Bert MacQeen, (r) President of the Rotary Club of Loudonville offered encouraging words about “service above self” as Clay Sloan and Mitch Weber listen at today’s (6/21) weekly meeting.
much of our support and interest locally for both the Present Hope Tour and now the Freedom Tour has come by way of local Rotary Clubs. Today Mitch, Clay and I had the privilege of sharing our common story as part of the IJM Freedom Tour next month with the membership of the Loudonville Club. Rotary Clubs do much good in a community – both Ashland and Loudonville are stellar clubs, having invested literally hundreds of thousands of dollars through scholarships and local program support over the years.
Today there was genuine interest and good questions, including one about how someone can become a stakeholder. You can too via this link .
It was useful as I prepped for the talk to have some recent headlines- just this week to help leverage our case. Most who listened to our presentation were unaware of the staggering numbers…27 million individuals currently enslaved worldwide. It was good to share the news from the US Dept of State with the release of 2012 Trafficking in Persons Report where it was revealed that some 43,000 individuals had been rescued globally from being held in slavery. The report pointed 10 heroes and one in particular was Gary Haugen, President of IJM.
IJM has brought relief to more than 11,000 children, women and men since 2005 and protected tens of thousands more, many of whom were victims of forced labor slavery or sex trafficking, the fastest growing criminal industry globally.
so, If you’ve not invested in the 500 mile Freedom Tour, would you please consider a gift now? Click here to donate online.