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Home Page Stories
August 16, 2024
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT    
HEAR YE! HEAR YE! SPREAD THE WORD, LOOKING FOR A WAY TO SPEND YOUR FREE TIME, CHECK THIS OUT!!!
 
A team of Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Yarmouth worked to create a list of volunteer opportunities, so if you are bored, or looking to fill a few hours, to worthy causes, check it out!
 
The 34rd annual 2024 Yarmouth Rotary Charity Golf Tournament is scheduled for Tuesday September 24th at Cummaquid Golf Course. 
All proceeds raised from this Golf Tournament fund our High School Scholarship Program, help the Yarmouth Food Pantry, Cape Cod Brite Lights and other financial requests received during the year.
Registration starts at 10:30, Lunch at 11:00 and a shotgun start at 12 noon. Dinner and awards immediately after the tournament.
Come join us on the oldest course on Cape Cod, built in 1895. It might be your only chance to play Cummaquid this year. For more information on playing golf or being one of our sponsors, please print out our brochure. You can find the Golf Tournament Brochure in the Home Page Download File Section on the left side of this home page. 
To sign up, please visit our Golf Webpage at: https://www.birdease.com/yarmouthrotarygolf
 
Join us for our 33rd Annual Charity Golf Tournament!
Article published in the Cape Cod Times on Sunday, March 5:
 
WEST YARMOUTH — The demonstrations all over the world on Feb. 24, supporting Ukraine on the first anniversary of the start of the Russian invasion, had special meaning for Emily Stukalo, a sophomore at Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School.
She recalled being awakened by a friend early that morning at her home in Kyiv a year ago when the alarms alerted that Russian troops were headed there.
 
She was moved this past week by all the support for her country, she said in an interview Monday.
 
“We are really grateful for the help the U.S. has given us.”
 
She is also grateful to be on Cape Cod enjoying life as a normal 15-year-old after living through a tumultuous few months after the war started.

Emily and her parents, Oleksandr and Tamara, and her toy poodle, stayed only a week in Kyiv after the initial invasion before they decided to leave.
She recalled the three-day car trip in two cars with others traveling through Moldova and into Romania.
 
“It was kind of scary,” she said.
 
She told of the generosity of people along the way, offering food and free lodging.
 
“We appreciated it a lot,” she said.
 
When the family got to Romania, they decided to go to Israel where her 36-year-old half-brother and his family live and got an emergency flight, with their dog.
 
That journey was not the family’s first time evacuating. They lived in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine until 2014 when the Russians first took over that area and they fled to Kyiv. Emily’s grandparents still live there, but seem to be safe, she said.
 
Emily’s family stayed only two months in Israel as her parents needed to work, she said. Her father, an endoscopic surgeon, and her mother, a physical therapist, returned to Kyiv in May.
 
“The air raid sirens were not as often as before,” Emily said.
 
How did Emily end up on Cape Cod?
She spent a relatively normal summer with her friends, but then learned that she might have an opportunity to go to the United States as an exchange student.
 
Steve Albright of the Rotary Club of Yarmouth and inbound chairman of Rotary Youth Exchange District 7950 of southeastern Massachusetts, said Monday that early last year the possibility of getting four students from Ukraine had fallen through. He had heard about Emily through a woman in another Rotary district. Emily’s family had a friend in Rotary in Kyiv.
 
He quickly started the process to bring her here, which usually takes several months but was completed in five weeks. Emily got her passport in Kyiv, and had to go to Poland to get a visa because the U.S. Embassy was closed, then immediately flew to Boston.
 
Most exchange students have to pay for the travel expenses, but Steve and his wife, Jill, who chairs the Rotary district’s outbound exchanges, sent a letter to district members, who contributed all of Emily’s expenses.
 
She arrived in September to live with Jim and Victoria Kenny, her host family at their home in Yarmouth.
 
“They are an absolutely awesome family,” Jill Albright said.
 
