SEBASTIAN — The Exchange Club of Sebastian supports the amazing work of the National Exchange Club Yellow Umbrella in their battle to prevent child abuse by presenting Terri Mermis, Executive Director of Yellow Umbrella, with a check for $17,500 at the September luncheon meeting.
Yellow Umbrella is a National Exchange Club accredited Child Abuse Prevention (CAP) Center with two current locations in Brevard County. Sebastian Exchange is honored to support Yellow Umbrella, not only with money raised through the Annual Sebastian Exchange Club Foundation Blue Water Open Charity Offshore Fishing Tournament held on June 7, 2014, but also by sponsoring them at the local level.
Yellow Umbrella makes a concerted effort to break the generational cycle of child abuse by educating the parents and guardians of children. The instruction and counseling services they offer include parent education, in-home parent aide, anger management both for adults and youth, family violence prevention, supervised visitation, Fair Play in Divorce, individual counseling, and the FAST program, which provides an emergency response team to help stabilize a family and help prevent removal of the children from the home.
But the organization does so much more. It collects and presents Christmas gifts to children who would otherwise have no gifts, provides donated strollers and car seats to needy families, and collects and distributes diapers, clothes, toiletries, and other items to the families within their care.
Exchange is the oldest service club in America, founded in 1911 by a group of business people who wanted to make their community a better place to live. There are hundreds of Exchange Clubs across America and Puerto Rico. In fact, the new Exchange Club of South Brevard is forming, and looking for interested people in the community to join together in support of Americanism, Community Service, Youth Programs and The Prevention of Child Abuse, and the National Exchange Project.
Anyone with a desire to promote these qualities in the community, may consider attending the Organizational Meeting of the Exchange Club of South Brevard to be held on Tuesday, Oct. 14 at 11:30 a.m. at Matt’s Casbah on New Haven Ave. in downtown Melbourne. In order ensure ample lunch for everyone, please RSVP to xcsouthbrevard@gmail.com or by calling Paul at (772) 913-2543.
