Crete Rotary Club
Crete, Nebraska
Notes from last week's meeting:
Janelle Snodgrass received the Paul Harris Fellow Certificate and pin for her accumulative financial donations to The Rotary Foundation. Her generous giving, along with other members of the Crete Rotary Club, is crucial to the local, national and global humanitarian projects supported by Rotary clubs around the world. Congratulations and thank you Janelle!
A related piece of good news is that our club's 2023 grant project application has been successfully completed and submitted to the district. We should have final approval in about six weeks. This year the club voted to purchase books and other educational materials for the Sixpence Program which works with the Crete Public Schools to promote early childhood education opportunities in Crete.
Please note the calendar change- The CAMC Tour date has been changed to Wednesday, June 28th at 5:30 at CAMC. They will have a light meal available at no cost. This was previously planned for June 14th but now that date will be a regular meeting at the VFW and we will spend most of the meeting time getting organized for the new Rotary year which starts July 1st. Jack Thompson has agreed to stay on as club president for the coming year and will be looking for the continued support of all club members!
Pumpkin Planting Rescheduled! Due to the rain last Thursday, pumpkin planting has been rescheduled to this Tuesday. We will start between 5 and 5:30pm at the Pumpkin Patch. Russ Sears really needs our help so please plan to attend and bring a hoe if possible. If we get plenty of helpers, it should take less than an hour!
CPS Foundation Spelling Bee fundraiser- Cody has agreed to be the 4th member of our club's team participating in the spelling competition! Now that we have one team established, let's see if we can compile a second team. It's for a great cause and should be a lot of fun! It is to be held on August 4th in the evening at Doane.
Finally- 
This week, Investigator Chris Tippery, with the Nebraska State Patrol (NSP) spoke to us about labor and sex trafficking. He’s been a part of the NSP since 2005, he was stationed on the road for 7 years, but has moved to the division that works with truckers. He is on a committee “Truckers against Trafficking” where they go in and educate truckers on what to look out for since they’re the eyes and ears of the road.
During his presentation, he shared that run-aways and LGBTQ individuals are the most at risk for sex trafficking. Some signs to look for are: talk of an older boyfriend/girlfriend, unexplained school absences, multiple cell phones controlled by others, unusual tattoos that do not appear to mean anything, reference to traveling to other cities, and sudden large amounts of cash.
Labor trafficking affects those who can have their immigration status or documents as a bartering tool are the most at risk for labor trafficking. Some signs are people who cannot leave work or come and go as they please, working long hours with no breaks, paid very little and usually for tips, or were recruited under false promises about the nature of the work.
Human trafficking affects the hospitality industry mostly, and some signs you can look out for are if the victim is usually confined to a hotel room with many people cycling in and out, don’t have many possessions, requests the room is overlooking a parking lot or not in view of the front desk, or pays for the hotel room in cash or prepaid credit card.
It was an informative and insightful program. Thank you, Chris, for sharing your knowledge and expertise with us.