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Volume 82 Issue 23 Wed Jan 11, 2023

Rota-Scribe: Gerardo Chagolla

WTLC’S Fight to Prevent Human Trafficking and Shelter Women With Dr. Nefta Pereda

Meeting was called to order by club President Joe Lins. He asked John Phelps to come on stage to thank him personally for hosting an amazing holiday party at his beautiful home. “Kerry and John Phelps deserve the highly coveted speaker’s gift!”

Jordan Garcia
Nadia Kohlwey
Theresa Stachelski
Bill Edman
Welcome Our Newest Rotarians

Cathy Gach was asked to come up and be awarded with the Paul Harris Rotary Pin. President Lins introduced our club’s newest members and presented them with their Certificate of Membership plaques and their Four-Way Tests. Nadia Kohlwey, Jordan Garcia, Theresa Stachelski, and Bill Edman. “Please join me in welcoming the newest members of Rotary to the world.”

Today’s important sports facts; when the NFL football season commenced, the club debated on who was the worst teams, Broncos, Seahawks, or Rams. “Who would have thought the Hawks would be in the Playoffs?” The Los Angeles Lakers (19-23) are 10 games behind the number 1 team in the Western Conference, Denver Nuggets and 3rd last in their Conference. Congratulations to Jeanie Buss and her longtime boyfriend, actor Jay Mohr, who became engaged over the past weekend. On this date; in 1908 President Roosevelt proclaimed the Grand Canyon a National Monument. In 1935, Amelia Earhart began the18 hour flight from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Oakland, California. That flight made her the first person to fly solo across any part of the Pacific Ocean.

For our Commencement ceremonies, Past President Mike Cochran gave us our invocation. He asked members in attendance to bow their heads while he led us in a prayer. Andrew Gregson gave us our Patriotic Moment. He gave us a history on the Pledge of Allegiance, before he led us in to it, “it was originally created in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, which is strangely enough, the year before the Chamber of Commerce was formed.” Andrew informed the club that it was President Joe Lins’ birthday that day and wished him a Happy Birthday. He then led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Our Songmaster, Bud Lang, asked us to sing Happy Birthday to President Joe Lins. He then led us in our traditional Rotary song, Smile.

Today’s guests are, Lori Goetsh, guest of Bob Muschek. Sara Kil, guest of Rebecka Forrester, “Sara is a journalist for the Fullerton Observer and she’s just a wonderful human being.” Dr. Nefta Pereda, our guest speaker from WTLC.

A fun and friendly interaction between President Lins and Past President Ken Kaisch took place that had the club members laughing in stitches, “the first question, is it the truth?” asked Ken, “he just lied.” Members in attendance yelled out, “Who cares!” reminiscent of John Phelps.

Today’s announcements included Matching Gift Campaign. “The club has raised $38,000 and our anonymous donor contributed $40,000!” announced President Lins. “Thank you to Joyce Capelle and Cathy Gach for their work on that project.” Cathy Gach announced “I am happy to report that in the 2022 Rotary year, because of you and your generosity, our foundation brought in just a little over $100,000. $78,200 was in the matching grant program and our generous donor matched it $40,000 and we raised just a little over $22,000 for the Community Investment Awards. Congratulations to all of you, it was a very successful year for our foundation.” She also announced about 2 important emails to look for in these upcoming days.

Past President Zoot Velasco announced for District Governor, Dan Ouweleen not in attendance, KherUT food truck’s Ride for Hope 2023, to raise awareness around human trafficking. “KherUT is hosting this bike ride. If you sponsor a rider, 50% of the money will go back to our club. You can see details on the district website or google KherUT for more details.”

Our Recognition Master was the dapper Rashawn Underdue. Rashawn greeted everyone in attendance and asked Jordan Garcia to stand and be recognized, “Congratulations on your first day. That will be $1 my man. They charged me $5 on my first day, I am being sweet.” Daniel Steward was recognized for his spouse’s birthday. Daniel was not in attendance but was live on Zoom, “hey Daniel, CashApp us a buck, brother!” Zoot Velasco was recognized and fined for his wife’s birthday, “that will be $1, or am I being too nice?” Frank Kawase was recognized for his Rotary birthday. “How many years?” Frank answered 40 plus years! Congratulations Frank! Captain Dick Daybell was recognized for his Rotarian Birthday. “That will be $2 for your 18 years of service in Rotary, sir.” John Phelps was recognized for his Rotary Anniversary. He was asked how many years in Rotary, “four years,” he jokingly answered. “32 years is close enough. Congratulations sir, that will be $2.” Judy Atwell was recognized for her Rotary Anniversary. She was fined $2. Cathy Gach was recognized for her Rotary Anniversary, “20 years in this club and 7 in my previous club.” She was fined $1. “And last but not least. I was given specific instructions to hammer this young man. Mr. Joe Lins, please stand up. The men and women who love you the most here say thank you for your service. We respect you, but you owe us $20!” President Lins was recognized for his birthday! Rashawn led us in true or false Rotary trivia where he fined each member of the table if answered incorrect.

