Story submitted courtesy of Randy Adams of the Carmi Rotary Club.
At Thursday’s meeting of the Carmi Rotary club, the members discussed the process of becoming a citizen in the United States. Rotarian Cindy Conley was the day’s speaker, and she told the group that Father Obi of St. Polycarp’s church in Carmi recently completed his quest to become a US citizen.
Cindy went through the ten steps required to become a legal member of the USA. First, the person is asked to make sure they are not already a citizen through birth. Second, they must fulfill the waiting period to apply, which is normally five years, but can be shortened to three if they are married to a US citizen. Third, they must take the time to fill out a 20-page form that goes in to extreme detail about their lives and beliefs. Fourth on the process, they submit all of the required paperwork. Step five is going through a biometrix exam where there past is closely examined. At step six, the applicant goes through an intense one-on-one interview. Step seven they are finally told yes or no, and if the answer is no they are given the procedure to appeal within 30 days. Step eight (if approved) they will receive the notification of the date they will take their oath. The ninth step is the actual taking the oath of citizenship. Lastly, they are encouraged to fully understand what it means to be a US citizen.
The whole process is very lengthy, and can be expensive.
In other club discussion, the Rotarians continued discussing an important date for Carmi: June 28th, 2021 – or put another way; 62821. On that day, the date and the zip code of Carmi will be the same. The members discussed what type of celebration could be held that evening to commemorate that once in a lifetime event. A few ideas were discussed, but anyone with a good idea is welcome to pass that thought along. We need to make that day a big day in Carmi!
Rotary president Patrick Haskell handed out brochures for the upcoming Brownsville School Foundation golf scramble. This year’s even till be held on Saturday, May 15th at the Carmi Country Club. The entry fee is $200 per team or $50 per individual. The field is limited to the first 30 paid entries. The tournament kicks off with a shotgun start at 8:00am that morning. For more information or to sign up, contact the Country Club at 384-5011.
In club business, Cindy Conley won the 50/50 drawing and managed to pull the winning ball from the pot, claiming the cash prize that had been building for several weeks. Tom Logan named Lyn Stephens as the day’s phantom.
The Carmi Rotary Club meets every Thursday at noon at the First United Methodist Church on Main Street in Carmi. Anyone wishing to learn more about this civic organization is welcome to attend a meeting or speak with any Carmi Rotarian.
