20 Local Charities Receive Donation at Annual Valentine's Giveaway

20 LOCAL CHARITIES RECEIVE DONATIONS
The Rotary Club of Patterson Holds Annual Valentine’s Giveaway

On Valentine’s Day, The Rotary Club of Patterson presented 20 Putnam County and area charities with cash donations totaling almost $17,000.

Also known as the ‘Valentine’s Giveaway’, it is one of two semi-annual Community Awards Giveaways held in February and June by the Rotary Club of Patterson. Different groups will receive donations in June.

Club members and award recipients gathered early Tuesday morning at the Rotary Club’s weekly meeting at the Patterson Recreation Center.

Club President, Anthony Molé commended the representatives of the various organizations in attendance, for doing such good things for our community. “That’s why you’re all here and you should be really proud of yourselves. We appreciate the time and dedication that you take in your organizations to do what you do so well. Without people like you in the room our community is a much lesser place. We all take pride in our community and we all want to do whatever we can to help our community, it’s our civic duty.”

The Rotary Club of Patterson hosts three major fundraising events each year which fund the Community Awards Giveaways, beginning with Men Who Cook coming up on May 6th. The highly popular gastronomic event is helmed by amateur and professional chefs who serve a tasting, buffet-style, of their specialty ranging from appetizers to entrees, and of course, desserts! The Patterson Rotary Blues & BBQ Festival is quickly becoming a must-attend two-day family/food/fun music event in September. The BBQ ribs are in such high demand that they often sell out early. And finally, the Club’s newest fundraising event in October is Touch-A-Truck for Heroes. Kids of all ages, and kids-at-heart, get to climb up onto their favorite big trucks and maybe even honk a few horns. All three events contribute to the donations that were made to Tuesday’s recipients.

“I can’t think of a better way to spend Valentine’s morning,” declared Marie Hatcher of Matthew’s Hearts of Hope, an organization that raises awareness, offers support to families, and funds research for the number one birth defect, Congenital Heart Defects (CHDs). Hatcher’s son, Matthew, is 8 years old and has CHD. Hatcher began the not-for- profit when her son’s friend passed away.

Marybeth Vandergrift accepted on behalf of Help Our Military Heroes, a 100% donation- driven volunteer organization that gives fully-adaptive minivans to severely wounded service men and women, post 9-11. “We have just given our 77th minivan since 2009 - one family, soldier or veteran at a time - and 100% of this will go to another van.”

Rotarians develop community service projects that address many of today’s most critical issues, such as: children at risk, poverty, clean water, hunger, the environment, illiteracy and violence.

The Patterson club donated over $50,000 in cash and in-kind services to local organiza- tions and neighbors in need last year. This included: complete Thanksgiving dinner for 30 families - appetizers to desserts; dinner for Camp Sundown where children with a genetic disorder can't go out in the sun to play; school supply collections, local food pantry assistance, and ShelterBox national and international disaster relief, just to name a few of their projects.

Rotary International is the oldest service organization in the world. It is the only non- governmental organization to have a permanent seat at the United Nations, an organization that Rotary helped to form. The Patterson Rotary Club is one of nearly 33,000 local Rotary Clubs around the world, making approximately 1.2 million Rotarian members.

For more information:

www.PattersonRotary.org

PattersonRotaryNY@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/PattersonRotaryNY/