• Submitted by: manso
• Society
• 01 / 09 / 2011

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By Randy Adams. Carmi Times. Posted Jan 08, 2011 @ 10:24 AM.Carmi Rotarians heard Thursday from a local native who is now an administrator at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.And the club learned (as The Times reported Thursday) that it has retained its title as the most productive group of bell-ringers for The Salvation Army.

The members first listened as a fellow Rotarian from the Carbondale club explain the interesting projects she has been working on. Julie (Niekamp) Wetstein was in Carmi for the day and did a make-up meeting at Tequila's with the Carmi group. She is a Carmi native and a 1981 graduate of what was then Carmi Community High School. She still has many relatives in the area.

Wetstein is now the assistant dean of academic affairs at SIUC. She explained that she went on a Rotary group study exchange to Italy in 2003, and when she returned she decided to join the club.

Through Rotary and through her work at SIUC, Wetstein has become very involved with Cuba. She is actively working to re-start Rotary on the island nation, and she explained many of the hurdles she has to get over to achieve that goal. She told the club that she recently made a trip to Washington, D.C., where she met with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in order to receive a special waiver that would allow her to visit Cuba. Having that in order, she has now made two trips there and is planning a third for sometime this year.

She stated that during the Haiti earthquake disaster, American and Cuban doctors worked side by side and found more similarities than differences. Building off that relationship, the two nations' doctors are now working in Belize, and they hope to use that project as a springboard to move on to Cuba.

Turn to the Friday, Jan. 7 issue of The Carmi Times for the complete story. Call Brenda at 618-382-4176 to have delivery of The Times started to your home-or computer! The Carmi Times. Some rights reserved

Source: Carmitimes.com