The meeting was kicked off by Ken introducing our new red-badge member Suchandra Brahma. She was a Rotarian in India and now shuttles between Del Mar and India. Charles & Paul gave an update on Bocce and Paul said that we now have about $13,000 in sponsorships collected so far. He also mentioned that the Bocce prize of a growler for maximum VIP sponsorships brought in by members has been extended to this month since it was a tie last month. Steve Weitzen mentioned about the future Rotary International conference coming to Honolulu in 2020. Reservations will start in Jun 2019.
Then we had Susan present a check for $2,250 on behalf of our DMSB club to Tom Madeyski of YMCA Camps to support the foster kids that get a chance to attend their 1-week camps.
Then Venky talked briefly about the new "My Three Things In LIfe ..." talk by members each week. This could be my three (could be 1 or 2 also) biggest lessons in life, tips on being happy, events in my life, things I’m most passionate about, challenges I’ve faced, trips I’ve taken, etc. This gives everyone a lot of flexibility to choose what they want to share and do it concisely thus making it very interesting. Charles Foster will kick it off next Friday since he is the earliest member of the club.
Then we had an exciting talk by our main speaker Tom Madeyski. He has been with YMCA Camps for 38 years and lives with his wife Debbie in the RainTree Ranch in Julian where they have one of the camps. He serves as Executive Director of YMCA Camping programs here in San Diego County. In his tenure, camp attendance has increased from 10,000 to 26,000 children and families annually. The three YMCA camps, Marston, Raintree Ranch and Camp Surf have seen over $10M in capital improvements in the past 15 years. Tom is a proud Penn State Nittany Lion and is a certified YMCA Organizational Leader.
He said that the kids that attend are from 7 years of age and up. The cost is very reasonable at $250/week during non-summer weeks and in summer it is $700/week. They also get sponsorships from Rotary and other organizations that pay for some disadvantaged foster kids. The camp helps to minimize the screen time that today's kids have. According to some research and statistics, it seems the average kids today spend only 7 minutes outdoors and 7 hours in front of electronic screens! The 1-week camp helps to change that and he says kids just love the activities and at the end they are not missing their devices at all. The triangle logo of YMCA represents SPIRIT, MIND and BODY and the YMCA philosophy and tag line is - Caring, Honesty, Respect and Responsibility.
In the end, he was asked a question as to what was the most "touching" event he had come across and he mentioned the story of a mom that was diagnosed with cancer and was about to lose her apartment. She applied for aid to send her kids to camp so they could experience the camp life and she finally got approved. During the week of the camp training she lost her apartment and just 2 days prior to kids returning home she managed to get a new apartment and that was a very touching story for Tom that he can never forget.
In the end, our club president Ken Barrett awarded the Joshua Malawi school certificate to Tom Madeyski that represents donation of school supplies by DMSB to schools in Malawi in the name of the speaker.
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