June 2015 Board Meeting Minutes

/in /by

Lake Chelan Rotary Board

Minutes

June 5, 2015

Location:   Campbell’s Resort

Attending Board Members:  President Jeff Fehr, President Elect Jordana LaPorte, Vice President Kevin Abel, Past President Tim Hollingsworth, Director Morgan Picton, Director Bruce Hurst, Director Aaron Evans, Treasurer Jan Fedor and Secretary Paul Schmidt.

Absent: Director Lexy Lieurance.

Attending Club Members:  Lester Cooper and Rick Nedrow.

The meeting was called to order at 11:40 AM by President Jeff Fehr.

Approval of Minutes:    Director Morgan Picton made a motion to approve the May 1, 2015 Board minutes as submitted with a second to the motion by Aaron Evans. Motion passed unanimously.

Secretary Report: Secretary Paul Schmidt presented three (3) copies of the updated Assignment List for next year’s weekly meeting tasks. Final membership roll will be submitted to Rotary International for the upcoming SAR Report, due no later than July 1, 2015.

Attendance Report:  Rick Nedrow reported on member attendance for the last two months. Noted were those members with “sketchy” attendance records, but no action was taken.

Financial Report: President Elect Jordana LaPorte reported the following:

  • Radiothon still has $650 of outstanding pledges still to be collected.
  • As of June 5, 2015, $18,000 has been collected for Bike Race registrations. Lester Cooper noted the number of registered riders compared to this time last year is down significantly (1/3). Also noted was the lag time in receiving funds from our third party vendor from the website registrations.
  • Interact Club has been busy spending money in preparation of their Guatemala Trip.

Old Business:

  1. Bach Fest Presentation – Kerry Travers presented on behalf of the Bach Fest the information requested by the Rotary Board from the last meeting. Those six (6) questions and responses are as follows:
  2. What is the winery contribution? Answer: Six wineries each pay $200 for an individual concert, with 80 to 100 usually attending each winery concert
  3. Do they purchase ads? Answer: Only the Chelan wineries purchase ads.
  4. Is attendance more local or regional? Answer: The Bach Fest event consists of 20 individual concert events in nine (9) days. They don’t have a means to determine where attendees originate from. However, attempts are being made to attract more tourists.
  5. What portion of the budget is Admin versus operations? Answer: Total Bach Fest budget is $51,000 with $11,000 for Musical and Executive Directors, $10,979 for advertising and miscellaneous fees and remaining $29,000 for musician fees.
  6. What in-kind contributions are there? Answer: Host families make up the most of any in-kind contribution. There is a need to find more families to host musicians.
  7. What is the breakdown of your revenue? Answer: The Bach Fest receives approximately $30,000 in private donations, predominantly from individual donors. Ticket sales amount to approximately $15,000. The remaining revenue has to come from grants from the Chamber, Arts Council and “Chelan Man Event”.

Discussion: President Fehr noted there is only $1,600 remaining in the Grants Fund                                                budget line item, and our budget revenue may not cover all expenses for this fiscal year.                         Director Morgan Picton made the motion to grant $500 to the Back Fest event for                                                2015, with emphasis to be placed on youth concerts. Past President Tim Hollingsworth made    the second to the motion. Motion passed unanimously.

  1. Rescheduling the Board Retreat – President Elect Jordana LaPorte selected June 18, from 4-7 PM as the date for the Board Retreat, to be held at the new Chamber Office Conference Room. All Lake Chelan Rotarians are invited to attend.
  2. Cornerstone Building Support – President Fehr reported that he, President Elect Jordana LaPorte and Lester Cooper met with John Anderson to discuss details for supporting the Cornerstone Building Project. Discussion ensued as to the community needs and expectations of the Project, in relation to Rotary’s current investment in the Project. Consensus was to continue to discuss possible support for the Cornerstone Building Project as the Project further develops.

