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,

John Stewart

President

Kuyahoora Valley Rotary, New York

2019 Senior Awards

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

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.