Mission Jamaica: Global Grant Status

Amber Fisher (Rotary Club of Elyria) and I (Mel Honig, Rotary Club of Sylvania) are in the process of preparing a Rotary International Global Grant with an Area of Focus of Basic Education and Literacy.   The Rotary Club of Elyria is sponsoring the Grant.   The Grant will also have a Vocational Training Team aspect as we continue to support preschool education in Jamaica and Belize.   The Grant will cover two missions to Jamaica when over 40 resource centers will be opened in preschools in the Westmoreland District of Jamaica.   As of now the team make-up is:

The two Team Leaders (one for each mission) are Mel Honig and Amber Fisher, although Amber and Mel are planning to go on both missions.

Team members are:

• IT specialists Kent Iler and Stephen Hosler from the Rotary Club of Elyria
• Librarian Susan Schafer from the Rotary Club of Sylvania
• Preschool Educators: Barbara Walters (University of Lourdes Professor) and Elana Juarez (Preschool music and dance educator)
• IT Specialist Justin Kendall
• Sports Education Professional Ken Katafias from the Rotary Club of Sylvania.   Ken is not planning to go on any of the missions.

Kent Iler, Amber Fisher and Susan Schafer have been on one previous mission to Belize, while Justin Kendall and Elana Juarez have been on 4 Belize missions.   Mel Honig has been on 7 missions to Belize and one to Jamaica.

The membership of the VTT has not been finalized.   In fact we can add new team members once the Grant receives approval from Rotary International.   If you are interested in becoming part of the team please contact Amber Fisher (afisher@murrayridgecenter.org) or Mel Honig (gailmel75@yahoo.com).   The team will be augmented by Rotarian and non-Rotarians in Jamaica as we work together to help improve learning opportunities for preschool age children.

District Conference 2014

Look for our display table at District Conference.   We will also be collecting Books and Infant clothing and infant stimulation objects.   One of our objectives during the missions to Jamaica is to support the Women’s Centres by providing infants with objects needed to stimulate their developing minds, and also to help to those mothers who cannot afford clothing and basic necessities for their infants.

Donations

Educational Equipment and Materials

Purchases

*Special thanks to Laura Schuster, Owens Community College Professor, who organized a team of IT professionals and students to reboot 79 computer towers.   Unfortunately we got only 48 working towers as many of those bought at auction were not functional.   Good thing we only paid about $4.00 per, but they were being sold as is.

Financial

Rotary Club of Mansfield - $1000.00

Your Club’s contribution could be here next month!

Presentations

We have a continual need for computer systems and children’s books.   The only thing that is keeping us from doing more is obtaining enough of these two items.

--Mel Honig, Newsletter Editor