We were thrilled to be joined by 6 of the 9 students who were each awarded $1,000 scholarships by our club. The students told us about their future plans. David Amodei will be attending Cuesta before transferring to a 4 year university in pursuit of a BS in Business/ Hospitality Management; Fiona Cloward will be attending UC Davis where she has not yet declared but said her goal is to help people; Angelique Gutierrez will be going to Cal Poly to study Ag Science; Alondra Mercado will be at Fresno State studying Sociology. Julian Crocker told us that Alondra was also the recipient of the Richard J. Weyhrich Leadership Scholarship given to students who demonstrate exceptional leadership potential; Emma Sison will attend UC Davis studying Animal Science with an eye on Veterinary Medicine; and, Julie Vazquez plans to take a gap year to spend a year in Bosnia living with a Muslim Family to better understand their traditions (depending on the status of COVID-19). She then plans to attend UC Riverside majoring in Global Studies. Julie spend part of her junior year in Japan as an exchange student and now speaks Japanese! Additional scholarship recipients, Ellie Kennedy, Riley Volz and Luis Mercado were not able to attend our meeting.

As Principal Scott Ferguson said, “We can’t wait to see where life takes you”. Counselor Mary Stenbeck, who previously taught most of these students in 7th grade, tearfully told them how proud she was of them. Justin Gish, who taught many of them in 4th grade, told them he was amazed at what they have accomplished. Cynthia Woodruff-Neer explained the Rotary Wheel to the students and reminded them to be a “cog”.

In case you have any doubt that small schools like Coast can provide a first-class education, these students will prove you wrong. We wish them all the best.

Bob told us that CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) was started by Los Angeles Fire Department in 1985 to educate volunteers about disaster preparedness for the hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. CERT offers a consistent, nationwide approach to volunteer training and organization that professional responders can rely on during disaster situations, allowing them to focus on more complex tasks.

Cambria Emergency Response Team was started in 2001 and, to date, 297 residents have been trained. Today we have 146 com- munity members active. Another 40 members are maintaining their skills to help themselves and family members and neighbors. Paso Robles just started their CERT and our CERT is helping them.

After the horrific fires in Paradise and other areas of California, CERT has been actively involved in the creation of evacuation pre- planning and support so community members can escape in the event of a fire. They are also working on an early warning system

that should be an improvement over the current reverse 911 system. And, they have created the R-U-O-K pro- gram (see page 5 of this newsletter).

A copy of the Power Point Presentation that Bob showed is attached to the email sent with this news- letter.

Thank you Bob for updating us on this very important service in our community. We are so lucky to have so many dedicated volunteers working to keep us safe.

Last month, Bruce & Jane Howard and Christel Chesney spent a couple of weeks at the Piyali Learning Center in the rural village of Piyali Junction outside Kolkata. Jane told us that Deepa Biswas grew up in Calcutta in a fairly
affluent family. She would see children begging and asked why. She vowed, after college she would come back and help. When Bruce and Jane first met Deepa in 2004, she told them she was starting a school in Piyali for girls who
had no access to education. She partnered with the Rotary Club of Calcutta and started with just 20 girls.

In 2010, Deepa was able to secure a new property that was much larger but it was on a swamp. They brought in dirt to fill in the swamp and built a wall around the property to pro- tect the girls. The new school is a far cry from the original one and includes an organic garden, chicken coop, and a vo- cational training center for the mothers of the students. Our club helped build a sewer plant so the school has flush toi- lets and we currently support 6 girls. The cost of sponsoring a girl for an entire year is only $375. To sponsor a mother to attend vocational training, the cost for a year is $175. Checks can be mailed to PACE Universal                          1 North Calle Cesar Chavez, Suite 102, Santa Barbara, CA 93103

Jane was very proud to tell us that, after her father’s death, her mom donated money to the school and there is now a classroom named in his honor.  Christel told us that she had never seen such poverty and filth that she saw while traveling from the hotel to .              the school. They were only 40 miles away but it took
them 2 hours to travel the 40 miles. She said the first 3 days, her heart was broken. They were staying in a 5 star hotel sur- rounded by poverty. There were vegetable carts covered with flies, a pond filled with algae where women were washing clothes and doing dishes while a man was bathing and another urinating in the pond. They visited homes that were hovels with dirt floors, no electricity or plumbing. The school, in contrast, was an oasis. The girls in India have dreams and aspirations but, by the time they reach 4th grade, they are pulled out of school to help with chores. Every 9 minutes a child in India disappears.

Bruce told us about a visit to Mahavir Seva Sadan, a Vocational Training Center in Kolkata. They provide prosthetics for those who need them because of lost limbs or birth defects, eye care and support and training for Cerebral Palsy vic- tims. This is a project that the local Rotary Club supports.

You can learn more about the Piyali Learning Center at