New Business:

  1. Moving Checking Account(s) Washington Federal – President Elect Jordana LaPorte suggested the Board consider moving some of our banking accounts to Washington Federal because we have no affiliation with Chase any longer and we might be able to save on fees that NCB currently charges the Club. Discussion concluded there was no hard reason to keep our accounts with the current two banks. President Elect Jordana LaPorte made the motion to move the Lake Chelan Rotary Club Checking Account and The Fund Account to our local Washington Federal Bank with the necessary signatory paperwork to be signed by the President. Second was provided by Director Morgan Picton. Motion was approved unanimously.
  2. Mountain Bike Ride – Director Bruce Hurst reported he took it upon himself to begin the permit application process with the Forest Service for a “mountain bike ride event”. The permit is non-binding and would probably be for the summer of 2016 as it might be too late to begin the planning for this year. The potential date/time for the event for next year would be in September. It was also noted that Winthrop also has a mountain bike race around the same time. Consensus of the Board was to keep going on the initial planning for a Mountain Bike Ride event.

 

 

 

Other Business:

 

  1. Paul Harris Fellowship: Lester Cooper brought forward a proposal to grant a Paul Harris Fellowship to Interact Club Faculty Advisor Brisa Romero for all her work and dedication towards the Chelan High School Interact Club. Mr. Cooper pointed out that it takes a 1,000 accrued points to grant a Paul Harris Fellowship, and the Club currently has 1,901 points accrued. It was also noted there is approximately 21,938 points accrued throughout the entire Lake Chelan Rotary Club membership. Director Aaron Evans made the motion to use 1,000 points of the Lake Chelan Rotary Club to grant to Interact Club Faculty Advisor Brisa Romero a Paul Harris Fellowship. Second to the motion was made by Vice President Kevin Abel. Motion passed unanimously.
  2. Fund Raising Idea – Director Bruce Hurst reported he has been staying up nights thinking about “going to the dogs”. Director Bruce Hurst thinks we should consider a dog theme of some sort for a fund raising scheme. Many comments were barked out and all the tail wagging indicated more discussion will be the forthcoming.
  3. Father’s Day Smoker – President Fehr reported he has not heard any more about Tom Campbell’s proposal to partner with the LCRC on Father’s Day for cigars and scotch? President Fehr said he will check with Tom on the current plans.

 

Good of the Order:  none reported so there was a motion to adjourn.

Adjourned at 1:00 PM

Respectfully submitted,

Paul Schmidt

Lake Chelan Rotary Club Secretary

Nkoilale Parent Conference Update

/in /by

Hello everyone,

I believe that you are all doing fine. I am doing well too. We had a nice break. It has been raining since we closed. The place is now very beautiful.

I would like to inform you that we held a meeting with the parents and the kids last week. I am so grateful that they all managed to come. As we all know, these kids came to school against their parents’ wishes. There is always need to monitor the relationship between them so as to make sure that these kids get support, love and encouragement from their parents. The only way to establish this is by having a one-on-one forum with them. In our meeting, we discussed the following issues:

  • parental guidance and support
  • discipline
  • self motivation and hard work
  • responsibility

We had a wonderful time together and everyone participated in the discussions. They are all thankful for the support they are getting from you. All parents have now changed their attitude towards education and promised to be 100% supportive towards their kids education.

With love,

Grace Namunyak.

DSC04216DSC04213DSC04205DSC04198

April 2015 – Board Meeting Minutes

/in /by

Lake Chelan Rotary Board

Minutes

April 3, 2015

Location:  Campbell’s Resort

Attending Board Members: President Jeff Fehr, President Elect Jordana LaPort, Director Lexi Lieurance, Treasurer Jan Fedor, Director Morgan Picton, and Director Bruce Hurst. Also, Rick Nedrow as Proxy for Secretary Paul Schmidt and Les Cooper as Proxy for Arron Evans.

Absent: Vice President Kevin Able, Secretary Paul Schmidt, Past President Tim Hollingsworth, Director Arron Evans.

Other Members Present: John Anderson, Tom Warren, Lyle Mettler and Tiffany Gering.

