December Rotarians of the Month

Elise was born and raised in Queens, NY and has two older sisters, Patti and Ann Marie, and attended Parochial Elementary and Middle Schools. Her parents have taken in over 25 foster children since the late 70's. Elise's first foster brothers were from Vietnam and spoke no English, but today are doing well and have families of their own and have become US citizens. Her family moved upstate to a farm in Deposit in 1982 and was introduced to farm animals when her parents bought cows, chickens and goats. She went from the baby of the family when her parents adopted her little brother Tyler in 1993. Elise married her husband Kevin who is from NJ in 1991 and has two children she is very very proud of. Morgan is 12 and her son Connor is 8 1/2. In 2000 they moved to Bixby Street and are proud to call Bainbridge home. Elise has worked for Sidney Federal Credit Union for the past 8 years and currently holds the position of Marketing Specialist. Elise belongs to St Johns Church and works with the BG PTO where she is the secretary and helps with the Book Fair and the Gift Shop. She chaired the Sidney Hometown Days parade and assists the president of Birthright of Sidney. In Rotary Elise joined April of 2001 and has served on the BOD and has done a great job of chairing the wrestling tournament. Her motto is Attitude is everything, pick a good one! Congrats to Elise for being a Rotarian of the Month.

Ken Wilcox was born on September 11th in Bayshore, Long Island, New York. He grew up and attended school in Babylon, New York. During the summers, Ken and a friend worked on a boat harvesting clams on the Great
South Bay - a rite of passage for many boys on the south shore of Long Island at that time. At the age of 16 Ken's family moved to Afton. Ken graduated from Afton Central School in 1976 - the bicentennial year.
Ken attended Liberty University in Virginia where he graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration and Computer Science. After Graduation from college he returned to Afton and accepted a job with the Bainbridge-Guilford Central School District as an accountant. Ken later took the position of Business Manager after the retirement of Jack Feenick. Ken continued graduate studies while working for the school district attending Education Administration classes at SUNY Albany during the summers, as well as an executive M.B.A. program which he completed three years ago. Ken now serves as Assistant Superintendent for Business & Finance at the school and is also the Vice President of the New York State Association of School Business Officials for the Delaware, Chenango, Madison, & Otsego county area of the state.
Ken enjoys working with computers and holds a copyright on a web based school district budget development software program as well as a few other software products that are marketed by Pro-Soft Solutions.
Ken's interests recently turned to working with orphanages in Russia. After an initial 2 week trip to Russia as part of large humanitarian outreach project in Russia's Kaluga region, Ken, and a friend, have returned on two occasions on their own to assist in some of the same orphanages. Ken and his friend David Ford are in the process of establishing "Orphan Cry" a non-profit corporation that will serve very needy orphanages in poor areas of Russia. Ken studies Russian language through SUNY Binghamton to increase his effectiveness and plans to return to Russia next month. Ken is also interested in developing a Rotary Matching Grant project in Russia and is attempting to establish some Rotary contacts in the Moscow area. Ken also enjoys woodworking, reading, and playing the guitar. Ken played both lead and rhythm guitar for a number of different rock bands during his high school and college years, and even considered doing so as an occupation at one time.
Ken and his wife Shelly have two children Michael (15) and Rachel (12). Michael has recently taken up the guitar - which makes dad happy. Rachel is a very busy little girl who plays the violin for the Binghamton Youth Symphony and is a member of the BC Winter Club (figureskating club) in Binghamton and skates on a competitive level. Shelly, is a C.P.A. as well as a certified teacher - and more importantly a full-time M.O.M.