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,
John Stewart
President
Kuyahoora Valley Rotary, New York
Kuyahoora Valley Rotary Club Supports the Kuyahoora Valley Food Pantry
The Kuyahoora Valley Rotary Club requested a $500 community service grant from Rotary District 7150. The grant was funded and the photo shows two Rotarians handing a check for $500 to Ralph Dow, who has served for 17 years as the Director of the Kuyhoora Valley Food Pantry. Our Rotary club is proud to help this excellent community service organization now located on NYS State Route 28 between Newport and Poland. The Food Pantry is open during the COVID-19 pandemic as boxes of food are loaded directly into vehicles by gloved and masked volunteers. No human interaction is necessary. Pictured from left to right are Mary Beth Greene, Tom Trevvett and Ralph Dow
Kuyahoora Valley Rotary Club Student of the Month Awards
At the February 04, 2020 Kuyahoora Valley Rotary meeting, we honored three students with Student of the Month Awards. This is an ongoing function of the Rotary club to honor local high school students who rated highly in academics and service to the school and community. For the months of Oct through Jun of the school year the club alternates monthly between Poland Central School (PCS) and West Canada Valley Central School (WCVCS) honoring a high school student. At this meeting the club honored Sydney Kinsella, WCVCS with the Oct 2019 award, Alexia Pomichter, PCS with the Nov 2019 award and Sarah Costello WCVCS, with the Jan 2020 award. Pictured from left to right are Alexia Pomichter, Sydney Kinsella, and Sarah Costello.
Rasch AwarOn Aug 6 2019, the Kuyahoora Valley Rotary Club invited students to attend a senior award dinner meeting held at the Town of Russia Park. This year we had seniors from Poland Central School (PCS) and from West Canada Valley Central School (WCVCS) that won awards for academic achievement, volunteerism or outstanding effort. The award winners each introduced their parents and told us briefly about their academic plans for the coming year and their eventual job goals.
The Arthur Whaley award, $1000 for academic achievement, went to Chloe Lawson (PCS), who plans to attend SUNY Binghamton and major in biochemistry and Ryan Soron (WCVCS), who will also attend SUNY Binghamton and major in engineering.
The Kenneth Young award of $500 recognizes outstanding effort and self-improvement during the high school years. The effort award was presented to Keara Blumenstock (PCS), who will start school at HCCC and plans to get her M.A. majoring in speech pathology and Dana Rubin (WCVCS), who was not able to attend the banquet.
The Rasch award of $500 for community service was presented to Sarah DeVuyst (PCS), who plans to attend MVCC for a degree in Business Administration and Nathaniel Marrero (WCVCS), who plans to go to Alfred for Ceramic Engineering.
Two other new this year awards were also presented.
The $1000 Coman Memorial award which honors a graduating student from WCVCS who excelled in both academics and athletics. This year the award was presented to Wesley Clarke, who plans to attend SUNY Oswego and major in childhood education.
The $500 Manfred Klutschkowski Memorial award to a student(s) from either PCS or WCVCS who has chosen to use the Rotary Foreign Exchange program as an outbound student in the coming year. This year the award, which helps with expenses, goes to Ryann Dunn (PCS), who will be going to Japan for a full school year.
We are proud of our eight award winners and wish them good fortune in their chosen professions. Pictured below from left to right are: Wesley Clark, Ryan Soron, Nathaniel Marrero, Melissa McCredie (Youth Exchange Officer), Keara Blumenstock, Chloe Lawson, Sarah DeVuyst
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.
