Rondequoter

Therese Corrigan-Bastuk took notes tonight.  Thanks Terri!

The club is suiting up for the upcoming  Freezin' For A Reason” fundraiser with a number of members plunging! Even if you aren’t plunging, you are invited to attend the event.   There is some confusion over the time of the event - The lakeside event will take place on Sunday, February 1, 2026, at 12Noon (Registration Starts at 9:00AM), Roger Robach Community Center, Ontario Beach.  Many thanks to Doug Decker for his $100 donation to the event!

There was a discussion about the upcoming Conference Playoff Party at the Shire.  The original plan was to bring in appetizers and then order pizza.  There were some questions on if the Shire will allow food to be brought in from non-commercial kitchens.  Lynn is going to get clarification from the Shire and advise the club.

The Town’s Winterfest is 2/7 and we are participating from 11AM-3PM.

Kenn requested that the Veterans Group get together soon.

Our first speakers were from Irondequoit Chamber of Conference:  Brighid Simonds (President) and Nicole Genier(Vice-President).  Brighid is Vice President of Retail Banking and Branch Manager for NBT Bank.  Nicole is a Principal Consultant at Haigh & Company, a compensation consulting firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Nicole is also the daughter of previous  Rotarian, the Honorable Joe Genier.  

The Chamber has experienced a great deal of membership growth due to the increase in family and women owned businesses in Irondequoit. Eighty percent of the Chamber’s recent growth can be attributed to new business.  In addition to taking an active role in the community, the Chamber offers a number of professional development  and networking events.  Increased event participation can be attributed to varying meeting times and topics.  The annual Chamber sponsored event, “The State of Irondequoit”,  will be a panel discussion this year instead of a presentation from the Town Supervisor.  The Annual Awards dinner will honor previous Rotarians and long-time business owners and community contributors, Tony & Kathy Proietti- Proprietors of 2 Ton Tony’s Pizza.  

The Chamber is interested in collaborating with Irondequoit Rotary in joint efforts such as scholarships as common values seem to align.  The next step is to have a small team from Rotary and the Chamber work together on membership and collaboration options to benefit both organizations.

The second speaker was Officer Jonathan Lawton, Community Engagement Unit Supervisor. Officer Lawton has been the Coordinator of the Shop with a Cop Program for eight years, a role that he finds very gratifying.  This year’s program turned out to be much larger than planned with an unexpected donation from the Police Union and Summit Federal Credit Union and the number of young officers who volunteered.

There were sixteen kids who participated in the program.  The school districts refer the children based on economic need. This year’s program is scheduled for Saturday, December 5^th. Some upgrade to this year’s program were discussed such as earlier outreach from the Police Department, decorating the police cars that are parked outside of the Target doors and pursuing a potential donation from Target as they will do so with a 501c3.  

Fines paid for the speakers, the Polar Plunge, Lori Spatola’s good health, Lynn’s efforts with the Shire, Louis’ niece being cancer-free, Lou’s 30-year Rotary anniversary, Dick and Lynn hanging up their B2B hats after almost 50 guests and a trip to Bellevue and Ann Kosanke getting a Senior Communications Director at L3.  Bob Scheidt made a foundation donation and Kenn will give the matching points.