The meeting was called to order at 11:47 AM by President Jeff Fehr.

Approval of Minutes: There were no minutes of the March Meeting to approve. They will be approved at the next meeting on May 1st.

Secretary Report: No Report.

Attendance Report: Rick Nedrow distributed the summary attendance report for the month of March and noted that some members with long term absences have been at meetings, so it appears that the letter campaign is working. Jan Fedor stated that Jon Higgins is no longer considered to be a member.

Financial Report: Jan Fedor reported that all dues have been paid and all members have made Paul Harris contributions.  Jordana LaPort distributed the Balance Sheet and the Profit and Loss Report as of March 31, 2015. Jan Fedor states that there is $984.00 in the drawing fund.

Old Business:

  1. Radiothon: Jordana reports that all invoices have been sent out. Tiffany states that $8,425 worth of ads, etc. has been sold. Lyle feels that all is going well and we are ready to go on April 4th.

New Business:

  1. Grant Request – Chelan to Africa/ Food Bank Benefit Concert. This request was submitted by Jan Fedor asking for $500.00 to pay for the Kevin Jones Band at this concert that is raising funds to support children and their caretakers in the small rural village of Lesotho. Rotary did support this event last year. Motion to approve the $500.00 grant request was made by Les Cooper and seconded by Bruce Hurst. Motion passed unanimously.
  2. Grant Request – Lake Chelan Cinco de Mayo Festival. Scott McKeller submitted this request asking for $500.00 to fund the mariachi band that will play during the event. Les Cooper spoke against the grant. Lexi felt that if the grant was approved, that the advertisement for the event should give ROTARY credit for funding the event. John Anderson will insure that ample credit is given to ROTARY. Motion to approve the $500.00 Grant request was made by Morgan Picton and seconded by Jordana LaPort. Passed unanimously.
  3. Grant Request –Lake Chelan Senior Night Organization via Kim Skaar has requested that ROTARY provide $700.00 to help provide gift items to graduating seniors at the “Drug and Alcohol Free” Graduation party. There were NOT many positive comments about this grant. It was felt that more information was needed. However, after more discussion a Motion was made by Bruce Hurst to provide $500.00 and seconded by Jordana LaPort. Motion Passed unanimously.
  4. New member proposal: Mary Watson has been proposed as a new member by Rich Watson. Mary will be the first spouse proposed as a member and will only pay half the amount for dues if accepted. Also research by Jordana LaPort and Les Cooper has found that proposed new members need only be posted once, not twice, which we have done in the past. Motion made by Jordana LaPort and seconded by Tom Warren to post Mary Watson as a proposed new member. Motion passed unanimously.

OTHER NEW BUSINESS: Rotary member and Chamber Sales Manager Tiffany Gering presented the Board with a document that outlines the History and Background of the Chamber and the Visitor Center. It also describes various meeting rooms and spaces contained in the NEW Chamber facilities located at 216 E. Woodin Ave. Tiffany drew our attention to the page titled Gold Sponsorship that describes; in detail 2 conference rooms in the downstairs level that are available for sponsorship that includes, but not limited to: Naming Rights, Use of the room and the Visitor Center at no charge. Other items include Community and Media Exposure and Signage.

Tiffany and Les felt that sponsoring one of these rooms would be a great advantage to our organization for years to come. Sponsorship of a room would cost the Lake Chelan Rotary Club $20,000.00 over 10 years (five payments of $4,000.00 over ten years).  After much discussion, a Motion was made by Jordana LaPort and seconded by Lexi Lieurance to enter into an agreement with the Chamber of Commerce to sponsor a conference room for 10 years, with 1st right of refusal at the end of that time period. Motion passed unanimously.

OTHER  BUSINESS:  Member John Anderson presented the Board with a letter that describes the effort by him and others that are representing Chelan Valley Hope, Lake Chelan Food Bank, Give Naked just to name a few to purchase the old library building on Bradley Street. The capital campaign to raise the funds has begun and they are calling the building, The Cornerstone Building.  John would like to see the Rotary Club contribute $25,000.00 toward this effort just as they did with the donation to Friends of the Library. THIS IS NOT A FORMAL REQUEST AT THIS TIME. President Jeff will place this topic on a future Board Meeting agenda.

