The Rotary Club of Cleveland cultivates a diverse community of informed professionals working collectively to create a positive impact by exchanging ideas, forming meaningful, lifelong friendships, and giving back to our community.
Dr. Saint-Vil is the founder of Haitian Vision Foundation (HVF) and established it to reach out to the disadvantaged, especially impoverished Haitians; to help them to break the poverty barriers so they can be successful. It has been one of his goals since he was a little boy to help others and eventually grew into a desire that is now being fulfilled through HVF.
Dr. Saint-Vil grew up in northern Haiti near Cap-Haitian (the second principal town of Haiti) in a small town named Dondon and is the oldest of a family of 7 children. At age 13, he moved to Cap-Haitian to continue school and then attended a trade school where he became a certified electrician. After graduation, Dr. Saint-Vil attended high School at Susan Schuenke High School in Haiti. Dr. Saint-Vil then traveled to the Dominican Republic upon completing high school to attend medical school at Universidad Tecnológica de Santiago where he graduated with the honor of magna Cum Laude. He remained and worked in the Dominican Republic for an additional year before pursuing medical training opportunities in the United States due to limited available opportunities in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Dr. Saint-Vil completed his residency and Sports Medicine fellowship at Case Western Reserve University for the MetroHealth Medical Center and University Hospitals respectively. Currently, he is serving as an attending physician for Marietta Memorial Health System.
The desire to become a doctor started at age 5 when Dr. Saint-Vil discovered that he was continually and deeply moved by human sufferings of those less fortunate. Over time, that desire grew stronger as he learned of the reality of health care throughout the world through experience. Dr. Saint-Vil’s motivation has grown stronger as he faced several obstacles on the way to success. Dr. Saint-Vil says it has been a blessing to have had help from a large number of people that God has put in his life to help him become successful. HVF helps Dr. Saint-Vil to achieve his dream through helping today’s youth and young adults by sharing his own inspiring story and providing the resources they need to end their poverty cycle. In founding HVF, Dr. Saint-Vil and others with the same vision are able to make a positive difference through working in global health and be a full friend of helping people on a global scale.
Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion subcommittee has several upcoming programs that we encourage all Rotarians to take part in. Please feel free to join in whatever fits into your schedule.
1. Participate in a Rotary International webinar on Thursday, February 25th at 6 p.m. Exploring the Black Experience in Rotary
Donate today! This is an opportunity to help our foundation stay strong so our 4 avenues of service can continue to fund all of the programs and events throughout the year. It also affords the membership to bring new and innovative idea's forward, in order to continue to make an impact in our community. You can mail a check or click on the link below to donate online! This is the only fundraising event for this rotary year, thank you for your consideration!
(Pictured right -2020 Thesmacher High School Recognition Day/New Generations Conference)
We have a great opportunity to partner with the Values in Action (VIA) Foundation and their Workplace Training Program. VIA has engaged Direct Community Impact, a division of a major recruiting firm to place students from Cleveland and the inner-ring suburbs in jobs starting at a minimum of $35,000.00 annually. The goal is 180 students at the end of training.
VIA is looking for mentors to give just 50 minutes once a month for 4 months in a virtual format. The ratio is 4 students per 1 mentor. So it is manageable and personal. The mentor simply recalls their own careers, how they "won" the interview and gives feedback and advice to the student. What a great way to impact students and help them gain real opportunities with Cleveland based companies.
So far we have provided mentors for JFK High School and Brush High School. They will be looking for additional mentors for Euclid High School. If Interested please contact the Rotary office.
Become a Citizen of Kindland
Be a citizen of Kindland and take the pledge! Share random acts of kindness on social media using #kindland
Kindland is a Cleveland-focused initiative as a part of Values-in-Action’s national Just Be Kind campaign, which aims to make kindness the overriding, embedded, and unifying national value in America. The objective is to make Cleveland and its region the kindest place in the country.
Cleveland will serve as the example for the rest of the country by focusing the collective efforts of our surrounding communities, businesses, schools and local organizations on creating and sustaining a unified sense of kindness, compassion, empathy and understanding. These values will be the guiding force behind our community coming together to find solutions to our nation’s most prominent issues including navigating through the COVID-19 crisis, social justice, racism, and political polarization.
Our Community Service Committee is doing a fabulous job providing volunteer opportunities for both those that are comfortable to go out and for those that want to volunteer right from their home. If you are doing something to help the community please send a picture and a description, we want to recognize you!!
Volunteer this coming month February 17th from 5-8pm.
Let Paul Qua know if you want to serve. (pqua@classicautocampus.com or call (216)544-7501
American Red Cross Blood Donor Day, March 25, 2021!
For every 1 donation, 3 lives can be saved! Need we say more? This is a great opportunity for the entire family, a friend, or colleague to join you and make a difference! Due to natural disasters and Covid - 19 the need has never been greater! If donating blood isn't possible, there are plenty of other volunteer opportunities available.
Our club's opportunity to qualify for matching money for local or global projects is coming soon. Last year this was the money we received to help fund Project Feed the Hungry, whereby we helped the Thea Bowman Center renovate their kitchen. This year the money we received is going towards Operation Comic Book Literacy Project.
District 6630 will receive $94,786 in District Designated Funds as part of the Annual Fund Share program. This amount is equal to 50% of District 6630's Rotary Foundation Annual Fund contributions from three years ago (2018-19). The District can allocate up to 50% ($47,393) for local projects. The other 50% can be allocated for global grants, polio plus and peace fellow programs.
If you are interested in learning more about the grant process please attend the next seminar:
