Our Club participated in Rotary's "Million Mask Challenge", sponsored by Rotary International and The Rossi Foundation. On 14 January, a 26-foot truck, emblazoned on all sides with the Million Mask Challenge Tour message, brought 300,000 face masks to our Rotary District stopping at 3 distribution points - White Plains, Harlem and Staten Island. Our Club was allocated 6,000 surgical masks and 1,000 children's masks. Representatives of 27 Clubs in Westchester and the Bronx gathered at the White Plains High School as the truck rolled in to be welcomed by District Governor Mary Shackleton, Westchester County Executive, George Latimer, White Plains Mayor Tom Roach, White Plains Schools superintendent Joseph Ricca. Immediate Past District Governor, Mahbub Ahmad, and Assistant Governors, Gladys Muller (Area 1), John Ehrlich (area 2), Libby Hollahan (Area 4), Bina Ahmad (Area 5) and Sandy Wolstein (Area 6) supervised the distribution. In total, 115,000 surgical masks and 27,000 children's masks were allocated to the 27 Clubs in the White Plains stop. AG Bina Ahmad collected the masks on behalf of President Syed Hossian, while our Satellite Club Chair Papia Ashraf collected the 4,000 surgical and 200 children's masks for her Club.
This is a story of service and leadership. It’s a story of how our District and Zone responded to a crisis, rallied its resources, put boots-on-the-ground to bring disparate and far-flung communities together to spread goodwill. Most importantly, it’s a story about working together and using our collective professional backgrounds through the Rotary network to make a difference.
The masks were made available to Rotary by Rotarian Ted Rossi of the Rotary Club of East Hampton, Connecticut and the President of the Rossi Foundation. This is how Rotarian Rossi summed up his motivations for the project:
“The states are not able to deliver to smaller community organizations and nursing homes, so I realized this is perfect for Rotary. We could facilitate the supply of masks that Rotary clubs can take and distribute in small lots within their communities. What started out as a small project snowballed into something really big.”
This project reinforces how Rotary uses its professional backgrounds, diverse perspectives, and global connections to change the world for the better. We were able to secure extensive media exposure for Rotary, with the help of iHeart media, New 12, ABC News.
An amazing partnership came together to bring food supplies to the children of Haiti. Our Club partnered with the Yonkers-East Yonkers Rotary Club to send urgently needed food supplies for children in Haiti. Club members Raaid Ahmad and Tabin Ahmad together with Honorary Member Lina Rahman and friend of Heritage Rotary Lubna Anwar provided donations of more than $850 to cover the cost of purchasing the food, supplies, barrels and shipment. Funds were also raised by the Yonkers Club and contributions from Century 21 Royal and UNM Bank help fund the project which totaled over $4,000. 
The next day Rotarians and other volunteers gathered at the Century 21 Royal office and packed all the supplies into 6 barrels for shipment to Haiti. The barrels will be delivered to the Rotary Club of Delmas-Centre in Port au Prince. They will be distributed through the Administrator of the Sainte Thérèse de L’Enfant Jésus’ School and Maria - one of the most reliable humanitarian groups in Haiti.
The Presidential Citation is awarded to a Club that achieves a set number of preassigned goals in two categories - Unite People and Take action - like membership growth and retention, service projects, contributions to the Rotary Foundation, augmenting Rotary's public image, among others., .Those Clubs achieving the goals in these two categories then compete for Platinum, Gold, or Silver Awards depending on the number of additional goals achieved in a third Category.
Our Vice-President Sam-Rahat Muqtadir has become the Club's third Paul Harris Fellow - the first in the new Rotary Year. A Paul Harris Fellow is awarded to a Rotarian who has made a significant difference in the lives of people by donating $1,000 or more to The Rotary Foundation. VP Sam-Rahat made the contribution in July this year. Paul Harris fellows receive a Certificate and a pin to recognize their contribution. Our two earlier Paul Harris Fellows were Rotarians Raaid Ahmad and Tabin Ahmad,
2019-20 was the first full year of our existence. The piechart on the left highlights the total incomes and expenditures/allocations of the Club during the course of this year. It does not include the annual membership dues, which were almost entirely a pass-through. We received $37,750 in contributions from Rotary, (the large section in gold) which includes the Globat Grant, the District Grant, the COVID-19 Grant. The Club itself raised $14,450 for the various projects it carried out including the Club's contribution for the Global and District Grants (the section in green) the orange slice represents the $2,500 that members donated to The Rotary Foundation.
Club Secretary Dr. Nazrul Islam was awarded a Paul Harris Fellow recognition for his outstanding commitment to the ideals of Rotary and in ensuring the Club's activities and records were properly maintained. He was instrumental in ensuring that the first footsteps of the newly established Club were on a solid foundation, and in following through on the Club's first Global Grant application.
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