By Diane Hines
Houlton Rotarian
HOULTON — The Houlton Rotary club met on July 27, and hosted Dawn and Joy Degenhardt. Visiting Rotary were Emma Hines, guest of Diane Hines; Kyle Taylor, guest of James Matilla; David and Carol Clark, guests of Mike Clark; and visiting Rotarian Walter Thompson.
Contributed photo
SPECIAL GUESTS — The Houlton Rotary Club welcomed Joy Degenhardt, left, and Dawn Degenhardt of Aid for Kids to their July 27 meeting. The two discussed a variety of topics, including “Rotary Books for the World.” With the two is Rotarian Richard Hammond.
Paul Callnan presented a budget report with a Quick Books Balance Sheet to inform the group as to the current assets and liabilities and equity. He also presented a profit and loss statement and transaction by detail to show how the club contributed funds July 2014 through July 2015. The total funds given last year to Salvation Army, Cary Library, Backpack for Kids, Town of Houlton (Moosestompers), Rotary Foundation, Houlton/Hodgdon Dollars for Scholars, Houlton Area Little League, SACS Dollars for Scholars, Greater Houlton Christian Academy, East Grand Dollars For Scholars, town of Houlton (Just for Kids Playground), and Linneus Fire Department amounted to $34,210.
The club brought in $80,322 with costs of $81,822. Houlton Rotary will begin this next year in good standing having $25,710 in assets. The club will be looking at new projects to fund as applications are received.
Richard Hammond introduced his guest speaker Dawn Degenhardt. Dawn and Hunk Degenhardt adopted nine children and raised them in Houlton. Dawn continues to bring light to the lives of children with her non-profit organization “Aid for Kids” which provides childrens’ food, health care, shelter and education. Dawn mentioned that this would probably be her 25th time to speak at Houlton Rotary Club. She thanked Rotary for all of their assistance through the years. Dawn introduced a new project for Aid For Kids called the “Other Maine” project which expands their distribution of new, quality merchandise to low-income families, food panties, homeless shelters, pregnancy resource centers and budget-cut schools via their non-profit Distribution Partners, currently at over 115 members and increasing. The project is seeking funds from the Houlton Rotary Club to help pay for the shipping and handling of the merchandise being donated. Ten counties in the state benefit from this distribution center.
Dawn informed the group about 19 pallets of Toys for Us overruns being shipped in recently to their center. Dawn also mentioned the upcoming fifth Annual Educational Fair, which we be held at the Millar Civic Center Arena on Saturday, Sept. 12, from 10 a.m to 3 p.m. and sponsored by Aid for Kids.
Another program that Rotary Clubs of the USA are involved with worldwide is “Rotary Books for the World.” Several Texas Rotary Districts originated this project and worked with Rotary District 9300 in South Africa, developing a model operation to collect books and ship them where needed in South Africa. Over 6 million books have been distributed since 2001. Without public education in many countries in South Africa, books are needed to improve literacy and reduce poverty. Many books are routinely discarded in the USA that can be saved and distributed with this model program. The website for this project is www.rotarybooksfortheworld
.org
Locally, Dawn works to save books being discarded by schools and redistributes them to schools in need such as private religious based schools. Aid for Kids has just purchased another building 16×30 feet in dimension to house books to be saved and shared. Dawn and Hunk recently visited the Caribou Rotary Club seeking their support in this effort and she suggested that Houlton partner with them and other County clubs to provide assistance.
Joy Degenhardt, an adopted daughter to Dawn and Hunk and who lives in Saigon, Vietnam shared a video with the club about the Rotary Books for the World. Then Joy educated the group on “Kickstart Change.” Interact 5170, which is a Rotarian high school service organization that has partnered with One World Play Project who makes a virtually indestructible soccer ball, “Football For All Vietnam” to bring soccer balls to kids in Vietnam. Joy shared a story of how she helped the effort to distribute 2,500 soccer balls throughout the country of Vietnam into seven provinces over six days while she was visiting in Maine. The appeal came from San Francisco and Sue McKinney an Oakland Sunrise Rotary club member. Joy was able to organize the distribution of 2,137 soccer balls by the “Ambassadors of Good Will” to help 20,000 Vietnamese youth play with real balls. The children had been using improvised “balls” of tied together trash or plastic bottles.
The founder of One World Play Project, Tim Jahnigen designed a nearly indestructible ball that could stand up to the harsh conditions the disadvantaged children live in. Football for All Vietnam was founded by Anders Krystad, a Norwegian national. FFAV has created football clubs in Vietnam and provided education for the sport. Joy described this effort as the first donation to a sports program for the Vietnamese children who often play without shoes and with cows at the edge of the field. For more information on this you can search “Interact 5170 Vietnam Soccer Ball Project.”
