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Leslie Warrick

Seafarer's House

SEAFARER'S HOUSE

and other stuff

OK, take away the guest speaker.  Take away the guests.  Take away the waiters.  Who was left?  NOT MANY!  Paula is gonna have to really cook the books for a good attendance number for today!  :-(

BUT it was a great meeting nonetheless.  First, we had John Murphy, assistant principal at Coral Springs High who gave us an update about the new year - and our second year Interact Club and the great faculty sponsors.  Glad he could make it - and hope we see him again.

And surprise, surprise - Javier Garcia, our outbound student to Taiwan stopped by WITH HIS WIFE!  How cool is that.  Now anyone who knew Javier would have thought he met his wife in jail.  But after meeting Jessica there is no way that happened - SHE would never have been in jail!  Javier filled us in on his recent life, including two other stints back to Taiwan, the last one working there for a while, and shortly they will be off to Costa Rica where they will work and he can but his acumen in speaking Chinese to work!  :-)

Our speaker today was Leslie Warrick from Seafarer's House.  Now one would think that this was a rather random choice for a speaker, but it turns out she used to work with Barbara at Family Central and her dentist is that guy that shows up each week in scrubs.

And an interesting program it was.  Tucked into a corner of Port Everglades is Seafarer's House - a refuge for those who work on ships - cruise ships, tankers, cargo ships - who are limited by immigration regulations as to where they can travel in each port and who need a place to go while in port.  At the port, Seafarer's House was founded in 1989 and has over 100,000 visits per year.  They provide hospitality at no charge for shipworkers including services for wiring money to their home countries, e-mail and phone calling facilities and, as needed, counseling and emotional support provided by local clergy.  They also provide ethnic foods at their cafe to give a little bit of "home" to the workers, and provide transportation to and from the Seafarer's House for ship workers.

One of their projects is "Shoebox Christmas" there shoeboxes are filled with needed personal items - athletic socks, after shave, etc.  These are given to workers who otherwise would not have access to these simple, personal items.   Information about this donation idea can be found HERE.

Javier and Jessica Garcia

CSHS Assistant Principal John Murphy

Seafarer's House