Category: News

Corps Officer Major Karen Holness and Community Engagement Director Emma Perez spoke about the work of the Salvation Army in the Lawrence area. The Salvation Army is an International evangelical movement and part of the Universal Christian Church. Its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus and meet human needs without discrimination. Both Emma and Major Karen were raised in the church. Each Salvation Army location is a local non-profit and all donations stay in the community. Services include disaster response, case work and counseling, utility assistance, food pantry, meals, thrift store, religious services and much more. The donation kettles at Christmas time are well known and the adopt a child Angel Tree is also a popular seasonal project.

Mattie Vandel and Brad Fisher spoke about their work at Kansas City based Unbound, a non-profit working to end global poverty. Mattie is Volunteer Coordinator and Brad is Directer of Church Engagement. Mattie is a 2023 Rotary Global Grant recipient and described her studies in Berlin, Pretoria, India and Bangkok. She also worked at an internship for a Tech Girl program involving international students, before joining Unbound. Brad described Unbound’s sponsorship model for fighting poverty, which involves churches and individuals sponsoring people in need, for forty-five dollars a month. Sponsors communicate with their chosen individuals by letters and enjoy a personal relationship with them. Unbound also provides scholarships, grants, a natural disaster fund, and a community development fund. Unbound spends ninety per cent of its budget on programs and has provided 113.2 million dollars in direct assistance.

K Misel, club member, and her husband Lee, have made four trips to Japan. Lee had an early grade school fascination with the country and now the couple have visited all of the big islands and most of the major cities. K presented an excellent slide show and commentary on their travels. The geography of Japan is beautiful and made up of many miles of rugged coast line, volcanic mountain peaks, rural vistas and modern city scapes. It is convenient to move around the country on a modern and efficient rail system, and yet there is plenty of walking involved in seeing the sights. Japan has an interesting history and a rich culture. They visited beautiful Shinto shrines, high mountain lakes and historic castles. The country is clean and has a friendly service culture. K spoke about Nagasaki as the historic entry port for early foreign travelers and has an impressive memorial for World War II bomb victims. Kyoto was her favorite city as it is the former imperial capital and is filled with thousands of shrines and temples. Yet another trip is planned, this time to the Japanese Alps Region.

Kaitlyn Mercer (right), Manager of Catholic Charities Lawrence Support Center, and Amy Stock, Volunteer Coordinator, spoke about the organization and their work. Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas serves people of all faiths who are in need. The organization operates in twenty-one counties and maintains seven service centers. The Lawrence center is at 1525 West Sixth Street. Services provided include rent and utility assistance, education and literacy programs, work force development, food assistance, adoption services and pregnancy support. Self sufficiency is an important goal for these programs. Catholic Charities partners with numerous service entities and served 23,900 people last year. Volunteers and donations are critical for the success of these programs.

Katie Hasty is the CEO of Prima Vista AI, a new company that provides education and consulting services to a professional audience. The rapid growth and variety of uses of AI has outpaced policy development, responsible disclosure and accountability. AI has been misused and sometimes provides erroneous information. Prima Vista AI seeks to address these problems by providing courses, workshops, policy development and continuing education. Their work addresses defining AI, ethics, AI and media, AI and mental health issues and bias in AI. The company has up- coming presentations at Lawrence Public Library.