On Tuesday July 2, 2024, Marion and Jamie Newton will discuss The El Salvador Project and what it means to poor rural families, during the Rotary Club of Silver City meeting at 12 noon, at the Sunset Room, second floor of the WNMU Student Building.

Since 1990, under the care of the Palo Alto Friends Meeting (Quakers) in California, the El Salvador Project has assisted students from poor rural families to complete programs of higher education in teaching, medicine, nursing, physical therapy, law, business administration, agricultural engineering, and other disciplines, according to a news release. Graduates lift their families from poverty, as they enhance the quality of life in their communities and inspire others to pursue their dreams. Meaningful careers with adequate income give these young Salvadorans alternatives to migration toward the United States driven by desperation.

Marion and Jamie Newton have been volunteers and members of the support committee for the project for more than three decades.  Marion Newton has lived in the Mimbres Valley since 1978. Now retired, she taught English as a second language in Baja California Sur, Mexico, and in New Mexico, and kindergarten in San Lorenzo, and in Menlo Park, Calif.

Jamie Newton lived in the Mimbres Valley part time beginning in 2000, becoming a full-time resident when he retired in 2012 after teaching social psychology at San Francisco State University since 1980. He serves as chair of the board of directors of Gila/Mimbres Community Radio (KURU 89.1 FM) in Silver City.

Both are members of Gila Friends Meeting in Silver City and are lifelong members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). They play community dances and other events with the Big Ditch Crickets and are active in the community in many ways.

There is a brief "meet and greet", a short business meeting and then the speaker has the floor. The club welcomes members of the public to the meetings. Attendees desiring lunch will pay at the door.

Rotary is an organization of business and professional persons united worldwide to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. Rotary is the world's oldest and largest service organization, with more than 1.2 million members in more than168 countries. Since its founding in 1923, the Silver City Rotary Club has provided support and service to numerous non-profit organizations and civic causes in Silver City and Grant County as well as supporting and participating in humanitarian projects sponsored by Rotary International.