Our sunny lunchtime gathering today at the Redwood brought out 23 Naples Rotarians and 3 guests. Sue D was our greeter, welcoming all with a smile! 

 

President Judy took the gavel today, ringing us in to stand for the Pledge. Cindy shared an inspiration: "There is no better exercise for people than reaching down to lift others up." The song today was an old stand-by to the tune of the Mickey Mouse Club theme: R-O-T-A-R-Y! We could use a little more practice for it though!

 

Sue introduced our guests - our speaker Sebastian Maroundit, Naples summer Rotarian Chip Weismiller and his brother-in-law Sandy, visiting from Florida.

 

Announcements: We received a thank you note from Carly Waltman for the scholarship she received at graduation and the wonderful opportunity she experienced at RYLA last year. * Cindy visited Blanche at the Jewish Home in Rochester where she is doing rehab. She sends greetings to everyone and we keep her in our thoughts as she heals. *  Carrie had a great group of students at RYLA last week. * We're planning an order for T-shirts with Rotary logo - order list was circulated. Suggestions for shirt color can go to Carrie. * The Rotary Meet and Greet at Lynnie Lou's is this Thursday from 6-8 pm! Come out and bring a friend! Ice cream is always a good plan! * Today is Jack and Sharon's anniversary so we sang to them!

 

The Committee Spotlight today is the Literacy Committee, co-chaired by Laurie and Patrice. Patrice gave their history of the Santa Books. Each year they partner with Budding Readers, visiting their warehouse and selecting hard cover books to give individually to all elementary children right before Christmas break. They get the names and grades of all the kids, shop, wrap and deliver with the help of Santa Bo. So far they have given almost 3000 books! Laurie spoke about the backpack project. In 2016, they started buying and filling them with school supplies. They developed a special relationship with JC Penney to buy 40-60 backpacks at a discount with a bonus coupon too! The school now donates the supplies. They were asked to provide LockerMates for 7th-12th grades. By now, each student has one to take with them to the next grade and the seniors pass theirs down to the incoming 7th graders! The Little Library, started years ago, is now being maintained by Naples Youth Corp. Books for it are donated by the community. The Literacy committee is looking for additional projects and new volunteers to join in. Patrice and Laurie will let us all know when they do their next planning, shopping and wrapping days this fall.

 

Brenda introduced our speaker, Sebastian. He is the co-founder of Building Minds in South Sudan. He himself was one of the Lost Boys who made their way to the US in 2001 after escaping war in Sudan, to Ethiopia, then to a refugee camp in Kenya. He has dedicated his life to bringing education to his village by building schools and hope there. Sebastian lives in Rochester but visits his homeland in between speaking on behalf of this charity. We have heard from him in previous years - he came to update us on progress from the last year. The fifth school was finished this past year. It is a high school for girls. Women in his country are second class citizens, only one in ten go to school. Domestic violence is very common. This new school has 16 classrooms, a principal's office and housing for teachers. It is the only public girls school in the country. Five hundred girls come from across the country living in mud huts their families build for them. 500 more live in a local village. Naples Rotary has been supporting them for 10 years, building benches for desks. A SUNY Brockport professor, Bill Cook, has been instrumental in financing the schools. The project has also recently added classrooms and a basketball court to a co-ed high school, supported a women's center tea shop and bakery. A Pre-K to 3rd grade school is under construction. There used to be funding for teachers from the USAID but when it was cancelled last year, the country faced a crisis. They are still in crisis mode but are reaching out to generous donors to help provide education for the educators of the future. They have supported 47 students going on to universities and coming back to build their community. S. Sudan as a whole is really equal to the 15th century here. We were able to contribute $2000 today to this organization to help continue the incredible work that they do. Thanks to Sebastian for being here with us. The website is www.bmiss.org.

 

The Ace of Hearts was $31 today. Bo had ticket #0587 but chose the 10 of Hearts. Better luck next week!

Happy Bills were many for Sebastian's presentation and the amazing and inspiring program in S. Sudan! Many congratulated Judy for her first time chairing the gathering!  Carrie was thankful for RYLA's success - it was a great group who want to get together again, maybe for RYLA tattoos! John and Sherry were congratulated on the recognition they received from South Bristol for their dedication to Naples Open Cupboard. Patrice and Laurie were thanked for their efforts for the Literacy Committee. Jack is enjoying relaxing at the meeting and celebrating their anniversary. Matt Frahm, former Club President, went to S. Sudan with Bill Cook some years ago. He sends his hello to us. The Literacy project providing books to kids is so important.

The Rotary Moment today was a photo of the Rotary bike rack at the community park shared by Sue and Jo who parked their bikes there while playing pickle ball. Jill also shared that RPO Music Director and conductor, Andreas Delfs family member shared that he was able to go to Juilliard in NYC through a scholarship from a Rotary Club in Germany!

 

We recited the Four Way Test and Judy rang the bell to adjourn at 1:15pm. See you at Lynnie Lou's on Thursday!