Provo Rotary Weekly Bulletins

July 21, 2016 This week Emily Stevens from the  AMAR Foundation came to speak with us. As she has visited Iraq, she let us know about the people there.  Many of the people she met were doctors, nurses, scientists, or one of many other highly educated professionals, but now they are refugees. The AMAR organization in Iraq is staffed mainly by individuals from Iraq. However, there are only certain locations in Iraq that are still safe. Those who find a refugee camp are lucky as many others are stuck on the side of the road or half finished construction sites. If you would like to know more about how you can help or about this organization, you can find their website here:  http://www.amarfoundation.org/en-us/. We were also excited to introduce our newest member, Anna Bates. 

July 14, 2016 Al Switzler, co-founder of Vitalsmarts, came to speak with us. As a part of his work now, post-retirement, Al works on what he cares for most in life, mainly poetry. In Al's terminology, petry is the thing that causes you to see an dfell beauty in your life. You use poetry to leverage your life and the more you have of it, the better your life will be. There are moments every day where you can choose to leverage your life. His closing wish to us was this:  may you and I find the poetry (leverage) that will help you seek, and see, and become your best you-joyful, growing, and grateful.  We had some great moments today! 

July 13, 2016 Adrian Escalante, Executive Director of Centro Hispano,  came from Argentina to Los Angeles as a child and grew up there. Later in life he moved to Orem, UT. While living here he discovered many interesting things, like that  most of the Hispanics who need help in Utah County are US citizens. Now he can turn his insights into real help for the community. An example of this is how the mission of Centro Hispano is to empower individuals. They want to hand out education not money. His vision is to take the concept of Centro Hispano that exists in Provo and move it to other areas. Some exciting news for Centro Hispano is that they just got an extension approved with additional funding. Here are a few of the programs they currently run: Employer resource center Adult language center  Youth educational center Financial resource center Legal support center Health and wellness center Information and referral center 

June 30, 2016 Today we had the change of leadership. The president who is leaving, David Rogers, summarized the highlights of his year leading Provo Rotary--recruiting Cindy Jenkins as secretary, planning a charity golf tournament with Rocky Mountain University of Health Care, supporting two Rotary foreign exchange students, and supporting Rotary International's Polio Plus fund with $1,248 from weekly fines.  David then swore in Don Jarvis and the new Board of Directors:  Al Cutler, Joey Hansen, Darrel Jakins, Ron Pugh, and Carol Walker, with President-elect Nate Beesley and President-elect-nominee Ruth Riley (excused).  Don introduced new Sergeant-at-Arms chair Ray Beckham, Program Chair Pete Pletsch, and Social Chair Vaughan Park, all of whom told of their plans to increase friendship, fun, and local service for the coming year.