Raising awareness, ensuring opportunity

Every 20 minutes a child is diagnosed with autism. There is no cure for this complex developmental disability that affects 1 in 150 people - but there is effective treatment.  Since 2001 Bermuda Autism Support & Education (BASE) has been dedicated to providing autism-related information, referral, advocacy, training, and support to families, professionals, and community members.  By increasing public awareness of autism, we help to ensure that individuals on the autism spectrum are given opportunities and resources to achieve their full potential.

 The mission statement of BEST (Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce)  is:

“To preserve and enhance the quality of life in Bermuda for present and future generations by advocating for sustainable management and development of the physical, social and economic environments.”

Over the past 18 months BEN has been laying the groundwork for businesses to make a more meaningful contribution to education. 

Phase 1 is capacity building and networking with parents to create a pool of resources. 

Phase 2 is building relationships with principals at government schools.   BEN does not provide financial donations or scholarships, what BEN can offer is a framework of services around three connected challenges:

 •        how to help schools connect with a range of high quality experiential learning  activities;

 •        how to provide better, more tailored Career guidance to enable young people to make better choices about their learning and employment.

•         how to help schools create systems for better and earlier intervention for young people;

Business:  Pres. Tee welcomed PP Jeff noting that it was PP Jeff Sousa who had sponsored him to the club. 

  He then invited Patrice Horner and Megan Nesbitt along with PP Kirk as “Deputy” Sponsor in lieu of PP Jim. to join him and duly inducted Rtn Patrice and Rtn Megan into the HRC These were followed by Denise James and Terica Esposito who were sponsored by Pres Tee Finally but by no means last Major Shawn Critch who has been a waiting an embarrassingly long time to officially join us, with sponsor AG Keith.

  Each of our new members told us a little of their background and were then officially congratulated by Pres Tee, IPP Barrett and AG Keith.  Rtn Shawn forgoing the kisses from the “dynamic” trio and accepting a congratulatory hug!

On returning from college Gavin and Najib saw the need for emerging artists to have somewhere to perform, away from the usual alcohol etc environment, and so they formed Chewstick.

The Red Cross movement around the world is about “people helping people”. The Int’l Red Cross is the largest humanitarian organization in the world, operating in 181 countries and having over a million volunteers doing service in their communities.

World Red Cross Day, May 8^th, is the day the International movement of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies celebrate the birth of Henry Dunant who founded the organization in Geneva, Switzerland in 1863.  In addition to founding Red Cross International, Dunant was the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.

The young people that this Trust will support will be community leaders in their own time. 

The Bermuda Transitional Living Centre is a unique blend of Prison Therapeutic Community, Work Release Program and Structured residential program with, Life skills (meals, money, anger, etc.), Cognitive interventions, Substance Abuse relapse prevention, Parole and aftercare Support.

Dir George, the Historian, told us of his research on “The Lesser known Characters on the Sea Venture”.  Most of the information came from records in Virginia, USA as there are no Bermuda records. 

  The wreck of the Sea Venture in Bermuda was the turning point in the English colonisation of North America.  Before that, it was disaster after disaster with previous efforts by the English to colonise North America.

Rotary International, is your organization, and you should be proud to be one of 1.2 million Rotarians worlds wide. However, we have been at 1.2 Million for years, we bring in thousands of new members a year but, we are still 1.2 Million –

The Rotary Foundation:  PP Keith has been asking members all year to support the $100 EREY for the Foundation but where does it go and what does your contribution do?

 Annual Programs Fund (Every Rotarian, Every Year)