Hempstead-Uniondale Rotary benefits veterans, students

Every second and fourth Saturday at 10 a.m., 15 active members and two honorary members of the Hempstead/Uniondale Rotary Club gather at the Fulton Diner in Hempstead and make plans to benefit their joint community.

The group cooks up projects like providing Thanksgiving dinners for the needy in partnership with local churches, leading food and coat drives, and giving scholarships to students from Hempstead and Uniondale high schools.

During the pandemic, the group supplied masks and hand sanitizer to the high schools and to charities like the New Life Center in Uniondale and the Salvation Army in Hempstead.

Chartered as of 1937, the club also has a strong tradition of projects to help veterans, like the May 20 event in which 275 backpacks packed with brand-new T-shirts and underwear, socks, washcloths, and bath towels were sent to a shelter for homeless veterans.

The Hempstead/Uniondale Rotary partnered with the Freeport-Merrick Rotary Club, the South West Queens Rotary Club, the Satellite Club of South Queens, and the Rotary Club of Hicksville South. The Ridgewood Savings Bank and General Needs, Ltd. (a nonprofit group serving veterans) joined the effort.

Collection bins were placed at area churches, libraries, and Ridgewood Savings branches. Some donors gave through a web page the Rotary set up on Amazon.com.

The Rotary Day of Service had 65 Rotary members and volunteers converged on the Freeport High School lunchroom. Long cafeteria tables held stacks of sized T-shirts and underwear of varying sizes as well as towels and washcloths.

The items were placed in dark-blue drawstring backpacks that bore the logos of the Hempstead/Uniondale Rotary Day of Service and General Needs, Ltd., in white lettering. The last item to go in each backpack was a card written by Freeport elementary school students.

The stuffed backpacks were then taken to a storage unit for a General Needs veterans shelter in Long Island City.

Next, the club held its yearly officer elections. For 2023–2024, Dr. Gregory Avery was elected president, Janet Ojo vice president, Diane E. Deans secretary, Beverly James executive secretary and district governor-elect, Lisa Hunte treasurer, Charles Renfroe assistant treasurer, and Tina Hodge-Bowles assistant governor.

Now the club will distribute scholarship checks to graduating seniors at Hempstead and Uniondale high schools. Students applied for the scholarships by writing essays based on questions determined by the club for the 2022–2023 school year.

Two scholarships will go to each high school: the Bishop David Gates Memorial Scholarship award and the Hempstead/Uniondale Community Scholar award.

Anyone interested in joining the Hempstead/Uniondale Rotary Club may reach out to a club member or on its Facebook page, or go to the district website, Rotary7255.org/.