President Monika Reyes called the April 15 Zoom meeting to order at 7:05 pm.  There were 29 participants online.

 

President Monika welcomed Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Historic Folsom and the Rotary Club of Folsom Lake.  She announced April anniversaries and birthdays, including Past District Governor Ray Ward's birthday on April 14.

 

President Monika thanked the Rotarians who worked on the Powerhouse Ministries shed.  She announced that the Rotary Clubs of Historic Folsom and Folsom Lake were doing a landscaping project at the Murer House on Friday, April 16 and that our members were welcome to volunteer their time on the project.

 

Since nobody contacted Steve Sprague with fines, he gave us his view on today's headlines.

 

The April 29 meeting will be the awarding of Teacher Grants.

 

Our special guests of the evening were introduced by Kate Gonzales, Club International Director.  In addition to Rotarians from the other two Folsom Clubs, our guests included Pedro Tucunduva of the Rotary Club of Guaruja Vicente de Carvalho, Brazil, Cassandra Costa from the dance school in Brazil, and Wesley Bradshaw from the Arthur Murray School of Dance in Folsom.

 

Wesley, who is from Brazil, told us about a dance school that he attended while growing up in Brazil.  He was from a poor family and this school taught him dance and acting.  He went on to college and is now a dance instructor at Arthur Murray here in Folsom.  He talked to Kate about a dance school in Brazil that was ransacked a few months ago and all their equipment was stolen.  The school teaches students from poor families as he was and he asked Kate if she knew of some way to help them get new equipment,  The project was formed between the three clubs in Folsom and the club in Brazil to replace the equipment that had been stolen.  Each club in Folsom contributed $500 to the project and Kate made a personal donation as well.  The funds were sent to the club in Brazil and they purchased computers, printers, amplifiers, a projector, and security equipment for the school. 

 

Cassandra told us about the school and Wesley translated.  They have been teaching online but that ended when their equipment was stolen.  What we provided will get them back online and they will hopefully soon be teaching in person.  They will be able to take 200 children between the ages of 8 to 18 and 100 children between the ages of 3 and 7 after the pandemic.    Cassandra shared a video that showed the classroom and some of the students.  She thanked the Rotary Clubs for providing the funds to their equipment.    

 

The meeting was recorded and is available on the Facebook Folsom Rotary Club Group site.  Below are two photos that I captured from the video that Cassandra shared.