Another wonderful meeting this past Friday! We were joined by two visiting Rotarian's and Ben Brewer did a wonderful job filling in as President. Ben announced that once again, the club will be hosting a No Frills Fundraiser which will benefit Polio Plus. The date of the fundraiser will be Friday, February 10 at the meeting. The club would like to see all members donate to this wonderful initiative. Once member announcements were finished, the club was treated to a talk by Liz Overstreet with the University of Georgia Small Business Development Center (SBDC).
SBDC is partially funded through the University of Georgia as a public outreach program. They provide training, consulting and research to small businesses in Georgia at no charge. There are 17 locations throughout Georgia and the office in Savannah services Effingham, Bryan, and Chatham counties. The mission of SBDC is to enhance the well beings of Georgians. This mission is accomplished by offering no cost consulting services which includes but is not limited to strategic analysis, cash flow analysis, export and procurement services. They also offer training programs at a minimal cost to the consumer. The two popular training programs are StartSmart and GrowSmart. They see an impact in their services through sales over the past 5 years reaching over $10 billion. Out of those who have participated, 96% felt it was beneficial and 98% would recommend SBDC to others. Ted Dennard, owner of Savannah Bee Company, is a graduate of the GrowSmart class. SBDC follows SBA standards to determine if a business is eligible for this service. Eligibility varies from industry but generally a small business is considered as having 500 or less employees.
Dr. Jose de Arimateia da Cruz is a Professor of International Relations/Comparative Politics at Armstrong State University, Savannah, GA, where he teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in Latin American and African Foreign Policy, Third World National Security, and Insurgency/Counterinsurgency. He also is currently a Research Professor at the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle, PA. He has served as visiting professor at the University of Stavanger, Norway, La Serena Universidad in La Serena, Chile. Dr. da Cruz holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Wright State University, Dayton, OH; an M.A. in Professional Communications and Leadership from Armstrong State University, Savannah, GA; a M.A. in political science/political philosophy from Miami University, Oxford, OH; an M.S. in criminal justice with an emphasis in cyber affairs and security from Armstrong State University, and a Ph.D. in political science from Miami University, Oxford, OH. Jose is married to Dr. Becky Kohler da Cruz, Interim Provost at Armstrong State University. They have two children: Joshua who is a junior pre-law student at Georgia State University and Hannah who is a junior at Savannah Arts Academy. Jose enjoys reading, soccer and politics. He also volunteers at SCWA, Greater Savannah International Alliance, University System of Georgia Americas Council (chair); National Social Science Association (board member), Georgia Political Science Association (board member); Army War College Foundation. Welcome to Savannah East Jose!
The club was treated to a great presentation on Friday from Phil Dodson with Lunches for Learning Inc. which provides lunches to poor children in southern Honduras. The goal of the organization is to break poverty in this area of the world. Lunches for Learning was started in 2004 when founder Ron Hicks (a fellow Rotarian) was on a bike trip through Central America.
He noticed a lot of children begging for money were doing so in order to buy food and that they were of school age. He learned that 30% of children in this area drop out of school each year in order to find food. Ron had a vision that if he could feed these children, then they would be more likely to stay in school. Lunches for Learning provides lunch every day to children in elementary school. After the first year of the program, drop out rates dropped to virtually 0%. Lunch is served between 9:30 am - 10:00 am because they realized that children learn better if they have a full tummy. A lunch consist of a grain, protein, tortilla, milk and multi-vitamin. Everything, except for the vitamin, is sourced in Honduras and in order for a school to participate, it is a requirement that there is participation from parents. $150 a year feeds one child. Currently, Lunches for Learning serves 29 schools and 1700 students per day. Many more area schools want to join. The goal is to get children through 6th grade which is equivalent to a high school diploma in the United States. If you want to help, you can sponsor a school, sponsor a student, and/or spread the word.
We Missed You on January 27 - Barroll, Belford, Bohnstedt, da Cruz, Donoghue, Duffy, Ferencsik, Hancock, Herring, Hissam, McKinnon, Paddison, Paolucci, Smith, Taylor, Turner and White. 50% Attendance
Please add mailservice@clubrunner.com to your safe sender list or address book.
To unsubscribe from future e-mails, click here.
To forward this email to your friends, click here.
To view our privacy policy, click here.
ClubRunner
905.829.5299
102-2060 Winston Park Drive, Oakville, ON, L6H 5R7
