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Rotary Happenings: Donations to San-Cap Rotary trust are tax deductible

4 min read

Recently there was an article in our local newspapers regarding tax deductible contributions and giving to a designated 501c3 organization. Unfortunately, this article stated that contributions made to Rotary were not tax exempt and do not qualify for a tax deduction. That may be the case for some Rotary Clubs, but not in the case of Sanibel-Captiva Rotary Club. San-Cap Rotary has a special account set up to receive donations directly, Sanibel Captiva Rotary Trust Fund, which is classified a designated-tax deductible charity fund – this is the Sanibel-Captiva Rotary club’s giving arm.

Our club Trust Board meets once a month to review requests for grant money funding worthy projects aligned with San-Cap Rotary and Rotary International objectives. Approved grants for this month went to: $1,500 to F.I.S.H. (classroom teaching,) $2,000 to Shelter Box USA (Syria), and $3,000 (two scholarships to Florida colleges.) Approximate dollar-value of grants given out annually is between $50,000 -$75,000.

Further information regarding our grant fund activities and our grant applications can be found on our club website, sanibelrotary.org.

Our guest speaker on March 10 was Boston Globe Sports Writer, Nick Cafardo. Cafardo covers Red Sox and major league baseball for the Globe sports section. He writes the Sunday baseball notes and has a Red Sox column. He contributes to NESN Red Sox pre-game shows and has written books on the Patriots and Atlanta Braves.

Cafardo’s career started in Brockton, MA and then he went on to a position of sports writing for the Quincy paper before joining the sports writing staff at the Boston Globe in 1989. In his early years with the Globe he wrote both about the Patriots and the Red Sox. But now his main point of interest is the Red Sox team. Twenty-eight years writing about the Red Sox. Whether Cafardo is sitting at Fenway Park, or traveling with the team to spring training, or out of town games, he is the ultimate observer and communicator of Red Sox news. He has the opportunity to get to know the players and management of the team. He witnesses team dynamics and individual playing styles of the players. On occasion, he travels out of the country on quest of a story. When Ivan Calderon was traded by the Montreal Expos to the Boston Red Sox team, Calderon could not be reached to notify him of the trade. Cafardo took to a plane to Puerto Rico to see if he could find him. Sure enough, he found him staying on San Juan Beach. He knocked on the door of the apartment, was let in, and observed that Calderon was letting the phone ring off the hook. Calderon just wasn’t answering the phone. He told Cafardo he knew he had been traded, but would deal with that later. While in Puerto Rico, Calderon showed him around and took him to a cock fight. Cafardo went into quite a lot of detail on this and personally details, I rather not know about. In fact, he told us he couldn’t eat chicken for quite some time after being in Puerto Rico with Calderon. Another visit Cafardo told us was about was a visit to the Dominican Republic and traveling across the country to visit a player. Along the way across the island the car was stopped several times by the police; I think a little money might have been exchanged, but the reality was the police needed a ride to the next police stop. This was a method of transport for the police to get around the back country in the Dominican. Cafardo told us in had thousands of stories, but I think he limited them to past history for the reason that current stories are still being played out.

Cafardo told us that pitchers are the superstars of baseball now. Hitters are still the interest of the game, but pitchers control the play. Red Sox pitchers: Rodriguez, Wright, Pomeranz, Sale, Price, and Porcello. Sale, Price, and Porcello have been leading the pitching staff, but Sales elbow injury may cause a delay for him joining the staff at the start of season. The Cleveland Indians have a great pitcher line up and will challenge the Red Sox and Toronto should be good.

Where does Cafardo think the game of baseball is going with the new rules of 2016. Instituting the pace of play restrictions, changes to what constitutes a legal slide to second-base, eliminating the intentional walk action, collision rule with catchers, instant replay rules, etc. He hates these changes and players don’t like them at all. Baseball is what, it is, it has its own flow. Don’t have to rush it, just play ball.

Sanibel-Captiva Rotary meets on Friday mornings at 7 a.m. at the Dunes Golf & Tennis Club. Guests are always welcomed.