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September 25, 2014 – Meeting Roundup – Catholic Charities WV

Trina Bartlett will be our speaker. Trina is a licensed social worker who has been the Eastern Regional Director of Catholic Charities West Virginia since November 2013. With a master’s degree in social work from West Virginia University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication from Ohio University, she has nearly 25 years of experience.

Catholic Charities West Virginia’s mission is to alleviate poverty, distress, and injustice by providing comprehensive social services to the poor and vulnerable, advocating for social justice, and calling all people of good will, especially those of the Church, to service.

In support of their universal mission, they are open to all people regardless of their race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, marital or family status. The aim is to alleviate the languishing effects of poverty; responding to people’s basic human needs of food, shelter, clothing; and to reduce poverty by offering opportunities to improve an individual’s or family’s circumstances. Through compassionate care hope is engendered in those served and those who join in serving.

Over their eighty-three year history, they have become one of the largest social service providers in the state, serving tens of thousands low-income people each year with state-wide outreach programs and services in both rural and populated distressed communities.

They collaborate with parishes, community organizations, The WV Department of Health and Human Resources, Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Their seven regional offices are managed by professional staff, supported by volunteers, and guided by regional councils who live in the communities they serve. They soundly manage an $11 million budget and maintain an average administrative and fundraising cost below ten percent.

Since this is one of the charities we have chosen to support recently, you might want to come and find out why.

Peace Corps – China

Greta Harman, a graduate of Martinsburg High School and Duquesne University, presented a slide show about her time in the Peace Corps in China. She stayed in the Gansu province in a city of 400,000 people. The capital of Gansu is Lanzhou, a city of 6,000,000 people. The amazing thing is that it would be one of the US’s largest cities, yet most of us have never heard of it.

While in China she taught English to students at a technical college. The students were excellent at rote memorization, but could not apply what they had memorized. She said this is a common problem in China. The Chinese are excellent at making technology, but are unable to be innovative. The culture created this problem and now the Chinese leaders are trying to change this cultural problem.

Greta told us that her experience was a positive one that she really enjoyed.

Cogwheels

Answer to last week’s question:

Maybe you didn’t even know the club had a website. Here’s the website address: www.martinsburgrotary.com. Lots of good stuff here. You might also want to check out the club’s Facebook page.

This week’s question:
What does Rotary International designate as the October theme?