Good of the Order: Lexi Lieurance reminds the Board of the youth conference at Campbell’s Resort on April 17th and 18th. Some members have already agreed to help out.

With nothing more to come before the board, President Jeff adjourns the meeting at 1:22 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Rick Nedrow, Acting Secretary

Lake Chelan Rotary

March 2015 Board Meeting Minutes

/in /by

Lake Chelan Rotary Board

Minutes

March 6, 2015

Location:   Campbell’s Resort

Attending Board Members:  President Jeff Fehr, Treasurer Jan Fedor, Director Bruce Hurst, Director Lexy Lieurance, Lyle Mettler as proxy for Vice President Kevin Abel and Rick Nedrow as Secretary and proxy for Paul Schmidt and Les Cooper as proxy for President Elect Jordana LaPorte.

Absent: President Elect Jordana LaPorte, Secretary Paul Schmidt, Past President Tim Hollingsworth, Vice President Kevin Abel, Director Morgan Picton and Director Aaron Evans.

The meeting was called to order at 11:40 AM by President Jeff Fehr.

Approval of Minutes:    Director Bruce Hurst made a motion to approve the February 6, 2015 Board minutes as submitted with a second to the motion by Rick Nedrow. Motion passed unanimously.

Secretary Report: No Report

Attendance Report:  Rick Nedrow presented his Monthly Report. There was general discussion on the remaining members who have not paid dues for 2015. Jan Fedor stated that all but one member has paid their dues. It was agreed that President Jeff would write a letter to the one remaining member who has NOT been attending meetings and has not paid his dues that he is no longer considered to be a member.  A somewhat softer letter will be sent to the others who have paid dues but are not attending, encouraging them to resume attending meetings.

Financial Report:  President Elect Jordana LaPorte was not in attendance, there was no financial report; however, Jan Fedor did report that some checks for the Radiothon and the Century Challenge have come in. No exact amount was given.

Old Business:

  1. Radiothon –Les Cooper reports that the brochures will be printed next week. Lyle Mettler states that he will start signing people up to be broadcasting live. It was also stated that the approximate income could be 13 thousand dollars.

 

  1. b) Library Plaque—President Jeff reports that he is reviewing the plague for errors, have found one so far. As of yet, there is no date scheduled for mounting or ceremony.

 

  1. Father’s Day Scotch & Stogie Fundraiser: Discussion of the event by club members seemed to be positive with only one member raising an objection. Therefore, a motion was made by Bruce Hurst and seconded by Less Cooper to support the event. Motion passed unanimously.

 

New Business

  1. New Member Proposal: Kari Kollmeyer has been proposed for Lake Chelan Rotary Club Membership by Club Member Morgan Picton as sponsor. Kari works for Windermere Real Estate. Les Copper made the motion for the first posting of Ms Kollmeyer for Lake Chelan Rotary Club Membership. Seconded by Rick Nedrow. Motion passed unanimously.

 

  1. New Member Proposal: Less Cooper states that he has Ty Witt as a proposed new member but has yet to complete the required application. Will submit at a later date.

 

  1. A discussion about when Steve Palmbush and Connie Lorenz would be inducted into the club. President Jeff states that as soon as Bob Sheehan; our Membership Chairman has met with them, they could be inducted. Also the status of Kelly Allen and Ryan Gunn who have gone thru the posting process was discussed, with no action taken on either at this time.

 

  1. A Grant request form member Mike Steele on behalf of the Manson Community Library Board of Directors. The Grant request is in the amount of $300.00. After some discussion, A motion was made by Bruce Hurst and seconded by Less Cooper to approve the request. The motion was passed unanimously

 

Good of the Order:

  1. Les Cooper reports the he took 5 INTERACT members to the Cashmere Middle School to facilitate the formation of a club there. He felt that the students and the proposal were well received and that the mission was a success.
  2. Les Cooper believes that a grant for a maximum of 20 thousand dollars will be submitted next week to support the Nkoilale Primary School in Kenya. More information coming at a later date.
  3. The INTERACT Club is busy fund raising for there up and coming trip to Nicaragua.

