Metro North Rotary Notes:
Thursday, December 13, 2018
Prayer & Pledge: Ash Wagel
Guests & Visitors: Pat Airy (Downtown) and Star Rupe, Speakers from Goodwill of the Heartland & NE Iowa
Barb Randall & Bob Carlson (Both Downtown)
Chelsea Lamers (new member)
Announcements:
- Jokes of the day:
- Why does Santa have 3 gardens? So her can ho-ho-ho.
- How much did Santa pay for his sleigh? Nothing, it was on the house!
- What did Adam say on the day before Christmas? "It's Christmas, Eve!"
- Thank you to everyone who helped with Christmas shopping for the Metro High School students. You all are making a difference to so many so thanks for stepping up.
- Reminder, on January 10th we'll be at SOKO Outfitters for Rock Climbing offsite - more info to come!
- Nate Vriezelaar received a sticker for donating to Rotary Foundation. It is very important that we as a club give to the Foundation. Grants that we apply for are scored on Foundation giving percentage - the number of our members that give - so $1 or 1,000 or whatever you can do will help us in our efforts. Please donate by the end of the year.
- Upcoming meetings:
- 12/20/2018 - CR Washington Madrigal Singers
- 12/27/2018 - No Meeting
- 1/3/2019 - Dr. Lori Sundberg, New President of Kirkwood CC
- 1/10/2018 - SOKO Outfitters & Rock Climbing offsite
- Communications committee is looking for note takers. This is an easy way to get involved in the club. Reply to this email if you are interested.
- If you have any Facebook updates to share on the MNR page, you can send to TJ, Shannon, Sarah H. or Patti.
- New Member Reading - Chelsea Lammers from Heartland Youth for Christ (1st Reading)
Speaker:
Sharon Anderson introduced our speakers - Pat Airy, Executive Director of Goodwill of the Heartland and Star Rupe from from Goodwill of NE Iowa
Goodwill started in 1902 by Rev. Edgar Helms because he wanted to bring together donations and a work program. All Goodwills run autonomously with 165 organizations throughout the country. They are in 14 countries and have a total of 2300 locations. Last year Goodwill placed 300,000 individuals to jobs.
You may be surprised to learn some of the jobs that Goodwill is able to place people in through contracts with various manufacturing companies. Some of the projects include:
- Camo painting for the military
- Manufacturing flip charts
- Document destruction
Goodwill also has a recycling program that keeps billions of things out of the landfills each year. In 2017, 40 million pounds of items collected and 11.6 million pounds were recycled. Some items they recycle include:
- Clothes
- Shoes
- Hats
- Computers
- Many other things
Services provided by Goodwill include:
- Home Visits so people can live independently
- Financial Coaching
- Savings & Loan Support
- Tax Preparation
- Employment services - locally provided over 81,000 job hours in 2017
- Train for manufacturing jobs
- Work with Kirkwood for OSHA training
- Recently contracted with USDA on food program "Iowans Feeding the World"
- Retail stores currently generate 70% of their revenue. This program will generate 40%, which will reduce the percentage of retail stores to 40% of revenue.
Ways to help Goodwill
- Have your business contract with them
- Provide a workplace job shadow opportunity
- Donate goods
- Follow them on social media
- Donate your old computer
- Shop their online stores (shopgoodwill.com & restitch.com)
As is our custom - we will be donating a book to Metro High School's library in honor of our speakers.
Is it the TRUTH?
Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
Notes prepared by: Ash Wagel
