Our Reverse Drawdown Dinner will be Thursday,  June 7th.  The cost for room and catering from St. Josephat's Hall will be the same as last year.  Lee Steinfeldt is making up the tickets and will send around an example for members of committee to review.

 

Our High School Scholarship Committee will be Lee Steinfeldt, Dave Shaheen, Jim Kozlowski, Rocco Leone, and Lynn Wozniak.  Lee Steinfeldt is contacting the schools to get applications.  The committee will review applications and choose winners based on criteria "Service Above Self."  Lee is organizing who and when all the presentations will be made at the schools as well as when award winners will come to one of our meetings this summer.  Jim Kozlowski will call the meeting to review applications once they come in.

 

Discussed our pending decision regarding the District Simplified Grant.  3 options are on the table.  President Bob handed out summaries of each option and will send out email to get votes from members.  Please respond to President Bob's email ASAP as the grant application is due April 1st.

 

 

Ginny Nacy from Drug Free Irondequoit: Together was our speaker tonight.  Ginny leads this community coalition which is focused on preventing substance abuse among teens in Irondequoit.  Ginny's story is heart-wrenching as she lost her 32 year old son, Patrick,  to opioid addition the day before her daughter's wedding.  The wedding was held with heavy hearts by all attending.  Patrick always had a care-free and addictive personality as a kid which now is a sign but not seen as one at the time.  He had a slow progression from tobacco, marijuana, alcohol and then an injury started him to become addicted to pain killers/opioids.  The cost of pain killer such as oxycontin was $50 per pill and at 10 per day was very costly.  Heroin (laced with fentanyl) became a cheap alternative to oxycontin.  The opioid epidemic in our country is no stranger to Monroe county as 64 fatalities have occurred in the county already this year.

 

Drug-Free Irondequoit: Together started about 14 months ago as Town Supervisor Dave Seeley and Chief Rich Tantalo created the town coalition bringing all aspects of Irondequoit together (business, religious, civic, education, etc.) to help prevent drug use in the town.  Terri Bastuk, Jim Kozlowski, and Linda Szefc from our club are active members of the coalition representing Rotary.  Ginny is the head and also sits on the board for ROCovery Fitness which focuses on recovery for those with addictions.    There were 20 or so volunteers in the coalition to start and now the number is up to 50 and growing daily.  Most of the time until now has been to organize an approach to battling substance abuse in the town and currently the coalition is developing a plan of attack to be implemented in the coming months.  Much of the work will be to serve as the one-stop shop for addiction prevention and resources for those in the town.

 

The coalition is sponsoring a Knowledge and Prevention Forum on Monday, March 19th at 7pm at the Irondequoit Public Library and there will be Narcan Training offered on April 24th at St. Paul Fire Department on Cooper Road.  The coalition is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization which is just starting to ask for donations primarily to create education materials.  The coalition is working towards a federal grant in 2019 but could use donations for 2018 expenses.

 

Multiple Contributions for:  Ginny Nacy's program, BJ Cunningham for last week's St. Pat's Party at St. Ann's Home; Tony Sortino entering hospice, John Mendick's 60th birthday, Trevyan Rowe - the special ed student who drowned in the city,  Peter Kelderhouse's retirement, and Stephanie Squicciarini's passing.

 

Lynn Wozniak - son in London working; Norb Rappl - St. Bonaventure NCAA victory, 23 days until Red Wing opener, and Winter over according to the Ground Hog but no one else; Dick Butler - high school play; Linda Szefc  - successful hip surgery; Bob Scheidt - nephew in Korea; Tom Kosanke - lots of trips and Clemson is more orange than Syracuse; Terri Bastuk - Ginny Nacy's leadership in the town; Kenn Van Dieren - Jim Kozlowski's new updates to our webpage layout; Louis DiPrima - receiving a Life Saving award from his work for saving a person at the hospital attempting to commit suicide by overdosing in the garage and for Syracuse NCAA win.