President Lisa Scroggins called our hybrid zoom/in-person meeting to order promptly at 12:14 pm and welcomed everyone to today’s meeting. She let us know that we are requested to wear facemasks while sitting and not eating and please to social distance.

John and Lauren Griffith were our greeters and John introduced the guests.

Liz Becher let us know that she has been in touch with Red Nickerson’s daughter-in-law, who said they are all in Mesa AZ for the winter and Red is doing well and is teaching everyone how to make his World-Famous Corn Chowder. Also, Rev. Bill Pierce has been fitted with his new prosthetic and is doing well but would love a call or a card.

Dean Cline let us know that his twin preemie grandkids are well enough to come home today.

President Lisa Scroggins nominated PE Mike Howe because he is the Shelter Box Organizations Rising Star this year. She also nominated Chastidy Greenwood and her husband for being out last week pulling people out of the snow. Also, Lori Klatt for getting the word out last week that we canceled due to snow.

Katie Caldwell-Burchett said that they held the Olivia Caldwell Foundation’s annual Butterfly Ball so she nominated Megan Miller from the Ramkota hosting the ball and doing such a great job. Also, Kyle Gamroth for being the emcee, Ben Winckler for being the photographer again, and Chastidy Greenwood and her husband for raising $2200 for them.

Liz Becher nominated visiting Rotarian Robin Steele for being a High-Country PETS facilitator this past weekend. Also, Liz nominated Mike Howe and Miamie Sleep for attending PETS.

PE Mike Howe nominated Liz Becher for putting together the High-Country PETS, Miamie for attending and participating in PETS. Mike Also nominated Phillip Rael for being elected to the executive committee of the Chamber of Commerce Board, Ryan Stepp who was elected to the Chamber Board, and Megan Miller and her team for always doing a great job for us at the Ramkota.

Miamie Sleep nominated Brad Cundy for allowing the use of his facility for PETS.

Mike Howe nominated Stu Palmer for receiving the Service above self, award at the Jackson Club Zoom meeting that we have all been invited to.

Tammi Chappell, sponsored by Miamie Sleep, was inducted into our club today, welcome aboard.

President Lisa announced that the Board received an email from RI President stating that the RI board has made the decision to suspend the Rotary Youth Exchange Program until June 2022.

Also, next week we will be honoring several Rotarians with Paul Harris awards and she wanted to mention that sometimes RI records are not always matching with our records so if you feel you should be on that list please reach out to her so she can make sure that you are recognized.

Miamie Sleep announced that there is information on the Duck Derby on each table, they are still in need of volunteers. She also let us know that she still has Duck Window stickers for $5 each if you need a new one.

She also has sign-up sheets if you have ideas for programs for next year and if you have a contact person for that idea please write it down or let her know.

Sabrina Kemper announced that we still have sponsorships available for the Duck Derby so please let one of them know if you would like to sponsor or if you know someone who might.

Anthony Martinez announced that the Golf Tournament has been scheduled for July 31^st and the fliers for teams and sponsors are on each table, this will be a great event.

PE Michael Howe introduced our guest speakers for today, Stu Palmer, Ken Small, Julia, (all of the Jackson Supper Club), and Gav Keaton from South Africa Rotary. Julia gave us an overview of the water project they are doing in Makhanda. She was raised there and has done a lot of humanitarian work there over the years. In 2018 the municipal water source there became contaminated 5 days before she arrived there with water filters. At that time, she had 7 filters with her because there had not been a huge need for them before this. She could have implemented 7,000 filters on that trip if she had have had them. Since she only had the 7 with her, she focused them on the places that would have the highest impact, like clinics and schools. These filters filter out all of the contaminates and turn undrinkable water into drinkable water. After she returned to the US she was approached by a colleague about speaking with the Rotary club about her filters and the humanitarian aid she was doing. So, over the course of lunch the Rotary Club assisted with funding 53 filters for her next trip. She returned there in January 2019 and was able to implement all 53 filters she had with her in 10 days getting access to clean water for over 2500 children and adults, which came to about $1 per person. There was one High School that she focused on at that time, with 937 students. Shortly after her return to Jackson she heard from the Principal who told her that the water situation had worsened and many schools were closing, they had literally run out of good water. By working with the Principal and the Rotary club there they were able to purchase several rain water harvesting tanks and four 10,000-liter tanks to enable the High School to stay open. They turned to Gavin from the Rotary club there and asked him what would be an appropriate next project and his club came up with a project with another High School.

This project addressed many different things with the water system, such as the bathrooms and the drains for the kitchens. She showed us pictures of the bathrooms and other issues, they really had a lot of issues. They had a bore hole water supply but the tanks were not connected to it yet, they had drainage issues that caused a very bad swamp next to the school and the waste water from washing lunch dishes was just dumped outside on the ground and had no where to drain to.

Gavin’s project addresses all of this and so with Stu and Ken’s incredible efforts they were able to raise the money to begin funding the two-phase project. This just happened to coincide with the beginnings of the Covid situation and Gavin reached out to let them know that the exchange rate had changed significantly and if they were able to move money at that time, they would be able to fund the entire project with the money they had. She then showed us all of the updates that were done, what an awesome project. It was all completed by November, amazing that all of this was able to be done during the pandemic. They had a dedication in November 2020 but due to Covid is was not as special as they wanted it to be so in February 2021 they had a bigger ceremony where more people were able to attend. More pictures of the ceremony and plaques.

She then turned the mic over to Stu. He told us a little about gathering together the money for the project. They got together with other clubs and raised money from the community also they also turned to the Rotary International Foundation for matching funds. This was their first International project in five years and they wanted to make sure it went well. They gathered $110,000 and during Covid were able to get it done. It was a huge project as there were a lot of different things involved to get water to the school and make sure it was clean water and the septic and sewer lines were connected and operating properly. They were successful. Now they want to help several other schools in that area that have similar issues with needing water. During the drought the water dries up so they need to have storage tanks to get through the droughts. Most of the schools have to close during the droughts so then the students are losing out on education they need in order to be the leaders of tomorrow.

Gavin then spoke with us a little about the impact this project has had. With the schools having water issues they have to close down, with Covid they are only having school every other day anyway and the kids can’t do zoom because they do not have computers or internet available for them to do so. He said that is a fantastic feeling to see this High School and how much they were helped by this project. The municipal Government is not up to fixing the issues with the water, they can’t purify the water properly and it is the less fortunate that suffer because of this. Through this project with one school, they have made changes that will change a generation. The needs are great for many schools there. The students get the message that they don’t count when they are suffering and the good schools have access to good water, so when these projects are done, they will get the message that they do count and that they are important.

They are working on gathering money from other clubs so that they can go forward helping the other schools in the area. They currently are thinking of a preliminary $50,000 budget per school and are looking at 4-5 schools and the cost will vary. They want to help the most functional first and work their way through up to 10 schools.

They opened it for questions,

More information on how to donate and what our club can do to help will be forthcoming. Anyone can donate to the Jackson club Foundation to get the money there faster and that can count towards Paul Harris Awards also.

This project will help impact about 6000 to 7000 children.

 

 

 

President Lisa Scroggins concluded the meeting at 1:09, she let us know that next week, we will be back at the Ramkota as well as on Zoom. Our speaker will be Keener Fry from UW Alumni Association.