Last week we welcomed Christian Bianchi as the latest member of the Rotary Club of Pittsfield! Christian and his wife Kathleen live on Strong Avenue with their four children. Christian is very active in the community and an integral spoke in Special Olympics. Sponsored by John Murphy, Christian is a board member at the YMCA and a youth baseball coach. Professionally, Christian is the Director of Development at the Brien Center, with focus on fundraising for the non-profit. Welcome to the Club Mr. Bianchi!
Linda Dulye, pictured nearby receives an award from her husband Roger Gibboni. People will be forgiven if they assumed this was an award of thanks for putting up with her hi-fi husband for so many years. In this case, the award was of much greater import! Ms. Dulye received recognition as a Paul Harris Fellow for her incredible work raising awareness and significant funds for those effected by the war in Ukraine. Linda worked tirelessly in her efforts to help those in dire need! While not a Rotarian herself, Rotary has always been a part of her life as her dad was a long time Rotarian and presided over Roger's induction to Rotary some years ago. Congratulations on your award and the impressive work and charity that were the foundation of your Fellowship.
Our speaker last week was Cornelius (CJ) Hoss, the Community Planning Program Manager at Berkshire Regional Planning Commission. He has over 15 years of public and private sector experience in development review, zoning, overall code analysis, grant writing, and short-term and long-term planning. Until December he was the City of Pittsfield’s City Planner, a position he held for 11 ½ years. In that role you likely saw him working with the Community Development Board, City Council, the Historical Commission, and the Community Preservation Committee. Mr. Hoss explained that our region is in a severe housing crisis as there is much more need than availability. He suggests the area is short some 7,100 housing units. Help is needed with networking to get the message out to those that can assist in some way with this concern. There are many complex issues faced by the those involved in housing development from zoning matters to local, state and federal regulations. While the area has lost over 20,000 citizens over the years, the problem remains as most of the available housing is way out of the price range for many people and new housing units have mostly been single family homes. Certainly much work by the community, both public and private will be needed to curtail this growing concern for our area.
"Save the Date" postcards for our 2023 Auction are now available. Please see Robert Harrison for as many as you would like to send or give out. These cards include free admission to the auction on April 1, 2023. Commitment sheets were distributed at last week's meeting. If you didn't get yours, contact Robert Harrison. Review your commitments and let Robert know this week those items you are unable to secure. Advertising forms will be distributed this week. Don Kuczarski is coordinating that effort, so get completed forms and cash to him. As previously, auction items go to Molari. Start securing your items. so Ron Latham can begin data entry.
This month's 3rd Thursday soiree will take place at Hot Plate Brewing, Pittsfield's new brewery and tap room. We will gather at 5:00 PM for good cheer and lively discussions. Jeff Whitehouse please take note, the establishment does not carry brown liquors at this point, beer, wine and seltzers are available for the thirsty. Hot Plate is located at 1 School Street, corer of North and School streets. Please let Joan know if you will be in attendance.
At last weeks luncheon, we welcomed Sylvia Zygawski, guest of Carol Leibinger-Healey, Linda Dulye, wife and guest of Roger Gibboni (see story nearby), and Josh Stevens our student Rotarian of the month. Josh is a senior at Taconic High where he is a captain of the track and field team where his specialty is being a thrower. Josh plans to attend Springfield College this fall, majoring in athletic training.
Another quiet week in Lake Wobegone, no birthdays to report this time. We can however sing Happy Anniversary to Gwen Davis, celebrating her 26th anniversary as a Club member. Congrat$$!
There was no lottery winner last week. The pot is now $692, with 28 cards left in the deck. We are looking for the 2 of Clubs. Serious money hints at the return of Tom Sherman to the weekly gathering!
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Last week we welcomed Christian Bianchi as the latest member of the Rotary Club of Pittsfield! Christian and his wife Kathleen live on Strong Avenue with their four children. Christian is very active in the community and an integral spoke in Special Olympics. Sponsored by John Murphy, Christian is a board member at the YMCA and a youth baseball coach. Professionally, Christian is the Director of Development at the Brien Center, with focus on fundraising for the non-profit. Welcome to the Club Mr. Bianchi!
Linda Dulye, pictured nearby receives an award from her husband Roger Gibboni. People will be forgiven if they assumed this was an award of thanks for putting up with her hi-fi husband for so many years. In this case, the award was of much greater import! Ms. Dulye received recognition as a Paul Harris Fellow for her incredible work raising awareness and significant funds for those effected by the war in Ukraine. Linda worked tirelessly in her efforts to help those in dire need! While not a Rotarian herself, Rotary has always been a part of her life as her dad was a long time Rotarian and presided over Roger's induction to Rotary some years ago. Congratulations on your award and the impressive work and charity that were the foundation of your Fellowship.
Our speaker last week was Cornelius (CJ) Hoss, the Community Planning Program Manager at Berkshire Regional Planning Commission. He has over 15 years of public and private sector experience in development review, zoning, overall code analysis, grant writing, and short-term and long-term planning. Until December he was the City of Pittsfield’s City Planner, a position he held for 11 ½ years. In that role you likely saw him working with the Community Development Board, City Council, the Historical Commission, and the Community Preservation Committee. Mr. Hoss explained that our region is in a severe housing crisis as there is much more need than availability. He suggests the area is short some 7,100 housing units. Help is needed with networking to get the message out to those that can assist in some way with this concern. There are many complex issues faced by the those involved in housing development from zoning matters to local, state and federal regulations. While the area has lost over 20,000 citizens over the years, the problem remains as most of the available housing is way out of the price range for many people and new housing units have mostly been single family homes. Certainly much work by the community, both public and private will be needed to curtail this growing concern for our area.
This month's 3rd Thursday soiree will take place at Hot Plate Brewing, Pittsfield's new brewery and tap room. We will gather at 5:00 PM for good cheer and lively discussions. Jeff Whitehouse please take note, the establishment does not carry brown liquors at this point, beer, wine and seltzers are available for the thirsty. Hot Plate is located at 1 School Street, corer of North and School streets. Please let Joan know if you will be in attendance.