Adjourned at 12:30 PM

Respectfully submitted,

Rick Nedrow

Lake Chelan Rotary Club Acting Secretary

Nkoilale Primary School has a New Teacher

/in /by

Marcia Meyer is a retired teacher from Portland Oregon who wanted to volunteer as a teacher in Kenya. I thought she will be a great fit for Nkoilale primary and her and Grace will make a great team and as you can see in these pictures, they have become BEST friends, In fact they are roommates.

I spoke to Marcia earlier this morning and she told me that she felt so natural being in Nkoilale she spoke very highly of Grace, and she LOVES the Kids. She has been their only 10 days and she having a great time with the kids and visiting the village and meeting the locals. She is planning on staying and volunteering at Nkoilale until April next year. She will be sharing her story with us when she gets settled.

Nkoile New Taecher

(Grace Wrote this) Today I took Marcia to Seiyio’s home. She was very happy to see her at home. We had a very long talk and I took a video. I will see how it will get to you. We also passed through Nickson’s home. Good news is that, Marcia met Nickson’s sister who is ten yrs old and has not been enrolled to school. She asked me to ask her if she would like to go to school. She was so sad that she started crying and that touched Marcia’s heart that she decided to sponsor her to school. We are going to visit the family on Sunday in order to meet with her father. We would like to talk to him to allow his daughter to join school in January. I hope all goes well and Sinore joins school in the New Year.

 

Nkoilale New Teacher with Grace

September 16 to October 7, 2014 (Tauplitz, Birthdays and Autumn)

/in /by

Today (7. Oct) is the day after my two month anniversary with my new soulmate, Austria. My general impression of Austria so far could be described as a tangled mess full of all the different kinds of good feelings you could experience. With some more time I think these feelings will slowly start to be untangled as my culture shock and disbelief over living in a new country wear off. For now, however, I am content with not having to define that!

Rotary usually gives you a general explanation of each stage of your exchange so that you are prepared for the feelings that come with each time period. These stages run along the lines of culture shock, extreme language absorption, homesickness, etc. These stages didn’t mean much to me as I was trying to see them through the eyes of others. But now as I am experiencing every little thing so richly for myself, I understand completely what they meant and am even starting to paint a picture of what my exchange means to me. I am able to recognize my own personal stages, learn more about myself from how I cope with each new challenge, and strive to thrive in this crazy new life.

Most every exchange says on their return that they now have two lives. Two families, two sets of friends, and two homes. Currently, I feel as though I am transitioning into this mindset. Within my meek little two months I have already built a foundation. I have met friends, have gotten to know my host family, and have tasted the surrounding areas. I feel like I will only build upon this foundation until I too will feel as though Austria is my other home. Then in 9 months I will again have to leave home to live in another country (I really can’t catch a break on this one). Now, on to more exciting things! 🙂

Tauplitz Wochenende (September 19-21):

Two weekends ago I was blessed with another Rotary getaway in Tauplitz, Steiermark. Here I finally met the 30-ish exchange students from the southern hemisphere who arrived in January and will also leave in January (AKA our “Oldies”). That makes a total of about 85 rotary exchange students living throughout Austria! On Friday those of us living in and around Vienna met up and travelled in our massive group to the other 50 or so exchange students. On Friday after we arrived we were able to relax, talk to each other about our experiences and host families so far, and exchange lots of love that only exchange students know how to give. I really don’t know what I would do without this exchange student love and encouragement!

