Governor

Our year, started off great! We had a mild winter, which I'm sure helped attendance at our club level. We were able to plan our community events and fund raisers for the spring and summer. Eagerly awaiting that time when we can raise the necessary funds to provide the services to those in need.
We had a very successful Mid-Winter Conference in Binghamton. Attendance was up and again the weather held out. We had some great speakers, along with our very interesting forums. My Governors Project, Mental Health Awareness was well represented, by my committee chair Maureen Neuringer, assisted by Thomas Cesiro, Charles Cronin, Kevin Kamper, Anthony Pappas, Jeff Stone and Marie Swartzwelder. Thank you for helping those in need. The First Lady's Mid-Winter Project, supplies for the Kampers, was a huge success. When Debbie and I walked into the room, she was very touched to say the least. Thank you for making Debbie happy and our Kampers happy.
Talk about challenging times, WOW! But I know as New York Kiwanians we can meet this challenge head on. Although we face many cancellations of our fund raisers and loss of income, let's plan to come back strong. If we hold onto our ideas and plans we can start up more quickly. While we won't be able to meet all of our goals for the year, it would benefit us to continue our plans and carry them out. This will enable us to stay strong for the many years ahead of us.
On to membership. I think the most vulnerable member that we might lose is the newest one. That person that just started, because of lack of connection with regular meetings. Therefore I strongly suggest contacting that new member. Please help to keep that person close. Membership will be so critical this year. We always try to gain, but we need to think about holding onto our existing members. So please reach out to that elderly neighbor but also to each other. How about calling members of other clubs, so we all stay connected. There are many ways to connect, such a conference calls, Zoom, etc.
Charles Cronin, who is helping with our project, has prepared a list of Mental Health Resources around the state. He has also prepared a list for the Covid-19 pandemic. I am thinking, through these trying times, we can utilize this information. If we have a virtual meeting, we can get someone to speak about these prevalent issues. Please contact me at (917) 678-3734 or e-mail jpr857@aol.com so I can forward to you this information.
Hoping for much better times. Please stay strong, stay inside, drink a lot of water and wash, wash and wash some more.

Column Posted on Web Site April 7, 2020