April 4 - 20, 2017 • Vol. 2, No. 5
Every Issue Complimentary Every Time
Helping Indian girls was a gift to herself Solvang woman celebrates her birthday with weeks of service
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Katherine Brocke named 2017 Youth Rec Queen Staff Report
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By Linda Johansen Contributing Writer
M
y trip to India in January was my 68th birthday present to myself. Little did I know, it would be one of the most difficult trips I have ever taken, but without a doubt and absolutely, the most meaningful and rewarding trip, and the best birthday gift I have ever received. Deepa Willingham, a fellow Rotarian and member or our community, by sheer tenacity and determination has accomplished the impossible by building a beautiful private girls school in the midst of poverty and squalor like I have never seen or experienced before. The Piyali Learning Centre is undoubtedly a true miracle. Photos contributed The education and safety of 250 young girls Linda Johansen of Solvang spent her 68th birthday working at the Piyali Learning Centre, a girls school in an and 25 young mothers is the top priority of the impoverished village in India. school. The thought of these beautiful young rendous traffic, dodging cows, horses, goats, girls and women getting an education and expeople and motorcycles who all think they periencing their own hopes and dreams is a far have the right of way. There is absolutely no cry from the harsh reality of what their dismal pattern to their traffic and the roads are comlife and culture affords them. plete chaos with drivers and obstacles coming Traveling to India and working at the Piyali every which way blaring their horns. Learning Centre has been a dream of mine The noise and chaos of the traffic was since I started supporting students both perexhausting, and surviving that each day was a sonally and through my Solvang Rotary Club bonus and a complete miracle! nearly a decade ago. Our work team consisted of Deepa WillThe impoverished village of Piyali is infaingham and her daughter Reena and local mous for sex trafficking of its young girls, and students Owen Andersen, Keller Haws, Ruth the school provides not only provides a guardBeckmen and Lauren Fieldhouse. Annika ed learning facility but an oasis and safe haven Paseta, who is a senior at Santa Susana High in keeping these girls shielded from the danSchool and whose mother is member of the gers of their everyday life. If the girls are not Keller Haws and Owen Andersen were some of the local Rotary Club of Simi Sunrise, completed our kidnapped and forced into the sex trafficking students who joined the work trip at the Piyali Learning Centre. student delegation. world, it is not uncommon for their parents to Brad Fieldhouse and I were the chaperones sell their children for $30 so they can feed the Each morning our team would take a harrest of the family. These beautiful and brilliant rowing, nearly two-hour car trek from Kolkata and, being the mother of two sons, I relished spending time with the girls. I also had the young girls have absolutely no worth or value to the school to work. Thus, we spent almost INDIA CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 four hours in the car each day in the most horin their caste system’s culture.
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hird-generation Santa Ynez Valley resident Katherine Brocke has been named the 2017 Youth Recreation
Queen. She will be participating in a series of fundraising events for Youth Rec in the group’s annual Queen Campaign to raise money for its year-long community efforts to provide community recreation facilities and opportunities. Katherine is involved Katherine Brocke in many high school activities, from tennis to Future Farmers of America. She participates in a weightlifting class sponsored by Youth Rec, and her family members actively participate in programs as well. Her grandparents, Paul and Susan Halme, moved to the valley in 1976 to raise their children. Her grandfather is an attorney and grandmother owns and operates Solvang Bakery with her aunt, Melissa Redell. Her mother, Maili Halme, is a chef who owns her own catering company SYV Youth Rec has funded many projects at the high school, fields at local elementary and middle schools, and the baseball and soccer fields at Sunny Fields Park, among other accomplishments. When Ballard School was remodeled, for example, the group put in the basketball courts, ball fields and playground equipment. For more information on SYV Youth Rec, log onto www.syvyr.com. The schedule of Katherine’s fundraising events will be listed in our second April issue along with a full interview with her.