From Christina Marshall

April is National Volunteer Month and like every year, Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan (GSSEM) is celebrating by recognizing 100 volunteers across the region for their commitment to the Girl Scout program. Among the dozens of women, men and organizations, are Dr. Ron Pelley and Dr. Faith Strickland, of Allen Park, who received the Volunteer of Excellence Award and Thanks Badge, respectively. All awards are national awards from Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA).
 
Pelley is a member of the Religious Relationships Committee. Over the years, he has been involved in a multitude of events and programs that foster the spiritual development and internalization of values for scouting programs. He’s considered “Man enough to be a Girl Scout.” Strickland is a founding member of the Religious Relationships Committee who demonstrated her commitment to serving girls through her continued participation in the creation and implementation of opportunities that explore religious diversity. She represented Girl Scouts at the Catholic Youth Organization of the Archdiocese of Detroit as a part of the Committee on Scouting for Girls. Both have demonstrated an unparalleled dedication to Girls Scouts and the communities they serve.
 
“The volunteers are the heart of this entire organization,” says Liz Bogner, GSSEM Volunteer Lead. “They are on the frontline delivering programs to girls, and offering them an empowering experience. It’s so important that to recognize them, as they are the ones directly making an impact in our girls’ lives. We couldn’t thank them enough.” 
 
The Volunteer of Excellence award recognizes those volunteers who have contributed outstanding service while partnering directly with girls in any pathway to implement the Girl Scout Leadership Experience through use of the National Program Portfolio or who have contributed outstanding service in support of the Council’s mission delivery to girl and adult members.
 
The Thanks Badge honors an individual whose ongoing commitment, leadership, and service have had an exceptional, measurable impact on meeting the mission-delivery goals and priorities of the entire council or the entire Girl Scout Movement.
 
GSSEM will be doing online recognition of all award recipients in lieu of the recognition event which was cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
 
To learn more about volunteering for GSSEM, visit gssem.org/volunteers. To follow the activities of GSSEM, visit gssem.org or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
 
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About Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan (GSSEM)

GSSEM is the local council chartered by Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) to facilitate the Girl Scout Leadership Experience (GSLE), designed to help girls develop leadership skills through three key elements—Discover, Connect and Take Action. Each element has a set of five outcomes including girls develop a strong sense of self (Discover); girls develop healthy relationships (Connect); and girls can identify community needs (Take Action).
 
GSSEM serves more than 30,000 girls and adult volunteers in Oakland, Macomb, Genesee, St. Clair, Sanilac, and parts of Wayne, Monroe and Livingston Counties. GSSEM provides a girl-led, girl-centered, fun-filled quality leadership experience.

​Governor directs all non-critical businesses to temporarily close, all Michiganders to stay home or six feet away from others during COVID-19 crisis 
LANSING, Mich. -- Today, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed the “Stay Home, Stay Safe” Executive Order (EO 2020-21), directing all Michigan businesses and operations to temporarily suspend in-person operations that are not necessary to sustain or protect life. The order also directs Michiganders to stay in their homes unless they’re a part of that critical infrastructure workforce, engaged in an outdoor activity, or performing tasks necessary to the health and safety of themselves or their family, like going to the hospital or grocery store.  
Effective at 12:01 am on March 24, 2020, for at least the next three weeks, individuals may only leave their home or place of residence under very limited circumstances, and they must adhere to social distancing measures recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when they do so, including remaining at least six feet from people from outside the individual’s household to the extent feasible under the circumstances. 
“In just 13 days, we’ve gone from 0 to over 1,000 COVID-19 cases,” said Governor Whitmer. “This is an unprecedented crisis that requires all of us working together to protect our families and our communities. The most effective way we can slow down the virus is to stay home. I know this will be hard, but it will be temporary. If we all come together, get serious, and do our part by staying home, we can stay safe and save lives.” 
“Taking aggressive action to protect our communities is the most important thing we can do to mitigate further spread of COVID-19,” said Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Chief Deputy for Health and Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun. “If we do this now, we can make sure our hospitals and healthcare workers are prepared to take care of the sickest people. It is crucial that people do the right thing by staying home and staying safe.” 
Executive Order 2020-21 prohibits all businesses and operations from requiring workers to leave their homes, unless those workers are necessary to sustain or protect life or to conduct minimum basic operations. Businesses and operations are to designate the workers that meet those criteria, and must adopt social distancing practices and other mitigation measures to protect workers and patrons in the performance of that necessary in-person work. 
Workers that are necessary to sustain or protect life include those in health care and public health, law enforcement and public safety, grocery store workers, and more. For a full list of these critical infrastructure workers, click the link to Executive Order 2020-21 at the bottom of this page. 
Additionally, under Executive Order 2020-21, all public and private gatherings of any number of people occurring among persons outside a single household are temporarily prohibited. People may leave the house to perform for limited, necessary purposes, and may engage in outdoor activities like walking, hiking, running, cycling, or any other recreational activity, consistent with remaining at least six feet from people from outside a person’s household and with other restrictions imposed by prior executive orders. 
Michigan is currently in the top five states in the nation in number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. Several governors across the country have taken similar steps to protect their communities from the spread of COVID-19, including governors Mike DeWine (R-OH), Andrew Cuomo (D-NY), J.B. Pritzker (D-IL), Tom Wolf (D-PA), Gavin Newsom (D-CA), John Bel Edwards (D-LA), Phil Murphy (D-NJ), and Ned Lamont (D-CT). 
Patients with confirmed infection have reportedly had mild to severe respiratory illness with symptoms of:    

