Our speaker on 11th January was Paula Rodriguez, District Executive, Waterloo District Capitol Area Council BSA. Paola has a social work degree from UT Austin. She works on a program to bring Scouts cost free through Scout reach program to low income families. The program provides opportunities for families that can’t participate in traditional scouting. It is an after school program that they provide at 14 different elementary schools this year, and they are working to reach 500 students this year. Paola told us story about one of female students who was not doing well or engaging with the group and how the other scouts came together to give each other and her empathy for losing her sister to gun violence. She is now excited to be in the program and has even asked to have a leadership role. The program is run on donations and run by volunteers including Rotarian Michael Files. To donate use the following instructions:
1. Go to bsacac.org
2. Click Donate at the top left corner
3. Click the amount of $ you’d like to donate
4. Under “Apply my gift to” click on the Waterloo District Campaign