Scientology Today

Echo Brabenec, 18, a Leelanau County native has traveled to Haiti to help with the country’s recovery from a devastating earthquake on Jan. 12. She is shown comforting a young Haitian friend during the trip. Photo by Peter Dunn

SUTTONS BAY—”I was on vacation, and thought to myself, ‘Doing this is so worthless when so many need help,’” said 18-year-old Echo Brabenec, of Suttons Bay. “I felt like I could do better by doing something to help the people in Haiti.”

The mostly home-schooled teen (she studied at Suttons Bay High School for a year, and graduated a year early from Traverse City West), went to Port-au-Prince, Haiti as one of the volunteer ministers of the Church of Scientology on Feb. 14, and will be there until mid-April.

She and her fiancé, Shane Fasel, a TC West graduate from the Interlochen area, and the church group flew out of Miami on a church-chartered plane packed with donated medical supplies. They are working in tandem with other relief organizations, churches, and military units, operating under the overriding viewpoint of their church that “something can be done about it.”

Echo explained why she felt so compelled to help the people of Haiti, whose country was devastated by a massive earthquake on Jan. 12.

“I’ve been raised with the idea that you take responsibility for the things you see in your life,” she said. “And what I saw was that so many needed help.”

Her parents, Randy Gilmore and Elisa Brabenec of Suttons Bay, said, “Echo has wanted to do this type of work since she was a young child; she was one of the youngest members of the church to complete her volunteer minister training. With each opportunity presented to her, we said, ‘But Echo, you’re only 12′… we always thought she was too young to handle what she was trying to do at the time.”

NBC’s “Today” show reporter Kerry Sanders was in Port-au-Prince, and gave a report on the work of the volunteer ministers.

Sanders stated that groups from the Church of Scientology have helped at the sites of many of the world’s worst disasters, saying, “They were at 9/11, and at Katrina, and now they are here, doing the work that no one else wants to do.”

Welcome reception

Sanders’ report included interviews with members of the group, and with a doctor working in a crowded, makeshift hospital, who said, “I am totally impressed with these young adults from the Scientology Church. They have just been so effective for us.”

A young volunteer named Nicole, who wore the bright yellow T-shirt that identifies the group, said that the Scientologists are not in Haiti to spread their beliefs. “We don’t even mention religion,” she said, adding that the menial work they were doing was unlikely to make people want to join the church.

Sanders reported on the value of a particular type of gentle touch therapy called an “assist,” saying, “In 20 minutes, we watched as Nicole took a pained little girl from frowns to giggles.”

Echo spent a week in a Christian school giving assists for physical pain and emotional stress, and has helped deliver seminars to aid people in refocusing their attention from the trauma of their situation to productive plans and activities. Her group has recently been cleaning a hospital to prepare it for reopening.

“Their work with the Haitians focuses on bringing each individual with whom they work to an improved state of mind, one in which they will be able to look at their situation with hope and certainty of their own individual ability to effect the changes that are needed,” said Echo’s mother, Elisa.

On a typical day in Haiti, Echo and the team get up at 7:30 in the morning and gather for a meeting at 8. The 50 to 60 people, including medical teams, decide where they are most needed that day, and then go out to help and deliver the simple and effective assists; the technique is also easy to teach, and those who learn it can then help others. The team has gone to orphanages and refugee camps, and has also given assists to members of the military and medical teams.

“We’ve been received with open arms here,” she said. “All the people are warm and friendly, and often give us big hugs and kisses. The Haitians are the craziest drivers I’ve has ever seen! But it feels really good when little kids give a huge ‘thumbs up’ when we drive by. The kids we’ve met are smart, and very fast learners.”

Echo described her experience saying, “This is one of the greatest experiences of my life; it’s wonderful to be able to deliver an assist and see the smiles come back on people’s faces!”

In spite of the devastation that surrounds her in Haiti, Echo said, “The people of Haiti really need help to get their homes rebuilt, but people are doing what they can to get back up on their feet and clean up … I feel a sense of hopefulness.”

