Teri Treat timidly smacked the bell and approached the mic announcing our wonderful, Northwood Hall server, Susie Pierce's Birthday and we all sang Happy Birthday to her.
Announcements:
Frank C. Brooks Take a Vet to Lunch : Stephen Jordan (Click here for resume) As part of the Take a Vet to lunch we had Stephen Jordan talk about his background of 14 years in the military and the fact that he is looking for a job in Engineering and Graphics. He went thru the Civil Engineering and Cad Drafting programs and Bellingham Technical College.
Ongoing announcements:
The first Rotary Rally will be on Saturday, August 12 beginning at 3:30 PM a the Sehome Village parking lot. This will be a fun event, requiring a driver and a navigator and will end with a mystery social gathering about an hour later. You don’t need a sports car to participate. Nathan Twining is coordinating this event.
Golfun, the District 5050 fundraiser for the Foundation, is on Friday, August 18 at the Homestead Golf & Country Club. Contact Del VandeKerk for more information.
Save the Date for the Rotary Club of Bellingham Centennial Celebration Dinner - September 23, 2017 (click here for additional information) President Teri announced the exciting news that Howard Behar, former President of Starbucks International will be the keynote speaker at our RCOB 100th Anniversary Celebration Dinner on September 23 at the Four Points by Sheraton, a not to be missed opportunity. Please save the date and join fellow Rotarians and friends in the celebration.
Guests of Rotarians:
Roland Trenouth introduced Stephen Jordan, our second Frank C. Brooks Take a Vet to Lunch
Paul Grey brought Lea & Aaron Newcomb with Edgedi Refugee Ministries
Presentations:
Felicity Dye was introduced as a new member by Monty McAllister. Her charge was given by Past President Joe Coons where he mentioned because she was sleeping with the president of another club, her husband Curtis Dye, he was going to use this opportunity to challenge the club. Several old people jokes later he got the challenge of every Rotarian proposing one new member and let’s get another 100 Rotarians by next year.
Paul Grey presented a Service Grant to Engedi Refuge Ministries. This organization takes ladies who have been in sexual slavery and rehabilitates them in way they can be successfully free of the sex industry and reintegrated into society. This program has the highest success rate in the nation with 90% of their graduates remaining removed from their former lives. Aaron spoke about these women and how psychologists have likened their trauma to being the same as Prisoner of War. He thanked the club for the donation saying it would be used to provide chairs for their consultation room.
Program:
The program was on the topic of Modern Slavery. James Johnson presented on this sobering topic helping raise awareness of the 36,000,000 people that are currently in some sort slavery worldwide. Asia is where the highest concentration is totaling an estimated 22,400,000 however staggering that number is it was shocking to learn that North America has nearly 2.5 million! Continuing his presentation, he mentioned that 2.1 million people are forced into slavery every year, that is 1 person every 15 seconds. The problem is at an epidemic pace that needs a high level of focus to challenge practice. Part of the problem with modern day slavery is that slaves are considered disposable. In Colonial America, a slave cost nearly $40,000, adjusted to modern day dollars but today the average price for a slave is only $90 and in Asia only $10. The solutions presented are: to make sure if you see something say something and to do coordinated multi national effort like Rotary did with Polio. He said that Rotary is in a unique position because we are all over the world with prominent respected individuals in the respective communities. Finally he mentioned in the US 85% of runaway girls are because of molestation and taking the bus a high percentage of them fall victim to slavery. Some resources to get involved or learn more are:
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