WELCOME TO THE MORRISVILLE-YARDLEY AREA ROTARY CLUB!
SCROLL DOWN AND SEE WHAT WE'RE UP TO!
The club's current General meetings the 2nd & 4th Thursdays of the month and are hybrid: In-person at Michael's Restaurant in Morrisville and via ZOOM:
The club has introduced a BREAKFAST MEETING. At the Bird's Nest, corner of E. Philadelphia Ave. & Philadelphia ave. in Morrisville.
7 AM Drop in for breakfast or just a cup of coffee to meet the members and find out what the club is doing locally and around the world. First timers: the breakfast is on the club!
Look around to find: What's coming up? Who are the Officers? How Can I be Involved?
Click here for details about our website sponsors who currently are Thomas J. Mack Construction, Denis W. Lanctot, Esq, and Luke McKee. (Want to help sponsor? Just contact us at davidsample41@gmail.com.
Click Here to read my welcome message and then continue to scroll down on this page to see what the club has been doing over the past year. (We've been busy!)
Oh, and click on the Facebook link below to go to the Club's facebook page.
Michael Yager, President 2021-2022
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First Breakfast Meeting!
What a great way to kick off a Thursday morning. Good turnout for the club's first breakfast meeting. There were two new prospective members attending. A big thank you goes out to The Bird’s Nest at Philadelphia & Pennsylvania Aves.in Morrisville for hosting the club. The next breakfast meeting will be 7am November 3rd at the Bird’s Nest. Stop in for breakfast or a cup of coffee to meet the members and find out what the club is doing locally & around the world.
Dialysis Machines in India 
The Advance of Bucks County newspaper printed the club's article, Including 2 pictures. Go to Current Projects Updates page for the article.
September 2022 update
Club welcomes new member Luke McKee at the September 22 meeting. Plans in process for Spring fundraiser: Corn Hole afternoon at the Snipes Farm -watch for details! Club will explore having a monthly breakfast meeting at the Bird's Nest in Morrisville. SA Vaneswaran reported on the status of the International Projects in India.
September 8, 2022 Mariann Matarese, a realtor with Fox & Roach and the founder of the Stray Cat Project, first discussed the current real estate market and then how she got involved with getting stray and feral cats caught, spayed/neutered and then returned to their territory in order to protect and improve their lives and help to end the perils of overpopulation. She noted that not returning cats to their territory simply invites more cats to the area and continuing overpopulation. For either real estate interests or to learn more about the Stray Cat Project (a 501(c)3 organization) contact Mariann at 215-801-5350 or go to the website www.straycatproject.org.
August 11, 2022 Kathleen Haggert of Merakey Foster Care discussed how foster care works and the great need for families who are willing to take in foster care children.The families do not need to be in the area where the children are from. For more information, contact Kathleen at 833-629-2220 or email her at fosterparents@merakey.com.
July 28, 2022 District Governor Visit DG Len Geisler talked about goals and events planned for the District and discussed strategies for recruiting new members.
July 2022 -update
TASK (Trenton Area Soup Kitchen) Volunteers: Project resumed. Third Wednesday of the month. See Calendar for schedule and details.
The club will be supporting the Morrisville National Night Out on August 2 in Morrisville's Williamson Park 6-8pm.
Rotarian SA Vaneswaran is continuing his efforts to link up the club and district with a number of humanitarian projects in India. See Current Project Updates.
May 2022 - update
The club hasn't been dormant - just the webmaster!
In March the club began in earnest it's planning for an up coming fundraiser. It will be centered around the popular Cornhole games and competition. Stay tuned!
April was a time for environmental cleanup: A group of volunteers cleaned up and groomed the Rotary Recognition Garden in Williamson Park in Morrisville in preparation for the annual Community Easter Egg Hunt.
On April 9 the Canal cleanup team was at work cleaning up the towpath between Black Rock Road and Trenton Avenue. Perry Warren and some of his team assisted.
The Community Easter Egg Hunt in Morrisville's Williamson Park in April was another great success. Led by Rotary President Mike Yagar and his faithful team of supporters, several thousand eggs filled with sugary treats were quickly collected by several hundred children and their families. Click here for the video
December 2021
Dec. 4: The club participated in Morrisville's Winterfest parade by having cars in the parade and handing out candy.
Dec. 9: General Meeting included election of the new Board of Directors for 2022-23 (see main menu for list). President Mike Yager summarized the 2021_22 Rotary year thus far, offered a list of upcoming Goals and announced his picks for Committee Chairs for 2022-23. District Governor Bob Hobaugh was present and gave President Mike awards for last year's successes. Asst. Governor Gail Linenberg thanked the club for its continuing work. Via Zoom, the Bangalore Southwest Rotary Club in India presented its Global Grant project that will provide kidney dialysis equipment to the local area hospital so that lower cost services can be provided to needing people in the area who otherwise cannot afford treatment. The Morrisville-Yardley Area Rotary Club is slated to financially support the project.
September 23, 2021 Education Needs and Opportunities - Here and There!
