Kinnic Falls Executive Director Tiffany Zitzewitz provided an excellent overview of the mission of Kinnic Falls, Inc. She described it as a low intensity residental treatment facility for men recovering from Substance Abuse Disorder (SUD). Addiction to alchohol or drugs affects all ages and walks of life; men from 18 to 77 have received treatment at Kinnic Falls. In addition to the main facility just north of the UWRF campus, the organization operates a Sober House nearby. The main facility can house up to 52 patients, and the sober house facility has 8 beds. Residents are required to attend group and individual sessions. During free time, residents can pursue paid work, and many also volunteer their time to help other agencies. Patients currently come mainly from Minnesota, but work is underway to try improving Badger Care benefits to cover residential SUD treatment. An outpatient program for women is also in the planning stages. Click READ MORE to read about Tiffany Zitzewitz, and to read about a community event on December 2nd.
Fun Service Above Self Opportunity: Again this year, RFHS students will do exit interviews where they present a portfolio of their work, review it, and talk about future plans. The interviews will occur on Friday December 5th from 8-11 AM. There are currently 23 open volunteer spots to fill. Both signups are really simple. The link for the volunteer applcation is here: https://forms.gle/wCMEhVp3cseSJCh8A
The link for the interview is here: https://signup.com/go/jniVgWq
--MEETING CANCELLATION POLICY: the board decided to implement a policy to cancel meetings when the River Falls School District cancels school due to bad weather and poor road conditions. This resulted from the recent meeting where a speaker came from Roseville MN to speak to a small group of Rotarians because many stayed home. We can watch the news and RFSD website when weather conditions warrant, and we have made sure that we have ways to contact speakers and inform them and the Ezekiel food preparation team.
--RIVER FALLS ROTARY IS ON INSTAGRAM: Karla has established an account for our club on Instagram. The link is here; feel free to share it with (younger, we hope) friends and familiy who are on Instagram.
NOTE: in late 2024, our club contributed $500 through Rice Lake Rotary as part of District 5960 collective support of the GLP, the largest multi-district, multi-club Rotary project.
David Gehret got to tour Guatemala in February, seeing many parts of the country. Guatemala has a population of about 18 million people: 56% of Spanish descent, 41% indigenous. The country has a varied landscape, including several active volcanoes. The indigenous populations don’t see much benefit from the resources of the country.
The overall illiteracy is high – about 33%. Parents pull children out of school early because they can’t afford to keep them in. The country has seen high rates of migration to flee poverty and gangs.
David said that there are three pathways out of poverty: literacy, technology skills, and graduation from high school. The GLP’s literacy focus is in 3 parts: Spark for pre-K through 6th, access to textbooks for 7-9Th grade, then RISE scholars for 7th-12th grades. The GLP has a total enrollment of around 312,000 students at the 3 levels. Click READ MORE for the rest of the summary and to read about the speaker.