Our Program at Hand was introduced by President Joe Lins. “This program is near and dear to everyone. From the Women’s Transitional Living Center and their fight to prevent human trafficking and shelter women. Please welcome our speaker Dr. Pereda.” Dr. Pereda acknowledged the club’s great atmosphere, “it’s fun to be here as an observer and watch the heckling. I thought I was going to be fined. I am not going to do a good of a job up here so I am going to fine myself $1,” he jokingly said to the club. He thanked Joe Lins, Jim Williams, and Suzy Lins for having him as the today’s speaker. His presentation was on Human Trafficking with the focus on the mind of human trafficking survivors. “This is one of the things we want to recognize at WTLC. We want to recognize that people are survivors of their experiences. They are survivors of the abuse. Survivors of the trauma. When we refer to the people that we work with as survivors. We are recognizing that they’ve had these experiences but we are also recognizing that they are not forever victims. They are able to move forward with their lives. They will continue to prosper and become productive members of society. Also helping to bring awareness to the human trafficking cause.” WTLC is based out of Fullerton. It is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping individuals and families escape the depths of domestic violence and exploitation. The majority of the people they serve come from North and Central Orange County. Globally speaking, there are over 40 million survivors with about 75 percent being women and girls. Human trafficking originates in all 50 states with the top 3 being Texas, Florida, and California. “In terms of people passing through, California is one the top places in the world for human trafficking to funnel through and enter in to the United States.” There are 3 different types of human trafficking. The first one is sexual exploitation/sex trafficking/prostitution. These usually fall under pornography workers, strippers, escort services, and bride trafficking which encompass all different sex trafficking that exist. These types of business exist because of the demand for them. Second type of trafficking is child trafficking. Child trafficking encompass same examples as sex trafficking with the inclusion of child brides, forced child labor. The third type of human trafficking is debt bondage or modern-day slavery. January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month and January 11th is Human Trafficking Awareness Day. Why does human trafficking exist? Greed, money, and high demand are the reasons why human trafficking is so lucrative. It is a billion-dollar industry with less harsh penalties to the traffickers than drug and weapons trafficking. The law against human traffickers is still behind which ultimately favors them most. “People are re-sellable. When you take a hold of a human. You have access to that human and everything that they can produce, sexually and in forms of labor, for as long as you have them. That can be over and over again.” That is the business mentality of a human trafficker. Law enforcement has a difficult task when dealing with prostitution and human trafficking. They can arrest survivors, fine the “Johns,” and arrest the “Pimps,” but it doesn’t stop the supply chain. When you remove one prostitute another quickly takes its place. “It becomes a cycle where you keep arresting people and new people come in to fill that void.” There are 3 elements of human trafficking. It is called AMP. The ACT of trafficking, that involves recruiting someone, transporting, or harboring someone. Then there’s the MEANS. How do people get trafficked? Through the use of threat, force, fraud or coercion. PURPOSE is the last element of human trafficking. The purpose is for sexual or forced labor. There are 3 main reasons why people that have been trafficked don’t leave these situations. Fear is the most obvious. They live in constant fear of being threaten of deportation, arrested or exposed to friends, family, or religious communities. Dependence is the second reason why people don’t leave these situations. The person who is in control takes their identifications and controls every aspect of their lives so they can no longer become independent and become completely dependent on the human trafficker. The third one is loyalty and love. Some people do fall in love with their traffickers. Religious reasons can also fall under loyalty reason as to why they won’t leave. What can you do if you suspect someone is enduring human trafficking? There are national hotlines available and WTLC has a hotline number 877-531-5522. Services like emotional support, housing, counseling, legal services, and therapy groups are resources that WTLC offer human trafficking survivors. Dr. Pereda took questions from club members in attendance at the end of his presentation. President Lins awarded Dr. Nefta Pereda with the highly coveted speaker’s gift. “My wife is on the Board of Directors in this organization. They do great things, not only in Fullerton, but great things period. I want to thank you with this gift. Keep up the good work. You’re doing great things.”

Last thing on the agenda was the 50/50 drawing worth $32 and 2 more drawings for a free Muckenthaler Event courtesy of Farrell Hirsch. Ticket holder number 6369578, Matt Howells won the money. Matt Howells again, alongside Dr. Bob Simon won trips to the Muckenthaler Events.

Our monthly Board meeting is this Wednesday, January, 18. Feel free to attend for those that need to fulfill their newest nine duties. “Thank you for coming today. Next week will feature a Senior Craft Talk by our Past President Marty, a man of many talents, Burbank. You will not want to miss that one. Thanks again for coming today and we will see you next week. Charge on! Meeting adjourned.”

Invite a Friend and Share Rotary

1/11/23 WTLC''s Fight to Prevent Human Trafficking and Shelter and Shelter Women
Women's Transitional Living Canter / Dr Nefta Pereda
1/18/23 10/45 - Rotary Club Board Meeting
1/18/23 SENIOR MEMBER CRAFT TALK - MARTY BURBANK
1/25/23 FULLERTON AIRPORT REPORT
Airport Manager Brendan O'Reily brings us up to date and looks ahead
2/01/23 AN INSIDE LOOKK AT BANKING IN A POST-PANDEMIC WORLD
Farmers & Merchants Bank President W. Henry Walker
2/22/23 MEMBERSHIP SOCIAL (DARK AT NOON AT CAYOTE HILLS)
Twisted Vine Evening Meeting
(published using 100% recycled electrons)
this edition was published in Fullerton, CA

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