Speaker: Gary Mathews
This week, Gary Mathews of The Brookwood Community near Houston, Texas, tells us about the variety of programs that they provide to adults with a variety of challenges. In addition to giving these adults dignity and the opportunity to live among friends, Brookwood involves the larger community in ways that bring forth the humanity of those our society would regard as "normal."
You are invited to learn how a dream for a few special children to have fulfilling lives became a community success for many, many families through this story.
This week comments: 109, this week visitors: 80
Good article to read and learn about all that is being accomplished.
Wow what an amazing community for people with special needs, we are very lucky to have such kind hearts in the world!
Another great program. As a minister, I was glad to see the spiritual component, particularly the stewardship emphasis. Keep up the good work!
I believe that every human being is perfect in the mind of our Creator. What appears to be defect or deficiency is a result of the attitudes of us "normal" people, as suggested in the opening paragraph of this story. Hats off to those parents and friends who refused to accept the conventional "wisdom" and have made an incredible contribution to society.
What a wonderful program. I agree with Rushton that I hope everyone who attends this program will feel compelled to reach out to those less fortunate.
Thank you Gary for sharing.
It is wonderful to learn that places like Brookwood are thriving and providing much needed direction for those that are challenged.
I am well aware of this marvelous center/campus as I lived in Katy, TX which is not far from Brookshire - they do great work in such a dignified manner.
I am about to try to teach entrepreneurship skills to autistic adults, so I understand the need for programs like this.
Thank you for the information on the Brookwood Community
Brookwood is an interesting community that clearly provides dignity with service.
Is it possible to be a member of an eClub and a regular club at the same time?
Brookwood shows that individuals with an idea, that act, can make a difference in this world.
In this high tech world with the rapdily evolving innovations via the internet etc, the e-clubs will grow from strength to strength. We will experience new paradigms in fellowship and project participation.
What a great Community--God centered and caring for and bringing out the purpose of each one! Sounds like the commandments Jesus mentioned upon which all others are based. Could this not be a model for neighborhoods everyhere--expressing Christ in the coorporate mode? Is this not what He preached, kingdom more than church?
Several items in this presentation really struck me. I loved the idea of an empty chair for God. And I was impressed by the way this program has spread to other areas. It would be my hope that this would continue. I was also impressed by the fact that no government funds were used for this program.
Glad to know of the facilities so close to our hometown and the very beneficial program.
The facilities in Houston, Texas are great alternative for adults with variety of challenges.
Enjoyed the humor!
I think that all partners must discuss how it works with the E-Clubs Rotarians from other clubs and countries, as many do not share the pleasure of serving not have time to attend a meeting at a time and place fixed.
I believe that each district must have an E-Club, because at the district level would be easier to get to hold meetings on land because it would lower the distance, but with the advantages of E-Club.
Interesting program. Thank you.
Thank you for the information about this wonderful program.
The Brookwood program is wonderful. Our club, Pleasanton North sponsors the "Keystone Ball" which is a "Senior Ball" we put on each year for the Keystone Learning Center's residents and the ball is also open to other special needs adults and has grown over the years. We are also instrumental in helping fund the "School of Imagination" being built for Autistic Children and will be opening next year. Thanks for the program! Jerry Pentin
I am familiar with Brookwood thanks to a former client of mine. Excellent program showing how it works.
Another great program of the good that emanates from within us all. The Brookwood program reminds us of the capabilities we all have in being positive contributors to our society and to each other regardless of our mental or physical disabilities.
This reminds me of the saying: A society is judged by how it treats its most vulnerable citizens.
¡Congratulations! I am very interested in knowing where the facilities that you helped in Monterrey, Mexico are and having more information about this program.
Thank you in advance.
What a wonderful and inspirational program!