Safe, but staying connected to family in Ukraine. Emily misses her parents, but they talk on the phone every day.
“They miss me a lot, but they know that I’m safe and don’t get too nervous,” she said.
 
She keeps up on the latest developments in her country and expressed anger at the Russians and sadness that so many Ukrainians are losing their lives. She pulled out her phone to show the Ukrainian coat of arms on her passport. “It means freedom,” she said.
 
She said she loves D-Y and is taking most of the same classes she would be taking as a sophomore in Kyiv. She is in honors trigonometry and German and also takes U.S. history and English. She made the honor roll twice, but was disappointed with only a B-plus in English to keep her from high honors. Her English is excellent — she has been learning it since age 4. She is also doing online courses with her Ukrainian teachers, who give her daily homework.
 
Emily is outgoing and has made many new friends at D-Y, which has two other Ukrainian students sponsored by the United for Ukraine program.
She has been playing sports at the school, including soccer and basketball, and plans to try out for lacrosse. She also skied in New Hampshire during winter break with the Albrights.
 
Jill Albright, the Rotary Club of Yarmouth District 7950 Outbound Chair, said part of the exchange program asks the students to speak at Rotary clubs. Emily said she wants to talk about Ukraine and thank people for their support, but she has to work up her courage to speak to groups.
Albright said she would like more people to know about the Rotary program, which supports 8,000 exchanges a year worldwide.
 
“Our goal is to have one (student) at every school in the area,” she said.
 
Steve Albright is also working on getting a two-year extension of Emily’s stay.
What does it take to have courageous conversations at work or in an organization
(Part 1)
What are courageous conversations?
Courageous conversations involve intentionally giving space to complex issues of social justice, race, and privilege with people at work. These conversations are courageous because they require being bold, openness to sharing your own experiences, and to hearing the experience of others.

Having these difficult conversations means being open to having your viewpoints challenged, as well as directly confronting topics that many of us have been taught to sidestep in polite conversation.
 
Why are courageous conversations so important?
Some may think that they’re doing the right thing by asserting that they don't see color, gender, or other identities at work, but it’s a problematic stance to take. After all, nobody wants to be overlooked. In fact, pretending that these characteristics don't exist allows prejudice and systemic racism to continue to exist.

However, when social and racial justice issues are prevalent — both in the news and in every facet of day-to-day life — being able to ignore them is a privilege. However, doing so undermines trust — both the trust that your employees have in your organization and in society.
 
Being a person of color, non-binary, disabled, the “token” employee, or standing out at work for any other characteristic can be an uncomfortable experience. Having courageous conversations allows everyone to share in this discomfort in the very best way. When people are willing to do the work of challenging and uprooting their assumptions, it brings awareness to and validates these difficult experiences. This in turn creates partnership in the learning experience and in having all employees feel more connected and understood. 

Everyone has a unique experience, no matter who they are or where they come from. Courageous conversations give you the opportunity to share your experiences, have them validated, and be vulnerable. These conversations can be difficult and should be had with intentionality and care. But they are ultimately worth the discomfort if you value creating belonging in the workplace.
 
 
Submitted by Rufus Jones
 
This past weekend I attended a DEI Summit offered by Rotary District 7910 (Metro West and Central Massachusetts. There were over 200 registered participants from around the globe. One of the Breakout Room was a panel discussion on Cultural Competency. In a previous column we discussed what is Culture. This weeks entry defines these two concepts. In Part II we will see how an individual moves from Cultural Competency to Cultural Humility -The Continuum.
 
What is cultural competence?
Cultural competence is a type of social fluency gained by learning about another culture’s language, set of customs, beliefs, and patterns. It
enables service providers to tailor their approach to be culturally responsive and sensitive.
 
What is cultural humility?
Cultural humility is an approach to sociocultural differences that is “self-first.” It emphasizes intersectionality and understanding one’s own implicit biases. This approach cultivates self-awareness and self-reflection, bringing a respectful willingness to learn to inter-personal interactions.
 
