News for Summer 2019

Mission 13, Corozal District, Belize

With Foundation approval of the District Grant, MESA’S long term project Resource Centers International is well on its way to conducting its thirteenth mission in Belize. The Grant is being sponsored by the Rotary Club of Cardington with significant financial support from the Rotary Club of Toledo. The Rotary Club of Corozal is our cooperating Rotary Club partner in Belize.

Mission dates are November 30th to December 12th when we will open 20 resource centers in preschool and infant 1 classrooms.

Meet the Mission Team

Araceli Garcia: Is a former Belizean teacher now living in the Chicago area with her husband. This will be her first mission trip, but she is familiar with our work as she was instrumental in setting up the resource center we donated to her school in honor of Galion Rotarian, Father Bob Haas. Below is an abbreviated brief bio Araceli contributed to the newsletter:

Araceli Edilma Christian was born and raised in Belize into a family of teachers who made education a priority. She graduated as the valedictorian of her elementary school and from an early age developed a passion for sharing her knowledge, traveling, meeting new people and being of assistance to others.

Pursuing her career as a teacher and later as a school director, she obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Primary Education from University of Belize followed by a certificate program in Leadership in Education. In 2010 she earned the distinguished education award the National "Teacher of the Year" for Elementary schools of Belize. She has been teaching children of all ages for almost 2 decades in all areas of the curriculum and served as a mentor for many young Belizeans as well as American students pursuing a teaching career.

Araceli varied experiences include: traveling throughout Belize and internationally representing Belize’s Teachers’ Union and the Catholic Youth Group; being an active advocate for the Maya/Mestizo culture, and becoming the coordinator for their cultural dance group. During her tenure as head football coach she led the girls’ football team to their first Belize national championship. She has also worked for over a decade with at risk youths and with the Catholic Youth group and also has assisted students lacking financial stability to obtain scholarships to pursue their high school education.

In the future her dream is to finish her Master’s degree and then obtain her Doctorate degree in Education Leadership and International relations.

Araceli in her classroom in Bullet Tree Falls, Belize

Will Mosby: Is a Computer Software and System Engineer and One World E Club Rotarian on his second mission to Belize. Will is married and living in Texas.

Below is an abbreviated bio that Will contributed to the Newsletter:

A software and system architect with over 20 years experience, William “Will” Mosby has held senior engineering positions with premier companies such as Verizon, HP, Toyota, and Bank of America. In addition to finding the non-profit StreetCents Corporation, Mr. Mosby is the owner of DataScrapers LLC and Cynqbit Software LLC, an adjunct professor of computer science, and avid community volunteer. In his spare time, Mr. Mosby is a private, aircraft pilot and martial arts enthusiast – that enjoys traveling abroad and spending time with his family.

Mr. Mosby has spent his entire career turning trials into testimonies of accomplishments; and now shares those very lessons - both technical and tactical - with future generations of technology enthusiasts. A firm believer that any challenge that can destroy has an equal potential to positively define, Mr. Mosby focuses on establishing pathways to mobility by building on the experiences of both his and those that he mentors.

Whenever Will was working with the computers there was always a lot of help and interest.

Findlay Rotarians at Work

Findlay Rotarians (the Morning Rotary Club) gave up their Saturday morning to help sort through books donated by the Cleveland Kids Book Bank. That morning we got through almost 4 gaylords (the big box in the picture) separating out books that we thought would be inappropriate to send to Belize. We still have 3 more gaylords to go. The books not sent to Belize are being donated to Books-4-Buddies, a reading program to help disadvantaged boys or Goodwill Industries.

From the left are Nick Kulik, Chris Roekle, Suzi Healy, Diana Hoover, Mel Honig, Kyle Frish, Tim Stumpp & Al Hatch. All are Findlay Rotarians from the Morning Club, except for Mel Honig… of the Rotary Club of Sylvania.

Many thanks to Greg Kruszka (Elyria Rotarian) and Colleen Watt and Steve Maistros of the Cleveland Kids Book Bank who help orchestrate the donation.

Pictured is Greg Kruszka of the Rotary Club of Elyria. Greg volunteers his Saturdays to help sort donated children’s books that in turn will be donated to organizations throughout the Cleveland area. Upon learning they had an excess of books, Greg informed us of their availability and then coordinated the pickup.

The donation included two large pallets of reading (chapter books) for children and teens along with……..

seven gaylords of resource books shown here loaded in our ‘new’ MESA’ truck. Books are being sorted out at the MESA warehouse and those not sent to Belize are books with U.S. themes, books that cover negative topics such as drugs or child abuse, books in poor condition or books that are outdated. Very few of the donated books were deemed inappropriate. It is an outstanding donation… and much thanks to all those that helped separate and repack the books.

Donations Received this Quarter

Educational Equipment and Materials

Financial Donations

*Dedicated Funds for Missions 13 & 14 to Belize

Financial Donations are used for purchases of product when there is no active grant and also for supplies needed to support the project.

Presentations

We are prepared to give a presentation to your Rotary Club or organization. Contact Mel Honig at 567 686 3406 (c), or email:melhonig.rci@gmail.com to make arrangements.