Echo’s parents reflect the belief of many of those who have gone to Haiti to help in the aftermath of the tragedy: “We believe in people’s inherent ability to create beauty, do good work, and solve the problems that face them. If you relieve the immediate stress and focus them on that ability, they will respond to the challenges of life with renewed vigor.”

_{This article by contributing writer Kristine Morris appeared Monday, March 8, in the Grand Traverse Insider and is reprinted with its permission.}

Sandy, Utah, Scientologist lives by the Volunteer Minister motto: “Something CAN be done about it.”

One of the charter flights that brought medical professionals and Scientology Volunteer Ministers to Haiti, arranged by Joava Good

Sandy, Utah—Draper resident, Joava Good says “Haiti made the Indonesia tsunami, Katrina and 9/11 look small by comparison.” In a presentation to the Sandy City Citizen Corps Council Thursday, March 11, entitled Church of Scientology Disaster Relief, she will share eight lessons learned in Haiti that can make all the difference in any future disaster.  Good, a member of the Draper City Emergency and Advisory committee for the past four years calls Haiti “a real eye-opener” and “the worst catastrophe we’ve ever worked on.”

When she heard about the Haiti earthquake on January 12, Good contacted the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Disaster Response Coordinator in Los Angeles and was soon engaged in the extraordinary challenges of getting vitally needed medical personnel, supplies and Volunteer Ministers to Haiti.  “It was daunting,” said Good.  “Port-au-Prince was decimated—no power, no communications systems, no landing lights on the runway, only one runway open and that one in awful shape, all the planes were parked in the dirt, and no civilian flights were landing.”

Good called on her 23 years as a travel agent and travel agency owner to pull off the task. She found a company to fly first responders to Haiti at cost—a private aviation company provided the planes and the Church of Scientology paid for the fuel and expenses of disaster response personnel going on those flights.

With hundreds of thousands of Haitians injured, and countless lives depending on immediate medical care, the highest priority for Good and the Volunteer Minister team was to fill the planes with medical professionals and smaller support teams of Scientology Volunteer Ministers.  Good put out a call for doctors, nurses and EMTs and the response was immediate.  Dr. Edouard Hazel of the Association of Haitian Physicians Abroad said he had 65 doctors ready to leave at once. The Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps answered with a team of volunteers ready go, and nurses, sanitation specialists and a telecommunications specialist signed on as well. “Seventy percent of the passengers on our first charter flight were medical professionals,” said Good. The remaining seats were filled by Scientology Volunteer Ministers, trained in organizational skills that enabled the doctors to provide their life-saving skills once in Haiti.

Scientology Founder, L. Ron Hubbard, who also created the Volunteer Ministers program, gave it the motto “Something can be done about it.”  “We live that motto, and it is really true,” said Good.  “When one of our charter planes was leaving Haiti, we ‘rescued’ a group of doctors who had been stranded at the Port-au-Prince airport for 48 hours, flying them back to the United States on our return flight. One of them, a chief of surgery, asked me why the Church of Scientology was doing this. I told him our motto, and he understood.  This is what we do.  We fill in the gaps.  You can operate on somebody and save his life—we provide support with anything you need in the hospital and give you a ride home.  We find out what’s needed and wanted and that’s what we do.”

Good is the Utah Representative for the Churches of Scientology Disaster Response and special adviser to the National Director, Rev. Sue Taylor.  Good is also a member of VOAD (Volunteers Organizations Active in Disasters), she is FEMA, Red Cross, and CERT trained, and is herself a CERT trainer.  She has been an active Scientology Volunteer Minister for more than 30 years.

For more information on the Scientology Haiti Disaster Response Team, visit their blog at blog.volunteerministers.org.

