The Weekly Bulletin

Feb 12, 2018

 

Call to order: Ed Musterman, President at 12:05 pm

Invocation: Rick McKernan

Pledge: C.O. Scheffer

 

Introduction of Guests   

Marlene Lee, Board Member of Central Missouri Stop Human Trafficking and Writer came as             a guest of today’s speaker.

 

Birthdays and Anniversaries

None

 

Mystery Person  – Steve Winters used his mathematical genius to reject several potential awardees before finding a formula to award today’s choice of candies to Rick McKernan.

 

Greeter   –

Phil Rodriquez expressed relief after his fourteen year old daughter just recovered from a mysterious paralysis to her left side after a month of suffering. He had a good week end officiating at a local high school wrestling match. Phil is looking for new employment with his skills in sales and business.

 

Announcements

• Sign In or Pay the Pig: Carl Scott took pleasure in contributing two quarters to the pig for our inter-state basketball teams’ change of fortune: one for this week’s MU victory, the other for Kansas’ loss. He also mentioned Jim and Shirley Beckett were pictured in the recent Boone Health Center magazine. And, he drew our attention to the story in the current Optimist International magazine honoring the work of the Jefferson City Optimist Club’s Christmas tree fundraising efforts
• Welcome any new members.

None present today

• Food Bank –

No new report. But regular Food Bank volunteer, Jim Murphy said his wife is doing             much better now.

• Feb 9-10,  E.MO District Meeting in Rolla

60 Optimists attended in spite of the bad weather.  Club members traveled from as far away as Cape Girardeau and Martin, Tennessee. Martin, Tennessee is a 9 hour drive.

The Downtown Optimist club received recognition and a patch as an Honor Club for the 2016-2017 year.  As Treasurer, Secretary and President of the club C.O. Scheffer, Sid Sullivan and Ed Musterman each received a certificate of recognition signed by 2016-2017 President, Jim Kondrasuk.

The club received two $25 checks for having the highest A&A points: the first for the year ending 2016-2017 ( 204,400 pts) and the second for a 1^st qtr 2017-2018 (49,625) as a Cat IV club.

President Ed won a silent auction purchase of a Book of Poetry by late club member, Luke Chase

Larry Fick received a Certificate, signed by current Middle America Vice President Bob Floyd, for 50 years of membership and a 50 year pin is coming.

The DO Club president received commendation, pins and badges for the number of new members added to the club so far this year.

The Zone 2 Lt. Governor will create a report on the conference to email to all of the Zone 2 clubs.

• Rootin Tootin Chili Cookoff – Scott Stager. (573) 424-4764 email: stagers@missouri.edu

Scott is still looking for one more cook’s assistant to stir the beef for several hours on             Saturday morning, Feb 17 at the Holliday Inn Expo Center.

• Soap Box Derby – Rick McKernan, Chuck Boots.

The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 21 at 6:30 pm at the clubhouse.

• Oratorical & Essay – Rick McKernan

Rick reports some success in applicants for these events

• Computer Giveaway – Rick McKernan  (C) (573) 881-3471 email:  mckernan@mchsi.com

Rick needs help on Thursday afternoon, Feb. 15 at 4:00 to 5:30 pm setting up             computers for this give-away.

• Scholarships – Cyrilla.

Notices have been sent to all the high schools. The club has received its first student            application.

• Columbia Youth Basketball – Mary Dewey.

Next game is Saturday at 8:00 am

• Bike Safety – Mary Dewey

This event is scheduled for Thursday, June 7 from 5:30 to 7:30 at the Lange Middle             School parking lot.

• Board Meeting – 6:00 Thursday, Feb 15^th at the club house.

The board will consider four grant requests and sadly Harold Rowe’s resignation                   from the board.

• Larry Fick reminded members of the Friday Night Fish Fry at the Knights of Columbus Hall taking place this Friday, February 16, There is a free shuttle service from the Our Lady of Lourdes parking lot for those who know about the traffic and parking problem at K of C Hall and want to avoid it.

 

Today’s Speaker

Nannette Ward, Central MO Stop Human Trafficking

Nannette moved to Columbia in 1994 from Independence, MO with her husband who was pursuing his MSW degree at MU. She was active in the Governors Council for Services for Independent Living. She also served on Columbia’s Human Rights Commission with its focus on dealing with racism. She worked on efforts to break down racism through “Let’s Talk Columbia.” Eight years ago she attended a conference on Human Trafficking at Mizzou. After hearing stories of trafficking here in Columbia, she wanted to learn more and is now helping to educate the public on the prevalence of human trafficking as it touches not only the foreign born and poor of this county but more and more the families of middle class.

 

She defines Human Trafficking as someone who is sold for money or pleasure of someone else. According to Nannette, it not only ensnares women but children of both sexes becoming the fastest growing criminal activity in our country today. Several years ago the top three money making criminal activities were drugs, weapons and human trafficking in this order. Today, these are still the top three but the order has reversed

 

Nannette recounted several lurid stories of the entrapment of local children. A teenaged girl was taken in by a couple providing comfort and support at first but gradually breaking her down psychologically and at 18 introducing her to drugs to “flipping the switch” to enslave her with a seven year signed contract leading to sex dancing, prostitution and sale of drug, Boys and girls have been enslaved to work as indentured servants as dishwashers or hotel housekeeping. Few in the audience were aware of the former house of prostitution here in Columbia or that some girls were forced to work as dancers at Club Vogue. Finally, there is not always a happy ending to this saga. Missouri laws provide no escape from culpability as a slave forced into criminal activity will see no mercy.

 

The main point of today’s presentation was to bring home the awareness of Human Trafficking. No family is safe from this. There are internet trolls, adults who befriend and manipulate kids and in rare cases other kids who have been trained to capture other children for this trade. The important thing is encourage kids to volunteer and get involved with something outside of them. Nannette was very complimentary of the work the Optimists do o support kids’ activities as a first line of defense.

 

UPCOMING SPEAKERS

Feb 19 – Bonnie Yantzie, Fun City

Feb 26 – Jack Huested, OATS

March 5- Lorene Royer, Kings Daughters Dental Aid Program

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adjourn with the Creed: 1:00

Optimistically Yours,

 

Sid Sullivan

Secretary