It is a proud day for our Club. Our VP Bina Ahmad was awarded the District's highest recognition - the Rotarian of the Year Award by outgoing District Governor Mary Shackleton, at the annual District Awards ceremony on Monday. The event took place via Zoom.
In awarding this honor to VP Bina, who is also the District's Area Assistant Governor for Area 5, DG Mary cited Bina's dedication, innovation, development of 2 new Clubs, social media activities and her support for the District's goals as the main factors for selecting her for this award. In receiving the award, VP Bina said she was humbled and honored to be selected for this award. In an emotionally choked voice, she said she believed teamwork was the key ingredient for success. She expressed her gratitude to DG Mary and thanked her for her outstanding leadership.
Bina joined the White Plains Rotary Club in June 2011 and transferred to the then East Yonkers Club July 2012. With the merger of the two Yonkers Rotary Clubs in July 2013, she has continued her membership in the Club. She was Club Rotary Foundation Chair for 4 years from 2015-16 and became Vice-President in 2019. She is a Major Donor to the Rotary Foundation and a member of the Paul Harris Society.
At the District level, she has been Assistant Governor for 2020-21 and 2021-22, and was co-Chair of the District Conference Committee for 2018-19. She was District First Lady during 2019-20 and had the privilege of visiting all 44 Clubs in our District. She has been pro-actively promoting Grow Rotary initiatives and was instrumental in the creation of the first new club in the District in a decade – the E-Club of Heritage New York, in January 2019. Since then, she has driven the formation of two other Clubs – the Westchester Rotary Club in December 2020 and the East-West Rotary Club in June 2021.
Bina joined the then Dime Savings Bank in 1988 and transitioned to JP Morgan Chase via mergers. As Branch Manager and Vice-President since 1998, she gained broad experience in all aspects of business and consumer banking sales and operations as well as management, earning many high performance awards. She retired as Vice-President of a commercial bank, in 2014.
From the late 1980s, to the early 2000, Bina prepared and presented a weekly Radio news and information program for the United Nations.
Following her studies at Holy Cross College, Bina graduated from the University of Dhaka with a B.S, with honors in Psychology with minors in Political Science and Sociology.
Bina and her husband, fellow Rotarian Mahbub are long-time Westchester residents and raised their two sons in Scarsdale.
Congratulations Bina, you have made us proud!
Two Club Members IPDG Mahbub Ahmad, and PDG Matts Ingemanson also received the Service Above Self Awards.
In other District Awards, PDG Andy Morzello was given the Lifetime Achievement Award, while Jason Gonzalez received the "Rotarian of Vision Award".
The Club has donated over 200 hardcover books to the Riverfront Library in Yonkers. September was Rotary's Education and Literacy month during which Rotarians are urged to undertake projects that expand education and literacy opportunities across communities. The donated books are from the personal collection of Vice-President and Area Governor Bina Ahmad and Past District Governor Mahbub Ahmad. Five Club Rotarians were present at the handing over of the books to the Director of the Library Sandy Amoyaw, who is also the Club Historian and a long-time Club Member, In addition to the two donors, Lawrence Farah and Anissa Latif also helped with unloading the books.,
The Director of Yonkers Public Libraries Jesse Montero was a guest speaker at our Club meeting on 27 September. He said the Library system was looking to expand its' holdings to cater to a wider audience. Accepting the books, Director of the Riverfront Library, Sandy Amoyaw thanked AG Bina and PDG Mahbub for their thoughtful donation. He said the books will help expand the breadth of the holdings of the Library and may be shared with the other branches of the Yonkers Library system. AG Bina said most of the books were collected over a period of years for their home library which they are now downsizing. PDG Mahbub said the books in a large library will be available to many more readers rather than just beautifying a small home library. Most of the books are contemporary fiction, including sets by authors, John Grisham, Lawrence Sanders, Clive Cussler, Robin Cook, and others as well as classics. This is the Club's third donation of books to the Yonkers Libraries, Earlier donations were to the Will Library and the Riverfront Library.
We are saddened to announce the passing away of our beloved Peggy Murphy, past Club Secretary. Peggy passed away on 16 September after a sudden illness. She was 77
In the aftermath of the devasting 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Haiti on 14 August, our Club has undertaken an urgent project to send relief supplies to the stricken people of Haiti. The Club Board has approved the purchase of 12 barrels to be loaded up with clothing, non-perishable food items, and school supplies. Club Volunteers will load up these barrels with the donated supplies on 8 September 2021 at 5 pm. The project headquarters is at the office of Club Membership Chair George John, Century 21 Royal at 679 Central Avenue, Scarsdale.
The two auctions significantly replenished the Club's Foundation resources, permitting the Club to undertake projects which could not otherwise have been undertaken.
Yonkers city and community leaders were at hand as the Yonkers-East Yonkers Club distributed over 10,000 masks to local community service organizations on Saturday 17 April 2021. These masks are part of the 5.5 million maks distributed by the Rossi Family Foundation and Rotary International via local Rotary Clubs in the North-East. Mayor Mike Spano, County Executive George Latimer, Deputy County Executive Ken Jenkins, City Council President Mike Khader, NYS Assemblymember Nader Sayegh, were present as were Rotary District Governor Mary Shackleton, President Steve Simpson, and Assistant Governor Bina Ahmad. Also attending were Immediate Past District Governor Mahbub Ahmad, Past District Governor Greg Arcaro, and District Governor Nominee-Designee J. Loren Russell - all are members of our Club.
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