Carmi Rotary Club meeting
The Carmi Rotary club had two speakers on hand for their Thursday meeting. First up was Tyler Adams. Tyler is a sixth grader at Washington Attendance Center and was on hand to discuss an upcoming event at the Carmi Taekwondo Center.
Tyler told the club that this Saturday, the Taekwondo center will be holding an open house and a board “breakathon” for St. Jude’s Hospital. Tyler explained that he and other members of the Carmi club will have three minutes to break as many boards as possible – up to twenty total. All proceeds from the event will go to St. Jude’s Hospital. The breakathon will be held at the Carmi Taekwondo Center on main street in Carmi. The center is also having an open house that day in celebration of their 15th anniversary. The open house kicks off at 11:00am, with the breakathon to follow immediately after.
Tyler informed the Rotarians that St. Jude’s was founded in 1963 by actor Danny Thomas. Mr. Thomas had made a promise to St. Jude in a prayer three years earlier, and fulfilled that promise with the founding of the hospital. He also made the first donation, a lofty seven dollars! Today, St. Jude’s treats children with no thought to the cost, since parents pay what they can afford – or nothing at all. Danny Thomas used the phrase: “No child shall die in the dawn of their life.” As the hospital’s guiding principal.
The day’s second speaker was Amanda Johnson of S.W.A.N. – which stands for Stopping Women’s Abuse Now. This group is located in Olney, and has taken over for the Anna Bixby organization after it closed shop.
SWAN works with abused women, victims of elder abuse, and child abuse. They offer counselling to victims along with other services, such as: temporary shelter, transportation, mental health services, legal services, budget help, and many other much needed services. Amanda noted that statistics show it takes an average of seven attempts for a victim to finally leave an abuser permanently.
SWAN has an office in Carmi, and anyone needing their services can contact Amanda at: 380-2800. The Carmi office is open for business Monday through Friday from 8:00am until 4:00pm. They are located at 226 north Walnut in Carmi.
In club business, the date of Tuesday, February 19th was chosen as the night to “Get To Know Rotary”. That event will be held at the Elks Club in Carmi, with more info coming soon.
The club also voted to write a check for five hundred dollars to the Brownsville School Project, which will be matched by the Fairfield club, then that one thousand dollars will be matched two for one by the Rotary District, bringing the total donation to three thousand dollars.
Besides being the day’s speaker, Tyler Adams also won the 50/50 drawing and pulled the winning ball out of the can to claim the day’s cash prize. It was a good day for the Adams’ family, as Tyler’s grandfather, Randy Adams was named as the day’s phantom.
The Carmi Rotary club meets every Thursday at noon at the First United Methodist Church on Main Street in Carmi. Anyone wishing to learn more about this civic organization is welcome to attend a meeting or speak with any Carmi Rotarian.