Ah yes, Larry's comments about Rotarians not understanding about eClubs after all these years of our existence. I think every one of our presidents felt the same way. About mid way of our charter year, I finally decided to just focus on the Rotarians who support us, understand the concept & the vision of where Rotary needs to be in order to keep up with this changing world. I learned that those who are 'part of us' by supporting this pilot will gently allow the others to follow along. Role modeling is very powerful and this eClub's leaders have done this well. We are a talented, diverse group of people who care and who make a difference. I am so happy to be in this group which has the expertise and vision.
Judy Taunt, Charter President 2004~05
The meeting is very helpful in allowing Rotarians to matain their attendance requirements when they are not able to attend a regular meeting. The Brookwook Comminuty west of Houston, TX is an outstanding model of what people can accomplish when they don't accept the "norm". By designing and building this community, adults with handicaps can live and function as independantly as possible.
The Brookwood Community appears to be a project worthy of Rotarians support. That iswhy icontributed.
Mendell Schelin
Amarillo Rotary East
I attended the "A Pinch of Salt" program. It was totally wonderful. I loved it. What a difference a windmill is going to make in the lives of those families in India.
I am hoping that the eclubs continue. the qua;ity of meeting is great. I wonder if there is an opportunity where visiting Rotarins could participate in any of the Skype sessions?
This meeting was a delightful way for me to make up missing my regular weekly meeting held here in Juneau. We currently have 3 Rotary clubs in Juneau - my club (Juneau Gastineau) is known as the breakfast club due to meeting early every Thursday morning.
Please don't let anyone discourage using an eclub for Rotary. I thoroughly enjoyed this meeting from beginning to end and will return for more in the future. I will also be promoting this particular eclub to my fellow Rotarians.
Greetings from Robin in Juneau
Was unable to download the program. Will try again later
Great meeting, loved the humor, too.
Brookwood is doing excellent work and their story is very moving. Thanks to everyone that helps to make this facility such a success!
Enjoyed the meeting--useful information.
The Brookwood Community is obviously a great resource for those less-abled than most Rotarians. I only wish that this concept (and the funding that enables it to exist) could be replicated in each and every Rotary district throughout the world... And, (although I may be just one accident removed from such limitations,) I count my blessings that I do not need the services of the Brookwood Community!
4-15-2010The Brookwood Community story is really inspirational. Serving an adult population with special needs since 1985 around the clock is a wonderful accomplishment. It’s even more impressive that the 165 adults in the program are not only involved in life skills, spiritual development, and educational pursuits, but also participate in vocational programs that include real businesses like the retail store and café which realize about $4 million annually and cover one-third of the entire operating budget. What a wonderful success story! Brookwood is a great example to helping folks realize their highest potential!Thank you!Brooks C. Sackett
This was the most delightful eClub visit I have ever experienced. I love this eClub.
The program about the Brookwood community was most interesting. Giving those with disabilities a chance to learn to live more productively is a worthwhile endeavor. It was of interest to note that teachers use various methods to teach these students, finding appropriate teaching/learning methods. It was not clear if the students move on to other facilities or stay for years at Brookwood.
I certainly feel that programs like this are needed all over this country. My son is mentally retarded and worked at Krogers, lives with one roommate but has a case worker come in one day a week to help him with groceries, banking, writing checks for his living expenses and entertainment. He is under the state's program of help (but it is never enough therefore we assist each month).
I wish to congratulate these dedicated people just down the road from where we live. Houston has many programs for the disabled but this sounds like one of the best.
I really enjoy the e club.. I love to read, so therefore, I can take my time and don't miss anything. Thank you!
I liked the program. I like meeting with my fellow Rotarians and I like the programs we have. This program was very good, I like the approach Brookwood takes in finding methods of teaching their citizens that work. Thank you for this program. Ted Nelson
This community proves the importance of creating an environment for adults with special needs. I applaud the founding parents for creating this exceptional environment.
I was impressed with the program on The Brookwood Community and their God-centered way of life for adults with special needs. I admire people that make a difference in others lives.
