Paul Szmal: Good morning, it's 8.39, it's FLX Morning, the Thursday edition, it's our monthly Geneva Rotary Club segment. GenevaRotaryClub.org is our website, and we're joined by the president of the club, Jason Hay, good morning.
Jason Haag: Good morning, Ted, how are you?
Paul Szmal: Good, it's great to have you here talking rotary. Now, no pressure or anything, but the last segment we did last month was perhaps one of the best we ever did, so you're going to have to really be on your game today.
Jason Haag: We'll try it.
Paul Szmal: So we're going to talk about an event that's coming back. Before we do that, I want to talk about one that was just held, and I wished I had been there, because I often don't get a chance because of sports broadcasts, and that is the Rotary Santa Express. By all accounts, it was one of the best run ever, and hundreds of kids had fun once again. So just tell us about that event.
Jason Haag: It sure was, Ted. You know, it's a daunting task initially to say that you're going to be president of a club that does as much work as ours, with as many members as ours, but I'll tell you, the membership of this club is absolutely phenomenal. We have an event. Sign-up sheets for volunteer spots are absolutely full. This was the first year in recent memory that I have where everything that we've needed for that Santa train to go off has been covered by volunteers. We had more than enough people to assist with parking outside concessions, people guiding guests onto their trains, registration. It went off without a hitch. It was absolutely phenomenal, and by the accounts of people I've spoken to, and the smiles going on and off the train, and one little one who was very, very sad and screaming and crying because they had to leave the train, I would say that it was an absolute success, and it's in no small part due to everybody that volunteered their time that Saturday.
Paul Szmal: And I want to mention one person who was terribly missed this year, and that's Judge Lisa Toole, who had been a big part of organizing and doing this train for years, and Rotarians and everybody around Geneva are missing her.
Jason Haag: Absolutely. I have no doubt that some of that smoothness was her doing from the other side, and also that she was certainly smiling down watching how well it went.
Paul Szmal: Now another thing that our club's going to be doing on the day before Christmas, that's traditionally our day to be bell ringers for the Salvation Army, spreading out at all kinds of locations, and this may be the first year ever. As of the meeting yesterday, it was announced every single slot is full, so you'll see us at Walmart, and I'll be at Five Star Bank, we have the crazy people down at Suicide Corner, right in the middle of the street downtown, so reach in and give if you can on the 24th.
Jason Haag: Sure, and you know, like you said, every spot there is full with volunteers as well, and that's phenomenal. And there's not a single person repeating spots, which is great. We did announce yesterday at our meeting, so those of you out listening on the internet and on the air, if you could donate, please do. We were contacted by the Salvation Army yesterday that they have an anonymous donor who is going to match whatever we collect from our multiple locations.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, that's fantastic.
Jason Haag: Yeah, if you can only give $1, that's going to be $2. If you could give $10, that's going to be $20. It's going to be an exponential donation. So please, if you could stop by see us and say hello, and throw a little bit of what you can in one of those red kettles, it'll be doubled. So, you know, in the spirit of the season, if you can give, please find it to be able to do that. I'll be outside of Five Star Bank in the plaza from 10 to 11 a.m. and hopefully, trying not to continue my streak. I used to ring the bell at Topps, and then that closed. And then one year, I did it at Gordman's, and they closed. So we're assured that Five Star Bank is healthy and should be expected to keep on running.
Paul Szmal: That's why I always go to Padua.
Jason Haag: Exactly. That's the best place.
Paul Szmal: Do they ever, if it gets really cold, do they bring samples out?
Jason Haag: No comment.
Paul Szmal: So, the biggest reason we're here to talk today is, for a number of years, we held the Service Above Self Gala, a dinner. We have the Ralph Springstead Award for Community Service that's handed out. And we have a new award this year, the Lisa Toole Petronio Nonprofit Agency of the Year Award. We also hand out Paul Harris Awards. We can talk more about what those are. But just remind us about the Service Above Self Gala and the big fundraising role it plays in our club.
Jason Haag: Sure. So, a little bit of background. I know we've spoken about this before on the show. Rotary, Geneva Rotary, has a rich history of being able to provide grant funding to other nonprofits in the Geneva community. And we had the pleasure of seeing a little bit of work of one of those nonprofits yesterday, and that's the St. Peter's Community Arts Academy. Oh, yeah. The senior choir came and did a phenomenal 30-minute performance for us yesterday at Bella's Steakhouse at the Olde Meals down in Border City, due to room. We don't normally meet there, but they were gracious enough to host us yesterday for that. And the reason I bring that up is one of the big fundraisers that we do to be able to fund these grants and these nonprofits is the Service Above Self Gala that we last had in 2019. We tried a couple other replacements for it, and we really want to come back big this year. And that's going to be on April 5th at Ventosa. And it's an opportunity to celebrate others who serve, not just Rotarians.
Paul Szmal: So, tell us about the Ralph Springstead Award.
Jason Haag: Sure. So, that award highlights a community member or two people that have worked in concert, if it's two people, to really provide service above self to the community in one way or another. And that could be in any number of things. It does not have to be a Rotarian. It's named after a Rotarian, of course, but, again, doesn't have to be a Rotarian, and it could just be somebody that's had a very large impact in the greater Geneva area.
Paul Szmal: And also, we give out the Paul Harris Awards. Those are more often than not awarded to Rotarians, but they're not, again, limited to Rotarians. Paul Harris was the founder of Rotary, and it began for anybody who raised a certain amount of money for the Rotary Foundation. But now, if someone serves particularly well, you can make a donation in their name, and they receive the Ralph Harris. And that's always kind of the who's who.
