Irvine Rotary Club's newest member Jason Roberts provided a Craft Talk. Originally from San Luis Obispo, CA, born, raised and schooled there,, it's "Happiest Place in USA", and has some of the best wineries and a great tourist area, says Jason.
Jason works for Serve First which provides all solutions in electronic mobile payments for retail and ecommerce. He meets with clients and prospects and provides solutions. According to Jason there are no contracts, and he'll provide a free savings analysis for clients. The company is small, family owned and growing. He moved to Irvine just four months ago, and recently graduated from CAL Poly in business, packaging design and graphics communications.
He loves meeting new people, is an avid sports fan, anything having to do with the outdoors.
Welcome Jason!
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Rotary International Peace Progream - Irvine Rotary Club Meeting Notes April 4, 2012
Long Beach Rotarian Alex Cotton is a candidate for the Rotary World Peace Fellows Program. Two Rotarians are awarded the fellowship each year. Alex's discussed his work for Merlin and his aspirations as a Rotary World Peace Fellow.
Alex was born and raised in France, and the first time he heard of Rotary International he heard of the World Peace Initiative. Then his father's involvement got him interested in the notion of world peace.
Merlin (Medical Emergency Relief International, a British non-governmental, non-profit organization ) does magical work, which is long lasting. Merlin's actions are focused on: Building Field Hospitals; Mobile Clinics going into rural areas; and providing primary healthcare hiring local health coordinators who conduct education on disease prevention. Worldwide the company employs 74 health promoters.
Alex met the organization and it's work when he was a volunteer for a Sudan humanitarian project. Today Alex is Merlin's Regional Director. Merlin specializes in rebuilding critical health services and systems in hard-hit areas of the world, including Sub-Saharan Africa and Haiti. . Merlin focuses on recovery and the belief that "everyone has a right to affordable healthcare".
According to Alex, the key threats in the world are conflict, natural disasters e.g. Haiti; disease outbreak e.g. fever, cholera. Merlin maintains strong international connections, and comes into a stricken area and rebuild collapsed health systems. In Haiti, due to it's tight relationships with the Dominican Republic partners, Merlin was on the ground within 72 hours of the earthquake building field hospital, getting seven tons of medical supplies into the country, carrying out 392 life saving operations and treating 7,338 people in the first three weeks in Haiti. Hitting the ground running in a developing part of the world is almost unheard of. In addition to their partners, they hire local workers. In Haiti, some of their workers had lost loved ones, but it was all hands on deck helping all kinds of people.
Haiti operations included tents for post recovery, and surgical operations. Alex says these types of dyer situations brings you back to reality. As great as their hospital was, they were not able to handle everyone's need immediately.
"Creativity meets necessity", says Cotton. Merlin spent two years in Haiti and today the company supports 30 health facilities, performing 200,000 consultations, responding to two disease outbreaks; visiting 10,000 households visits; treating 13,000 people per month in mobile clinics.
From his volunteer stint in the Sudan, he pitched Merlin to hire him to open a US office, he was hired and has been with the organization ever since. Alex says you cannot get development if people are sick, that is why Merlin attacks the health system issues. This work brought him to desire to be a Rotarian Peace fellow, if he is awarded the fellowship, he will spend two years working for his degree.
The IRC club chose to support Alex's nomination for Peace Fellow.
Alex was born and raised in France, and the first time he heard of Rotary International he heard of the World Peace Initiative. Then his father's involvement got him interested in the notion of world peace.
Merlin (Medical Emergency Relief International, a British non-governmental, non-profit organization ) does magical work, which is long lasting. Merlin's actions are focused on: Building Field Hospitals; Mobile Clinics going into rural areas; and providing primary healthcare hiring local health coordinators who conduct education on disease prevention. Worldwide the company employs 74 health promoters.
Alex met the organization and it's work when he was a volunteer for a Sudan humanitarian project. Today Alex is Merlin's Regional Director. Merlin specializes in rebuilding critical health services and systems in hard-hit areas of the world, including Sub-Saharan Africa and Haiti. . Merlin focuses on recovery and the belief that "everyone has a right to affordable healthcare".
