Membership Committee: 7:00am, Wednesday, August 8th before the regular club meeting
Sunrise@Sunset: 5:30pm, Thursday, August 9 at Linda and Rich Raetz's home. BYOB, a dish to pass, your swimsuit, and towel.
Board Meeting: 5:30pm, Monday, August 13 at VP Demand Creation Services
What You Missed
July 25, 2018: Nancy Thorton, Zone and District PR Chair – Honduras Rotary February 2018 Trip
Rotary’s relationship with safe water in Honduras began with the 2013 trip when 400 water filters were originally installed in San Pedro Sula. This most recent 2018 trip was rural-focused in a valley a fair distance from the airport in San Pedro Sula. El Ayudante, the lovely and safe basecamp for the trip, is ministry-based and this was the first opportunity to host a secular group. The mission coordinated the projects and split the whole group into four smaller groups each day to experience different projects with different people to work alongside. All throughout her talk, Nancy praised this incredibly organized operation. The mission also serves as the Honduras filter distribution center. On one of the days of the trip they were joined by a local Rotary club to work side-by-side for the day.
The Rotary team was comprised of Great Lakes Rotary groups so they shared a collective appreciation of clean water. Fourteen team members were mostly young and female. Students represented were from the Muskegon Interact club.
Variety of projects experienced by the team:
Installed an adobe kitchen. Homeowner made all the bricks, team provided the labor.
Built latrines, process a two-day job starting with cement pouring and then the structure.
Installed a cement floor in a home, one of the most grueling experiences in terms of hauling bags and mixing cement by hand.
Nancy shared that the people they met through this trip are what made the experience especially meaningful – both those in Honduras and team members. The last day of the trip was hosted by the partnering Honduras Rotary club. Nancy had the chance to meet the co-signer of the original water filter grant and he now serves as the district governor there.
Rotary Foundation is piloting possible projects for mega grants providing safe water for the school systems in Honduras and this was a chance for Nancy to learn about it firsthand.