Oneonta- A Great Place to Live

At today's weekly meeting, members of the Oneonta Rotary Club were reminded once again of one of the reasons why Oneonta is such a great place to live--a vibrant, cultural atmosphere fostered by the presence of two wonderful institutions of higher education-Hartwick College and SUNY Oneonta.  Today's speaker, Dr. Robert Bensen, English Department, Hartwick College, presented information on the Hartwick College NEH Visiting Distinguished Professorship in Humantities program "Four Writers Who Changed the World."  Over the next eight months, Hartwick College will present four renowned writers in the arts, sciences and humanities:    Billy Collins, U.S. Poet Laureate, NEA Fellowship, NYFA Fellowship; David Sloan Wilson, SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence; Guggenheim Fellow, National MS Society Book Award; Derek Walcott, Nobel Prize for Literature and numerous other awards; and Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer Prize, PEN/Ernest Hemingway Award, National book Critics Circle Award, LA Times Book Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction.  Members of the Oneonta community will have the opportunity to hear and meet each of these highly accomplished, thought provoking and widely read individuals.  We are incredibly fortunate to have access to opportunities of this caliber-one of the reasons that Oneonta is such a great place to live!

State Champion OHS Baseball Team Comes to Rotary

Baseball reigned supreme at today's Oneonta Rotary Club weekly meeting as representatives from the Oneonta High School (OHS) state champions baseball team visited Rotary to talk about their path to the championship.  Oneonta High School Athletic Director and Baseball Coach Joe Hughes spoke about how the team's philosophy of Be a Champion Everyday-in school, in sports and in life- set the standard that led to the team's phenomenal season.  Congratulations to all on an outstanding accomplishment!



Coaches and players from the OHS State Championship Baseball team visit Rotary.  At the center, Coach Joe Hughes (l.) shakes hands with Rotary President Paul Patterson (r.) who is wearing his lucky ball cap.



Ninash Foundation Promotes Literacy for Impoverished Children Throughout the World

At the August 16, 2012 weekly meeting, Oneonta Rotarians had the opportunity to learn how the Ninash Foundation is promoting literacy throughout the world.  Started in 1996 by students and professors in the Learn and Serve in India program led by Dr. Ashok Malhotra, SUNY Oneonta, the Ninash Foundation has grown from a one room schoolhouse to six schools providing educational opportunities for 1,200 children.  Presenters Malhotra and Ms Linda Drake told the gathering that the foundation's goal is to educate 50 million impoverished children and transform the communities in which the children live.  To learn more about the Ninash Foundation's Indo-International Schools' project visit www.ninash.org.



Rotary Foundation Pilot Program Saves the Lives of Mothers-to-be in Nigeria

For the past five years, the Rotary Foundation has supported a pilot program in Nigeria aimed at reducing maternal morality by preventing and treating obstetric fistula, a serious birth injury that can cause stillbirth and, in the mother, chronic incontinence, infection, nerve damage and death.  The primary cause is labor that goes on for too long, often for days.  Because 70% of Nigerian women deliver at home, often without access to proper medical care, long labors that would be prevented in the developed world are more common.  Prevention is the key and with the help of a Rotary Foundation grant, a series of radio programs were created that explained the condition, its causes and the available treatment.  All in all, this project helped reduce maternal death by 60%; it reached 1 million women of childbearing age and resulted in the repair of obstetric fistulas for 1,500 women.  (Lana Rouff, District Rotary Foundation Chair)

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Events:
August 30th:  Hartwick Poetry Program Information on visiting Nobel and Pulitzer Prize Poets.
October 20th:  Mark your calendars!  The Annual Rotary Pancake Breakfast.
November 11th:  Veteran's Day Celebration