Home Page | Rotary Club of Kuyahoora Valley

Welcome to the Kuyahoora Valley Rotary club! I am honored to be selected as Club President for the coming Rotary year. Our club is very active, both locally and internationally. We support many local groups and work on several fundraisers throughout the year. Those include parking assistance at the Town of Ohio Snow Bash, an Annual Rotary Auction and our year-long bottle and can drive.

Funds raised are spent in a variety of ways including an annual Youth Fishing Derby, six scholarships for deserving seniors at Poland and West Canada Central schools, and to assist many local charities and organizations in need, such as Scouting and the volunteer Ambulance and Fire departments. Additionally, funds are spent giving every 3rd grader in the two-school area a dictionary and sending books internationally (Books for the World) as part of our literacy outreach program. We also try to engage in international projects such as clean water and KIVA that will benefit native populations long-term.

Annually we sponsor Incoming and Outgoing Foreign Exchange students (Youth Exchange Program). Incoming students attend one of the two local high schools for a year and live with local families.

We are also involved in local beautification projects such as public highway clean-ups and maintenance of one of the local Fishing access areas.

Welcome to the Kuyahoora Valley Rotary web site. We invite you to take a look around our site and find out more about our Club and about Rotary. Also see our Facebook Page.

Rotary Theme 2018-2019

Yours in Rotary,

Dorene Gortner

President

Kuyahoora Valley Rotary, New York

Rotary Supports Habit for Humanity

The Kuyahoora Valley Rotary club is partnering with Habitat for Humanity to rehabilitate a house at 30 Millington Avenue in Poland, NY. Rotary raised $4,200 at a dinner in October for the project and has been approved for a Rotary District grant for an additional $2,100 to be used on the rehabilitation. Volunteers are welcome to join us in working on Millington Ave any Saturday until the project is completed. Pictured below from left to right are Gale Hatch, treasurer of Herkimer County Habitat for Humanity, Kris Miller and Aaron Barber from Home Depot Pro Desk, Dorene Gortner, President of Kuyahoora Valley Rotary and Service Project Chairperson and Tom Menninger, Pro Desk Supervisor paying for building supplies.

24th Annual Fishing Derby

On 18 May the Kuyahoora Valley Rotary held our annual Fishing Derby for Grade School students of Poland and West Canada Valley Central Schools. This year we had 85 registered attendees for the derby. It was a very nice sunny day and fun was had by all. The Rotary provided food and beverages for all attendees and their parents. Fishing started at 8AM and the fish were done biting at 10AM due to the unusually sunny day. The Rotary Club thanks all the vendors who help us put this event on every year.

Winners of the largest fish caught in each age group and an overall largest fish were awarded at the close of the derby. The winners are:

Age 6 and Under Bradley Beyel PCS 15"
Age 7 Brenen Lamphere WCV 16"
Age 8 Sierra Derocca WCV 14 1/8"
Age 9 Esabella Schrader WCV 12 7/8"
Age 10 Charles Dorris WCV 16 3/4"
Age 11 Jayden Zwierecki PCS 15 1/8"
Age 12 Hailey Cartwright PCS 15 3/8"
Overall Kacen Farber WCV 16 7/8"

See 2019 Fishing Derby Photo Album

27th Annual Auction a Success

The Kuyahoora Rotary Club thanks all who donated goods for the auction and all the attendees of the auction for another successful year at raising funds which allows the Rotary Club to support the Kuyahoora Valley Community. It was a couple of days of hard work to setup the auction, a long day on Sat May 4th to conduct the auction, and another day after to cleanup. All the work was worth the effort. Thanks again to all. Here are some pictures of the auction.

WCVCS Interact Club

The West Canada Valley Interact Club, sponsored by the Kuyahoora Valley Rotary Club, was started in September 2018 at West Canada Valley Central School. With roughly 30 members, we have started several fundraisers. One very successful event was the "Shake and Paint" that helped us to raise money to support the Bunk Bed Project of Guatemala in November. Each Bunk bed cost $220 and we were able to send enough money to buy three bunk beds. In January we partnered with the Poland Central school Interact Club to collect hat and mittens for the Neighborhood Center. Currently, we are wrapping up the collection of books for the program Books for the World. We have packed up 36 boxes of books. Pictured below, from left to right, Brayden McCaw, Olivia Gibson and Jaeden Beam, three of the Interact Club members with the packaged Books for the World.

Students of the Month 2-19-19

At the February 19, 2019 meeting Students of the Month from the West Canada Central School were honored. The Kuyahoora Valley Rotary Club honors students for the academic and service work accomplished during the school year. Each month a student is selected alternating between Poland Central School and West Canada Valley Central School as the Rotary Student of the Month. Students of the Month and their immediate family are invited, as guests, to the clubs meeting for dinner and presentation of the award. Caeli Campbell, selected for October 2018 and Jordon Murphy, selected for December 2018 were each provided a card and $100 check for their accomplishments. Pictured from left to right are Caeli Campbell, Tom Lindsay (Rotary Past President) and Jordon Murphy.