There were two guest presentations at the meeting. One was via Zoom by Vinita Saraf in India and the other by Dan O’Brien (in-person at Michael’s Restaurant) and Tomia Sippo-Smith (via Zoom).
SA Vaneswaran introduced Vinita Saraf of the Rotary Club of Calcutta who presented a proposal for a pilot project to help girls in poverty areas in Calcutta get an education and skill training. In India girls from poverty areas are bypassed when it comes to schooling. Vinita has organized the program under the name “Ektara” and is seeking to expand. The global grant would provide needed facilities and teachers. The Board of Directors of Morrisville-Yardley Area Rotary will be taking the proposal to participate under consideration.
President Mike Yager then introduced Dan O’Brien, Bucks County Coordinator, Public Citizens for Children and Youth, a Pennsylvania advocacy organization. Dan introduced staff member Tomea Sippo-Smith to present their report “No More Dreams Deferred: Building an Education System that Works for Black and Hispanic Students”.
Tomia presented several charts of the results of studies that compared outcomes of Black and Hispanic Students with White students in suburban Bucks County. For example, participation of Black and Hispanic students in advanced placement classes was significantly less than white students even though their academic achievement was at a par with the white students. In another measure, the number of dollars available to schools with higher percentages of Black and Hispanic students was less than those with a higher white student percentage.
The conclusion, as indicated by the title of the presentation, we need to work to build an education system that works as well for Black and Hispanic students as it does for white students.
September 9, 2021 Two New Members Approved
Amy Rinkivech and Christine ("Tina") Shannon were approved for membership. Welcome aboard, Amy and Tina!
August 12, 2021, Rotary Learns of Proposal to Screen for Diabetic Retinopathy in India
The scheduled speaker, a Rotarian located in India, was unable join the ZOOM General Meeting. SA Vaneswaran was knowledgeable of the presentation and had a copy of the supporting graphics.
Basically, there is a proposed Global Grant intended to support screening diabetic people within District 3190 in India for Diabetic Retinopathy (DR). One third of those with diabetes globally have DR, which a vision condition that can cause blindness. It can be detected by a retinal exam and treated before symptoms are noticed. Hence the proposal to provide free screening to those who otherwise would not know about the condition and who likely would not be able to afford an exam.
The global grant proposal shows the Morrisville-Yardley Area Rotary Club contributing $2000 along with a donation from District 7430 of $2000. While this appears to be a worthwhile project for the club in India, it would have to be compared with other Morrisville-Yardley Area Club projects before the club could consider supporting it. Inasmuch as this was the first time the club had heard of the proposal and the condition of the club’s treasury does not support such a donation at this time, SA was requested to communicate this situation to the club in India.
Update: August 26, 2021
SA introduced Ravi Kumar of Rotary District 3190 in India who was present via Zoom. He addressed the concerns of the club expressed at the previous meeting and there was agreement for the Morrisville-Yardley Area Club to go forward as a participant on the effort to obtain a global grant for the project.
July 22, 2021, "Passing the Gavel"
The Morrisville-Yardley Area Rotary Club met in-person at the Garden of Eatin restaurant. Past President, Danielle Larison, “Passed the Gavel” to new President, Mike Yager, who announced the new Board of Directors. Rotarian Juan Proano inducted Noel Sperry as a new member. Then he presented Paul Harris Fellow pins and certificates to Mike Rosso, Tom Mack and Denny Lanctot, in recognition of contributions made to The Rotary Foundation. He announced that Steve Ullrich, who wasn't in attendance, also was a Paul Harris Fellow recipient.
The club was honored to have the District Governor, Robert Hobaugh, Gail Linenberg, the Assistant Governor for our area, and John Ortoff, our former Assistant Governor, in attendance.

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July 8, 2021 Rotary Discovers How to Educate a Child in India for $200 Annually
At the July 8, 2021, virtual General Meeting of the Morrisville-Yardley Area Rotary Club, Rotarian SA Veneswaran introduced the main speaker, Sam Vonumu, with whom he is networking to provide educational opportunities for children in India who are living in the slums. Sam, now an Information Technology Project Manager in the US Department of Treasury, started life himself in the slums of India. He was fortunate to be sponsored by a philanthropic agency to receive an education and progressed to where he is now; a U.S citizen, college graduate, U.S. Navy Veteran and married, living in Maryland.
In India and other places, education is available only through private institutions. If one doesn't have access to money then there is no access to education. By providing a child in the slums with guaranteed school attire and payment for books, the private schools generally will accept the students. Hence, for about $200 annually, a child can gain access to schooling.
In 1996 Sam and his wife decided that they should begin paying back for all of the opportunities afforded to them and began putting away a few dollars regularly to sponsor the education of children from the slums in India. In 4 years they had sponsored 45 children. Co-workers began to get interested in what they were doing and began donating. By word-of-mouth the group has expanded to provide education for some 44,000 children! They also are helping children in the slums in other countries gain access to education.
They now operate though Uplift A Child, a 501( c)3 corporation, that he founded. Sam has expanded understanding of the project through many Rotary Club presentations and general networking. More information may be found at www.upliftachild.org.
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