Masah S. SamForay is the 2020-2021 President of Rotary Club of Chicago Southeast. Finally, as a first-generation American, Atty. SamForay is the Founder of Villages Youth and Family Services 501(c)(3), a non-profit that focuses on childhood hunger and education in Sierra Leone, West Africa. She attributes her drive to her family’s humble beginnings and strong emphasis on the value of education.
The hallmark of Ms. SamForay’s Rotary year will be a focus on childhood literacy and the gift of a school library in Sierra Leone. With one of the lowest literacy rates in the world, Sierra Leone has a illiteracy rate of over 40%. In 2017 National Geographic declared the country to be “The worst place in the world to be born a girl.” Ms. SamForay originally planned on taking a delegation of Rotarians and friends to Sierra Leone in December 2020 for the library project. Due to COVID-19 precautions the trip has been postponed to December 2021.
Professionally, Ms. SamForay’s classification is attorney. She is Founder of The Foray Firm, a boutique family law firm. She is a double alumna of Indiana University– Bloomington. With over a decade spent protecting families, Atty. SamForay has earned national recognition and many awards. After having opened three offices in the Chicagoland area, Atty. SamForay acquired another firm in 2018. Then in 2019, Atty. SamForay merged with yet another firm and expanded operations to the Greater Houston area. This is a part of a strategic expansion plan which will make The Foray Firm the largest African-American owned family law firm in the nation.
Atty. SamForay is currently the youngest African-American appointed to the Board of Governors of the Illinois State Bar Association, which is the largest volunteer bar association in the country with a membership of nearly 30,000 attorneys. She was the 2019-2020 chair of the Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the Law Committee. She was the 2018-2019 treasurer for the National Bar Association Young Lawyers Division. Atty. SamForay is a Co-Founder of the Black Bar Association of Will County. She is a past board member of the Black Women Lawyers’ Association of Greater Chicago, and served as the 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 Co-Chair of the Small and Solo Firm Committee. And, she is active in the Cook County Bar Association, where she is currently serving in her fourth term as the Chair of the Family Law Section.
Aside from bar membership, Atty. SamForay is active in her beloved Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. She was appointed by Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner to the Board of Trustees of Governor’s State University in 2017-2019. And she is the mother to three amazing children.
Are you missing seeing your other Rotarians in person? Feel free to join Jordan Davis and Kay Rendleman with some of your other fellow Rotarians on Fridays over at Sportivos inside the Antlers hotel. Arrive starting at 11:30 for socially distanced socializing and bring your laptops and headphones to participate in the meeting on Zoom at 12:15! Questions? Contact Jordan or Kay."
Paul Harris wrote: "Each Rotarian is a connecting link between the idealism of Rotary and their trade or profession". Vocational Service may be the least understood of the Rotary Avenues of Service, and yet it is the very foundation of Rotary itself. The introductory statement and three of the four objectives of Rotary relate to Vocational Service, underlining its importance to the philosophy and culture of Rotary.
Those objectives are:
To encourage and foster high ethical standards in business and professions, to recognise the worthiness of all useful occupations, to dignify the Rotarian’s occupation as an opportunity to serve society.
To apply the ideal of service in personal, business and community life.
To advance international understanding and goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of businessmen and professional men and women united in the ideal of service.
The Object of Rotary is a philosophical statement of Rotary’s purpose and the responsibilities of Rotarians. The concept of vocational service is rooted in the Second Object, which calls on Rotarians to “encourage and foster”:
• High ethical standards in business and professions
• The recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations
• The dignifying of each Rotarian’s occupation as an opportunity to serve society.
As a Rotarian, how can you put these ideals into action? Consider these suggestions:
• Talk about your vocation in your club, and take time to learn about fellow members’ vocations.
• Use your professional skills to serve a community.
• Practice your profession with integrity, and inspire others to behave ethically through your own words and actions.
• Help a young person achieve his or her career aspirations.
• Guide and encourage others in their professional development. If you do any of these things, you are performing vocational service. And if vocational service motivates and energizes you, then you’re in the right place, because vocational service is the very essence of Rotary. It is what sets Rotary apart from other service organization.
1. Where were you born and where did you grow up? Born in Enid, OK, but an Air Force Brat, so grew up all over the place. Whiteman AFB, MO, Tucson, Mountain Home, ID, Decatur, IL
2. Have you lived outside the US? If so, where and for how long? Yes, Ghana for 6 months, three years ago. Teaching at Ashesi University.
3. Coffee or tea? Coffee
4. Do you currently or have you ever played a musical instrument? Played piano and trumpet as a kid, but never well.
5. Favorite sport to watch? Favorite sport to play? Favorite sports teams? Not really a sports guy.
6. Who would you consider to be your “hero” or “mentor” and why?
A number of them. As an academic, my best teachers.
7. Do you speak any languages besides English? Spanish, moderately well. Learned to read Greek, Hebrew, German, French and Latin
8. What is one item from your Bucket List? Travel to Egypt
9. What is one thing you’ve done that you never want to do again? Graduate school
10. If you had to give up one of your five senses for the rest of your life, which one would it be: sight, sound, touch, taste, or smell and why? I’m losing my vision to Glaucoma now, so I’ll let you know how that goes.
11. What was your first job? Car hop
12. How long have you been in Rotary? Have you ever been a Rotarian in another club? If so, where? Only 1.5 years
13. What is your favorite community service activity that our club has participated in? Flight
14. Is there another effort that you would like to see our club contribute/volunteer? I’m on the International Committee and have a couple of ideas to support education in Ghana and Africa generally.
15. What program have we had at our weekly meetings that you’ve found the most interesting? The young woman who as an undocumented immigrant working for D11
16. Who was your rotary sponsor? George Reed
17. What board positions have you held in our club or in prior clubs? So far only a member of the International Committee
18. What is something else that would be interesting or entertaining for our club members to know about you? Taught military ethics at the Army War College, the Naval War College, and the Air Force Academy for a total of 21 years, after a 20 year career in civilian academia.
For the month of January we are partnering with The Place to provide Apartment Kits for young adults moving into their first apartment. Register to let us know if you will be providing an apartment kit or make a donation to our Service Fund for The Place at the event page. https://portal.clubrunner.ca/3250/Event/the-place-apartment-kits
Apartment Kits should be dropped off no later than January 31, 2021. Be sure to let The Place know that you are donating the box on behalf of the Rotary Club of Colorado Springs. Please take pictures of any box you create to share with us.
In February we will be partnering with Peak Vista Community Health Centers and The Men’s Exchange for a clothing and item drive.
Peak Vista is in need of the following:
Used: blankets if in good shape and laundered
New: tents, sleeping bags, flashlights, backpacks, hand warmers, socks, grocery gift cards, puzzle books, pencils, new coats, hats, and gloves for adults
Donations can be dropped off at the Health Center at 340 Printers Parkway, Colorado Springs, CO 80910 or coordinate a pickup with Samantha Chapman
The Men’s Exchange will accept used professional clothing which can be dropped off at the physical location downtown, 409 N. Tejon St. Colorado Springs, CO.
Please share any pictures of your donations and let Samantha Chapman know if you did donate.
We will discuss International projects for 2021 via email this month. Please contact Jordan Davis if you are interested in participating in International rotary projects this year.
Today, thirty-five years ago, many of us watched the Space Shuttle Challenger launch. Then almost as quickly, it disintegrated and the country was stunned.
I remember seeing the video footage of Christa McAuliffe's parents watching the launch and then the very moment that her parents realized that something went wrong. It was heart wrenching. President Reagan delayed the State of the Union address that evening to deliver a simple and truly poetic speech to a grieving nation. “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God,'”.
I spent earlier this week reading everything I could find about Challenger. My heart felt sadness at the loss of mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, sons and daughters. My head thought about the greatness of technology and how we learn from failures but this was such an enormous and public one.
As you go about your day, I hope you think about Ellison Onizuka, Ronald McNair, Judith Resnik, Dick Scobee, Gregory Jarvis, Michael J. Smith and Christa McAuliffe. They made an impact in the world with their lives. It wasn't the way they intended but their lives touched so many others. We lost some innocence that day when we saw the shocking demise of seven people with plans and dreams and literal and figurative high hopes but we gained some awareness of how precious and fragile life really can be. There are many takeaways from that tragic day but mine today is rather simple. We are still here and we get to decide every single day to make ours count.
If you have makeups you would like to turn in to be counted for your attendance, please email me with the date and purpose of the meetings! KSaltmarshVoss@yahoo.com
If you have bulletin announcements, please email the EXACT WORDING of your announcement to KSaltmarshVoss@yahoo.com by Wednesday at 5 pm. I don't write your announcements but I do make them nice 'n' fancy!
As you're doing your shopping online, did you know that you can support our Rotary Club with every Amazon purchase? Here’s how:
Go to smile.amazon.com (not amazon.com). Amazon Smile is the same company, same account, same password, but the Amazon Smile program gives one half of one percent of every purchase to charity. No, it’s not a lot, but it’s also not nuthin’ (to be exact: about $150 for the Club so far). So again, go to smile.amazon.com
Sign into your Amazon account as you normally would
On the very top left of the page, next to the AmazonSmile logo, are three horizontal bars. Click there for the drop-down menu.
Scroll ALL the way down to “Your AmazonSmile”; it should be the last option right before “Sign Out”; Click on “Your AmazonSmile”
On the right side of the page, click on the “change charity” box under Your current charity (Note: If you are currently supporting another charity, that’s awesome! These instructions are for those who are not doing so. Also, if you have not previously selected a charity, your default option will be St. Judge Children’s Research Hospital.)
Type in Community Service Fund of the Rotary Club of Colorado Springs; click Select
That’s it. You’re all set. Just remember to go to Smile.Amazon.com when you shop from now on.
