Wyckoff and Midland Park rotarians are having a special push on for this month to get food supplies to local Food Pantries. We request that other Rotary Clubs in our district respond to the call to provide emergency supplies to local organizations.
A recent Record article highlighted the serious shortage of food at local Food Pantries during these summer months. This is a perennial problem as people go on vacation and supplied drop as people are otherwise engaged. However, struggling to provide for families does not know any vacation. With our commitment to helping the local community as much as we can we have sprung into action to be of assistance. Each week at our meeting in The Brick House we will be bringing bags of non-perishables that will be taken to needy food centers after our meeting. If you would like to help, feel free to bring food at 7:30 am or contact one of our local members who will arrange to pick it up for you.
We are also reaching out to other Rotary clubs in the District to organize similar initiatives. Things will ease in a month or so, but the time to have an impact is now especially.
You can read more about it here. In this Record article there are several practical suggestions as to how you can assist in the effort. Please help in any way that you can.
Wyckoff Ambulance Corps welcomed our members over two nights to provide comprehensive CPR training.
Wyckoff-Midland Park Rotary members flocked to avail of the CPR training at the Wyckoff Ambulance Corps building. Two nights were needed to cover all of our members.
At the end of the training we all felt that we would be ready to step in to help if we see anyone in distress. Many of our members had been trained in the past but getting instruction on the updated methods was very valuable. CPR has been significantly sipliffied making it a skill that everyone can master.
The training was very practical as we used real dummies that allowed us to practice both on adults and infants. Most of the techniques are the same for adults and children with a few subtle differences that were clearly explained. We also covered people choking which also uses similar techniques and is probably something that we will come across more often.
The CPR training is very much in line with the Rotary philosophy of 'Service Above Self'. The focus is on 'doing something' as the situation is so serious that this is infinitely better than 'doing nothing'. The theme of the evening was very much one of empowerment - 'Give it a shot'.
Hopefully we will never need the skills that we learned but if we do get the chance to make a difference in someone's life we will be very grateful for having received such thorough and effective training. Our thanks go to Hayley Rooney for her effective teaching and candor in sharing her experiences of real life situations. We highly recommend that you join one of the CPR training classes that the Ambulance Corps provide.
First Night Participants practicing their technique:
Second Night Participants happy to be fully trained:
Club Member Ron Pepper demonstrates how to help a choking baby:
Steven Wolfe, the founder of Solid Foundation, addressed our club today. He spoke of his vision of empowering young people to make a solid contribution in their community.
Steven Wolfe of Solid Foundation provided us with a good understanding of the history and current plans of the work that he is involved in through an interactive presentation.
He explained that kids in our area need help. Drug use, depression and suicide are very much present in our community among our young people. The objective of Solid Foundation is to have an impact on the statistics in a downward direction by engaging the youth of our area. They strive to achieve this by doing the following:
Providing kids a place to go
Giving them opportunities to serve.
Linking them up with mentors that they can look up to
From May to September the parking lot of Midland Park Self Storage is transformed into a Skate Park. A group of kids start early on a Saturday morning to assemble the pieces that have been stored during the week – this is their chance to serve and they do it faithfully on a weekly basis. On average 50-100 kids come to skate and this is the key part in giving the kids a place to go.
The skaters are involved in feeding the homeless which provides another chance to serve.
They are also learning to be mentors through a program being run in Newark. They will be using the skills they learn to teach reading to other kids.
Steven is a dynamic speaker that radiates his vision and commitment to making it happen. He has ambitious plans to grow the ministry organically to have an impact on more and more kids. We are happy to support him in his work.
Steven Wolfe with fellow Midland Park residents Emmy Elliya and Russ Kamp:
Chris Hanly shared sound financial planning advice with our club members at our weekly meeting.
Chris Hanley was our weekly speaker. Chris works as a wealth manager and he shared with us some key investment strategies for various life situations.
He also shared with us his evolution from a top college athlete to his career as a business person. He was an accomplished kicker and tried out for the NFL. He finally settled into his career in finance and works hard to help his clients plan their financial future.
He works for a boutique wealth management company that emphasize consistent quality of advice irrespective of the level of money managed by his company. It was obvious to all that he is highly skilled at his job and enjoying his career.
Good questions were asked by those in attendance and Chris had sound advice for each situation.
Below Chris is photographed with Kevin Hanly, his father who is a member of our club and Emmy Elliya, our President Elect:
Paul Van Ostenbridge, President of Atlantic Stewardship Bank updated the club on their activities and charity outreach.
We were happy to welcome Mr Paul Van Ostenbridge to our club today to update us on Atlantic Stewardship Bank.
Paul did a terrific job describing the banking landscape in NJ, with the Northeast being the sweet spot, and the south and west having difficulty. In addition, he described the industry as being heavily regulated with 5 agencies overseeing their activities. They are governed by a lot of regulations as a result. Paul talked about the evolution of banking from when he entered the industry in the '70s until today. Very challenging, but exciting. He also talked about ASB's tithing, which is 10% of their earnings to philanthropic causes within the community. Their new office in Midland Park will be completed in June. They've closed a branch in Wayne, and they are consolidating commercial lending into the Midland Park facility.
Below Paul is photographed with President Elect, Emmy Elliya and long time member Bernie Gallant
