owego Rotary Club by a young Ukrainian woman who was the President of Lviv’s Rotaract
- Mary Berens: remembering her recent 70th birthday celebration with family and friends from Cornell, and a feeling of relief for finally closing a defunct Rotary of Ithaca donation fund.
President Catrina rang the bell to close the meeting.
THANK YOU ROTARIANS
Newsletter Reporter: Gail Lyman
Newsletter Facilitator: Loralyn Light
Set-up Zoom: Paul Martin
Club Service Facilitator: June Losurdo
