Special thanks to Stacey Nyman for taking notes during the meeting!

Our meeting on August 12th was a packed room - no doubt our members understand the importance of the human trafficking problem and wanted to hear our guest speaker, Dave McCleary, speak about the prevalence of the issue and what we can do to help. 

We had several visitors at the meeting - Dylan Thomas is a prospective member who is married with 3 daughters and has a label manufacturing business. Cliff invited two of today's visitors, Josh Mason and Katie Webb. We also were happy to welcome our Area Governor, Butch Carter, to his first North Fulton Rotary meeting. Butch is a member of the East Cobb Rotary and is in his first year as an Area Governor. 

We raised $100 in Happy Dollars today and the funds will bolster our budget for this week's Community Hero (Nurses) Community Service Project. Some Happy Dollars of note are that Dan Jenkins will be minding his dollars and cents as he and Karen prepare for a daughter's wedding; Joseph Powell is volunteering as a football coach at Mt. Pisgah High School; Erik has a new driver in the family AND he took his son, Thomas, to UGA for his first year; Steve Siders mentioned that he and Lynne are now empty nesters with Grace back at UGA for sophomore year and Lexie starting her first year at Auburn. Our guest speaker let Richard wear his super hero cape for our Happy Dollars segment! 

Rick Clark spoke about several fundraising ideas he is working on for the club, including a wine tasting in the fall, a flower market (partnering with Alpharetta Rotary) in the spring, and perhaps a District-wide Rotary cookbook with a digital component that can be used to raise funds for global grants. Keep up the good work, Rick!

Doug Higgins spoke about a fundraiser for Polio Plus that involves football - Score for Polio Plus! Please see the article dedicated specifically on this topic for further details. 

Our Guest Speaker, Dave McCleary, founder of End Human Trafficking Now shared the organization's mission of advancing awareness, driving individual action and helping communities put an end to human trafficking and modern day slavery. Many believe human trafficking to be a third world problem, but there were more than 10,000 suspected cases of human trafficking in the United States last year. The average age for trafficked children is 12-14 years. Although this is difficult subject to discuss, Dave also shared stories of hope, where victims have been removed from the cycle of human trafficking and received transformative care. Dave encouraged us to look at what we can do, rather than what we can't. Please visit endhtnow.org for ways you can help. In addition, our club is exploring the possibility of forming a committee in this area to think of how we can help. You will find an article in this newsletter if you scroll down.