Posted by Carl Yudell
27 members attended today’s meeting.
Tony Kambich gave us our thought for the day on one minute’s notice.  Tony proved again, he is good at thinking on his feet.
Guests were our speaker, Carly Pace; Darlene Kolton, Kim Moloney and Meg Georgevich.  Ron Bernardi was our visiting Rotarian.
Our birthdays this week were Bob Baker, Joe Feld and Barb Tubekis.  A rousing chorus of Happy Birthday was sung.   
Anniversaries:   Barb Tubekis, seven years.
Announcements:   
  • Marie Kuipers reminded us that the annual benefit is June 1.   Please sign up now.  Ron Bernardi will be the auctioneer.  We are looking for auction items.  There will be great Bluegrass Music by Bourbon Aristocracy , Great Barbeque,  and plenty of Beer and Wine.
  • The District Conference is Friday and Saturday May 3 and 4.  Rich Lalley is a speaker.
  • On May 9 our meeting will be at the refurbished Hadley School.  Tours will be given of this truly unique operation and gem of the North Shore for nearly 100 years.
  • The installation dinner is June 19.  There will be no meeting on June 20.
Happy Bucks:
  • Patti Van Cleave announced the Winnetka Club’s house walk on Thursday, May 16.There will be 4 spectacular homes in Winnetka and Glencoe.Tickets are at www.thewinnetkaclub.org.
  • Barb Tubekis reminded us that the Awards Banquet for Honorees of the Volunteer Center will be held on May 22.American idol finalist, Manny Torres will be performing.You can obtain tickets and more information at http://www.volunteercenterhelps.org.
  • Wes Baumann is happy that both his St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs are doing well;
  • Barb Tubekis just had a great experience with the Executive Service Corp as a way to help non-profit organizations;
  • Rich Lalley announced that the farm project in Ecuador is now fully funded;
  • Robert Mardirossian is happy knowing the Cubs will beat St. Louis 2 out of 3 this weekend;
  • Tony Kambich congratulated Rich Lalley on starting with only $15,000 for the farm project in Ecuador and raising over $170,000;
  • Fred Schwimmer was happy that his parents moved to Winnetka 82 years ago today.
Dig and Grin: Barb Tubekis entertained us with grandparent stories.
Speaker:  Carly Pace of Selah Freedom, a national organization with the mission to end sex trafficking.
Carly gave us the definition of Sex Trafficking as the use of Fraud, Force, Coercion to induce girls and boys, women and men to become part of “the life.”  Sex Trafficking is a $35 billion business in the US alone.  One child can earn a predator $250,000 to $1,000,000 per year.  It is a highly lucrative business.
The children are led into “the life” and held there by violence, threats, drugs and intimidation.  Very often the children leave an abusive situation at home and fall into an even more abusive situation in the world. 
Often times, the predators brand their charges with tattoos to emphasize the charges lack of power or ability to change their lives. 
Selah Freedom offers solutions.  It gives the children the opportunity to “reset” thru Awareness, Prevention, Outreach, Residential facilities, Healing and Restoration.