Reported by Harvey Ford
President Bill Davies called the meeting to order. Sylvia Holmes led the pledge to the United States flag. Tarby Bryant gave our invocation of the day. Healy Marroy greeted members and guests as they arrived, and Carl Noble introduced guests and visitors to the crowd.
President Bill introduced our newest members Patrick McKinnon and Alyssa Patmos, sponsored by Attila Horvath. Welcome, Patrick and Alyssa! He also traded Healy Marroy a Blue Badge for her Red one. Congratulations, Healy!
Mary Reynolds announced the need for candy for the upcoming Fall Festival/Literacy Night on October 24th at Pecan Springs Elementary School and also offered several volunteer sign-up opportunities. Dr. Michael Abelson will be hosting our next wine party on October 25th with a theme of “scary named wines”. Finally, Amy Jackson announced that our Club’s Annual Ask campaign will be kicking off on November 5th, and she needs more volunteers to help that committee.
Members enjoyed time for Fellowship then Tarby Bryant introduced our speaker, Earl Ameen from PACT (Partners Against Child Trafficking).
Earl came to Austin 10 years ago via what is now Mack Brown territory, North Carolina. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of PACT (Partners Against Child Trafficking). Their mission is to unify communities to bring to an end child trafficking by raising awareness, preventing victimization and reducing demand.
Mr. Ameen’s mother was head of CPS, so he was aware of the horrors inflicted upon children and communities from an early age.
Earl shared one of the big lies of child trafficking: no one in our Rotary audience (i.e. Austin, etc.) will be affected. The “Big Truth”–every two minutes a child is sold to sex traffickers — often by their mother, dad, uncle, cousin, etc. for drug money.
These kids usually live only seven years after they’re made part of the cycle–the first two they get hooked on drugs–then shame and anger kick in leading to their early demise. There are 300,000 kids sold into sex slavery every year in the US, and Texas is the #2 state–Houston is ranked as the number one city and Austin is number four in the state. Any community can be affected—the house down your street may be part of this horror.
As citizens we can help PACT bring awareness to our communities by supporting the organization. They also train ambassadors to go to schools and universities to deliver their message to students.
Contact info for PACT—Earl@pact.city or www.pact.city
President Bill then recognized newsletter sponsors Mark Johnson (IBC Bank) and Michael Abelson (The Abelson Group). Jack Lubben then concluded the meeting with the Four Way Test.
Next week’s speaker will be Mike Heiligenstein with Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority.
More About Our Speaker:
EARL AMEEN
Partners Against Child Trafficking (PACT)
PACT is a 501c3 dedicated to protecting children from exploitation through a preventative approach. Their public health approach to child trafficking entails using the most up-to-date research to define the problem, identify risk and protective factors, understand the cost, and develop prevention strategies that engage the entire community. “Together we can turn the tide to protect the children in our community.”
PACT’s Mission is: Uniting communities to bring an end to child trafficking by raising awareness, preventing victimization, and reducing demand; and their Vision is: A world without child exploitation.
Earl Q. Ameen is a performance-driven, high-level Executive and Entrepreneur with more than 35 years of experience traveling the world providing effective and executable models and multifaceted services for private business clients within varied enterprises who desire strategies for local or global revitalization and/or financial renewal. He has served as a strategic advisor, personal and executive coach, mentor and community leader who offers a unique ability to apply critical thinking, diplomacy, detail analysis and out-of-the-box, non-linear approach to economic problem solving in various industries including energy, commodities, media, science, finance, social impact, and interpersonal relations.
Earl Ameen has served on several Boards and currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of PACT.