Club Joins Rotary's "Million Mask Challenge"

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.  Club Member Maria Abdullah collected the masks on behalf of President Steve Simpson.
 
District Governor Mary Shackleton, welcoming the assembled dignitaries said, "These masks are going to go to some of the underserved communities, food pantries, public housing, so that the people who really need them, have protection."
 
  
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, News 12,  ABC News.