September 21st, 2017 Newsletter

 

“ Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have. ”  ― Winston Churchill

 

“The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.” – Aristotle

 

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

Scott is in the hospital.   He recently fell and broke his leg in four places.   We sent our wishes for a successful recovery.

 

The Community Center for the Arts is having a wine tasting benefit from 5-7 on Friday, Sept. 29.  Proceeds from the event will benefit C4A’s Scholarship Fund and Cultural Exchange Project  with the Sechura Youth Orchestra and the city of Sechura, Peru.  Details can be found at www.c-4A.

 

Also on Sept. 29, Meyer Capel and First Federal are sponsoring a BBQ Cook Off to benefit Courage Connection and Special Olympics of Champaign County.  The event will be held at the South Side of Lot 31, across from Memorial Stadium.   Food will be served from 3-8 PM.   

 

Diana is organizing Rotarians to help with “Generosity Feeds”.  The local event will be held from 10-2 on Sept. 30 at Lincoln Square Mall.   Volunteers must be preregistered.   Contact Diana to sign up.

 

Jeff announced that CASA’s fundraiser will be held on October 13.  In the meantime, he is selling raffle tickets.

 

Michelle will be organizing members to help with the Central Interact 5 K Race on November 18.

 

The Board voted to send $1,000 donation to Shelter Box.   This will come from the CU Sunrise Foundation.  We would like to raise enough from the members to send a second box.  If you would like to donate, make the check out to the CU Sunrise Foundation.

 

Cody and Candy Abbot made a guest appearance.   They shared pictures of the house they are building on the Snake River.

 

 

PROGRAM

 

Mary introduced Tim King from the Three Spinners charitable organization.   Along with his wife Megan Smith and their friend Alex VanDoren, Tim founded Three Spinners to help place refugees seeing a welcoming place in the US.

 

There are over twelve million people worldwide who live in refugee camps.  However, less than .01% of those will be repatriated or resettled.

 

Tim explained that in Europe, there are many websites at which individuals can sign up to house and help refugees.    However, in the US, there are only a handful of agencies that are authorized to place refugees.   There are six authorized agencies in Chicago and one or two in both St. Louis and Indianapolis.    Unfortunately, these are all high rent areas.  Tim and Megan have contacted these agencies to propose that refugees could be resettled in areas such as CU where the cost of living is not so high.  So far, they have helped one family move to this area.  That family later moved closer to relatives in Michigan.

 

Three Spinners has helped local refugee families in several other ways as well.  They help refugee children who are alone in the area either because they came here on their own or because their parents have been deported.  They recently held a back to school picnic and gave away back packs filled with school supplies.   The El Toro Restaurant provided the food for the event.

 

 Angie commented that about 17% of the Edison students are ESL students, mostly Hispanic and French Congolese.  

 

Three Spinners also partners with the YMCA’s Welcome Center.  The Welcome Center is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 11 AM to 2 PM.   The Center offers goods and services to immigrants and newcomers to the area. Services include small group language practice, ESL tutoring, computer training, resume preparation and job coaching.  Volunteers are needed.

 

Three Spinners plans to purchase a duplex to provide temporary housing for refugees to our area.   If they can do so, they will also welcome help in doing any necessary rehab work.

 

Tim encouraged us to “like” the Three Spinners page on Face Book and to follow them on Twitter.    To donate, or for more information, go to www.threespinners.org.

 

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	Sept 28th	Oct 5th	Oct 12th	Oct 19th
Introductions	Lou Simpson	Billy Stull	Jeff Van Buren	Cary Woolard
Invocation	Candy Loyd	BJ Lytle	Ben Mast	John McDaniel
Greeters	Lou Simpson	Billy Stull	Jeff Van Buren	Cary Woolard
	Oktay Baran	Michelle Barbey	Keith Brandau	Ethan Chew
Song Leader	Cary Woolard	Adam Wright	Candy Loyd	BJ Lytle
Notetaker	Conforti	Perry	Penwell	Hodson

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UPCOMING SCHEDULE (with program committee member responsible listed in parentheses)

September 28th – Jim Rossow, Vice President-News, News-Gazette Media (Phyllis)

October 5th – State Senator Scott Bennett (Bob)

October 12th – Dr. Shirley Palmer, the co-pastor of Faith Methodist Church, will discuss the combined Rotary grant program to provide a men’s homeless shelter over winter months in C-U (Bob)

October 19th – Laurie Matheson, Director, University of Illinois Press (Phyllis)

October 26th – Rick Davidson, District Global Grants Chair, will discuss a vocational exchange between Indiana and Jamaica (Mary)

November 2nd – Derek Fultz, Director of Facilities, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, UIUC will discuss the renovation of the Natural History Building (Phyllis)

November 9th – Kari May, Director of the Children’s Advocacy Center (Mary)

November 16th – Adelaide Aime, Executive Director, RACES