Ben Navarro, founder of Meeting Street Academy, served as the keynote speaker at the November Daniel Island Speaker Series event (the series is sponsored in part by the Daniel Island Rotary Club). Ben shared with the audience his philosophy on tackling what can easily be described as unequal educational opportunities. One of his main points was that simply because a student is born into poverty, doesn’t preclude that student’s ability to learn.
A group of seven Daniel Island Rotarians gathered on the morning of Oct. 30 to clean up the Commemorative Park on Daniel Island. In addition to cleaning off the bricks, the six benches were also re-stained by the group. Pictured left to right are Rotarians Bob Wood, Bill Thielfoldt, Jim Morrill, Chip Law, Fred Klare, Bill Stevens and Joe Delpino.
The Rotary Club was honored to have Amy Barch, founder of the Turning Leaf Project based in North Charleston, speak to the group on Oct. 17. The Turning Leaf Project is an organization dedicated to serve men who have been formerly incarcerated to change their attitudes, thinking and behavior so that they can complete probation and stay out of prison.
On Oct. 24, the club hosted its first annual Chili Cook-Off at Pierce Park Pavilion on Daniel Island. “It was great fellowship, a great cause (all money saved from our regular Wednesday morning meeting went to Polio Plus), and great Chili!” stated Rotarian Derek Epperson.
At the Daniel Island Rotary Club’s October 3 meeting, club members listened attentively to a very sobering yet passionate presentation from Jason Sandoval, agent-in-charge of the Charleston office of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). According to Sandoval, the country, our state, and our community are experiencing a drug crisis. “And we’re not talking about drugs being purchased in a seedy alley or on a dark street corner, but often times they’re in our own medicine cabinets…prescription opioids,” stated Rotarian Derek Epperson. To put things in perspective, 58,220 Americans died during the multi-decade conflict that was the Vietnam War, continued Epperson. “Approximately 72,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2017 alone,” he added. “There were nearly 3000 individuals that perished on 9/11. Today we are experiencing a 9/11 every 17 days due to heroin/prescription drug overdoses.” In other data shared by Rotary after the presentation, Charleston County reportedly has an overdose death rate 178 percen
Dr. Mary Thornley, president of Trident Technical College, paid the Daniel Island Rotary Club a visit on Oct. 31. She first shared with the group her appreciation for the club’s contribution of $30,000 to the Trident Tech Apprenticeship Program. She also provided more detailed information about the program, along with its goals and the future impact to the kids and our growing region. Finally, she spoke about the new $80 million Global Aeronautics Center that is being built on TTC’s campus. Dr. Thornley explained how this building will be a catalyst to help students pursuing careers at both Boeing and Volvo.
Hundreds of local kids have a new resource to help them in the classroom, thanks to the generosity of the Daniel Island Rotary Club. Approximately 225 new dictionaries were recently delivered by the club to third graders at three local schools – Daniel Island School, Philip Simmons Elementary School and Cainhoy Elementary School.
At the club’s Nov. 14 meeting, Rotarians had the opportunity to wrap up 100 blankets in gift bags that were delivered to recipients utilizing East Cooper Meals on Wheels. Rotarian Billie Bacon organized the event and rounded up the blankets!
Daniel Island Rotarians helped provide Thanksgiving meals to multiple families in need in the Cainhoy community last week. The group delivered 165 turkeys and all the trimmings to the Balwin Carson Community Outreach Center in Huger on Nov. 20. The club extended “special thanks to Publix of Daniel Island for donating the food and to club member Cecil Mills for organizing the drive.”