BY LINDA HULL
Vice President
Rotary Club of Los Alamos

“The virus is ravaging the heart of our tribal communities,” Nancy Wheeler remarked compassionately as she spoke to the Rotary Club of Los Alamos Tuesday via Zoom.  Wheeler is a member of the Towsontowne Rotary Club of Baltimore, Maryland, but has recently moved to Santa Fe where she has proposed a Rotary International global grant to create a sustainable project to assist the Navajo Nation.  She spoke to Los Alamos Rotarians in hopes of partnering on this project. 

Wheeler, an accomplished artist, had previously worked on a three-year art project with tribal leaders, elders, and high school students in the community of Magdalena, near Socorro, transforming the drab walls of the Alamo Navajo schools with colorful hand-painted murals depicting relevant scenes from the students’ daily lives.  The project included a Code Talkers Library.  It was during these years of friendship and collaboration that Wheeler witnessed the struggles of the Navajo people.

Wheeler explained that “the pandemic has taken a disproportionate toll on Native Americans in the United States,” especially in rural communities in the West.  She continued, “Disease rates among Native peoples are more than twice the average for the rest of the country.”  The mortality rate is increasing rapidly, and “traditional leaders, the elders, are dying.  Without them, the most important cultural knowledge is lost forever.”

Citing data collected recently that highlights the devastating effects of Covid-19, Wheeler told Rotarians that “nearly 35% of Native American children live in poverty.”  Those in the age range of newborn to 25 years of age die at a rate three times higher than any other group in the U.S.  Suicide, alcohol-related deaths, obesity, diabetes, depression, anxiety, and teen pregnancy afflict Native youth in alarming numbers.  The spectre of Covid-19 has added an unbearable burden.

Wheeler explained that “there is an urgent need for structured support for substance use, suicide, trauma, interpersonal violence, and grief.”  To address these formidable issues, The Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health, under the direction of Dr. Laura Hammitt, has agreed to provide its family health services to five locations within the Navajo Nation. 

The focus of the proposed grant will be providing reliable transportation, such as vans and pick-up trucks, for the services needed across the Navajo Nation, which is the size of West Virginia.  The technology to build a skilled work force will require computers, tablets, general supplies, and Wi-Fi hot spots. 

The first to benefit from the proposed grant will be the Navajo Nation, which extends into the states of New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, and the White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache Reservation, located in Arizona. 

In addition to Los Alamos Rotarians, members of Rotary clubs in Carlsbad, Socorro, Taos, and the Rotary Interact Club of Santa Fe Indian School are already expressing interest in the project.  Beyond New Mexico borders, Rotarians from Arizona, Colorado, and Virginia have inquired about the grant, and the Rotary Club of Bombay North, India, has already pledged $6000, making this “an historic and unprecedented global grant.”

To learn more about the proposed Rotary grant, please go to:

Nancy Scheinman-Wheeler has served as President and Foundation chair of her Baltimore Rotary club and is currently its Membership chair. She created the club’s See2Learn project, an educational literacy and vision project that partnered with the YMCA and a center for homeless women in Baltimore.  She played an integral part in her Rotary club’s national program to alleviate blindness in Bangladesh, a $500,000 global grant, and created a Rotary friendship project in Kathmandu, Nepal.  For over 20 years, Wheeler’s business, NS Studios, an experiential learning environment design firm, created transformational school interiors in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Mexico.  She taught at the Maryland Institute College of Art and Design, most recently in the Master’s program in Business of Art and Design.  Wheeler has exhibited her artwork in Santa Fe and in galleries and museums throughout the U.S. and globally.

The Rotary Club of Los Alamos, through its Club Foundation, is a 501(c)3 non-profit and one of over 34,000 clubs worldwide.  Rotary, which now has 1.5 million members, was founded in 1905; the local Club was chartered in 1966.  Rotary areas of focus include promoting peace; fighting disease, particularly polio; providing clean water, sanitation, and hygiene; supporting education; saving and enhancing the lives of mothers and children; growing economies; and protecting the environment.

To learn more about the Rotary Club of Los Alamos and its charitable service, please contact:  Laura Gonzales, President, 699-5880 or Skip King, Membership chair, 662-8832.

