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".