ZOOM Meeting on September 21, 2021

 

Ghassan Dagher, the Satellite Club Chair, welcomed everyone to the Rotary Club of Miami Evening Satellite Club Meeting. 

 

Jay Almeida gave the invocation and Dave Anderson led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

Announcements:

Today’s Date.  Today is the International Day of Peace.  The attached posted is being used in Ethiopia.  The Rotary Peace Ambassador in Reggea Artist, Jalud Awol.

 

World Cleanup Day was Saturday, September 18^th.  Thousands of people across the World joined to help Clean up our Environment.  In Prague there was a Rotary Area Conference where former Rotary International President (Holger Knaack) and the current President (Mr. Mehta) attended to honor the ENDPLASTICSOUP efforts.  We also saw photos of activities from Holland, Brazil, Ethiopia, St, Maartin Island, Germany, Oregon, Ecuador, Turkey, India and Colombia.

 

ESMAG: We participated with the International Beach Cleanup at two locations in Miami, Matheson Hammock Park and Miami Beach. At Matheson Hammock we had a great turnout which included: an athletic group from St. Brendan High School, the Interact Club from Coral Gables High and the Coral Gables youth Police Athletic League. We also had visiting Rotarians from Bali (Joerg Starke), Rotarians from our Club and the Coral Gables Club, friends and family.  In Miami Beach Arlene Terrinoni and Norys Figuera coordinate the activity at that location.  They also had a good turnout, including bystanders who decided to help. 

 

Helping Stateless Refugee Children in India: The Rotary Club of Madras asked for our assistance in the fund raising campaign to help descendants of Sri Lankan refugees. Many of these children were born in India, but are considered stateless.  Due to the pandemic, classes are remote via internet, but these children do not have computers. The Sri Lankan and Indian community in the USA is willing to donate funds but need a manner to send funds to India.  Indian foreign currency regulations are very complex.  We are able to send funds to the Rotary Club of Madras in a legal manner.  So several USA based Sri Lankan, Indian citizens will send our Club money, and we will be able to assist the Refugee children in Southeast India.

 

Coral Reef Restoration Project: We are planning a coral reef project with the Coral Restoration Foundation in Key Largo.  This event is tentatively scheduled for November where we will attend a hands-on training program at the Foundation in the morning, and then proceed to Pickles Coral Reef.

 

Keynote Speaker: Ghassan Dagher introduced our keynote speaker, Dr. Thomas W. O’Donnell.  Dr. O’Donnell is a world-renowned expert on the issue of energy, including the generation of energy through oil, gas, nuclear and alternative sources.  This presentation was extremely interesting and eye opening.  He discussed the upcoming gas pipeline from Russia to Germany.  Germany needs this gas to fuel the generation of electricity.  At the time wind and solar are not an option.  We also learnt that even if wind and solar can generate our electrical needs, which at the time is unlikely, the issue is the electric grid would have to be totally transformed. 

 

Dr. O’Donnell was presented with a Certificate of Appreciation. 

 

 

Four-Way Test: To end the meeting, Dave Anderson led us in the Four-Way Test and President Noreen Timoney rang the bell to finalize the meeting.