By Katherine Kelton
The newly-renamed Rotary Club of The Three Villages held its Family Fun Day of Service, Saturday, May 18. The club organized a beach and garden cleanup with bagels and coffee. Painting rocks, making birdhouses, coloring and a scavenger hunt were all available for young kids.
Rotary member Dan Berger explained, “It’s important to give back to the community for all the good things we’ve received from them.”
May 18 marked Rotary Day of Service, where more than 800 Rotary clubs across the country held community service events.
“Our agenda is community service,” Three Village Rotary president, Marios Patatinis, said. The event had two service activities set up: collecting trash from Sand Street Beach in Stony Brook and weeding and planting in the Stony Brook Rotary Memorial Garden, gifted from the club years prior.
Chris Sokol, another Rotary member, said, “I hope the kids can see the value in certain communities and cleaning the beach and beautifying this area that they enjoy all year long — see the value of serving and giving back.”
As part of the children’s scavenger hunt, they had to complete different tasks on the beach and in the memorial garden to win a free ice cream voucher to Sweet Mama’s, which Patatinis owns.
The weather was cool and foggy, leaving the beach entirely to the volunteers, yet warm enough to attract families with little ones. Parents and children scoured the beach for trash and dug up dirt in the garden from 10 a.m. until noon.
The event also attracted community members who helped out at the local beach, including Brookhaven Town Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook).
For those who worked in the garden area, Avalon Nature Preserve nature initiative coordinator, Kayla Serina, donated plants, tools and expertise. With volunteers, she removed dead grasses and weeds from the area and planted new foliage expected to grow better.
The event celebrated the Rotary club’s Reboli Center April fundraiser with the presentation of a check to the president of the center, Lois Reboli.
The club hopes to expand its event calendar over the next few months.
“We have an incredibly motivated and committed group of members who take what we do seriously,” Sokol said.
In June the Rotary club will be sponsoring a mammogram bus for Stony Brook University Hospital. The bus will travel to people who need mammogram testing for a whole day.
Patatinis indicated that the club is maintaining membership numbers, yet welcomes new members. He invites those interested to stay up to date with events and to “come have lunch with us.”
Visit www.stonybrookrotary.com for event schedules and more information.
