• Prez Robin conducted a club assembly. Her goal was to increase membership by a net of three members by next June. She  announced that our foundation had made a $3,000 contribution to the DeBell Center Sensory Room.
• The Soap Box Derby race needed a member to coordinate our crosswalk members.
• LoriP announced that our Baseball Mania net was $2,045.
• MarkA was looking for an assist with our Family Cookout.
• We found out that RodneyD has been involved with Rotary since 1994.
• ChrisH broke the news that it now takes about 20 weeks for the IRS to process an amended return.
• Mark Vaughn presented scholarship checks to two students.
• JohnP suggested that Prez Robin be a bit more agressive with her bell ringing.
• We needed a chairperson for our October 14th Chili Super.
• LoriP and AllenH left the joker in the deck. JohnP won the scratch-off.

DATELINE:ROTARY

High-tech classroom upgrades open pathways for girls in India

by Charlene Drummer and Jeff Krolik

Eighteen-year-old Hareesha has big dreams. She wants to go into medicine, eliminate the poverty that many people in her part of southern India endure, and lift up her community. That she’s able to kindle such lofty hopes is thanks, first, to a promise: Her father pledged to provide her and her two siblings an education.

That’s no small feat. Her parents struggled to feed Hareesha and her brother and sister. The level of desperation in their village is so extreme that some parents even sell their daughters into early marriages at age 14 or 15. When a wealthy family offered to buy Hareesha, her father refused. “He vowed to work hard and make sure we ate, even if he didn’t,” she says. “He promised to give us the education we deserved.”

Girls living in the remote forest villages of Andhra Pradesh state have historically been deprived of access to a quality education. Because of that, they have almost no opportunity for economic advancement or options outside the home. These girls face numerous challenges, including low literacy rates, limited health care access, discrimination, and social exclusion. Being inadequately educated condemns these girls to a life of limitations.

Hareesha’s father did not want that life for her. He encouraged her to get an education at one of the state’s tribal schools (“tribal” is the designation adopted by the Indian government to recognize the Adivasi ethnic groups, who are considered to be the original inhabitants of the broader Indian subcontinent and comprise about 9 percent of India’s population). In conjunction with the federal government, the state’s Tribal Welfare Department has built such schools to alleviate poverty and prevent child marriages.

Hareesha’s parents enrolled her at the Tribal Welfare Girls’ Residential School and College of Excellence in Vissannapeta. About 640 girls, in grades five through 12, attend the school, where they receive a basic education, as well as food, clothing, and housing. However, the girls still face limited opportunities for advancement because the government lacks sufficient resources to provide a fundamental component that is crucial to being competitive in the modern world: access to digital tools and resources.

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I left my front door open and my Roomba just went out and I can't find it. What are the consequences of this? It has no natural predators.

Where can you buy soup in bulk? The stock market.
Why do bees have sticky hair? They use honeycombs.
Sea monsters have been known to eat what? Fish and ships.
What do you call a vicar who becomes a lawyer? A father-in-law.
Why was the broom late to work? It overswept.
What does a pig use in the shower? Hog wash.
Why don’t ants get sick? They have anty-bodies.
Why do computers overheat? They need to vent.