St. Petersburg, FL—More than 1,200 Tampa Bay residents of all ages walked quarter-mile laps around Straub Park in St. Petersburg Saturday, March 6, to raise human rights awareness.  Ms. Linda Drazkowski, Founder and President of the Human Rights Group Inc., Scientologist, mother of two and Clearwater resident, created the Human Rights Walkathon four years ago, and has chaired it every year since.  The fourth annual Human Rights Walkathon, produced by the Human Rights Group in partnership with Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking and the Tampa Bay Academy of Hope, featured performances by hip hop artist MC Lyte, recording artist David Pomeranz, and the Dundu Dole Urban Ballet.  Speakers included Mrs. Anna Rodriguez, founder of the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking; Mr. James Evans, founder of the Tampa Bay Academy of Hope; Rev. Alfreddie Johnson, founder of the World Literacy Crusade; and Dustin McGahee, president of Youth for Human Rights Florida.

The day before the walkathon, an article in the Fort Meyers, Florida, News-Press pointed out the vital role education plays in protecting human rights.  A 15-year-old Guatemalan girl living less than 150 miles south of St. Petersburg,  in Immokalee, might still be enslaved and forced into sex, pornography and field labor today had it not been for the alertness of a Florida woman who suspected she was the victim of human trafficking and reported it to authorities.

Some 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders each year.  “People who know and understand human rights will not only stand up for their own rights but also for the rights of others,” said Drazkowski. 

To raise awareness of this and other crucial human rights issues, the Human Rights Group uses educational booklets, DVDs and an educators’ guide created by Youth For Human Rights International in collaboration with the Human Rights Department of the Church of Scientology International.

For more information on these programs and materials, visit United for Human Rights at www.humanrights.com.

Actress Cassandra Hepburn helps feed and clothe children at a Haiti orphanage.

A week in Haiti on the Scientology Disaster Response Team changed actress Cassandra Hepburn’s life.  Born in the Philippines and raised in London, Hong Kong and Switzerland, she has led no sheltered life, but she says her week in Haiti opened her eyes to what helping others is all about.

Hepburn arrived in Haiti on February 14 aboard a Scientology-sponsored charter flight and went to work helping refugees in three IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps.

“Living conditions for the volunteers and medical professionals were pretty rugged—we slept in tents on cots or in sleeping bags on concrete slabs or hard floors, and we ate MREs (Meals Ready-to-Eat—food rations for the United States Armed Forces), but compared to the conditions at the IDP camps this was luxurious,” she said.  In the IDP camps, entire families live out in the open, their only protection from the elements a sheet or a tarp suspended from a branch.  “Unless we act now to provide shelter for the refugees there will be devastation during the rainy season.”

Hepburn’s assignment in Haiti also included working in local orphanages with a team of medical professionals who provided checkups while volunteers gave food and toys to the children.  “They were so happy to see that someone cared,” she said.

Hepburn, 33, appeared in the Quentin Tarantino film “Hellride” and in the daytime drama “The Young and the Restless.”

A Scientologist since 2005, she recently joined staff at the new Church of Scientology and Celebrity Centre in Las Vegas, which held its grand opening on February 6.

For more information on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Haiti Disaster Response, visit the Volunteer Ministers blog at blog.volunteerministers.org.

Charles Omanga, scouting coordinator from the Nyanza region of Kenya, at Scientology Volunteer Ministers seminar in November 2009.

On February 6, 2010, the scouting coordinator from the Nyanza region of Kenya, Charles Omanga, received an urgent call.  A fire had broken out in one of the busiest shopping malls in Kisumu, and the city needed his team of scouts to help.

Two months earlier, Omanga had been one of six scout leaders who attended a series of Scientology Volunteer Ministers seminars that covered disaster preparedness.

Omanga in turn had trained the members in his troop on the techniques he learned, so they were prepared when the call for help came.  He pulled his troop together and they rushed to the mall.  Arriving before any firefighters or emergency response personnel, they quickly put out the fire.  “It was up to us to protect those involved and save lives,” Omanga said.

