Before Rotarians began working on the layette bags for Nicaragua and service projects for Boys' Haven, the Julie Rogers Gift of Life program and Ubi Caritas, members and guests learned about the work of the two agencies whose disaster work has been funded in part by the Rotary Club of Beaumont since the Harvey recovery work began in the greater Beaumont area.

 

Associate Director of Administration

Nehemiah’s Vision

Julie showed a video which outlined the impact which Nehemiah’s Vision has had helping those in need recover from the devastation of Hurricane Harvey by using donated dollars and volunteer labor to reconstruct flooded homes and make them livable once again. The video showed how the organization helped people recover spiritually as well as getting them back into their homes so that their lives could become somewhat normal again.  One of the homeowners interviewed for the video was Mrs. Willingham, whose home interior was painted as a Rotary service project in 2018.  Julie then spoke to the group about how the Rotary donations had been spent and the impact of those dollars.  To date, our donations have assisted 23 families and purchased 950 sheets of sheetrock and $20,000 of other materials.  She is expecting these totals to double within the next month.  Julie stated that the work is far from over, as they have a current backlog of 175 families who still need assistance and more who are applying every week.  Julie was very thankful for the support of Beaumont Rotary and looks forward to continued support through both donations and volunteers.

 

Beaumont/Southeast Texas Director Disaster Ministries

UMCOR

 

Linda thanked our group for our support through generous donations which have enabled the volunteers at UMCOR to be able to provide hope to the many families attempting to bring their lives back to some sense of normalcy.  The Beaumont Rotary Club has so far donated $55,000 to the UMCOR mission.  Linda stated that they have so far spent $54,925.92, and will be sure and spend the remaining $74.08 wisely!  Our donation has enabled the purchase of 3,206 sheets of sheetrock and $22,229 worth of flooring.  To date, UMCOR has reached 235 families and a total of 400 clients.  They have averaged almost 20 homes per month over the last year.  Linda spoke about how our donations have enabled them to restore hope in people who had lost it and put smiles back on the faces of people who had not smiled in months.  She was very appreciative of the backing of our club and all that Beaumont Rotary does to help the community.

 

Joy Walker spearheaded the inclusion of agencies with projects that needed assistance during Service Day.  One of the projects was assembling the Gift of Life Men's Health & Prostate Cancer Awareness Literature Bags.  Rotarians and friends assisted with the assembly of Gift of Life's literature bags with information related to its free prostate cancer screenings and primary care tests to heighten awareness and registration of the free medical and educational services in Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange.  Ten to 12 people gave time to this project and successfully assembled 350 literature bags.

 

The other projects benefited Boys' Haven of America and Ubi Caritas.

 

 

 

 

And the BIG project of the day was assembling 150 layette bags with the 10 items most necessary for mothers of infants born in the clinic in Chinendega, Nicaragua.  Chair of this project, Jennifer Gregory, and the committee worked to prepare the items for the layette bags before the meeting, and Rotarians and friends eagerly did the assembly.  This project is funded in part by a matching grant from District 5910.