The benefits of cultural humility
Intersectionality, diversity, and inclusion are complex topics. In many ways, the only path to making any significant leap from multiculturalism to belonging is through cultural humility. Developing a workplace — as well as a society — that fosters cultural humility and inclusion takes the magnifying glass ’ searing heat off of underrepresented employees. It encourages people to lead with the assumption of their own bias first.
 
Why is this so important?
Race, gender, sexuality, and national origin have all become hypersensitized topics in the world. In order to appear culturally competent, people feel the need to assume a defensive stance. After all, the risks of failure are too great . You could be branded a bigot, ostracize your colleagues, and even end your career. The fact is, though, we all have unconscious biases. They don ’t make us evil — they make us human. The idea of cultural competency gives us a false sense of exemption from these human flaws in perception. In one telling example from Cultural humility versus cultural competence, the researchers describe a nurse so convinced of her own expertise that she actually stereotyped a patient. This bias was based on what she’d learned about people of Hispanic descent in a cultural competency class.
 
What went wrong here? Is cultural competence doing more harm than good?
The problem with this idea is that we ask someone outside of the underrepresented group to state the importance of a different culture in any given scenario. It’s an example of prescribing the problem as the solution. If it were possible for people to do this with any level of accuracy, we wouldn’t have a need for cultural competency in the first place.
 
Sources: Checkout these link for a more detailed discussion
New Club President, Roby Whitehouse, Introduces Club’s Focus for 2022-23
 
July marks the fiscal year for every Rotary Club, and the Rotary Club of Yarmouth is no exception. On June 22 at The Loft Restaurant, the Rotary Club of Yarmouth installed its new Board of Directors, Officers, and new President, Roby Whitehouse, who is also the Assistant Public Works Director for the Town of Yarmouth.
 
Past District Governor and Past President Stephen Albright swears in Yarmouth Rotary’s 2022-23 President Roby Whitehouse
 
 
Just a reminder that Yarmouth Rotary's Zoom Wine Tasting Event is eight days away. This is a chance to enjoy some great new wines via a zoom tasting event.
Not a wine drinker - NO problem. Please still consider donating to the Scholarship Fund to help further the education of Yarmouth Students. Just make a notation "NO WINE". All those participating or donating will be entered into our door prize drawings. Drawings include Cape Cod Beer, a Gift Certificate for dinner, an Adirondack chair for your porch or deck and gift certificates for golf and cart. Attached is the letter with details of how to sign up or donate.onate.

Yarmouth Boy Raises $2,600 For Food Pantry;
Yarmouth Rotary Honors as Youngest Paul Harris Fellow at age 11

IPDG Steve Albright (L) with Jack Bohlin (R)The Rotary Club of Yarmouth recently announced the latest Paul Harris fellow to honor Jack Bohlin, 11, of Yarmouth. Jack has been making bracelets since the pandemic first struck the Cape and has been selling them to raise funds in support of the Yarmouth Food Pantry, a project which the Rotary Club of Yarmouth began over 10 years ago. The Rotary Club of Yarmouth gave Jack a $250 donation to purchase supplies to make the bracelets and Jack sells the bracelets for $5 each. Thus far he has raised over $2,600! His original goal was $2,000, which has now been increased to $3,500. The bracelets are available at Barn & Co. in Dennis.
 
Rotary’s Immediate Past District Governor Steve Albright and his wife Jill, both members of the Rotary Club of Yarmouth, made a $1,000 donation to The Rotary Foundation in recognition of Jack’s contributions to the community. This donation in Jack’s name made him the club’s youngest Paul Harris Fellow. This recognition acknowledges individuals who contribute, or who have contributions made in their name, of $1,000 to The Rotary Foundation. The mission of The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty. Jack joins other notable Paul Harris Fellows including Mother Teresa, President Jimmy Carter, polio vaccine developer Jonas Salk, and the entertainer Pearl Bailey through a joint effort of the Rotary clubs of Cape Cod.
 