“The last thing I heard was a deafening explosion from the gas store,” said a man at the scene of the fire.  “The next minute, the whole store was enveloped in thick, dark smoke.  I thought it was going to be my last day.  Had it not been for the quick intervention of the Kenya Volunteer Ministers, many lives could have been lost in the inferno.”

The Nyanza region Kenya Scout Volunteer Ministers help at a grassroots level every day—not just in disasters.  They regularly visit 40 local hospitals to deliver Assists to the patients.   Assists are techniques developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard that speed recovery by addressing the emotional and spiritual component in injuries and illnesses.

The Volunteer Ministers also help children of the area get the full benefits of their education.    “To be a good student, you must know how to communicate effectively,” said Omanga. “We always teach communication skills first.  Then, by training the children in Study Technology developed by Mr. Hubbard, they really understand how to learn.”

Omanga, determined to make a difference in his region, is planning to register over 600 new Scouts and train them as Volunteer Ministers in the next few weeks.

For more information on Volunteer Ministers training, including free online courses and seminars, visit the Scientology Volunteer Ministers web site at www.volunteerministers.org/train/

David Dempster, a Scientology Volunteer Minister, at a seminar he delivered last year  for  Scout Leaders in Kenya.

Clearwater, Florida—David Dempster is a Scientology Volunteer Minister, recently returned from the Church of Scientology Haiti Disaster Response. David operates a community hotline in the Tampa Bay area. Based on his extensive experience as a Volunteer Minister he was asked to carry out a series of seminars in Kenya, Africa last year.  Here is his story.

I come from Perth, a beautiful ancient seaport on the east coast of Scotland.   I’ve been in the US for 20 years.  Most of that time I have been in Los Angeles and for the past four years in Clearwater, Florida.

I have the view that we should all help each other.  On a small scale that means helping your friends and family—and on a larger scale it includes reaching out to people in the community and those in need anywhere else on Earth.

When I got to Clearwater I became aware of people who had fallen on hard times and needed a helping hand, and I started running a group called the Tampa Bay Volunteer Minister Hotline.  People call in looking for help with their marriage, career, study problems and so on.  We help them, using technology developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard.

A few months ago, at the end of August, I got a phone call asking me if I would go to Kenya to deliver Volunteer Minister seminars to various groups.  I accepted eagerly. As a self-employed computer consultant I was able to take off time from work. I delivered seminars in communication skills, the basics of organization, drug prevention and conflict resolution.  I covered Scientology Assists—procedures that help orient the individual to the environment, improve emotional tone and enable a person to recover more quickly from accidents, loss, trauma and illness.

I returned to Kenya shortly afterwards and delivered more extensive Volunteer Ministers training to a group of scout leaders from the Kenya Scout Association.

Then this year I traveled to Haiti as part of the earthquake disaster relief mission.

There were patients in the hospitals in Haiti who weren’t responding to medical treatment until they received Scientology Assists.  By handling the spiritual and emotional aspects of the trauma, they began to recover.

My Volunteer Minister training made a big difference in my ability to help people there.  It is because of that training and the Volunteer Ministers’ skill, that the motto of the program is “Something can be done about it.”

For more information on the work of Scientology Volunteer Ministers visit the Volunteer Ministers blog.

Georgia State Senator Donzella James presented a resolution to the international director of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps in Los Angeles Saturday, acknowledging the group’s Haiti Disaster Response.

In Los Angeles Saturday, Georgia State Senator Donzella James presented Georgia State Resolution SR998 to the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps for “selfless service to the nation of Haiti,” at a meeting of Haiti volunteers at the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre International in Hollywood.

Senator James acknowledged the Volunteer Ministers recently returned from disaster relief service in Haiti. “On January 12th the earth opened up and swallowed Port-au-Prince and other parts of Haiti. I have been to Haiti and I saw the poverty.  I thought nothing could be worse.  But you helped when it was even worse than I could ever imagine. You did what you could, unselfishly.”

