President Oliver Ruiz opened the meeting by thanking all who attended The Rotary Club of Miami social at Books & Books in Coral Gables a week ago. He informed us that a generous sponsor has agreed to provide champagne for a toast at our 100th Anniversary Gala.
President Oliver recognized the following members for their membership anniversaries in The Rotary Club of Miami:
Past President Scott Richey, 13 years
Past President and Past District Governor Robin Shelley, 29 years
Past president Jay Almeida gave an invocation and hoped for the best outcome for Randy Lichtman’s hand surgery Friday. Dave Skinner led everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Visitors were introduced by Cory Gittner
Steve Lindeman of the La Crosse, Wisconsin Downtown Rotary Club was down for a week, enjoying our Miami weather.
Happy $$$$$$$$$$$
Oliver Ruiz was happy to have his good friend Luis Castellon as our guest speaker today;
Angel Rodriguez, Executive Director of the Armed Forces Service Center, was happy that 250 homeless veterans have blankets due to donations from both our club and the Rotary Club of Coral Gables;
Dave Skinner was happy to have attended last weekend’s folk festival;
Jay Almeida was happy for various events in life, including having Past President Norm Kassoff in attendance today;
Our speaker, Luis Castellon, was happy to be at the meeting;
Robin Shelley announced that the Rotary Clubs of Coral Springs/Parkland and Miami have partnered together in the project “Hands Across the Water;”
President-elect Phil Seipp was happy for getting to know more about Thomas Brown McClelland’s life and thanked Oliver for last week’s social event at Books & Books;
Past President Diane Landsberg was happy to be expecting a 13th grandchild, a boy who will be named after her late husband;
Rick Hernandez is happy for FSU's prospects next year.
Announcements
President Oliver reported that Florida International University’s newsletter was very complimentary to the Rotary Club of Miami in an article about the medical scholarship awards from the Thomas Brown McClelland Trust;
Our speaker on Feb 9th will be Christina Boomer Vasquez of the Perez Art Museum Miami;
Phil Seipp and Diane Landsberg will speak on February 16th about this year’s medical student scholarship interviews;
This month our social event will be a happy hour at Sabadell Bank on the evening of Feb. 23rd, courtesy of Juan Torres;
Rick Hernandez announced our next Community Service Project will be held at Homestead Food Pantry on Feb. 18th beginning at 8:30 AM to help feed over 500 people. Details will be provided in an email.
Speaker
Today’s speaker was LuisCastellon of Related Group;
Mr. Castellon is an architect and vice president of development working in the affordable housing sector. He proudly reported how Related Group, a real estate development company which has transformed the skyline of the City of Miami, was started by Jorge Perez with affordable housing developments.
Mr. Castellon presented to us information about the proposed complete renovation of Liberty Square. Related Group was chosen as master developer of the Liberty Square renovation.
Liberty Square currently has no surrounding services, no grocery stores, and no Internet service. The new master plan provides residents the ability to progress from public housing to hopefully, home ownership, with various levels in between. There is a partnership with our local colleges and universities to provide residents with literacy training and to enable them to get degrees. There will be a lot of open green space with sight lines throughout for safety. There will be 24 hour security cameras and proper lighting. It will contain affordable housing, workforce housing and homes for ownership. Liberty Square will have a community center, free WiFi to all residents, an indoor basketball gym, an Olympic-sized pool, mental health services and a grocery store and other retail stores.
40% of construction jobs will be filled from local zip codes. There will be job training to train people in the building trades. 20% of the retail employees will be local.
Randy Lichtman closed the meeting by leading everyone in the Four-Way Test.
