Fundraiser scheduled for next weekend

Posted

The Rotary Club of West Liberty will be participating in a worldwide fundraiser next weekend.

On Saturday, July 30, it is “World Day Against Trafficking In Persons,” according to West Liberty Rotary member Tom Barr.

The group will have a free-will donation meal at RonDeVoo Park from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. in downtown West Liberty, he said.

“We’ll do hamburgers, hot dogs for kids, a beverage of some kind and chips,” Barr said. “I have Braking Traffic (a group in Muscatine County connected with Family Resources that fights human trafficking) coming in. They come in and bring material with them and are available to answer questions.”

This is a fundraiser specifically for the Iowa Network Against Human Trafficking, which the club has done fundraisers for since 2019.

Barr has two reasons why he took human trafficking on as a cause. The first one was personal. A family member of his disappeared, when they were 16 years old.

Family members gave the local police department a photo to release to the press, he said. Not long after the family member was found.

“Within 10 days, she was able to present herself to a convenience store,” Barr said.

Barr later attended a meeting at the learning center in town where he met someone from Braking Traffic. He said the representative from Braking Traffic told him they worked with people who were being exploited by family members.

“And that kind of surprised me,” Barr said. “I made some calls and in 2017 I started bringing education into West Liberty.”

Rotary International took on human trafficking as a cause in April of this year. Barr worked on getting this adopted by Rotary International.

About two years ago, Dr. George Belitsos, board chair of The Iowa Network Against Human Trafficking and Slavery, asked Barr to help write a resolution to propose to Rotary International.

After working on the resolution for a year and a half, it was sent to Rotary International but was rejected several times, Barr said. A letter writing campaign was started and several Rotary Club’s wrote asking human trafficking to become adopted as a cause and it finally was.

“The purpose is to get more active in fighting human trafficking,” Barr said. “My thought is look what Rotary did with polio since the 1980s. It’s almost eliminated except for two countries and if Rotary can have even half that impact it would be phenomenal.”

Barr doesn’t have a goal in mind for next Saturday’s event, he said. He would just be grateful for any donations.

“To date, Rotary Club here in West Liberty, we’ve given over $5,500 to the Iowa Network Against Human Trafficking, which I feel very grateful for,” Barr added.

Comments