The Zoom meeting started at 12:10 pm. Meeting moderator Chris Serface reminded everyone how the meeting would work and then Past President Mike Dunbar welcomed everyone. Dean Carrell from the Pierce County Library Foundation provided an inspiring invocation followed by Jan Brazzell singing a beautiful rendition of America the Beautiful and sharing the 4-Way Test.
Past President Mike Dunbar introduced President Elect Kathryn Nelson as our meeting sponsor. Kathryn asked Rotarians to consider volunteering to become a child advocate for the Pierce County Court System.
85 years of accumulated anniversaries were celebrated including 1 year for Jeremy Simler, 4 years for Melissa Malott, 11 years for John McMasters and Charley Rance, 13 years for Bryan Flint and 45 years for Gordon Pickering. Congratulations to all of you!
Carol Webster introduced fellow Rotarian and our guest speaker Lisa Mansfield. Lisa is a parent attorney and helps parents in Dependency proceedings reunify with their children. She has been involved in Baby Court since its inception in 2016.
Lisa, along with co-worker Sally Mednansky (who has been a juvenile court employee for 29 years) and Julie Hoffman who works for Amara presented about Baby Court. Sally had technical difficulties with her sound so Julie covered her slides. Baby Court helps reunify parents with their children. From 0-3 years old, babies cannot handle trauma and being in traumatic conditions can affect how their brains develop the rest of their lives. Dependency cases can last 17-24 months. The court hears 10 cases per morning. In 2019, 220 cases were heard in Pierce County.
Judge John Hickman started Baby Court. The goal is to work upstream instead of dealing with the impacts of trauma downstream when the baby grows up. It is a strength based approach that uses relationship building as a core competency. Since 2016, the court has reunified 49 children. Baby Court has been so successful that it has won numerous awards and is seeking to expand statewide and nationally. The program is innovative and life-changing for the families it serves and the babies that can grow up in healthy nurturing homes as a result of the work done by the court system.
Following the presentation, a short video with Stacey Ogle and Christina Turner was shared about the COVID-19 fundraiser to contribute $110,000 to the Pierce County Connected Fund. This was followed by two true confessions. Chris Serface thanked Timberland Bank and Carol Duris for their help securing a PPP loan for the Tacoma Little Theater. Jeff Lovely spent the winter in Arizona including a month with the Hosea’s.
A virtual fireside will be held on May 5 hosted on various online platforms. Contact Maria Harlow to attend.
Next week’s meeting will feature May birthdays and our members will share the great work that their committees have done.
We zoomed off the call after being encouraged to be “People of Action.”