Update to Rotary Club Mission

The Ohio Rotary Clubs of St. Mary's, Celina, New Bremen/New Knoxville, and Wapokaneta all participated in the project listed below.  They have now completed their first trip, and a front page story appeared in their local newspaper, the Celina Daily Standard.  For the latest information on this wonderful work, please check out the following link:

http://www.dailystandard.com/date/2003/03/19/news/headline2.htm

Rotarians launch mission to help Native Americans

By Pam Dunno
Staff writer, St. Marys, OH  Evening Leader newspaper,  January, 2003 

            St. Marys -  Members of area Rotary clubs are pulling together to launch a long term international mission to help a group of Native Americans at Mexico’s Copper Canyon.

“The Tarahumara Indians are suffering from a 10 year drought.” St. Marys Rotarian Frank C Murray said.  “Around the end of February, beginning of March, we will be going on a fact-finding mission to Creel.  There are about 60,000 Tarahumara living around Creel and the Copper Canyon.  They are the descendants of the Aztecs. They live along this mile deep canyon in agriculture based societies.  There is a great need.

“Creel is a dusty 19^th century lumber town,” he added.  “It’s going to be like going back in time 125 years.”

Members of the fact-finding team are Murray, James Harris and Pamela Harris of St. Marys, Phil Schlenker of Wapakoneta, and Julie Fleck, Jan Miesse, Janet White and Paul Wilken of Celina.  The group will take an ambulance, medical supplies and equipment on their mission.

“It will be a discovery mission to see what the needs are, to see where we can be the most effective.”  Murray said.  “We will be taking an ambulance donated by MESA (Rotary’s Medical Equipment and Supplies Abroad) stuffed full of equipment and supplies, including an incubator and ultrasound equipment.”

The fact-finding team also received a fire truck from MESA for the Tarahumara, but the vehicle will be delivered later because it does not have a heater.

Shclenker and Murray will drive the ambulance to El Paso, where they will meet the others, who plan to fly to Texas.

Hopefully, if all goes well, the team will rent a van and then cross the border into Mexico, Murray said, adding that some charitable organizations have had difficulties bringing supplies across the border because of bureaucracy surrounding the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“It’s difficult to get things into Mexico,” he said.  “It can take six months.  They’re afraid donations will hurt their economy.”

If the team has trouble carrying the supplies across the border, the equipment will be stored until paperwork on the donation can be expedited, he said, and the team will continue its fact-finding mission to Copper Canyon.  “We hope to take it ourselves,” Murray said.  “We’ll see.”

Asked why the local Rotary groups decided to pursue the mission, Murray replied, “Rotary International’s mission is service above self.  It’s part of our duty.  It’s our obligation to help.  The goal is to help others less fortunate than ourselves, and it’s much more exciting to have a hands-on mission than just giving money.”

Money will, however, play a role in the Copper Canyon mission.  Plans for future gifts of vehicles and supplies are in the works, Murray said, as is an effort to raise money through Rotary International’s grant program.

“We can take $2,500 gathered by the four local clubs and turn it into $40,000 through a grant-writing effort,” Murray said.  “Water is critical at Copper Canyon.  Forty thousand dollars, that will dig a lot of wells and purchase a lot of drip irrigation equipment, and we want to establish some kind of system where we can send supplies on a regular basis.  We want to set up a long term project.”

Send mail to webmaster@giveaminute.org with questions or comments about this web site.