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June 1 Program - Guiding Star
 
 
Sarah Kopriva is the new Executive Director of Guiding Star Cedar Valley; leading efforts to further establish the organizational mission to empower women, embrace children, and enrich families through their unique healthcare model in the Cedar Falls/Waterloo Community. Sarah believes in a society that honors and protects the beauty of femininity and the unique attributes women bring to our families, workplaces, and communities. Because of this passion, she works to educate and enable women and families to understand and appreciate their healthy, working bodies and develop a community around them to further that support throughout life.
 
Sarah's talk will introduce GSCV's comprehensive approach to caring for the health of women and their families and bring light to the ways we are helping our community celebrate the dignity of our natural design.
 

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June Birthdays
We'll be together again soon and will properly celebrate our members' birthdays in person. Until then, we'll recognize and wish them well from a distance!
 
Kathleen WernimontJun 2 
Lisa GatesJun 14 
David BuckJun 19 
Jacylne HellerJun 19 
Ross SchoonoverJun 23 
 
 
 
 
 
Foster Care Graduation
 
Nationally only 54% of foster youth will graduate from high school when they exit care at age 18. Only 3% will graduate from college. Although Iowa statistics may be better, most youth aging out of care lack a natural support system that will assist them in celebrating achievements or help to gather needed items as they transition from foster care to their first apartment or college dorm.
 
 
This year our club generously contributed to that urgent need. In the past a community wide open house has been held at Hawkeye Community College to celebrate these youth. Obviously this year that event was impossible. In its place a “drive-by“ open house was held. All nine of the kids received a microwave, set of pots and pans, pillow and case, laundry basket, plastic mixing bowl set, can opener, 48 piece silverware and tray, surge protector, flashlight, kitchen towel, cloths and oven mitt, measuring cups and measuring spoons, and first aid kit. Individual community members contributed cards and gift cards. Since the ever popular graduation sheet cake wouldn’t be served at an open house, each student received a small cake with his/her name! They were richly blessed and were very appreciative. Reports are that one family was so excited that they locked themselves out of the house. Ha!
 
All youth leaving foster care receive a suitcase filled with personal care items, even those not graduating.
Waterloo Rotary’s gift of $100 gift cards to Target were gratefully received. One comment was that leaving the security of the system seemed less scary knowing that they had community support!
 
 
 
Grow Cedar Valley COVID-19 Resources

5/26/2020: Gov. Reynolds announces casinos, amusement parks, outdoor venues, and sports leagues allowed to reopen Monday, June 1 with restrictions

  • Businesses allowed to reopen at 50% capacity while following social distancing measures include: casinos, amusement parks, outdoor venues can hold live performances, bowling alleys, speedway, racetracks can reopen events to spectators, pool halls, and arcades

  • Recreational and social sport gatherings of more than 10 people will be allowed - individuals must remain 6 feet apart and venues are limited to 50% occupation capacity

  • Bars, wineries, breweries, and distilleries can reopen Thursday, May 28. They must follow the same public health measures as restaurants, including limiting normal operating capacity to 50 percent and social distancing groups of 6 feet. Live bands are also now permitted at bars and restaurants following social distancing guidelines.

  • Businesses that remain closed will continue to be closed through June 17 and Reynolds said she will continue to monitor whether any other measures should be adjusted.

  • View Proclamation

 

 

Rotary Year 2019-20 Is About to Close!
 
June is the final month of our Rotary year, and it’s also one of the best months in giving to The Rotary Foundation, second only to December. 
 
Have you made your gift to the Foundation? 
 
Our 2019-20 District Annual Fund goal is $236,630.  To date we’ve raised $194,202  (82%).
Our 2019-20 District PolioPlus goal is $381,706.  To date we’ve raised $376,109  (98%).
 
For those of you who can, and want to, please make your gift by June 30.  Not because I’m asking, but because of the life-changing impact your gift will have on children needing polio vaccine, healthcare workers needing equipment and support to fight Covid-19, schoolkids needing safe and clean water to stay in school, families needing access to affordable medical clinics. And the list goes on.  All supported by your gifts to the Rotary Foundation. 
 
Remember that the Rotary Rush is still on until June 10.  If you give enough to the Annual Fund that will get you halfway to your first or multiple Paul Harris Fellow level, you will receive matching points for the other half, to allow you to reach the PHF level.  Please email John Wasta, District Fundraising Chair, at john.wasta@gmail.com for details.  To qualify for Rotary Rush, please remember to designate your gift for the Annual Fund.
 
How do you make your gift? 
  • The easiest way is make your gift online at www.rotary.org/donate . Be sure to sign in to your myRotary account when you give online.  Then let your Club Foundation Chair know you made the gift. 
  • You may also pay by check, payable to The Rotary Foundation, and get it to your Club Foundation Chair and they will send it in.  
Thanks to all who have supported the Foundation this year, and to those who will be giving in June!
 
 
 
Rotarians in Kenya Take Action

Almost 80 percent of the population in Nairobi, Kenya, lives in informal settlements where it’s not unusual for families of day laborers to live together in one house. Surviving day to day on the meager wages they typically earn as shop clerks, construction workers, or domestic employees, as many as eight people cook, do homework, eat, and sleep in these tight quarters.

In short, social distancing is a luxury that many poor Kenyans can’t afford.

“If the [COVID-19] pandemic hits here, like it has in North America and other places, it will be just catastrophic” because of the inability to social distance, says Geeta Manek, a Rotary Foundation trustee-elect and member of the Rotary Club of Muthaiga, Kenya. “We’re working very hard, through preventative measures, desperately trying to keep this thing away from us.”

Shortly after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, Joe Otin, governor of Rotary District 9212 (Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Sudan), formed a districtwide response team. Chaired by Nairobi-East Rotarian Joe Kamau, the team is working with clubs across the district to provide hand washing stations, deliver food to families who have lost jobs, and raise money for personal protective equipment.

“When [Kamau] asked what we wanted to do first, we said let’s go with hand washing stations,” says Manek, a member of the response team.

Manek led a fundraising effort in Ethiopia and Kenya that raised more than $21,000 within 20 days. Prime Bank in Kenya offered to match all contributions 1-to-1. The team used the money to purchase 100 water tanks and then persuaded the supplier to donate an additional 100. The 100-liter tanks rest on metal stands and have brass taps at the bottom and ledges for soap. The response team has distributed these hand washing stations in Kilifi, Mombasa, and Nairobi and is now working with national health departments to decide who to help next. The tanks are being refilled by trucks, but local authorities are also discussing ways to pipe in water.

If there is a positive side to the crisis, it’s been the way it has energized Rotarians and attracted the attention of partnering organizations.

“We’ve been the first ones on the ground,” Manek says. “We’re getting invitations from corporate partners like banks and insurance companies who are seeing what we’re doing and want to work with us.”

Says Otin, “the embodiment of Rotary clubs and their ultimate purpose is to embrace and support communities in need, and thus the world needs Rotary more now than ever before.”

Read the full article by clicking here.

 

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Russell Hampton
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