Operation Northern Comfort Visits Oswego Rotary Club

OSWEGO — Laurel Flanagan and Dick Bonanno of Operation Northern Comfort spoke at a recent meeting of the Rotary Club of Oswego held at Bishop’s Commons. Operation Northern Comfort, created originally as Operation Southern Comfort, is an organization of community volunteers empowering and giving hope to those in need. It became Operation Northern Comfort (ONC) in 2012 and serves Syracuse and surrounding counties.

Many of the ONC projects involve providing access to peoples’ homes such as wider doors, ramps, lifts, steps, and hand railings. During the pandemic they built many desks and bookshelves to support students who were home bound. All the work is done by volunteers.

ONC volunteers have traveled to New Orleans to help after Hurricane Katrina and to Buffalo to help after heavy snow storms.

Bonanno grew up in Fulton and managed the P & C store in Oswego before it became Paul’s Big M. He was very active in the Junior Chamber of Commerce at that time. Flanagan is also strongly committed to the Central New York region.

Although ONC accepts private donations, their single largest fundraiser is their annual Crayfish Festival held in Clinton Square in Syracuse on the first Saturday of May.

More information about ONC and the opportunity to contribute may be found at their website: https://www.operationnc.org

Anyone interested in becoming a Rotarian or in learning more about Rotary’s humanitarian work around the world and in the community is invited to attend a meeting of the Oswego Rotary Club any Tuesday at noon at Bishop’s Commons. The building is fully accessible with convenient parking. Visiting Rotarians and guests are welcome and may reserve lunch by contacting [email protected].

Print this entry