BY LINDA HULL
Vice President
Rotary Club of Los Alamos

“The virus is ravaging the heart of our tribal communities,” Nancy Wheeler remarked compassionately as she spoke to the Rotary Club of Los Alamos Feb. 9 via Zoom.  Wheeler is a member of the Towsontowne Rotary Club of Baltimore, Maryland, but has recently moved to Santa Fe where she has proposed a Rotary International global grant to create a sustainable project to assist the Navajo Nation.  She spoke to Los Alamos Rotarians in hopes of partnering on this project. 

Wheeler, an accomplished artist, had previously worked on a three-year art project with tribal leaders, elders, and high school students in the community of Magdalena, near Socorro, transforming the drab walls of the Alamo Navajo schools with colorful hand-painted murals depicting relevant scenes from the students’ daily lives.  The project included a Code Talkers Library.  It was during these years of friendship and collaboration that Wheeler witnessed the struggles of the Navajo people.

Wheeler explained that “the pandemic has taken a disproportionate toll on Native Americans in the United States,” especially in rural communities in the West.  She continued, “Disease rates among Native peoples are more than twice the average for the rest of the country.”  The mortality rate is increasing rapidly, and “traditional leaders, the elders, are dying.  Without them, the most important cultural knowledge is lost forever.”

Citing data collected recently that highlights the devastating effects of Covid-19, Wheeler told Rotarians that “nearly 35% of Native American children live in poverty.”  Those in the age range of newborn to 25 years of age die at a rate three times higher than any other group in the U.S.  Suicide, alcohol-related deaths, obesity, diabetes, depression, anxiety, and teen pregnancy afflict Native youth in alarming numbers.  The spectre of Covid-19 has added an unbearable burden.

Wheeler explained that “there is an urgent need for structured support for substance use, suicide, trauma, interpersonal violence, and grief.”  To address these formidable issues, The Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health, under the direction of Dr. Laura Hammitt, has agreed to provide its family health services to five locations within the Navajo Nation. 

The focus of the proposed grant will be providing reliable transportation, such as vans and pick-up trucks, for the services needed across the Navajo Nation, which is the size of West Virginia.  The technology to build a skilled work force will require computers, tablets, general supplies, and Wi-Fi hot spots. 

The first to benefit from the proposed grant will be the Navajo Nation, which extends into the states of New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, and the White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache Reservation, located in Arizona. 

In addition to Los Alamos Rotarians, members of Rotary clubs in Carlsbad, Socorro, Taos, and the Rotary Interact Club of Santa Fe Indian School are already expressing interest in the project.  Beyond New Mexico borders, Rotarians from Arizona, Colorado, and Virginia have inquired about the grant, and the Rotary Club of Bombay North, India, has already pledged $6000, making this “an historic and unprecedented global grant.”

To learn more about the proposed Rotary grant, please go to:

Nancy Scheinman-Wheeler has served as President and Foundation chair of her Baltimore Rotary club and is currently its Membership chair. She created the club’s See2Learn project, an educational literacy and vision project that partnered with the YMCA and a center for homeless women in Baltimore.  She played an integral part in her Rotary club’s national program to alleviate blindness in Bangladesh, a $500,000 global grant, and created a Rotary friendship project in Kathmandu, Nepal.  For over 20 years, Wheeler’s business, NS Studios, an experiential learning environment design firm, created transformational school interiors in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Mexico.  She taught at the Maryland Institute College of Art and Design, most recently in the Master’s program in Business of Art and Design.  Wheeler has exhibited her artwork in Santa Fe and in galleries and museums throughout the U.S. and globally.

The Rotary Club of Los Alamos, through its Club Foundation, is a 501(c)3 non-profit and one of over 34,000 clubs worldwide.  Rotary, which now has 1.5 million members, was founded in 1905; the local Club was chartered in 1966.  Rotary areas of focus include promoting peace; fighting disease, particularly polio; providing clean water, sanitation, and hygiene; supporting education; saving and enhancing the lives of mothers and children; growing economies; and protecting the environment.

To learn more about the Rotary Club of Los Alamos and its charitable service, please contact:  Laura Gonzales, President, 699-5880 or Skip King, Membership chair, 662-8832.