Enjoyed the meeting and the program
The program was very imformative. I've know about the Brookwood home for years. This program helped me remenber & appreciate such a great facility.
This was the best e-make-up I have done. I loved it.
Good Forest Gump joke--club meetings are always more fun with laughter.
Very informative
This week's program was great... and Larry, I got a lot of that story about eclubs not being real rotary, not providing real fellowship and not participating in rotary programs when I said I was applying to join one - in fact someone mentioned that I culd not charter one as RI had decided the experiment was a failure... its good to know that was only in their nightmares. I have a lot of past rotaractors who are unable to join a traditional rotary club due to time and money committments out here in kenya who are just dying to find out how my experience goes so they can sign up - guess that makes for an eclub community in Nairobi... let's wait and see
I love the Forrest Gump piece
Thank youfor allowing me to participate. As an Army Reservist it sometimes is difficult to attend meetings at home.
Great program! There is a place for E-Clubs. Those of us who work during the day and have a hard time making up, are thankful to you. Keep up the great work.
Not sure I understand the fellowship part yet, but I am a supporter of social netwroking, and that is all on-line. So I am certainly open to learning this new process as well.
I could not download the program this week,its the computor that i am borrowing.
Regarding the Rotary Fellowships i think they are wonderful part of Rotary,,a great way to increase membership in our wonderful organis ation.
I personally have been member of IFCR,(International Fellowship Cricketing Rotarians )since 1993 RI Convention
Melbourne when this Fellowship became official, also have taken part in the Golfing Fellowship,with the cricket fellowship I have toured eight countries around the world,so all I can say is that Rotarians are missing out not being involved,England alone I have visited 26 Rotary Clubs
all different its great learning.
Its always great to hear about this type of program that works to fit the needs of the community. Its a great example of the power of the individual and group to solve today's community issues. In this economic environment, its important to support these programs with time or money.
Great program! My sister is a special ed. coord. for the City Of Charlotte NC; my niece is autistic and I support Opportunity Village in Las Vegas NV a similar facility --their main employment/business is in the document shredding/destruction. One of the best in the LV Valley!!
The Brookwood Community near Houston, Texas provides a wonderful environment for adults with "special needs." The participants can live and work in dignity with their friends, and they are able to carry on more meaningful lives full of happiness and tranquility. Great program!
E Clubs are an outstanding way to know Rotary even better. When in Colorado I make up online as it is a 110 mi round trip to Gunnison. The programs through E clubs are simply outstanding. We in local clubs have great programs but to be able to experience the E Club programs really expands your Rotary knowledge. The Brookwood program was outstanding. I wonder if the Speaker would be interested in coming to Boerne about 300 miles north of Houston. Possibly someone could put me in touch: touchon@gvtc.com.
Interesting program on a wonderful program!
First time and I really enjoyed it!
I really like the way you have the meeting set up now, and I especially enjoyed the joke.
Interesting program! Brookwood is an excellent model of how to serve the needs of adults with special needs. It is especially impressive in that it places the ttal needs of its "citizens" at the center of the program. It would be wonderful to see this replicated across the country.
This community is incredible. Its residents benefit in a multitude of ways! Thank you, Brookwood, for your service to members of our human family that are so under-served.
Very good program. I have a 59 yr old sister who is down syndrome and we, parents and family members formed a 501c3 in Oregon which i was president of for 10 years and it it was a rewarding experience. Truly we "burned out" with only a capacity of 5 residents and after 12 years we had to close the doors and return to State aid.
What a wonderful uplifting story, and an amazing community, thanks for always bringing good programs.
Wonderful idea
I am glad and thankful for allowing me to become a member of the RECSWUSA eclub. I really enjoy the meeting, and I am amazed by the work done at Brookwood. Congratulations!
I like your format.
Good reading, I agree these email groups provide a much needed connection. Love the Forrest Gump story.
What a truly inspiring community, the Brookwood.
