Rotary Club of
Millcreek business meeting, Thursday April 9, 2015
In attendance: Mustafa Celebi, Cesar Diaz, Jennie Ferguson,
Marty Gelman, Margareta Vlasic, Frank Lilly, Susan Marks, Brian Rollo, Mike
Siegel, Laurie Pisani, Shannon Tilly, Sonia Woodbury, Judy Zone
Guests: Rachel Sanders and Leeann from South Salt Lake, Jim
Schott (a potential new member), Sheila Gelman (Marty’s wife)
President Frank yielded time to Rachel Sanders, Family
Liaison Manager for South Salt Lake Promise. Rachel gave us an overview of the
refugee experience in camps in foreign lands and how they come to the U.S.
She used the image above to explain the services that were
available to families who are sent to Utah. There are somewhere between 50,000
and 100,000 refugees currently in South Salt Lake or environs. Case managers
for all these agencies are overwhelmed and need whatever help our club, other
entities, organizations or individuals can provide. She explained the
philosophy of asset development, creating opportunities from strengths, building
relationships, becoming Western culture literate, celebrating the richness of
refugee culture.
Our club will embark on the refugee family mentoring
experience in this way:
Laurie, Christine, Marty (and his wife Sheila), Ladd will
meet with Rachel in the next few weeks to complete the assessment sheet which
is page two of the Word document. Then, with Rachel’s assistance, they will
meet with the two families assigned to our club.
After these two meetings,
these members will formulate a task list to bring back to our club members. Individuals
within the club can volunteer to help with specific tasks as our abilities,
resources, and time allows. We don’t have to do everything on the list.
In other issues from the meeting:
·
South Salt Lake Promise will make some proposals
for projects for their Welcome Centers that can be funded through a Rotary
District Grant submitted from our club by July 1.
·
Cesar Diaz presented information about the
Mother’s Day lunch for disadvantaged women that he would like our help with. He
has sent out a follow up email about this project. Deadline for donation of
toiletries or cash is Thursday April 30 at the social at Ladd’s house.
·
Jennie Ferguson discussed our May 20 social at
Harmon’s Emigration Market. Only 20 folks can participate in the Thai cooking
experience. Contact Jennie for more information
jennie.ferguson@comcast.net
·
Judy mentioned that the Youthlinc Benefit on
Saturday May 16 has counted in the past as both a club meeting and a social. 100%
of club donations support local young people in the Youthlinc Service Year.
This year we sponsored two high school students who contributed 80 hours of
local service and are preparing their international service in an Amazon River
village in Peru this summer.
·
We inducted three new members: Cesar Diaz, Mike
Siegel, Brian Rollo.
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From L-R: Mike Siegel, Frank Lilly, Cesar Diaz, Brian Rollo
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