The next day was the day that we all hiked around two gorgeous lakes high in the Alps. A group of 10 or so students with the best gear and the lowest intelligence took the hardest hike straight up a mountain where they died (kidding, about the intelligence part). The rest of us were out and about for about 7 hours on our leisurely and gorgeous hike. You have probably already seen the photos of this since you are most likely only reading this from my Facebook page. There are no words to explain how breathtaking these views were. Combined with the fresh Austrian air and surrounded by amazing friends, it was completely rejuvenating. There is no way that someone could not have been happy in this setting.

That night we took a tiny little train-type vehicle across town (this “town” was a small collection of hotels and houses in a huge meadow tucked safely in the Alps) to a dance “club” where we danced through our exhaustion into the wee hours of the night (perhaps until 10 pm). A weekend well spent and much needed!

More Activities:

The weekend was the birthday of the Schneider Oma, or my host father’s mother. All of my host grandparents are extremely sweet and I always leave their homes fat and happy. 🙂 This is really nice for me as I haven’t ever really been able to experience having grandparents so close by! The birthday girl last weekend was Erna and for her birthday we all had dinner together. “We” includes my host family and the family of my host father’s brother. Karina’s (my host mom) parents also joined us that Sunday at a Gasthaus for lunch and more celebrations.

The next weekend we had another birthday, this time for the lovely Karina! For Karina’s birthday we went with practically the rest of the town (all of the friends of Karina and Korni) to a music concert. I dragged Facundo from Argentina along and together with my host family, decked out in funky crazy clothes, we danced until late into the night to some great funk and soul music by the band “74Tea.” This was also the 20th birthday of the band and it is this band that my two uncles play in! Feel free to look them up on youtube as they really are entertaining. Sunday was again a nice slow day and we ate Karina’s birthday lunch at a fantastic Gasthaus from her family. For those of you who don’t know, a Gasthaus is a restaurant and sometimes also a hotel owned by a family that serves delicious and authentic Austrian food.

Some other activities that I managed to squeeze in there is a festival in Retz and a short visit to the Oktoberfest in Vienna. There are several festivals this time of year coinciding with Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany. It is Dirndl season in Austria and I can’t get enough of it! 🙂

Language Status

/in /by

Vanessa is starting to run out of basic German to learn and her German progress is starting to slow down. Vanessa is frustrated because Vanessa wants to speak German jetzt.

I don’t think I could have fit any more German learning into the first month if I tried; my knowledge level spiked. However, I have pretty much now learned all of the basics and the process is now a bit slower. Naturally, this is frustrating for someone who would learn the entire German language overnight if she could, but unfortunately life doesn’t work like that and I will have to be satisfied with steadier learning growth for awhile. Here are all the things that are currently contributing to my Deutsch lernen…

My Unterlage in school (or that thing that you put on desks for note taking, a calendar, etc): Every day in the subjects that are boring or that I don’t understand enough to participate in, I write vocabulary words on my Unterlage until I can’t fit any more. It probably holds about 200 words. Then, I keep this Unterlage for a week or two, practicing these words. When I am tired of them, I cross off the ones I know well, copy down the ones I still need to practice on my next sheet, and begin again with new words I have found somewhere. It works well because I’m learning German, my teachers think I’m working very diligently on school work, and it cures my stark boredom.

With my new class schedule I am now in 5 different classes with German. I have German with my own class, and then 4 different classes with little kids (ages 11-12). I have at least two German periods per day and at most, 4 (out of 6). I can already understand and do about 70% of their work. It also gives me a chance to find more useful vocabulary words that I will then copy down and translate at home. At first these classes were my most difficult periods but now, I enjoy them.

On my computer I have also created several lists of verbs, past tenses, phrases, and general vocabulary that I enjoy making and adding to, but should probably actually study more often.

When I have free periods in school I read children’s books in German, which I would probably still read for fun even if I didn’t have to learn a new language.

Let’s not forget the constant German speaking at all hours of the day. That certainly helps (until morning and late at night, when my brain starts to rejects any and every language thrown at it)!

Questions & Answers

/in /by

Questions & Answers:

As I mentioned in my last post, feel free to email or Facebook message me with questions and I will do my best to answer them all in my blog posts! Here are the questions that I have been asked over the course of the last several weeks:

What are your favorite Austrian foods?

