Middletown CT Rotary - Announcements - Current Newsletter (Apr 16, 2019)

Carmela still has raffle tickets if people need more, and also has tickets for the Paul Harris dinner. Caterer is all set for the evening.
Celeste: Scholarships are doing well; there are 16 applicants and 6 of them will be interviewed on April 24. The committee will determine who will receive scholarships; there may be 3 or 4 scholarships awarded.
Thursday’s Amber Alert is at CHC; setup at 3; event is from 4-6, and volunteers are invited to sign up.
Dick Carella, Senior passed away Friday after a yearlong illness.
Next week Larry Gardner, DG, will come to talk about the Rotary annual conference.
We need a Merry Go Round volunteer for the next two weeks.
Wednesday, May 15, 5 p.m., at the Celtic Cavern is the next evening event; fundraiser will benefit the Mercy Interact Club.
Next board meeting will be on May 8.
Lois inquired whether the Interact Club at IDS is still active, since we haven’t heard from them in a while. She will follow up to find out.
Sue and Eric presented a $250 grant check to Chris George of IRIS

Cards: High: Steve Lovelace with two pair, 9s and 5s – donated to AmberAlert. Low: Ky Smith, jack high – also to Amber Alert

King of Clubs: Lois and Sue - no winner

Happy Dollars:

Howard Reid - in support of the new bump outs on Main Street
Gary- for Fred being debunked by Howard about the bumpouts
Lois - welcome to Chris George, having seen Notre Dame; happy Easter/Passover; Friday is 44th anniversary
Helene - happy holidays, happy spring; fundraiser for staff member raised over $10K
Carmela - great time on cruise; sad dollar for employee who passed away
Celeste - for IRIS’s great work; for Toronto Maple Leafs
Keith - memorial service for David Hoyle
Kevin - 25th anniversary tomorrow
Ky - missed meeting; for joining Rotary officially
Jonathan - for April weddings; to spring
Steve – for his set of drums built by Joe Morello (Dave Brubeck’s drummer)
Chris George - happy to be here
Eric — sad dollar for Notre Dame; happy Easter
Lakesha - for spring and spending spring break with her 11- and 16-year-olds; missed meeting; planning annual single moms conference/retreat

Program:

Guest speaker was Chris George, executive director of Integrated Refugee and and Immigrant Services (IRIS).

IRIS is one of 200 nonprofit groups nationwide that help refugees resettle in the U.S. The U.S. government selects the refugees and provides some funding for refugees. IRIS would like to resettle at least 500 refugees in CT annually. The US used to bring 85,000 refugees a year; it’s down to a trickle now.

At end of 2016, President Obama promised the UN that the US would bring 110,000 refugees to the US in 2017. President Trump has reduced the number of refugees; the number went down to 52,000 in 2017, and 22,000 in 2018, probably about 20,000 this year.

IRIS helps people find apartment, jobs, settle children in school, learn English. Another job is educating Americans about refugee resettlement. Three-part job; welcome refugees, educate Americans, and engage Americans with refugees.

Administration sees refugees as a security threat. The vetting process is run by DHS and has been in place since 2001. 800,000 people have come to US through this process—not one has become a terrorist or killed an American on our soil.

US government interviews refugees in camps overseas. Initial interview by state dept last about 6 hours. Info goes to FBI, CIA, and foreign intelligence agencies, then another round of interviews by state dept. At the end of all this, which typically takes two years, it’s still possible for a detail to tank the household’s prospects of coming to the U.S.

President Eric ended the meeting with the Four Way Test at 1:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Sue Murphy