Breaking Barriers for Kids and Families

President Dave Stechholz opened the meeting, and Bob Carris provided the Invocation.

President Dave shared that January is Vocational Service Month in Rotary, emphasizing the importance of the business and professional life of each Rotarian. Our club was blessed with the presence of three guests: Drew Buatti (Livonia New Club), Diane Sviontek (LAMR-Volunteer Corp) and Veronica Cruz (Alpha USA/ Breaking Barriers for Kids and Families). Welcome!

Today’s scheduled speaker, Father George Shaloub was ill and will be rescheduled. We were fortunate to have Veronica Cruz from Alpha USA as today’s speaker.

Erin Dobbins reported that our club’s challenge for the 2027-28 6400 District Governor Candidate was successful and so both candidates, Scott Collier and Therese Maggioncalda, will be on the ballot and club members will be able to vote on the candidates in the near future.

Upcoming reminder was to sign up to volunteer at Forgotten Harvest on Saturday, February 8th from 1:00 – 4:00 PM.

Mention was made of the exciting events that are scheduled for the upcoming 6400 District Conference in Windsor; May 30th - June 1st and to sign up for the convention and a hotel room.

Today’s speaker, Veronica Cruz, Executive of Community Involvement and Government Affairs at Alpha USA, spoke about the organization, Breaking Barriers for Kids and Families that used to be called Livonia Kids and Families.

The organization provides a year round food pantry that started at Emerson and then moved to Franklin HS. Students with disabilities work in the pantry to achieve job training skills. The pantry serves 500 families, reaches 16 schools, and impacts 2,500 low income families. Veronica was also connected to Livonia AM’s Rotary Club successful fundraising project that resulted in the installation of a walk-in cooler at Clarenceville HS; completed in 2024. Another program, STEAM, is an educational program that focuses on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math. And finally, the Greenhouse program at Garfield School is a fully operating greenhouse that involves planting, nurturing, and harvesting crops and feeding them into the food pantry. Veronica outlined a few 2025 initiatives for the organization: creating a market-style food pantry at Garfield, working on obtaining a refrigerated truck, building an all-inclusive playground/park for students with disabilities, launching the fundraiser, Tour de Kids, age 3-9, that will take place on June 14, 2025, and continuing the Tour de Livonia fundraiser that provides a 6-7 mile family ride and an individual ride of 20 miles. Veronica shared that the organization does not receive any government support and that donations can be given in cash, pay pal or Venmo, or by volunteering on the Board or through fundraising activities.

Victoria Haltom