Erin Kamphuis, the Grand Haven Good Samaritan Executive Director came by to give us some information about what our local Good Samaritan is doing and who they are supporting.
Good Samaritan serves residents earning 50% of the Area Median Income. Since 2021, individuals who are unhoused has steadily been increasing.
Services offered range from Housing Assessments, Shelter Diversion, Short Term Family Shelter, Rapid Rehousing, Supportive Housing, and Eviction Prevention. They also offer poverty alleviation programs assisting poverty stricken families get out of poverty through training and financial support.
In 2025, they were able to assist 176 individuals in getting housed, with an average time to house in just 12 days. With that 98% of households remain stably housed after Evection Prevention assistance. with 60% of those houses including children.
Birthdays: Eric Kaelin (April 21st), Meghan Heritage (April 21st), John Mauro (April 23rd)
Wedding Anniversaries: Jeremy & Melanie Swiftney - 13 years (April 20th), Kevin & Cara Galbavi (April 21st)
Rotary Anniversaries: Dan Ellis - 1 Year (April 21st)
Announcements:
We welcomed our two Student's of the Month this week! Today we honored Hayden Dubs and Ian Burley from Grand Haven High School. As always, these students exemplify Rotary in many ways, and remind us of how bright our future will be!
Our Meeting on May 4th will be held downstairs at Central Park Place. And on May 11th, our meeting will be at Grand Haven High School with the Grand Haven Interact Club.
The Grand Haven Rotary Club is offering a match to earn your first Paul Harris Award. If you are a first time recipient, a $250 donation can turn in to this important award.
NEW TO ROTARY - The first of the 5th Mondays Meetings was last week! These are meetings set to replace the traditional Monday noon meeting with a social after-hours event, replacing the regularly scheduled meeting. Additional 5th Mondays will be in August and November (where there are 5 Mondays for the month). More information to come!
We are opening the Rotary Store soon, any interest should see Dale or Nate Patterson to start your order. When enough product has been requested, we will process the order.
Change for Change jar is on the back table. Drop your change to assist our Interact Club in granting additional Micro-Loans with the Interact Club of Grand Haven High School.
We have a Rotary Spotlight every month on WAWL.
The Jeep Raffle is live. The Grand Haven aquatics center is the beneficiary and the drawing will be this summer. We are currently at 117 tickets sold. Let's sell 1,000 tickets!
We are in search for our next Peace Fellow to study overseas. If you know of someone looking for education or a career change please let Gernot know.
50/50 Raffle: We had no winners today - the new pot rolls over!
Coffee at the Grand Haven Rotary Meetings provided by Kenzie's BE Cafe - please be sure to thank them by visiting the shop for a coffee or your next meeting!
