Spindrift November 17, 2022
MEETING
President Ken asked Gail Demmer to provide the invocation, which included prayers for Marj Collins and a request for our newly elected officials to be led under God’s direction. The Pledge was led by Bob Kinton.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Ed Romeo
Ed Romeo reported with enthusiasm on the availability of the OASIS magazine and highlighted the request for T-shirts, either yours or a donation of $25 for three of them. He also noted the availability of a display at the OC Fair Grounds of a WWII display of photos taken by Stan, an official photographer of the U.S. military.
President Ken announced some “jokes”, one of which was, “The main reason Santa is so Jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.” Another was, “I went to a book store and asked the sales woman, ‘Where’s the self-help section?’ ‘If I told you, it would defeat the purpose.’”
Cynthia Strasmann
Cynthia announced the Christmas Party will be at their home on Saturday, 17 December, 6 pm with the “price point” at no more than $50/ person. There is a sign-up sheet.
Richard Swinney
Richard Swinney announced that a sign-up sheet for donation for the Priority Center “Families
Helping Families” was also being circulated. Your sign-ups will later be sent as invoices by our Treasurer. Richard also announced a Prayer Breakfast for next Thursday 7-9 at the Irvine Marriott on Von Karman. Call him if you want to go at $55 to hear Brigadier General Michael Aguilar, USMC Retired.
Football Commissioner Mike Gertner announced that Gail Demmer beat Roger Summers for the low prize, and Roy Shlemon won second place, with Fran Murphy getting first place with
17 right out of 20!
PROGRAM
Mike Gertner
Our member Patricia Wenskunas, founder and CEO of Crime Survivors, presented the program. The mission of Crime Survivors is to provide hope and healing to victims of crime through advocacy ... and the support of resources, information, empowerment from the critical time after a crime occurs through the challenges and successes of
surviving and thriving.
Patricia Wenskunas
They have four themes: leaders and influencers must have awareness of victims’ needs; prevention through law enforcement, or sharing an unmatched level of knowledge, care, experience; advocacy by translating the needs of crime victims into real action and results; and healing to provide every survivor with a clear path to hope and strength.
Specifically, sometimes they need beds or a refrigerator; sometimes just need food. The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts have been very helpful in identifying victims.
They have a small hired staff, but have no Government funding, and also have over 100 volunteers. 95% of the funds received goes into directly helping. Patricia noted that she donated $30,000 of her own salary back to help.
Q and A: How do you find the victims? Law enforcement is the primary source. Are the volunteers court advocates? Yes, they are partners. Where is your warehouse? We are running out of space; our “dream center” will have places to be normal. Do you offer scholarships? Our primary focus is human trafficking, but if someone wants to go to school, we might give them anything from a laptop to a refrigerator. How many people do you deal with? 2500/year or max of 50/day. Did you ever decline assistance? Once we had a volunteer stealing toys, and once someone at the rear of a line for free turkeys wanted to go to the front. Do they come from all over? Yes. What percent of your victims are male? It was 10% a few years ago; now it’s up to 25%.
Thank you, Patricia for bringing us up to date on your excellent program---Editor
Lucky door prize winners were Mike Call and Marj Collins.
MANAGEMENT REMINDERS
For sponsors, inviting someone to join— Get a blank application from Secretary Richard or Treasurer Bob or the website. Ask the prospective member to fill it out completely, with two phone numbers and the address used to receive invoices. Day and year of birthday. Sign it, and then ensure that Richard, Bob and the Membership Chair Roger Summers get copies. The sponsor will be told how much is owed to join. The Board will decide on a preliminary basis to invite the person to join. A background check of publicly available records will be made. The name will be announced as a probable member in the Spindrift with a week to report any concerns to Richard. Any concerns will be reviewed by the Board. Payment will be given to Treasurer Wood, who will provide the data to National, who will send us a membership certificate which will be presented to the member during a ceremony.
UPCOMING EVENTS
DATE/SPEAKER/SUBJECT
Nov 17 - Business Meeting(members only)
Pres. Ken DuFour
Nov 24 - Happy Thanksgiving!
Dec 1 - Kate Malouf—Teen Project
This week’s meeting will be held at the Bahia Corinthian. Lunch will be served at 12:20 p.m. You will be emailed an invitation two days before the meeting. Please notify Richard Swinney by this Wednesday at 2 pm if you are planning on attending.
