Starting on September 1, we will start having hybrid meetings. This means, those willing to meet in person are welcome to meet at Flaherty’s once again. Chairs will be physically distanced and masks required. Flaherty’s will provide individually-wrapped bagels and pastries as well as coffee, juice and water. We will continue with presenting the meetings via Zoom. Undoubtedly, there will be technical and other challenges as we move into this meeting format.
By the time you read this, you may already know the great news. The World Health Organization (WHO) on 25 August announced that transmission of the wild poliovirus has officially been stopped in all 47 countries of its African region. This is a historic and vital step toward global eradication of polio, which is Rotary’s top priority. After decades of hard won gains in the region, Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative — WHO, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gavi, the vaccine alliance — are proclaiming the milestone an achievement in public health. They offer it as proof that strong commitment, coordination, and perseverance can rid the world of polio. This great accomplishment happened due to your generous contributions the Rotary’s PolioPlus efforts.
In the annual Rotary calendar, September is Basic Education and Literacy Month. Rotary supports activities and training to improve education for all children and literacy for children and adults. The Rotary Foundation enables Rotarians to ensure that all people have sustainable access to basic education and literacy by: 1. Involving the community to support programs that strengthen the capacity of communities to provide basic education and literacy to all; 2. Increasing adult literacy in communities; 3. Working to reduce gender disparity in education; 4. Supporting studies for career-minded professionals related to basic education and literacy. What can we do to support these goals?
We had a few meetings to discuss what our focus should be on attracting members, etc. I showed a short video on 13 ways to kill your rotary. Mike Spellman is sharing his thoughts in this newsletter of opportunities we will have to engage all of us. I had another thought on sparking interest during an epidemic. Most of us have a Facebook account that we scroll through occasionally to see what others are doing or where they have been. I happen to love it when someone posts a great recipe or shows a picture of a unique trip they have been on. I would like to suggest something similar for our rotary newsletter. Send me a concert outdoors that you would recommend, a book that you couldn’t put down or an on-line lecture you watched that was interesting. When I returned from Florida and self quarantined for a bit, I decided to visit places in Minnesota I had not seen before.
This picture of sunflowers is from Treasure Haven Farms in Rush City, Minnesota. There are acres and acres of sunflowers and this has become a ‘thing’ to see. I will post some other interesting spots but please send me any place you have visited or any other interesting tidbits, etc.
Just as has happened elsewhere in the rest of the world, the Covid-19 Pandemic has shut down much of India and the Sewing School in Amaravati is currently shut down. After ten of the first seventeen students at the Pushpa Sewing School finished the curriculum last February, the sewing school had become well accepted in the community and was clearly having a positive impact there. Another cohort group of students had joined the remaining students from the prior group and many of them were making steady progress toward completing the curriculum this summer, until a shelter in place order was issued throughout India in response to the Pandemic. It has disrupted everything in India except for the deeply rooted poverty that is so pervasive in the ghettos in the cities and in much of the rural areas. Amaravati has not been spared.
In a recent conversation with Gummadi Franklin, Pushpa’s founder and chair. Chairman Franklin was very positive about the school and the role he hopes it will continue to have in Amaravati, assuming the shelter in place order is eventually lifted. The school had come together very well and the landlord has generously minimized rental payments in view of what is hoped by all will be the temporary closure of the school. How well the school will be able to reorganized after the closure remains to be seen, but the elders in the community and the landlord want the school to remain. It has been welcomed in Amaravati.
A picture of the graduating class seated with their arms raised as they wait for their certificates is shown below. What happened here in the U.S. also happened in India. The Covid-19 Pandemic disrupted the entire country and has caused Pushpa to suspend its classes.
Two of the graduating students are picture below, one, who was chosen to speak to the gathering at the graduation ceremony and another who is receiving her certificate from Chairman Franklin. Also with the students and Chairman Franklin is the Teacher (Suzanne) and a teaching assistant.
Pushpa's mission is to help marginalized community members of rural Guntur District villages transition from migrant, subsistent lifestyles, dependent on seasonal labor and temporary shelter, to sustainable livelihoods in healthy communities. Its main goal is to work together with underprivileged (tribal) members of rural Guntur District villages to find ways to enable socio-economic change in small ways, one person, one family, one student, at a time, through projects in which the recipients themselves participate. (See http://pushpaproject.org/vision_mission.htm) . One of the elders in Amaravati is pictured below after he was given the honor of cutting the green ribbon in a ceremony for the opening of the school last May.
A lot of hard work went into establishing the school and there are many people to thank for their hard work and significant contributions. The Sewing School has now graduated its first class and it is especially gratifying to see that the labor and hard work is now being rewarded and that young people’s lives in Amaravati are being touched by those efforts. We are now awaiting further word as to further progress of the current students once the shelter in place directives in India are lifted. Pushpa will be there to restart the teaching when that happens.
The leaders of PUSHPA, both here in Arden Hills and in Andhra Pradesh, India are especially grateful for the support for the new sewing school from the Arden Hills Shoreview Rotary Club and Rotary District 5960 and have expressed their gratitude privately and acknowledged the Club’s sponsorship of the school by erecting the sign shown in the picture below.
We and Pushpa are thankful for the matching grant received from Rotary District 5960 and to the following Rotary Clubs for their generous support of our project: Belle Plain; Brooklyn Center; Forrest Lake; Fridley Columbia Heights; New Brighton Mounds View; Prior Lake; Roseville; St. Croix Falls; St. Paul No. 10; Siren Webster; West St. Paul Mendota Heights; and White Bear Lake.
Today marked the first meeting of the new Rotary year and our annual "peaceful transition of power" to the new year's leadership team (to use Bill Klumpp's term). Thus, Bill kicked off the meeting with some reflections on our accomplishments and challenges in 2019-2020. He noted special achievements by a few individuals and granted "Service Above Self" awards created by Bill and suitable for framing! Former District Governor Kyle Haugen then joined the meeting and did a formal induction for each of the officers for 2020-2021. Kyle congratulated us on being named Club of the Year in our size category for our many accomplishments this past year, especially with the International project work being led by Bob Freed and Mike Spellman. Kyle urged us to continue working for positive peace in the world saying: "Be proud. Spread the word. Don't stop." Finally, incoming President Glenn Bowers shared his thoughts on the upcoming year. He echoed Kyle's comments and noted that one of his primary goals as president will be to broaden the engagement of all club members.
Today we heard from Anoop Mathur, Youth Services Director for the 2020-2021 Rotary year. Given that Anoop is new to his role with Youth Services and also a relatively new club member, he has approached this challenge by researching the youth-focused programs our club has undertaken in the past or may consider undertaking in the future. This list includes Camp Enterprise, RYLA, Youth Exchange, STRIVE, STRIPES, literacy projects and Interact/Rotaract groups. He noted that Rotary International's focus on many youth initiatives such as these is in order to prepare the next generation for leadership and to learn the value of service to others. Anoop shared that he himself benefited greatly from his own involvement in a Rotaract Club as a young man in India. Some of the skills these programs impart are around effective communication, team work, and global awareness. He also noted that most of these programs rely on receiving buy-in and participation from administration and teaching staff at the involved schools. For the most part, this means Mounds View High School and Chippewa Middle School in our district.
Mike Spellman arranged for us to view a YouTube video today, featuring Rebecca Bender. Rebecca has been recognized by a number of Rotary clubs in the U.S. for her work with victims of human trafficking. The video was taped when she was a guest speaker at a Rotary Forum on this subject held at the RI International Convention in 2017. Forum members included U.S. Senator Bob Corker and actor Ashton Kutcher who is an activist in this area also. Rebecca told her own gripping story of how she became a victim of sex trafficking. She was an honor student and athlete in high school in a small town in Oregon. But, the summer after graduating she became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter. She started college as planned but soon found herself struggling because her life was so different from her college peers. At this point, she met a man who provided all the emotional support she was looking for. After six months, he suggested they take a trip to Las Vegas and this is where her nightmare began. Her boyfriend suddenly became her pimp. She was trapped in this life for the next six years, enduring many forms of abuse including two men tattooing their names into her back. She was freed when their operation was raided by federal agents. Although this allowed her to move forward with her life, she continued to struggle for a time in her new circumstances of poverty, homelessness and feelings of hopelessness while trying to provide for her now 8 year old daughter. However, she slowly began finding ways to use her experience to help others . She became founder and CEO of Elevate Academy, a non-profit that works with law enforcement, FBI, Homeland Security and aftercare programs to provide expert testimony, training and consultation on this issue of social justice across the globe. One of Rebecca's key messages is that we must understand that this crime takes on many forms. Not all victims are kidnapped. Many are slowly lured into the life by trusted men in their lives who become expert at this form of grooming as a means to acquire new "assets" for their trade.
Mike Spellman announced that the Water Service Project he’s been working on has been approved by Rotary International; a global grant will provide safe, clean water to people in Nigeria. He will open a bank account through which money can be sent to Nigeria to begin the building project. Monitoring will take place throughout the project.
Ken Hola gave an update on the virtual 3-mile run/walk fundraiser. His goal is to have 100 people sign up and there are currently 92 people, 9 sponsors and 33 donations giving a total of $10,121.
Mike Spellman urged everyone to get speakers for our meetings plus encouraged everyone to explore the vast amount of information on the Rotary website. Topics that need to be addressed by our Club include: membership, meeting format, service projects, public image (the new look), fund raising and the different kinds of grants available. Since we are meeting through Zoom, possible ideas discussed were having past Exchange students or Camp Ryla students be speakers or informative speakers from anywhere in the world. Many learning opportunities can be found on the Rotary website and shared during our meetings. And, the book, “Losing the Race” was a suggested reading regarding equity and inclusion.
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