Donations can be made directly to the Yarmouth Food Pantry at yarmouthfoodpantry.org.
The Rotary Club of Yarmouth formally installed President Gerald "Curly" Carey and his Board of Directors for the 2019-2020 club year. On June 26th, outgoing President Kevin Lennon shared the club's success and thanked the club for the support he received from the  members in all the club's efforts and accomplishments throughout the year.
The Rotary Club of Yarmouth has the pleasure of recognizing the area's youth for their exceptional academic or community involvement. For years, the club has brought in high school students from the Dennis- Yarmouth district as well as Cape Cod Regional Technical School to share their accomplishments. 
 

Rotary Club of Yarmouth Provides Christmas to Many Local Families

 

The Rotary Club of Yarmouth spent weeks preparing for this annual event that brings so many smiles and laughs to local families that may not otherwise have a joy filled holiday. With a special committee dedicated to this event, members were deployed with their specific action items to ensure a successful day of fun. 
 

Rotary Club of Yarmouth Donates 6 SafetyNet Tracking Bracelets to Yarmouth Police Department for Community Members

Tracking Bracelets Available to Families at No Cost

The Rotary Club of Yarmouth secured a Rotary District 7950 matching grant to purchase 6 SafetyNet tracking bracelets to distribute to members of the community. These bracelets are designed for people with cognitive disorders, such as autism or Alzheimer’s. The person will wear the bracelet and should s/he wander, a caregiver or family member can call the Yarmouth Police Department (YPD) to locate the person. The YPD has radio signal receivers to begin tracking the individual starting at the person’s last known location. The Rotary Club of Yarmouth has donated 6 of these bracelets to the YPD for distribution to families. The club also purchased extra bands and spare batteries, so there are no ongoing maintenance costs for families. The YPD will register the individual and follow-up quarterly with the family/caregiver to make sure the bracelet is still intact and being worn. The SafetyNet Tracking bracelets are waterproof and lightweight, so are comfortable and should remain on the person at all times.
 
Rotary Club of Yarmouth Collects Over 600 Mobility Devices - Mobility Devices to Help Disabled in Africa
 
Thanks to many local donors, the Rotary Club of Yarmouth has concluded its latest project of collecting unused mobility devices on Cape Cod to send to disabled adults and children in developing countries in Africa. Many of the intended recipients are the victims of the polio disease and have been left disabled. They are often unable to be active members of their communities because of the lack of mobility. These devices will help people be able to reach their villages to collect water, go to school, accept jobs, and be active members of their communities.
 
In total, over 600 devices were collected, including 410 walkers, 109 pairs of crutches, 35 canes, 43 wheelchairs, and miscellaneous leg braces, air casts, boots, and other devices. Special credit and thanks go to the many collection sites in the mid-Cape area include, including Adrene Jewelers, CapeAbilities, Cape & Islands Boy Scout Council, Community Connections, George Davis Builders, Glivinski & Associates, Platinum Auto Service, ReStore South Yarmouth, Subway of South Yarmouth, the Town of Yarmouth Disposal Area and the Brewster Baptist Church. Frank Mastromauro, owner of Lighthouse Landing plaza in South Yarmouth, donated the use of a storage facility to store the items until pickup. These locations made it easy for donors to discard their unused and unwanted devices.
 
This is the second collection the club has conducted, the first being in April of 2016, where over 750 devices were collected and sent to Africa. This project links the local community is to help those in need globally and puts to use the many unused mobility devices found in the many area senior centers, in attics, basements, and garages around the Cape.
 
The mobility devices were loaded into a trailer on Wednesday, May 2, and were transported to Biddeford, Maine, where they will be combined with other collected devices and shipped to Africa in the coming months in a shipping container.
 
The Rotary Club of Yarmouth needs your help and support! During the month of April, the club is collecting mobility devices which will be sent to disabled adults and children in developing countries in Africa. Many are the victims of the polio disease and have been left disabled. They are often unable to be an active part of their communities because of their lack of mobility. These devices will help people be able to reach their village to collect water, go to school, accept jobs, and be active participants in their communities.
 
