Written by Patrick Hart
Tom Zengeler presided over the meeting, Tim Dempsey led us in prayer, and Dennis Kratohwil had us sing “Happy Birthday” to our beloved club president, who will turn a year older on Sunday.
BRAGS:
Patricia Bleck bragged that after several postponements her daughter will be married on August 1.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Next week will be a fifth Wednesday, so we will gather at 5:30 in the evening for a social affair in lieu of the regular morning meeting.
The District recently took a survey among its members concerning Rotary meetings during the Coronavirus and Tom Zengeler reported on part of the results. Over one third of members responded to the survey and slightly less than forty percent of respondents were willing to attend in door meetings at this time. The good news is that most members are still interested in continuing to participate in Rotary. Seventy percent of respondents said they were willing to attend out door meetings, and of those not willing to attend indoor meetings ninety three percent are willing to attend online meetings. Only four percent of those unwilling to attend indoor meetings indicate that they will leave Rotary.
Diane Taylor who is our Zoom Coordinator and John McDonald who handles the broadcast system for our Zoom meetings are both looking for backups for when they are not available. So if you are available to occasionally substitute in taking responsibility for these endeavors, please speak up.
The club is tentatively planning a wine tasting fund-raiser in September.
FUN AND FROLICS
This week Robert Likus presented a trivia quiz, filled with interesting tidbits of information, such as the Atlantic was the first ocean crossed by both ship and plane, and that the Kentucky Derby is run in Louisville, Kentucky. I also gained an additional educational benefit, when I was writing this report, and spellcheck informed me that I was trying to put an extra “e” in Louiseville.
PROGRAM:
Our program this week was presented by Colette Mendelson and Kathleen Whitman of Stepping Stone Network. Stepping Stone Network is an organization trying to stop sex trafficking in Lake County, which is far more extensive than most of us realize. The practice has widely expanded in recent years, and our speakers believe that this is largely due to the near universal availability of pornography in our society. Pornography is now the most downloaded material on the internet. It is an addiction, and when the high starts to wear off on pornography, the practitioners sometimes go looking for some stronger form of entertainment to meet their needs, and this can lead them to become customers for sex trafficking.
There are several common forms of sex trafficking. The most widespread public image of the practice involves cases of outright kidnapping of victims of sex trafficking, and this practice does happen. More common forms though occur through fraud or coercion.
Fraud usually involves false advertising offering women legitimate positions, but when they apply they are forced to become sex slaves. Many of these cases involve foreign women brought to the United States without passports under false pretenses, and once they are here they have no means to escape.
Coercion is typically done by a trafficker, who spends months building up a trusting relationship with a less powerful person. At some point the trafficker will persuade the victim to engage in some act such as making pornographic pictures for money, and once the initial step is taken the trafficker will use blackmail to force the victim to continue and expand the illicit activities.
Trauma bond is a term referring to the psychological state that the victims of sex trafficking often fall into, which makes it difficult to seek help. The victims of the transactions frequently come from disadvantaged backgrounds, and they have limited options in life. The relationship the traffickers form with them seed their feelings that they deserve what is happening to them and that they have no place to fit in the normal world should they ever seek to leave the business.
Stepping Stones Network has recently opened a restoration house to assist victims of sex trafficking in their efforts to transition back into normal society. It is the only such house in Illinois that takes in mothers with children. The network also engages in various efforts attempting to slow down sex trafficking before it happens.
Stepping Stone’s big annual fund raising event is called the Festival of Trees, which they hold at the Cuneo Estate. Designers decorate trees that are then sold to their patrons. Their annual budget is $300,000.00.
RAFFLE:
This week we gave away $20.00 in our weekly raffle. We had $906.00 in our progressive pot with only 19 cards left, but to everyone’s sorrow the individual holding the winning ticket failed to pull the right card, and the big prize rolls over.
NEXT WEEK:
In lieu of our morning meeting we will have a fifth Wednesday social gathering next Wednesday evening at 5:30.
QUOTE FOR THE DAY:
"When the rights of any individual or group are chipped away, the freedom of all erodes." ~ Earl Warren