Good president's message about e-clubs. I enjoy every e-meeting I attend as a makeup when I can't attend my Rotary Club.
All international gifts are always well recieved. In the US we don't know what poverty is.
Outstanding program. More of these centers are needed all over the country.
I am very amazed that people or should I say Rotary clubs dont think we have fellowship....they come visiting and they will be so suprise that they transfer their membership.
I amhaving fun and fellowshiping here with u all my good friends in
Many E-Rotarians enjoy as much, or more, face-to-face fellowship than those that belong to land-based clubs:
We are welcomed to as many land-based club meetings as we want to attend--in additon to our on-line meetings.
We are welcomed to (and often) participate in the multitude of land-based club functions in the are4as where we live, work and/or visit.
From a land-based member's perspective, many of us enjoy more Rotary fellowship than those who belong to the very same land-based (traditional) clubs we participate with.
I'm sure many of us ReCSWUSA members enjoy more Rotary "fellowship" than we did when we belonged to our traditional clubs.
Dick Tannenbaum
The Brookwood Community is a non-profit residential facility with vocational training for "adults with special needs". Located about 40 miles from Houston, Texas, the facility houses 110 citizens and provides day services to another 55. Originating as a natural progression form the Birarwood School, which was established in the late 1960s by parents of children with "special needs", Brookwood was established in 1985 to serve adults exclusively. A "God-centered community" operating without government subsidies, the self-sufficient Community provides Vocational, Residential, Medical/Dental, Sports/Activities, Spiritual Development and Outreach programs with a goal of giving purpose to the lives of each individual community member. The success of Brookwood has been used as an inspiration and a model to other similar facilities in the U.S., Mexico and Ecuador. A very impressive achievement!!!
Very interesting concept: the eclub. I do miss the fellowship of a regular meeting though.
As the parent of a special needs son (age 17), this program gives me hope that there is something out there for my son. This was a very timely meeting.
The timeliness of this particular subject is a good reason why the e-club does work. For all the nay-sayers out there, here is one Rotarian that probably wouldn't have heard about this opportunity to impact his soon-to-be-graduating son with a future and a hope.
Thank you, E-Club!
This is my 1st attempt at doing an email makeup. It may take a little time before I decise if I want to do makeups in this fashion
Very Well Organized
Larry congratulations for your strong defend about e club. For my self, thats a great blessing because the traditional format of RC went againts with my work hours. This way to do rotary give me chence to do new friends oversee, and keep my olders frienship and felowship at my city. Is great to be a rotarian, and without this chance may be I has loss my place in rotary.
Congartulations too for birthdays and weddings aniversarys, sepcialy, Hilda and my self express our regards to Mel and Judy, God bless you.
Brookwood has certainly taken the care and education of specially handicaped adults to a new level. The wounderful facility and stimulating programs will help many of these residents to become independent and become more reliable on there abilities. I would hope that this Brookwood facility will encourage others to develop these centers across the country.
Great program
Rotary and especially Houston Rotarians have a deep connection with the Brookwoood Community.
Interesting! I did not realize you could actually join the eclub as a type of Rotary. I would agree on the fellowship piece. However, I truley do miss seeing my fellow Rotarians!
Great program. Giving a person meaning in life makes their life so much happier and fulfilling.
the eclub discussion is interesting and i feel the clubs are legitate. These clubs take the same amount of time out of the day as other meetings during lunch and keeping up with the websites is just as diffcult.
what a fantastic way to make up a missed meeting. Keep up the good work.
Very interesting program. Bob Adams's humourous article is very good too.
Regarding e-club... Its really funny sometimes to explain what e-club is. When I explain to someone who asks me about the club, I tell them its an e-club which works on the internet. The immidiate 2nd question I get is that "oh that means its Rotary International directly? In spite of explaining for some time, people are not really ready to accept what e-club is. But yes, I like explainnig them what our club does in the Rotary world.
