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 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.

We are proud to be one of the first Rotary Clubs to participate in the Dolly Parton Imagination Library book program of Herkimer and Oneida counties, which provides FREE books for local children, ages birth through 5.

Annually we sponsor Incoming and Outgoing Foreign Exchange students. 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 2017-2018:

Yours in Rotary,

Thomas Lindsay

President

Kuyahoora Valley Rotary, New York

Rotary Annual Senior Award Winners Dinner

Posted by Tom Lindsay

On Aug 7 2018, the Kuyahoora Valley Rotary Club invited all six of its senior student award winners to attend a dinner meeting. The award winners each introduced their parents and told us briefly about their academic plans for the coming year and their eventual job goals. This year we had three seniors from Poland Central High School (PCS) and three from West Canada Valley Central High School (WCVCS) that won awards for academic achievement, volunteerism or outstanding effort.

The Arthur Whaley award, $1000 for academic achievement, went to Patrick Mahoney (PCS), who plans on attending NYU majoring in Business Administration, and Abigail Gorinshek (WCVCS), who plans on attending SUNY Geneseo majoring in Early Childhood Education.

The Kenneth Young award of $500 recognizes outstanding effort and self-improvement during the high school years. It was awarded to Ryan Kolwaite (PCS), who plans to attend SUNY Poly majoring in Electrical Engineering, and Victoria Tasovac (WCVCS), who will attend Daemen College to become a physician’s assistant.

Lastly, the Rasch award, $500 for community service, was presented to John Zuchowski (PCS), who plans on attending Robert Williams College majoring in Biology and Evan Moynihan (WCVCS), who plans on attendng Utica College majoring in Political Science. Evan will also run for a spot on the West Canada Valley Central School Board this Fall.

From left to right: Ryan Kolwaite, Victoria Tasovac, Evan Moynihan, Abigail Gorinshek, Patrick Mahoney and John Zuchowski.

Apr 2018 Student of the Month

Nat Lowell was chosen by the Rotary Club of the Kuyahoora Valley as their student-of-the-month for April. He is currently a sophomore at the West Canada School but plans on attending Albany SUNY for a possible career in Law when he graduates. Meanwhile he is taking College Now courses and A.P. courses as they become available. He is a class Officer and tutors friends during spare school time. We are proud of Nat and his hard work. Pictured from Left to right is Nat Lowell and Dorene Gortner, Club President.

Students of the Month Mar & May 2018

The Kuyahoora Rotary club recognized two students from PHS for the months of March and May. They and their parents were treated to dinner with us. In addition, they received $100 gifts and cards. Devon Drapper is now a high school Junior and has not made a decision on his college yet. However, he plans on being trained as an electrical engineer and is a top student. He is also the president of the ROTERACT Club in his school. He will be doing a three week internship in electrical engineering this summer. P.J. Mahoney is a high school Senior this year and plans on attending New York University in Brooklyn for Civil Engineering. He is the Valedictorian of his graduating class and was also recognized as an excellent baseball player. We wish both of these outstanding students the best of luck in their future endeavors. Pictured from left to right are JP Mahoney and Devin Drapper.

2018 Fishing Derby

The Kuyahoora Valley Rotary Club held its annual Youth Fishing Derby at Klutschkowski’s Ponds on

Saturday, June 2, and it was a hit. 92 kids registered to fish and over 100 adults attended to help

and chaperone. There was free food, free bait and lots of prizes for everyone who fished. We want to

Thank Morgan Bait of Camden for supplying us with hundreds of worms. We also want to thank Stewarts.

Moody’s. Walmart, Hometown Bait and Tackle, Adirondack Anglers, Ollies and Rome Specialty Co. for contributing

To our prizes. Individuals such as Jason Bartlett also contributed to the Derby.

The grand prize winner with a trout of l6 ¾ inches was Alexander Congdon of Central Valley School. The

Two runners up were Brayden Rath with a 15 inch trout and Hannah Lubeck with a 15 ¼ inch trout.

Many fished in the second pond for bass and sunfish as well. A good time was had by all and the Rotary

Club plans to do it again next year.

Poland Central School Interact

At the Kuyahoora Valley Rotary Club meeting on Jan 16 2018, the Kuyahoora club presented the Rotary International Certification to the newly formed Interact Club at Poland Central School (PCS). Interact Clubs are Rotary sponsored clubs for high school students to learn about Rotary and to enhance the school, local, national and international communities similar to all world-wide Rotary Clubs. The PCS Interact has 15 members. The Interact Club motto, as with all Rotary clubs, is “service above self” and as such the PCS Interact has initiated service programs to include, food collection for Veterans, and the Rotary International program of “Books for the World. Pictured Below from left to right are: Dorene Gortner (Rotary/Interact Club coordinator), Chloe Lawson (Interact Member), Baily Dunn (Interact Member), Gabrielle Stemmer (Interact Member), Deven Draper (Interact Club President) and Tom Lindsay (Rotary Club President).