RadioRotary

Once again RadioRotary brings listeners interviews with Rotarians attending the Convention who describe the Rotary programs that have brought them to Atlanta. Regular listeners to RadioRotary know about ShelterBox, but in this program they learn new ways the ShelterBox teams are helping disaster victim around the world. Also, listeners are probably familiar with Rotary’s role in polio eradication, but there is also a Rotarian Action Group (RAG) that helps survivors of polio, including those whose symptoms return many years afterward. Health professionals of all types can be part of the Fellowship of Rotarian Doctors and Health Professionals, which provides opportunities to help solve medical problems for disadvantaged people everywhere. Youth Exchange includes other Rotary programs, notably the one-school-year exchange of high-school students, part of Rotary’s goal of promoting peace.

Rich Schiafo of the Hudson Valley Regional Council returns to RadioRotary to tell the listeners about the national problem of food waste. Of the many astonishing statistics Mr. Schiafo discusses, perhaps the most alarming is that 40% of all the food produced in the United States goes to waste, much of it landing in landfills where it contributes to the production of methane, a global-warming gas. Some of the food is left in the farmers’ fields, where it can be taken and used by gleaning—going through the field by hand and collecting the remaining food. Another waste is food that has been deemed imperfect or ugly in some way, but that is perfectly edible despite the flaws. Listeners will learn about the different interpretations of use-by or sell-by dates. There are many aspects to food recovery and prevention of food waste, with volunteers throughout the Hudson Valley making the effort to get otherwise disposable food into food pantries and shelters.

Rotarian Mike Polasek (LaGrange) reports to the RadioRotary team about a major effort on the part of local Rotary Clubs (LaGrange, Millbrook, Fishkill) to obtain a grant from The Rotary Foundation to fund awareness and prevention programs in the Mid-Hudson Valley, although Mr. Polasek emphasizes that opioid addiction is a worldwide program that affects all ages and all classes. Opioid abuse often starts with an original prescription for pain relief from an injury or surgical procedure, but the drug becomes a necessity for the person addicted, a person who then may seek out street drugs to replace the prescription. The result is not only the misery of addiction but often overdose and death. The grant from The Rotary Foundation, focusing on adolescents 15 to 10 years old, would support awareness through social media and prevention by working with agencies already in the field.

The ninth compilation of interviews with humanitarians conducted by RadioRotary at the 2017 Rotary Convention in Atlanta focuses largely on Rotarian Action Groups (RAGs) and their humanitarian aims, but it also includes a special interview with golf-great Jack Nicklaus. Rotarian Action Groups discussed include efforts to protect endangered species, prevention of all types of addiction from tobacco and gambling to heroin, encouragement for an increase in blood donations around the world, and training local communities in the method to correct clubfoot. Mr. Nicklaus tells why he is a Rotary Polio Ambassador, beginning with his own experience of polio at age 13.

Pleasant Valley Rotarian Ellen Haggerty returns to the RadioRotary microphone to tell about her latest efforts to improve hearing and communication around the world. Ms. Haggerty, who lost her own hearing at age 4, but has compensated with hearing aids and excellent lip reading, is the chair of the Rotarians for Hearing Rotary Action Group (RAG). In past projects she has helped provide solar hearing aids for impoverished Brazilians, spread the use of hearing loopsthat improve sound for hearing aids at gatherings, and persuaded the Rotary Annual Convention to have captioning for its main talks. Her newest project in based on the idea that speech for those with hearing loss is impaired unless very young children hear others speak. Tests exist that can detect hearing loss in infants before they learn to speak. These tests are being introduced in Guatemala through a Rotary Foundation Global Grant sponsored by Pleasant Valley and Folsom, California, Rotary clubs.

Rhinebeck Rotarians Mike Frazier and Mike Mazzarella tell RadioRotary producer Kathy Kruger about the program Rhinebeck Rotary has instituted to help senior citizens age in place. Many older Americans prefer to stay in their existing homes instead of moving into assisted-living communities or nursing homes. Sometimes the physical infirmities of aging mean that homes need to be modified for safer living; in other instances, simple tasks such as mounting storm windows in the fall have become too difficult for an aging homeowner. In Rhinebeck, NY, the Rhinebeck Community Committee on Aging recognized this problem and committee members who were also Rotarians asked their club to help. Today Rhinebeck Rotarians who are skilled in carpentry, plumbing, and electrical work volunteer to solve these problems for senior citizens at no cost for materials or labor. Grab bars are installed in bathrooms and railings on stairs as needed.

Continuing its broadcasts from the Rotary International Convention in Atlanta, RadioRotary Co-Hosts Jonah Triebwasser and Sarah O’Connell interview representatives of several of the many exhibits featured at the Convention. “The One” Rotary Action Group presents an award of $100,000 to the International Humanitarian of the year along with $50,000 each to two runners-up, enabling these humanitarians to increase their work with the poor of the world. One effort to help the poor is Project Peanut Butter, which uses Rotary grants to manufacture and supply a specially formatted peanut butter that saves the lives of starving children, primarily in Africa. Another Rotary Action Group specializes in preventing blindness through improving maternal health, cataract surgery, and detection of macular degeneration. The “I Can Read” songs are taught to pre-school children, providing an easy way to learn reading easy, high-frequency words.