• Fever       
• Cough       
• Shortness of breath       

The best prevention for viruses, such as influenza, the common cold or COVID-19 is:  

• If you think you have symptoms of COVID-19, call your health care provider. If you do not have a health care provider, call the nearest hospital.       
• Wash your hands often with soap and warm water for 20 seconds. If not available, use hand sanitizer.         
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands.         
• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or upper sleeve when coughing or sneezing.         
• Avoid contact with people who are sick.         
• If you are sick, stay home, and avoid contact with others.        
• Stay at least 6 feet away from others when in a public setting.       

Information around this outbreak is changing rapidly. The latest information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.    
For those who have questions about the state’s actions to mitigate the spread of coronavirus, please call the COVID-19 Hotline at 1-888-535-6136 between 8AM - 5PM daily.   
Michiganders can apply for unemployment benefits if they have left work or taken a leave of absence because of self-isolation or self-quarantine in response to elevated risk from COVID-19 due to being immunocompromised, displaying the symptoms of COVID-19, having contact in the last 14 days with someone with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19, the need to care for someone with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19, or a family care responsibility as a result of a government directive. Those temporarily laid off from work should apply for unemployment benefits online at www.michigan.gov/UIA or 1-866-500-0017.  
Governor Whitmer is working to ensure that children who rely on the food provided by schools will have the resources they need. The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) has developed an online map for families to find meals. Families can access the map at: https://www.mcgi.state.mi.us/schoolnutrition/. 
On March 19, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) approved the governor’s request for a statewide Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) declaration, opening the opportunity to small businesses to access low-interest loans from the SBA. The application for disaster loan assistance is available at https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela/. For businesses looking for more information on how to apply for an SBA EIDL loan or whether it is something they should consider, visit michiganbusiness.org/covid19. 
 

​By Dave Merchant dmerchant9701@yahoo.com
 
Kallie McElroy, a senior hoop star from Inter-City Baptist has been very successful at scoring. She broke both the individual game and career points. The record for career was Anita Stamps 1425 Kallie is currently at 1499 and counting. The record for individual game was Anita Stamps 33 Kallie has 41.
She plays basketball and soccer. Kallie has a lot of good sports memories. “When my 8th grade sister Emma hit the game winning shot at the buzzer against Flat Rock HS in our season opener win this year,” Kallie said. Her goal is to win a regional championship and a state championship.
 
Josh Hubbard is her favorite teacher and Evan Kraatz is her favorite coach.
 
She hangs out with her relatives.
“My sister's Rylee who is a Sophomore.and Emma who is in 8th grade,” she said. “Faith Culp Sr. and Arianna Thompson Jr. are also friends I hang out with.”
 
Her Dad is Steve McElroy her Mom is Stephanie McElroy. Her siblings include: Hayden who is 20, Rylee who is 16, Emma who is 14, Tanner who is 13 and Reece who is 4.
 
She has big plans ahead. “I plan on going on a Mission trip to Africa after basketball season is over on spring break,” she said. “I hope to go on the Mission Field full time after college.” She plans on majoring in Elementary Education.
 

​By Dave Merchant dmerchant9701@yahoo.com
Joseph Mocnik is a talented athlete. This senior plays several varsity sports.
   
He has played three years varsity hockey, four years varsity golf and four years varsity tennis.
 
“I have not decided on a school yet, but I want to play hockey somewhere,” Joseph said. “I am interested in architecture and civil engineering.
 
He said regionals in tennis and being named as a captain of the hockey team were memorable sports accomplishments.
 
His short-time goal is to play college hockey.
 
 Mr. Arnoldy is his favorite teacher.
 
His favorite coaches were Brad Cruts, and Bill Riggs. Subjects he enjoys the best are Math, and Jag Journal.
His parents are Joe Mocnik, and Stephanie and Tim Gross. His siblings are Olivia Mocnik, and Samantha and Madeline Gross.
“I have loved representing Allen Park high school as an athlete,” he said. “I’m proud to be a Jag!“