March 5, 2015 meeting notes


We had 19 members plus 2 visitors from the Deer Park club and 2 visitors brought by Benji.  Tony won the 50/50 drawing.  Bob, from Deer Park, spoke about the Kiwanis International Eliminate project to provide tetanus vaccinations to 3rd world countries.


Our next 2 projects are the Easter Egg hunt which will be on April 4 and preparing a Ronald McDonald House Easter gift basket.  Bob is organizing the hunt and displayed a sample of the signs he will have at the park.  Margie is organizing the basket and asked members to think about donating money, restaurant gift cards or items when she knows the age of the child will receive the basket.


Our speaker was Steve Allen from Family Promise of Spokane.  Family Promise is a  nationwide organization of over 180 locations and works to keep families together and to help them become sufficient by providing temporary housing, food, transportation and other assistance.   They only serve families with kids and do not accept adults with felony records or recent drug/alcohol abuse.  Homeless families are assessed by the Salvation Army and referred to Family Promise which works with 34 area churches to provide the assistance.     The program also continues to give guidance to families after they get their own homes.  Of the families served in the last 6 years, about 82% are still in homes.  Their annual budget is about $195,000 and about 70% of the money goes to programs.    They are starting an online art sale program as a fundraiser.