Following our long-standing tradition, we honor Our Lady Of Guadalupe 8th Grade Students of the Year. Thank you to Principal April and Teacher Jack for continuing this inspiring program.
Kie Holbrook
Kie is a multi talented young woman whose love of art, including crochet, is seen throughout her 8th grade work. Surprisingly she picked Wisconsin as a school project, although she has never been, because it has a reptile rehabilitation farm that fascinates her. Her outside interests range from musical theater to flag football and plans to take an archery class this summer. Headed to Davinci for high school, she hopes to become a lawyer later in life.
Bianca Ordonez
Bianca ia also a multi-talented young lady who currently has a fierce passion for soccer, playing the key role of center-midfielder for her club team. In school she really likes social studies and hopes to become either a doctor or lawyer. She relishes the community service part of the OLG curriculum. Both Bianca and Kie both would give the same advice to younger students: "don't procrastinate"!
Presented by Dean Nota at their 8th grade promotion ceremony, Claudia Sarnoff and Branton Fasola were honored in front of their peers as best epitomizing Rotary's Four Way Test in the way they treat others. Look for Student of the Month street banners later this month on upper Pier Avenue.
K9 Arco Vest Fund
Hermosa Rotary is sponsoring a fundraiser to purchase an armored vest for HBPD's new K9 Arco. (It's not too late to contribute!)
On June 16 we sponsored a demonstration of Arco's skills at Clark Stadium, which resulted in great publicity. Special shout-outs to Kevin Cody and the Easy Reader staff for terrific AD placement (ER issue 7.9.26) and The Daily Breeze’s subsequent “live coverage” of the event and TBR Article by Michael Hixon. (photos below from that coverage).
Officer Torres has identified a suspect and readies Arco to do his work.
Arco is trained to target the suspect's arm for a take down so officers can safely approach.
Officer Torres explains the K9 program to those who came for the demonstration.
(l-r) HERO team members Matthew & Joshua, Officer Kevin, Captain Eric and HBPD Rotarian Joanne
HERO Program helps hermosa homeless
At our June 2 meeting we were pleased to hear from HBPD Captain Eric Taylor and Officer Kevin Jones about how they approach homeless individuals in Hermosa Beach. Hermosa, along with other South Bay Cities, have joined what is known as HERO (Housing, Empowerment, Recovery and Outreach) Community Services. HERO's stated mission is to deliver person-centered, field-based outreach, case management and housing retention services designed to help individuals and families experiencing or exiting homelessness achieve long-term housing stability and wellbeing.
HERO Team members working in Hermosa are Josh and Matthew, and they described how they customize their approach to each individual to gain trust and, over time, bring them to the services they need to get shelter and other care. HBPD is in a supporting role to offer protection when needed.
Hermosa Rotary continues to provide scholarships to HS students in Kenya.
Naperville, IL. Rotarian Brett Weiss returned to our club to provide an in-person update on the 8 students we sponsor in south-west Kenya and to secure our commitment to continue our support. These scholarships are provided to students, an equal number of girls and boys, who otherwise could not afford high school, which in Kenya are boarding schools. Supported locally by our friends at Suna-Migori Rotary, and specifically Jamima, Brett's organization has local paid staff to provide "whole life" support to scholarship students.
We received a special update on two students Penina and Jeff, including hand written thank you notes. Separately we received a video thank you from Emmaculate.
Brett has recently rebranded his organization to "AscendKenya" to provide a long term vision for this amazing program. Their motto is "Climbing Higher Through Education". Ascend Kenya is now supporting 351 students. To find out more: https://www.ascendkenya.org/
Jeff Starlon Achia
Penina Gloria Lumumba
Climbing Higher Through Education
Shakespeare By The Sea
Valley Park July 8 & 9 at 7pm.
Happily Supported by Hermosa Beach Rotary.
Hermosa Beach Farmers Market Sponsored By Hermosa Beach Rotary
Don't Forget to Buy Local and Support Our Farmers Market.
Our club's good charitable works benefit from the proceeds.
Interested in talking to us? We are always looking for people who have an interesting story to tell or have a service opportunity for us to consider. Contact us at info.hermosabeachrotary.org or (310) 461-4350
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