Service Clubs

Last day to make your reservations for Feb. 6th

Buffet dinner at St. Paul Lutheran Church

Helen Batchellor will present her collection of Valentines, etc.

Call Diane at 585-343-0759 for a Reservation.

All are welcome!

Dinner will be at the Dibble Family Center, 4120 W. Main St., Batavia. Choice of Country Chicken Breast or Vegetable Lasanga. Cost is $15. Fire Safety "Let us Help You" will be the topic of discussion, led by Fire Dept. officials. Call Connie at 585-343-4603 or Pearl at 585-343-9108 for reservations, by Monday, Dec.30th. All are welcome!

Batavia Business and Professional Women’s Club (BPW), 2011-2012 Live Basket Auction and Brunch was held on Saturday, October 1, 2011 at the Batavia Downs Conference Center. This year’s auction committee was co-chaired by Catherine Johnston, the primary chair and Brenda Chapell-Miller, both BPW members for several years.

This year’s auction had a theme to represent 90 years of the clubs existence with Catherine Johnston, a Pavilion high school teacher, having her students from the Pavilion Girls Service League giving a fashion show with clothing representing past decades!

The auction is a yearly event sponsored by the BPW members to raise money for several scholarships that are given to Genesee County high school, BOCES and GCC students in the spring. This year’s auction event was very successful in rising over $5000 with over 125 local vendor’s donations and 160 guests attending the live auction and brunch! Thank you to all for your support.

The Batavia Business and Professional Women’s Club is devoted to making the community of Genesee County a better place to live.  Besides raising money for scholarships, the club bestows service organization grants.  We assist other clubs and organizations by helping to provide volunteers for special events and we participate in projects that help the less fortune, two of which are contributing to Thanksgiving baskets at the Salvation Army and providing funds to Community Action to assist individuals in need during crisis situations.  We meet 10 times a year.   When you become a member, dues are $10 the first year and $20 thereafter, you are asked to join a monthly club committee to plan and implement one of these meetings.   In addition members participate in service committees to support our volunteering, auction fundraising and special needs events.

The BPW November meeting is “New Members” month seeking out new members to join our organization and efforts. Anyone interested in finding out more is welcome to join us at the November 3, 2011 meeting, 5:30pm,  at the St Lutheran Methodist Church, 31 Washington Avenue in Batavia. Cost of dinner is $11, Contact Joan Post, BPW President at 343-2088 by November 1 to confirm.

More information on the Batavia Business and Professional Women’s Club can be found at: http://bataviabpw.wordpress.com or visit us on Facebook

On Friday, 19 February 2010, DAPP Children’s Town in Malambanyama, Zambia, Africa formally dedicated its new kitchen and dining area. Over eight hundred students, staff, families, and dignitaries attended the dedication. 

This effort began in early fall of 2007, when Ed Leising, a long-time member of the Batavia Rotary Club, was traveling from Buffalo to Baltimore, MD. While waiting for his flight, he met Pia Jorgensen in the lounge. She had a briefcase with a large Planet Aid Canada logo. He learned that she recently emigrated from Denmark and she was the Canadian representative for Planet Aid Canada; an organization that funds projects world-wide. The majority of the money comes from collecting then selling usable clothing. The profit from the sale of the clothing is used to fund their projects.

One of their projects; DAPP Children’s Town, located in Zambia, was in need of funding to purchase commercial kitchen equipment and update the dining area. Children’s Town is a school with about 300 students and about 30 staff from the surrounding area. Most students are local and live at home, however some are orphans, and live at the school. Before the installation of the new kitchen, the school prepared daily meals by cooking the food on two stone and concrete wood-fired pits. The plan was; utilize an existing building for the new kitchen equipment and eating area. The school had all of the electrical service and plumbing infrastructure needed for the kitchen and dining hall.

As a dedicated Rotarian, Ed was confident the Batavia Rotary Club and other Clubs in District 7090 would embrace this project. In a unique service project, the Rotary Club of Batavia, the Rotary Club of St. Catherines, Ontario, the Rotary Club of Lusaka Central, Zambia, Rotary District 7090 and the Rotary International Foundation pledged money totalling over $13,000.

All equipment has been purchased, received, and installed. Much of the work to improve the existing space has been done by the students, and staff of DAPP Children’s Town. They performed the construction and utility work that was required to convert the existing space into the new kitchen. The students and staff used the skills learned in Carpentry Training class to build all of the tables and chairs. All of the furniture was constructed of rosewood; which is indigenous to the area. One of the goals of DAPP Children’s Town is to give the students a solid background in the types of skills that can be used after graduation. Most will learn some construction related skills.

Rotary Clubs world-wide and Rotary International fund both local and international projects such as the DAPP Children’s Town project every year.   All service clubs such as Lions, Kiwanis and Rotary give generously to assist those in need all over the world. The value of service clubs cannot be under estimated. A good example is Rotary’s 25 year effort to help eradicate polio by initiating a project called Polio Plus in 1985. By 2012 Rotary will have raised more than 1.2 billion dollars to help eradicate polio.   At the beginning of Rotary’s Polio Plus project there were an estimated 350,000 cases of polio identified each year. As a result of the efforts of Rotary, the World Health Organization, the U.S. Center for Disease Control, UNISEF, the United Kingdom and Germany, now there are about 1,100 cases of polio identified each year. Polio is endemic in just four countries. Recently, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s grant of 355 million dollars and an additional 200 million from Rotary it is expected that polio will be totally eradicated some time after 2012.

The Batavia Business Women's Club will hold their April 2 Dinner Meeting at  Batavia Downs, in the Board Room. Your choice of Steak or Chicken Entrees, $12. The guest speaker will be Genesee County Clerk, Don Read. Please RSVP by March 30 to Mary Ellen at 343-1610 or Diane at 343-1423 ext. 230.

The February meeting for the Batavia Business & Professional Women's Club will meet on Thursday, February 5, 2009 at St. James Church, E. Main St., Batavia. A Fish Fry dinner will be served for $10.00. Social time begins at 5:30 p.m., with dinner to follow at 6:15. The program will be "A Cake Walk." Bring a cake to participate in this fun activity. Contact Diane Burroughs at 343-0759 for reservations by Feb. 2.