Flag Salute & Invocation by Anna Williams
Visiting Rotarians: None
Guests: Giovanni Melley
Birthdays and anniversaries.
Announcements
Board meeting this Thursday 4:30pm at Tradewinds board room (4th floor, 2211 Rimland Drive, Suite 401).
Bucks in the Bay
- Stan will be getting his 27th Paul Harris fellow;
- Last Sunday Curtis blocked off his street and had a fun potluck party (the City will loan you all the supplies on a flatbed trailer for free!)
- Steve Kimberly went fishing, lots of sun and fish;
- Curtis Smith is nearing completion on the video history of Bellingham Technical College, Curtis paid for the effort, more news soon;
- Jim Johnson will celebrating 23 years of matrimonial bliss - then off to his wife's homeland (Mauritius?). Also, sold his house and building a new house;
- Bill Gorman update on the Bellingham Bay Foundation (now at about $400K), please be thinking about how we should be utilize those monies;
- Tonja Myers with happy bucks - moving her mom into her house, also got a dog, and spent a few fun weeks at her cabin near McCall Idaho;
- Debbie Kiene happy to see Gio back in Bellingham!
- Stew Ellison with a plug for the Sunday August 27th “progressive” Rotario Dinner: It starts at Stew’s, and go by boat to three other lakeside Rotarian’s houses …please sign up for this amazing evening!
Sergeant at Arms by Tresha
Fines for trivia regarding the Rotary history.
Program
Curtis introduced two representatives of Lydia Place: Emily O’Conner, Executive Director, and Shultzie Willows, Community Engagement Director. The mission of Lydia Place is to support sustained independence by providing housing, supportive services, advocacy, education, and by raising awareness of the faces and causes of homelessness. Lydia place aims to end homelessness in Whatcom County for all families with children. Although they do provide crisis housing, ultimately they want to instead to provide long-term solutions to homelessness.
About 150 housing units are provided by Lydia Place:
20 units under their own ownership;
Another 80 units is provided by the housing authority;
Other units are subsidized for homeless families (by vouchers available through Bellingham Housing Authority for example).
We need to get to about 200 units in order to meet all the demand for homeless families with children; so, the goal is in sight and achievable.
Emily talked about the ACE score (Adverse Childhood Experiences) as a strong indicator of future homelessness. An ACE score is a tally of different types of abuse, neglect, and other hallmarks of a rough childhood. According to the ACE study, the rougher your childhood, the higher your score is likely to be and the higher your risk for later health problems and homelessness. See https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/acestudy/index.html. By successfully addressing these issues during childhood, Lydia Place can reduce the chance of homelessness later in life as adults.
Lydia Place serves 150 households at any given time. They have a 27-year history with the facility at Gladstone avenue, but they needed more space. So our BBRC club, and many other people, have contributed the money to remodel and expand the temporary housing facility there. The ribbon cutting ceremony and celebration for the expanded facility will take place on Thursday September 28th 4-7pm. Phil Hageman, Brad Cornwell, Mike Hammes among other BBRC Rotarians played a big role in bringing that project to fruition.
Emily contested the notion that homeless people are coming to Bellingham for our "superior" homeless services - the data simply does not support that notion.
Curtis presented Emily and Shultzie with a check for $50,000 from our BBRC club.
Emily O’Conner wins raffle.
Respectfully submitted,
Stowe Talbot