By NewsLine Staff
mail@floridanewsline.com
This fall, the Rotary Club of Mandarin actively participated in the Rotary Club’s motto, “Service Above Self” by raising funds to help Lutheran Social Services of Northeast Florida provide a fresh start for a Ukrainian refugee family as well as helping the Mandarin Food Bank distribute holiday dinners.
In October, members of Mandarin Rotary presented a $4,000 check to Lutheran Social Services of Northeast Florida to be used for temporary housing and other resettlement expenses of the family of Suleiman and Irina Bensieitov, who are refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine. The family is in the United States on parole status, which allows adult family members to work. Lutheran Social Services sponsors refugees upon arrival, and provides temporary housing and other assistance in adapting to life in the United States. The goal is that families will be self-sufficient as soon as possible.
To achieve this goal, the Lutheran Social Services Matching Grant Program has teams working closely with families to provide English classes, financial literacy workshops, job readiness training and employment referrals. Matching grants are required for each sponsored family, and donations such as the Mandarin Rotary Club’s are vital to these resettlement efforts.
Continuing to serve the community, in the week leading up to both Thanksgiving and Christmas, 20 members of the Mandarin Rotary Club assisted the Mandarin Food Bank in putting together and handing out food baskets, including more than 400 turkey dinners with all the “fixins” for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. This labor intensive effort was particularly rewarding because the food went to approximately 1,000 Mandarin residents who could not have otherwise afforded the dinners provided.
The Rotary Club of Mandarin meets for breakfast at 7:30 a.m. every Tuesday at the Ramada Inn on Hartley Road in Mandarin. Contact membership chairman Michael Sullivan at michaels@coj.org or visit the club’s website, Mandarinrotary.org, to learn more about the club and its opportunities for service and fellowship. If you would like to donate to the refugee resettlement effort, contact Director of Resettlement
Laura Cook at laura.cook@lssjax.org or Wesley Caldwell at wescaldwell403@gmail.com.
Rotary Club President Wesley Caldwell presenting a check to Lutheran Social Services Program Manager Sheema Zahir on behalf of Mr. and Mrs Bensieitov and their five children.