Jason Haag: Absolutely. We've seen it given to Rotarians who have just provided a phenomenal amount of service, and we've given it to non-Rotarians that have done the same thing. Some recent awardees were our past president, Diana Perry, and Bruce Haberfield, of Finger Lakes Railway, for all the time, dedication, and extra work he's put into making sure that our Rotary Santa Train, every year, is a success. And those are just some examples of some Paul Harris Award recipients.
Paul Szmal: I thought this was great when I heard this. We mentioned Lisa's passing just recently, and so there'll be a new non-profit of the year award, and that's going to be a tough one. There's a lot of people, because we meet every week, and a lot of these agencies do their presentations, so we get to see up close, week after week, all the people outside of the club who are serving above self.
Jason Haag: Yeah, and that's going to be tough. We've got a committee that's going to take recommendations from the club, and whoever else wants to nominate somebody for this, but the job of picking is going to be extremely, extremely difficult. The good news is, this isn't the only time we're going to do it. We're going to have this award year after year, and I kind of spearheaded the thought process on this of saying, okay, we honor a person or a couple of people, whether Ralph Springstead, when we do this, but there are so many phenomenal organizations within the community that do such good work that I feel that they should be recognized as well. And I wanted to initially rename, and we may still do that, the Santa Train, after Lisa Tool Petronio, but the absolute embodiment of service that Lisa portrayed, I think having an award named after her in perpetuity is phenomenal as well. And we're going to look for organizations that have the same qualities that Lisa exemplified to us in her time with us.
Paul Szmal: So if we can brag on our club a little bit here, I want to talk about your coming in as president at this time, because one of the things I always do at the Christmas meeting, as you said, we held yesterday, and I hope Dick and or Ashley are listening, because Dick Austin and Ashley Austin, owners of Bella's Steakhouse, are so generous in opening up their restaurant to us for this meeting every year when we get the St. Peter's Academy Choir in, and they're just generous givers all throughout the community all year long. So I like to kind of look around the room and take in the faces, and there are the people I've been in now since I think 2011, so I'm kind of becoming one of the elder statesmen of Rotary, but I see the people that were there before me who taught me what Rotary was all about, and I see this new, young, dynamic generation of Rotarians, including yourself, who are coming in with new ideas and new energy, and I think lifting us to new places.
Jason Haag: Sure, sure, and Ted, thank you for that, and that's really been my goal, is there is a phenomenal foundation that folks that have been there for a while, such as yourself, have really laid, and we would not be able to take these new ideas, the larger scale of this Service Above Self Gala, and run with them. My goal with the Service Above Self Gala is to sell out Ventosa. That's 300 seats. We're looking at silent auctions, raffles. We've got an emcee who is a past district governor, who is also a magician, that's going to be our keynote speaker for the night. Mark Garron, I'm sorry, he's going to be our emcee. Mark Garron is lined up for our keynote speaker.
Paul Szmal: Wow.
Jason Haag: We've got Mike Racinco, who's going to do some auctioning for us. Ted Baker hasn't agreed to it yet, but he's going to help us with some raffles. All sorts of people that are not only going to be a part of this, but are a great group of people that, once they're chosen, will be honored in the event as well. And not only is the purpose to honor folks, but it's also to raise money to do the grant work that we do, and also to have people come out and understand Rotary, maybe get a taste of what we do, and really have a great evening supporting many, many things that we do in the community.
We're looking at some other things as well. Our Interact Club has been revived and is doing very, very well. We've got a couple folks that are working really hard on that. And we've got Interactors that are participating in the bell ringing next Tuesday.
Paul Szmal: And by the way, let me jump in for those who aren't familiar. Interact is the high school version of Rotary, and Rotaract is the college version at HWS. And those kids, I mean, we don't have to lead them around. They lead us around. They know what service is all about.
Jason Haag: Oh, yeah. Another group of volunteers that were instrumental in the success of the Stand Up Train were some Interact students and some Rotaract students as well. So, you know, I praise the club members. And when I do that, I include both of those other clubs. I don't often mention it as much as I should, but including those other two sub-clubs, as I like to call them, from ours, they're included in that praise for the volunteerism that we have.
Paul Szmal: And if you want to learn more about what Rotary is all about, we talked about that last month's segment with Gary Adamson and with Mary Sue Dean, a couple of the relatively newer Rotarians, and they just talked about why they got in and what they see in the club. So we put together a public service announcement based on some of the things they have to say, telling you all about why you might want to consider joining our club yourself. We meet on Wednesdays. We don't meet anymore at this time of year because it's so busy. So our next meeting will be first Wednesday of January at Dana's Time Out, right down on Hamilton Street. Twelve noon meetings. We have one evening meeting per month for the people that can't do lunch.
And so tell us, again, April 5th, Ventosa Vineyards, Service Buffs South Gala returns. What's the best way to get tickets?
Jason Haag: We will have a link for our tickets very shortly on our website. Prior to that, though, we are going to be soliciting some sponsorships and donations for raffle prizes or silent auction items. Please reach out to us through the contact information on our website. Or if you have my contact information, get ahold of me directly or any club member. Looking for some items to raffle off, some items to auction off. We really just want to make this an opportunity to raise as many funds as possible, again, to do as much work in the community and give back as much as we can to those organizations that do such good work around Geneva.
Paul Szmal: All right. We'll be talking a lot more about that. Thank you, Rotary Club President Jason Haag. Always great to talk with you. Appreciate the time.
