At our lunch meeting on May 22 at Bodhi-Hive we had a terrific update from Sienna Crawford, Development Director at Bright Futures for Youth. Sienna emphasized BFFY’s mission “To ignite the potential of youth today for vibrant communities tomorrow.” Sienna described how BFFY is serving youth and young adults 11-30 years old through four programs: the Friendship Club, NEO Youth center, SAFE (Stability, Access, Foundation, Empowerment) program for youth experiencing housing instability, and the Friday Night Live partnership with Nevada County.
Sienna shared that in Nevada County, 1 in 5 household incomes are under the federal poverty level, 1 in 7 youth deal with food insecurity, 1 in 20 youth are experiencing homelessness, and the closest youth shelter is in Sacramento. To address these realities, BFFY also feeds our youth 2,000 meals a month and expects to serve 20,000 meals this year. BFFY is now touching 1 in 12 kids in Nevada County. Our Club is proud to have been supporting BFFY building out NEO facilities from their pergola to the Rotary Cafe over the last few years.
Club members join NEO Youth under the new pergola we built in August 2023.
We were also delighted to have Lynn Skrukrud with us to acknowledge her role as Co-Founder and Co-Director of NEO for 13 years and to celebrate her as the new Executive Director of Nevada City Chamber!
May is Youth Services Month for Rotary International. Rotary Clubs all over the globe sponsor Interact Clubs. Interact Clubs bring together teens ages 12-18 to develop leadership skills, serve their community and make friends all over the world. Our Nevada City Rotary Club sponsors the Interact Club at the Sierra Academy of Expeditionary Learning (SAEL). Last week our team reported on the Harmonious Wolf Trail Run that our Interact Club hosted and raised over $500 they are donating to Sammie’s Friends. Earlier in the year we were pleased when President Yussef and Secretary Lillith came to our social meeting to tell us about their plans. For more information about Interact check Interact Clubs.
With our special partnership with SAEL, several of us have participated in their Elders’ Project which pairs a group of high school seniors with elders in the community. After 8 weeks of on-camera interviews, the students make a short documentary film about their elder and write pieces in a variety of genre about the elder’s life. If you think you might like to be an elder, please ask me, Cathy, Robin or Walt. It is a wonderful experience. To learn more about SAEL, visit Sierra Academy of Expeditionary Learning. Lastly, I want to give a great big shout of gratitude to SAEL because last year, when our Upscale Resale was rained out, the whole school jumped into action to help us move indoors to their multi-Purpose room. Thank you to our friends and best wishes to the SAEL Class of 2025!
This week, we’ll be dark for the fifth Thursday on May 29. Then, we’ll be back at Round Table Pizza at 5:30 on June 5 where we will hear from Jan Maes from Sierra Energy Reimagined. Please join us for any and all events.
Recycle & Repurpose Rechargeable Lithium Ion Batteries
Coming June 14! Clean out your drawers and tool sheds. Our 4th annual Three “R” event to collect, recycle and repurpose rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and devices is rapidly approaching on Saturday, June 14. In partnership with Redwood Materials, we are hosting the collection from 10am-2pmat Dave’s Auto, 747 Zion St across from SPD in Nevada City.
The public can drop off Lithium-ion rechargeable devices and batteries for recycling by Redwood Materials. Materials and minerals from recycled batteries are used to make new rechargeable batteries. We will collect cellphones, tablets, laptops, electric toothbrushes, e-shavers, vapes, wireless headphones, Bluetooth speakers, power tool batteries, video game controllers, etc.
This is not an electronic e-waste event. Please only bring rechargeable devices and batteries identified on the flyer,
Click image for a printable flyer of what we accept.
Board Meetings are held on the second Monday of the month. Our June 9 meeting is at 5:30pm to better accommodate schedules among our new board. It will be via Zoom with President Louise.
Not a Board member but want to join us? Contact Robin or reply to this Rotario for instructions. All club members are encouraged to attend a meeting. Location subject to change, please ask.
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