If you have any crutches, canes, walkers, leg and knee braces, wheelchairs or other mobility devices lying around your home, please donate to Help Change a Life. Drop-off locations are listed below, thanks to our wonderful volunteers. 
 
1198 Route 28, South Yarmouth
 
1848 Main St, Brewster
 
895 Mary Dunn Road, Hyannis
 
247 Willow Street, Yarmouthport
 
261 Whites Path, South Yarmouth
 
33 North Main Street, South Yarmouth
 
261 Whites Path, Suite 5, South Yarmouth
 
27 Commercial Street, South Yarmouth
 
28 White’s Path, South Yarmouth
 
851 Route 28, South Yarmouth
 
606 Forest Road, South Yarmouth
 
 
 
Yarmouth Rotary Unwanted Prescription Drug Box at Yarmouth Police Department
 
The Yarmouth Rotary Club has sponsored the unwanted prescription drug box at Yarmouth Police Department headquarters. The next scheduled drop-off day is Saturday, April 29 from 10am-2pm, however, the box is available 24/7 in the lobby of the police station. 
 
Accepted Medications:  Prescription medications including prescription patches, medications & ointments.  Over-the-counter medications, vitamins, samples, medications for pets, ointments, lotions, liquid medications in glass or leak-proof containers. Unaccepted:  Needles (sharps), thermometers, bloody or infectious waste, medications from businesses or clinics, hydrogen peroxide, aerosol cans, inhalers 
 
Syringe Disposal: Under Massachusetts law, syringes must be properly disposed of.  Sharps containers are available and may be picked up at the front counter of Yarmouth Police Department.  If you find a syringe on your property or in a public place, please call Yarmouth Police Department immediately for officer dispatch and proper disposal.
 
For more information, click here to view the Yarmouth Police Department's website. 
 
 
Pictured are from left to right, John Cooke, Yarmouth Rotary's Director of Public Image and AVP - Online Banking Manager at The Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod; Lieutenant Kevin Lennon, Yarmouth Rotary's Vice President and a Lieutenant at Yarmouth Police Department, Janice Matheson, Yarmouth Rotary club member and RN Case Manager at Caregiver Homes; and Yarmouth Police Chief Frank Frederickson.
Yarmouth Rotary's 30th Annual Golf Tournament
The Rotary Club of Yarmouth will be holding it’s 30th Annual Golf Tournament, presented by The Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod at the Cummaquid Golf Club on September 24th.
 
Registration and Lunch will begin at 11:30am with a 1:00pm Shotgun start. A buffet dinner with awards will follow the tournament play.
 
The tournament will sell out and golfer registration prior to September 1st is strongly encouraged. 
Team of Four Golfers: $700 and Individual: $175,
Sponsorship opportunities available please contact John Cooke for information, 508-568-3286.
 
  • The Yarmouth Rotary Annual Golf Tournament is the club’s largest fundraiser.
  • Started in 1990, the tournament raised $2,000 in its first year and gave four scholarships to DY High School students.
  • Now in its 30th year, this annual event has raised over $475,000 in scholarship funds benefitting more than 475 students from DY Regional High School & Cape Cod Regional Technical High School.
  • Last year the event allowed the club to provide over $24,000 in scholarships to local graduating seniors.
  • Proceeds from this charity tournament are also used to help support the Yarmouth Food Pantry, the annual Christmas party for deserving children and their families, weekly support of the Meals on Wheels program, and a variety of other local requests through ourm Good Works comittee.
 
Club Executives & Directors
President
President Elect
Vice President
Treasurer
Secretary
Director, Vocational Services
Director, Public Image
Director, Club Administration
Director, New Generations
Director, International Services
Director, Community Service
Yarmouth Rotary Foundation Chair
Past President
The Rotary Foundation Chair
Sergeant-at-Arms
Assistant District Governor
Past District Governor 2000-2001
Past District Governor 2019-2020