Ken Harris presided over the meeting in the absence of President Worth, who is out of town this week.
     Rick Jackson provided a news update, highlighting the primary elections and news that our neighboring state became the last state in the nation to officially acknowledge the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.
     Theresa Evans introduced five guests and eight visiting Rotarians. She announced that she had the privilege of attending the Rotary District Conference this past weekend in Greenville, S.C. with President Worth and President-Elect Don Steger.
     In honor of "Ugly Tie Day," suggested last week by Martin Waters, Ken called on Danny Fontana to orchestrate the selection of the Ugly Tie winner. Nominees displayed their entries and the membership voted by applause to name Pete Larson the winner. As Danny described it, the winner "mugged a hippie and saved the tie," a notable orange fashion statement.
     Rusty Brink provided the Health and Happiness Report, with the good news that there is no unhappy health news this week. As a tribute to the primary elections, he offered some humorous quotes and parodies from Dan Quayle and George W. Bush and cited several notable differences between Democrats and Republicans.
     After the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, Don Steger offered an invocation. Ken Harris announced that the Board of Directors had a brief meeting scheduled after the membership meeting today and that the Program Committee will meet following next Tuesday's meeting. Members seated at the Head Table were introduced as follows: Fred Lowrance, Bill Underwood, Ray Killian, Dick Klingman, Don Steger, and William Rikard.
     William Rikard introduced Judy Mooney as the architect of Success By 6, one of the most successful initiatives to meet children's needs in our community. Judy moved to Charlotte in 1990 from Louisiana where she had been the CEO of the YMCA. She was hired by the late Harry Brace of our club to be the Director of the Johnston YMCA, an old YMCA facility in a dying neighborhood. After helping design the Success By 6 program, a significant community collaboration to save the families and neighborhoods surrounding the Johnston YMCA, Judy became Director of Community Development for the YMCA of Greater Charlotte, responsible for public policy and development.
     Judy Mooney began her presentation by describing the situation she found at the Johnston YMCA a decade ago — an aged, under-utilized facility in a decaying neighborhood with families and children in crisis. The YMCA had decided to either sell the facility or radically change the services and programs offered there. Children were 2-3 years behind their peers in school, families couldn't access services, transportation was a huge issue, and we were literally losing a generation of children to the ravages of poverty, substance abuse and crime.
     Claiming that the YMCA is about building strong kids, strong families, and strong communities, she declared that "you can't take kids out of the family and you can't take families out of the community." In order to identify the issues to be addressed and break the cycle of poverty, it was essential to form a community collaboration of agencies and organizations willing to leave their "turfism" at the door and work together to save the children and neighborhoods surrounding the Johnston YMCA. She described Success By 6 as a "WE" project and reiterated that the YMCA was only one of many partners committed to connecting and integrating resources in an innovative approach to change the way they worked together. The joint vision of those involved with Success By 6 was to save the children and prepare them to enter school ready to learn by focusing on children holistically and acknowledge that saving the decaying neighborhoods was everyone's business. She cited several Rotary club members and organizations which were leaders in the effort to bring community resources into the neighborhoods to provide a continuum of services.
     Judy provided hand-outs which delineate the issues identified in 1990 as critical to the neighborhood and families and the results achieved in the areas of health, early childhood development, family support, leadership development, employment, and access to services. She made special note of the partners in Success By 6, including Communities in Schools, Habitat for Humanity, Central Piedmont Community College, Thompson Children's Home, the Health Department, the Police Department, and the Urban League. (Editorial license allows this meeting reporter to cite the significant financial and volunteer support provided by the Junior League of Charlotte.)
     HOPE is what the Johnston YMCA has brought to the families and neighborhoods of North Charlotte over the last decade. The gains and successes during the last decade have been dramatic, but the continued success depends on "staying" power over 20-25 years until the children impacted become adults and leaders and the neighborhoods have "turned around." The challenge now is to "stay the course" in acknowledgment that it takes at least 24 months to make a difference in stabilizing families.
     Judy fielded several questions and clarified that the criteria for family stability include resolving issues of housing, health, employment, access to resources and basic needs. The focus of Success By 6 is eight contiguous neighborhoods and the caseload is 95-100 families. Other YMCA initiatives in community development include replicating the program in other areas, beginning with the McCrorey YMCA, and developing programs and facilities along the Beatties Ford Road and West Boulevard corridors.
     After presenting Judy Mooney with a Rotary token of appreciation, Ken Harris adjourned the meeting at 1:30 p.m.

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