Doll of Hope Service Project

Doll of Hope Service Project
Making Dolls for Refugees Worldwide

Friday, August 24, 2012

Help us make miracles: First Annual Wine into Water Benefit Event!

The members of Rotary Club of Millcreek invite you to their first annual signature fundraising event: Wine into Water - wine tasting and hors d'oeuvres in a casual lawn party setting. Thursday September 13, 2012 6-8pm at our club president's Laurie Summers-Pisani's home in the Avenues: 355 Crestline Circle.

Our Benefit is a limited opportunity drawing. Suggested donation per person is $50, and only 100 tickets are available. The name drawn that evening will receive the $1,000 grand prize.

RSVP by sending a check by or before September 10 to Rotary Club of Millcreek, 4517 Abinadi Rd., SLC UT 84124.


Our goal: to raise money for two water filtration systems in small villages along the Amazon River in Peru. Each year, we will select a different water project in another impoverished village and nation. Clean water is a critical health need that we take for granted in the U.S.

Here are some startling facts:
  • 3.575 million people die worldwide each year from water related disease. That's equal to the population of Los Angeles.
  • 884 million people worldwide lack access to clean water. That's 3 X the population of the U.S.
  • An American taking a five minute shower uses much more water than a person in a developing country village or slum has access to for all his or her needs in an entire day.  
For more information go to http://water.org/water-crisis/water-facts/water/

Here is our invitaton. We look forward to seeing you there. Thank again for helping us make miracles!

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Let's start supporting the Sunnyvale Neighborhood Welcome Center


Help Support the Sunnyvale Neighborhood Welcome Center!  

Before October 31st, we'd like to outfit the Sunnyvale Center!  To join in the efforts, simply:
1.       Click this link (you may need to sign in with your e-mail account or create a sign in), or look through the list below and let miriam@youthlinc.org know what you'd like to sign up for!
Lovely refugee women like these will benefit from this project
2.     Type your name next to the items you can collect or donate.  Please note that some items might require 2-3 people to collect!
3.       Once you have items to collect, start collecting!  
4.  Contact Ellie to arrange the delivery of the items (801.209.2228). 

We'll be discussing more at our Oct. 4th meeting!  

For more details about this project, click on this link to our blog.  For a short video and info about our past Rotary event with the refugee community, check out this link.

Happy collecting friends!

Contact Miriam (801.824.9855) with questions.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Our partnership with Sunnyvale Refugee Center starts to take shape!

Good meeting at the Sunnyvale Community Center on Thursday, August 9. In attendance: Laurie Summers Pisani, Frank Lilly, Kim Williams, Margareta Vlasic, Susan Marks, Shannon Tilly, Mustafa Celebi, Sonia Woodbury. Visitor: Mark Holland

Club members spoke with Ellie Goldberg, Coordinator; Ze Xiao, Salt Lake County; DeAndre, Complex Manager;
Shu Cheng, Executive Director Refugee & Immigrant Center; Kendrick, Refugee Services Office

We toured the space for the center:  4 rooms, 2 bathrooms. Nice space with a lot of potential. They need to make the space ADA accessible, by building a ramp at the entrance and widening the doorways.  They also need to enlarge a bathroom.
They are looking for volunteer contractors to complete these projects. They need to fill the list of supplies and have a fund raiser for the monthly rent of $750 plus utilities.

They have grant money to provide two after school programs.  One for the elementary and one for Jr./Sr. High students (Max. 25 each)  They will be holding these programs at a nearby park until the building is complete.

Activities scheduled for the center include:  After school snack for the children prior to homework help, tutoring, computer access, adult ESL classes, meeting place to strengthen the community, life skills classes, etc.

They are combining  funds from the state, county, city, resettlement agency and private donations.

It is a terrific project based on the success of other community centers in the area. Our help is much needed. We will discuss more at our next meeting on the 30th.

President Laurie ~ Thanks Mustafa for taking the photos!

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Meeting Minutes - August 2, 2012

Attendees:  Christine Casper, Miriam Kramer, Mustafa Celebi, Ryan Van Dyke, Francis Lilly, Bill Kille, Kim Rothwell, Marlin Clark, Linda Book, Shannon Tilly, Jennie Ferguson, and Martin Gelman

Ryan Van Dyke is planning to join our Club - welcome Ryan!

Agenda Items - Facilitated by Miriam Kramer


Update on Sunnyvale Community Center Service - Barrett Bonella 

  • Barrett shared pictures of the space and the needs for the refugees
  • Goal of the center is to improve the quality of life, educational services, family, career growth, and sustainability for the refugees living near the center
  • The center services a broad background of refugees (Latinos, Somalia, Bhutan, Burma, etc) speaking over 40 languages 
  • Rotary Club of Millcreek will assist with:
  1. Fundraising and donations for construction - Barrett to provide wish list of needs
  2. Opening Celebration (members discussed a Halloween Party in October to educate refugees on American culture
  3. The Club brain-stormed other great ideas to assist.  Barrett will take questions and suggestions (contact information below)

Barrett's contact information
Barrett Bonella - 80199.9451, or cell 801.706.2666
barrett@aau-slc.org

For our meeting next week, August 9, Miriam and Barrett are working on a tour of other refugee centers and going to Sunnyvale to look at the space and what they need.  READ THE BLOG FOR DETAILS!

Discussed August Service - Dash for Donations - be sure to register on-line before the event next Saturday.  We will walk as a group and meet at Sugarhouse Park at 7:45 am.  More details can be found on-line at www.yes.utah.org

Join us for our next meeting on August 9 at 5:15.  Details of the tour to be provided.