I love Knödel and of course, Wiener Schnitzel is always a safe bet. Knödel can be made out of potatoes (to go with meat, gravy) or dough with a sweet filling. In this case I prefer the dessert! Schnitzel is chicken or pork breaded and fried the Austrian way and usually served with french fries or potato salad.

How are Austrians different from Americans?

Well, the subtleties are too many to count and these subtleties fit in with the different lifestyle in Austria. But in general, I would say Austrians are a bit more reserved. They greet good friends with a kiss on each cheek, but they almost never hug. I have really missed being able to hug everyone in America! However, although they are not as openly affectionate as what I am used to, they are still very warm kindhearted people and once you get to know them, you see that more and more.

What are your general impressions of Austria so far?

What kind of a question is that! Austria is a beautiful little country with a huge heart, and it already has a special place in mine. If you want some more information, it’s all right here in the blog. 🙂

Have you been homesick yet?

A little bit…every time after I Skype with my niece and nephew, and when I have any problems with anything here in Austria. Every time I have even the slightest problem, it is magnified by the fact that everything is foreign and this makes me miss familiarity.

Do you like the school?

The school is very different, but yes, I enjoy it as much as one can enjoy school. 🙂

Does your new family have a kitty?

Yes, and her name is Julie.

Do they have the same style in Austria?

In general yes, something stylish in Austria would also be stylish in the US. However, they dress up much more often in Austria. In other words, something in the US that wouldn’t be considered stylish but would be accepted because no one really cares would be absolutely unacceptable to wear out and about in Austria. For example, boys wearing basketball shorts to school or anyone wearing sweatpants out of the house. Sorry, 75% of students at Chelan High School!

Are you going to come back?

We’ll see. 😉

Much love,

Vanessa

Golf Tournament

/in /by

Kosen – Trip to Kenya – August 2014

/in /by

Hi Everyone.

My family and I are back home from our Trip to Kenya.  My wife Diane and My daughter Hailey had a wonderful time visiting family and friends for the first time.  We also had time to go on a 3 days safari in Masai Mara which coincided with the wildebeest migration season.  This Safari was also very important to both Hailey and I, in Aug 1978 my Dad took me on safari, I was 5 yrs old and at 5 yrs this was my daughter’s first safari and from the look of things she is a natural.

On Sept 10th I met with Grace and presented her with 2 Laptop computers that were donated by Lester Cooper from the Chelan Rotary and also gave her the money to pay for the kid’s tuition (fee) and shopping for the 6 new kids as well as for the other 9 that we have been supporting from the beginning of the year. I also had time to visit with the kids and they were very happy and thankful to each and every one of you for your Love and kind support. They told me to let you know that they are working very hard at school and they want to make us all proud. Grace gave me their school report form and their performance was impressive. I will bring the report forms to our next meeting.

Dr Claver, Andy Kunkel and I also visited the 5 of the 9 solar lights beneficiaries and to our delight every one of the solar Kits was working perfectly. We had to change only 1 bulb that had gone out.  These families have kept the solar kit in a very good condition. We left Grace with 8 extra bulbs for replacement if needed.

The Lights continue to have a great and positive impact to the community, I talked to the women and they told me how the lights have changed their lives both financially and socially. They make the traditional necklaces, bracelets and other Masai traditional bead work at night and sell them to Tourist during the day and also have time to do other family chores during the day. One story was even more compelling, one of ladies told me that she put one light outside of her house facing the livestock coral and ever since they have not experienced any incidents with the predators like Leopard, hyenas or lions attacking or even killing their livestock. For the Masai People livestock are a very major source of income and livelihood. Thanks to the solar lights for they have deterred these predators from coming into the village at night, the village and more importantly the people are safe at night.

The children continue to enjoy doing their homework and studies at home without any worries about darkness setting in or getting sick from smoke from kerosene lamps or firewood.

“We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.” -Howard Zinn

 Kosen