Felicia DiNonno, founder of the Clove Creek Dinner Theater in Fishkill, NY, is the guest on this week’s RadioRotary program. Dinner Theater provides an evening (or afternoon matinee) that begins with a full meal, which is followed by a full theatrical performance—you don’t eat or drink while you watch as in a nightclub or cabaret. There have been a number of dinner theaters in nearby countries, but none here until a couple of years ago Ms. DiNonno took a space in a mall in Fishkill and opened Clove Creek. It is very much a local attraction. Clove Creek hires chefs trained at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park to prepare the four entrees from which a ticket-holder may choose. Local actors audition for all the parts in the comedies that are featured. To learn more, listen to the interview.

Regular hosts Jonah Triebwasser and Sarah O’Connell along with producer Kathy Kruger and visiting host Dave Kruger interview some of the fascinating people at the Convention about their important projects related to the goals of the Rotary Foundation. One of the many Rotary Action Groups is “Stop Mothers Dying,” a Collaborative Action in lowering Maternity Encountered Deaths (CALMED). This program helps physicians, nurses, and midwives learn to anticipate problems of childbirth. It is not just the mothers who are saved in Third World countries, since maternal deaths have been on the rise in the United States as well. Another Rotary-related group discussed is taking African women .sex workers, giving them sewing machines, and making them into entrepreneurs, producing shirts that are sold at Rotary conventions. Although not a Rotary program per se., the Gift of Life, which supplies hope to children with heart disease through pediatric cardiology, also was represented at the Convention.

Rotary Efforts to Deal with Climate Change (Aired on November 25 and 26, 2014) RadioRotary producer Kathy Kruger interviews Rotarian Bryan Bunch (Millbrook), a member of the Rotary District 7210 Environmental Action Committee, which has as its main mission this year promoting tree-planting, a major goal of 2017-18 Rotary International. RI President Ian H.S. Riseley has asked every one of the 1.5 million Rotarians to plant a tree as part of the effort to reduce the impact of global warming. Topics covered include the causes of climate change, the effects of climate change on the weather (especially hurricanes), effects on life forms such as coral reefs, sea-level rise, a history of changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide, and steps individuals can take to mitigate global warming.

his time RadioRotary interviews Rotarian Bill Philpotts (Fredericksburg Morning Club) on the project “It Takes a Toilet,” which brings girl’s toilet facilities to India; Rotarian Dr. Subrahmanyam Ganesh (Methyr Tydfil) Club) who tells about the inexpensive prosthetic known as the Jaipur Limb; Rotarian David C. Forward (Medford Sunrise Club) on the hundredth anniversary of The Rotary Foundation; Rotarian Ellen Haggerty (Pleasant Valley NY Club) about her project for improving hearing and its success in bringing captioning to the Convention; Artist Ashley Spitsnogle, who draws and sometimes is Josh the Otter, working to prevent child drowning and Regional Director of The Dollywood Foundation Pam Hunsaker, who tells about the Imagination Library that brings free books to preschoolers.

RadioRotary interviews Rhinebeck Rotarian Carolyn Bernitt and Brian Zeiden, both on the staff of the Brookmeade Community, a 75-acre, three-tiered facility in Rhinebeck that provides homes and care if necessary for our aging population. Sufficiently healthy seniors can opt for independent living at Arbor Ridge, an apartment complex that provides the amenities of a luxury hotel, including accessto fine dining and a heated pool. For those who need help with the tasks of personal care, The Terrace apartments provide assisted living arrangements. For older residents in need of close medical supervision. The community provides many field trips to events or locations in the area. Residents are active in community programs such as painting, singing, or exploring the sensory garden

Sprout Creek Farm is a 200-acre dairy farm started by two nuns who had begun to teach children and teenagers about farming and food at a farm in Greenwich, Connecticut. They were very lucky when the farm was donated to the Society of the Sacred Heart with the requirement that the land be used for education and that the farm be run as a nonprofit enterprise. In this RadioRotary interview, the farm’s Executive Director Mark Fredette, who is also the chef for the farm,describes the many educational programs run by the farm, including a sleepover camp, a day camp, and arrangements for schools to visit as field trips, often staying overnight. The farm’s cows and goats produce milk that is made into delicious cheeses that are sold locally and at the farm. The farm also sells many other farm products, including meat, eggs, and vegetables raised in the farm garden.

Some 35,000 Rotarians from around the world came to the Atlanta Rotary Convention, but somehow the RadioRotary team of Jonah Triebwasser, Sarah O’Connell, and Kathy and Dave Kruger keep running into Rotarians from back home, including District 7210 Governor Jim Damiani and a Past President of Jonah’s Red Hook Club, Sue Simon. The RadioRotary team also learned of fascinating projects from other American Rotarians, including the prospect of even more collaboration between Rotary International and the U.S. Peace Corps and a vision screening projct for elementary schools undertaken by the Cincinnati Rotary. The Chicago Far North Rotary is working to bring specialized water carriers, called hippos, from South Africa to places in Haiti that lack access to running water.

Youth exchange (YEX) has long been a principal way that Rotary International promotes peach through friendship and cultural understanding. Rhinebeck Rotarian Mike Frazier is the coordinator for District 7210 of a new way for Rotary to support international youth exchanges, known as summer youth exchange or more formally as short-term youth exchange. In this program a family from one country exchanges for a few weeks or a month with a family from the other country. This is different from the regular school-year exchange in which the student who is incoming from another country or outgoing to one stays with three different host families; there is no reciprocal arrangement. The school-year exchange includes learning the language of the country visited, which is not a part of the short-term exchange. In both programs, a host Rotary Club must sponsor the exchange and the applicants are vetted both by the locals clubs and YEX officers from the District.