Chris Clapper passed around a sign-up sheet for volunteers to work at Corn & Brat Days August 4 & 5^th. Our first speaker was Carlie Hanson, who was one of the three Rotary scholarship recipients. Carlie just graduated from EASD this spring and will be attending UW-Platteville this fall to study software engineering. Platteville offered her the Chancellor’s scholarship which pays for tuition all four years. Carlie has a caddy job at Bigfoot Country Club and is applying for a scholarship that they give out as well. We wish her the best. Chris Clapper read a very nice thank you letter from Christopher Dettman who was unable to attend our meeting due to work responsibilities. He will be attending UW-La Crosse to major in Biology and become a Physician’s Assistant. The third scholarship recipient was Sarah Haacker who will be attending Gateway for the Vet Tech program.

 

Our next speaker was Jeff Carithers who told us about his experiences in Tanzania. He is a doctor who works with a program called Empower Tanzania to promote health, education and economic development. He visited very rural areas where the average income is $1/day. The people have stunted growth due to malnutrition and contaminated water makes malaria a very common disease. The life expectancy is 51 years. They trained 33 community health educators to give presentations on safe water, malaria prevention, sanitation, HIV/AIDS, and nutrition to over 750,000 people who are very eager to learn. They also have a Vulnerable Children’s Club that teaches life skills and a Community Hospital Alliance where people are trained to triage medical problems to help those people who live way out in the bush. The official language is Swahili but many speak English.