Today's guest was Jim Hamel, of Lakes Region Community Services!
in attendance;
Denise, Sharon, Steve, Bill, Tony, Paul, Nancy, Braden, Ben, Omer, Laura, Mike, Ken, Sue, Alex, Lisa, Sara.
Guest: Jim Hamel, Lakes Region Community Services.
Ben opened the meeting with the pledge, prayer and a song.
congratulations to 6 years of rotary service Tony!
Tony presented Trivia
thanks to all who helped with Christmas decorations on the Common, and thanks to Paul for his work with the speech contest.
Jim introduced himself and presented on the services LRCS provides. Their focus is to support those with developmental and acquired disabilities to ensure dignity, independence, and opportunities.
Services are provided via volunteers and paid faculty. Since 1978, services have been provided state wide to over 10,000 people. When NH deinstitutionalized the disabled population served at the State hospital, these services became critical. LRCS created jobs by opening businesses to employee their clients. The Readery, Clothesline, Dog Walking, are a few we know locally. They operate 12 community supportive housing homes for 24/7 care. Services are also provided at the Family Resource Center, The Whole Village, Autism Center of NH, and CFI Home assistance. Developmental services can start at birth and continue through old age. COVID impacted services making many classes and reviews only available via Zoom, and for some, this expanded the numbers served, but denied many the sense of community from live classes.
Sharon spoke on her work to complete a speakers list and will send it out shortly.
Denise spoke on the desk project PR moving to Ladders to seek out those who need a desk.
Ben reminded all that the new Recruitment and Retention committee is meeting this week at 5pm on Thursday, and encouraged anyone to join.
Ben also reported on his work with the joint Rotary project for clean-up on the Kanc.
Respectfully submitted,
Denise