According to Alex, the key threats in the world are conflict, natural disasters e.g. Haiti; disease outbreak e.g. fever, cholera. Merlin maintains strong international connections, and comes into a stricken area and rebuild collapsed health systems. In Haiti, due to it's tight relationships with the Dominican Republic partners, Merlin was on the ground within 72 hours of the earthquake building field hospital, getting seven tons of medical supplies into the country, carrying out 392 life saving operations and treating 7,338 people in the first three weeks in Haiti. Hitting the ground running in a developing part of the world is almost unheard of. In addition to their partners, they hire local workers. In Haiti, some of their workers had lost loved ones, but it was all hands on deck helping all kinds of people.
Haiti operations included tents for post recovery, and surgical operations. Alex says these types of dyer situations brings you back to reality. As great as their hospital was, they were not able to handle everyone's need immediately.
"Creativity meets necessity", says Cotton. Merlin spent two years in Haiti and today the company supports 30 health facilities, performing 200,000 consultations, responding to two disease outbreaks; visiting 10,000 households visits; treating 13,000 people per month in mobile clinics.
From his volunteer stint in the Sudan, he pitched Merlin to hire him to open a US office, he was hired and has been with the organization ever since. Alex says you cannot get development if people are sick, that is why Merlin attacks the health system issues. This work brought him to desire to be a Rotarian Peace fellow, if he is awarded the fellowship, he will spend two years working for his degree.
The IRC club chose to support Alex's nomination for Peace Fellow.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
South County Outreach Presents to Irvine Rotary Club
March 28, 2012....Nora, operations director for South County Outreach shared information about the valuable services this non profit provides. Most interesting, in Oct. 1996 Nora had a brain aneurysm, lost her job, home and husband. She received a second chance at life by surviving and now thriving, giving back through her work at this organization.
They provide emergency assistance and tools for the homeless to help themselves. They provide clients with food for five days; rental assistance; run a computer learning lab (2,000 classes annually), and give homeless the skills to get a job or increase their income. The Laguna Hills Thrift Store, located on Ridge Route, sells clothes for kids.
It's not all homeless they serve. During the summer, an increase in teachers who normally work summer school shifts, need assistance. Their backpack program provides for 700 kids. A holiday program, adopting 1,000 families by teaming with the community is popular (The Jewelry Box in Lake Forest also provides donations through their battery giveback). Seventeen homes provide transitional homeless program, and the social services tailored for each family as they move from homeless to a new home. Other services include:
-200 Easter baskets to give to families
-Homeless Prevention Program-helping people just making ends meet
-Donate food for their pets.
-Purchase food from Second Harvest Food Bank.
-They see singles, seniors, disabled, military, all living pay check to pay check. $6.72 buys food for a family of four for six days.
-Volunteers: 250 regularly scheduled volunteers help the six full-time staffers. 8% are seniors. 38,000 volunteer hours a year.
-Visit their website for a list of supply items they need, you can donate.
SCO goal is to keep residents in our community, we don't have alot of shelters in South County, so keeping them in their home is a goal. They provide a hub of service to help however they need help.
The Irvine Rotary Club donated $500 to this worthy organization; with a commitment to donate more later this year.
They provide emergency assistance and tools for the homeless to help themselves. They provide clients with food for five days; rental assistance; run a computer learning lab (2,000 classes annually), and give homeless the skills to get a job or increase their income. The Laguna Hills Thrift Store, located on Ridge Route, sells clothes for kids.
It's not all homeless they serve. During the summer, an increase in teachers who normally work summer school shifts, need assistance. Their backpack program provides for 700 kids. A holiday program, adopting 1,000 families by teaming with the community is popular (The Jewelry Box in Lake Forest also provides donations through their battery giveback). Seventeen homes provide transitional homeless program, and the social services tailored for each family as they move from homeless to a new home. Other services include:
-200 Easter baskets to give to families
-Homeless Prevention Program-helping people just making ends meet
-Donate food for their pets.
-Purchase food from Second Harvest Food Bank.
-They see singles, seniors, disabled, military, all living pay check to pay check. $6.72 buys food for a family of four for six days.
-Volunteers: 250 regularly scheduled volunteers help the six full-time staffers. 8% are seniors. 38,000 volunteer hours a year.
-Visit their website for a list of supply items they need, you can donate.
SCO goal is to keep residents in our community, we don't have alot of shelters in South County, so keeping them in their home is a goal. They provide a hub of service to help however they need help.
The Irvine Rotary Club donated $500 to this worthy organization; with a commitment to donate more later this year.
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