Some 250 Volunteer Ministers have rotated through Haiti, with 100 currently on the ground, providing logistics support for medical teams in Port-au-Prince General Hospital and the University of Miami Hospital tent.

Scientology Volunteer Minister Ayal Lindeman, also a licensed practical nurse and emergency medical technician, was the backbone of the Haiti relief action.  A veteran of 10 disasters, including Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks and Hurricanes Charley, Katrina and Rita, his work organizing the care of the patients at Port-au-Prince General Hospital saved countless lives. Speaking to the assembled Volunteer Ministers, he reminded the Haiti veterans that the job has only started.

Registered Nurse Kimberly Williams, co-owner of Hill Street Community Wellness Center in Los Angeles, wanted to go to Haiti, so when she heard the Church of Scientology was transporting medical personnel, she signed on and left January 21 on a Church-sponsored charter.  In Haiti she worked in a clinic near the Presidential Palace, assisting in operations including amputations and other life-saving procedures, and provided urgently needed medical care to more than 400 patients each day.

The international director of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps, Ms. Maria Reyher, announced the next phase of Scientology Haiti Disaster Response—a new base in Port-au-Prince that will enable the volunteers to work throughout the rainy season and will include classrooms for seminars, workshops and courses to train first responders in police, military and humanitarian organizations in disaster preparedness.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps is an embracive program of the Church of Scientology that provides community service, disaster relief and emergency response. Created more than 30 years ago by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard, the program has expanded to 203,000 Volunteer Ministers worldwide who have served at 161 worst-case disaster sites.

For more information on Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps disaster response, visit blog.volunteerminsters.org.

Recently back from three weeks in Haiti, mother of eight and Scientology Volunteer Minister Donna Cooper, shown here at a Haiti orphanage, is already planning her return.

With only 16 days until she and her husband retire, Donna Cooper, mother of eight, grandmother and soon-to-be great grandmother from Pahrump, Nevada, is not planning how she will spend her well-earned leisure time. Instead she is boning up on how to avoid cholera and mosquito-borne tropical diseases as she prepares to return to Haiti to continue her work with the Scientology Disaster Relief Team in Port-au-Prince.

“As soon as my husband heard about the earthquake he looked at me and said ‘I know, you have to go,’” said Cooper. A Scientologist since 1997 and veteran of the Scientology Disaster Response in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, she immediately contacted the Church of Scientology of Las Vegas and the Volunteer Ministers Hotline to arrange transport to Port-au-Prince.

Cooper left from Los Angeles on a Scientology-sponsored charter flight January 21, the second of six such flights that have brought over 400 doctors, nurses and EMTs to Haiti and more than 200 Scientology Volunteer Ministers to support them in their work.

Most of the Volunteer Ministers worked in two of the Port-au-Prince hospitals or in clinics set up in tent cities in and around the city. But Cooper wanted to do what she did in New Orleans—take care of the people who are taking care of the disaster victims.  So Donna cooked and washed clothes for the doctors, nurses and Volunteer Ministers.

“The doctors were great,” she said. “They slept on the ground in sleeping bags just like the rest of us, they didn’t ask for special favors. They never complained about anything.”

“We didn’t have a kitchen-just a couple of two-burner hotplates,” she said.  “One day I grabbed two big bags of rice, 33 cans of soup, four cans of peas and cooked it all together. It was hard to believe, but everyone loved it.  People were so easy to please.  I did laundry for the doctors and nurses because they simply had no time to wash their own scrubs.”

“Between our camp and the UN area at the airport were huge stacks of donated food.  We would load it into a big truck to bring it to four local orphanages.  Doing the food drop one day, it really hit me that here are these kids who have nobody—homes gone, families gone—they just wanted to be hugged.  We’ve all had hardships in our lives, some more, some less, but nothing most people have experienced has been like that. The Haitians are amazing people.  They are so resilient, so strong.”

Cooper plans to return to Haiti mid-April, after she and her husband officially retire from farming.  Their oldest son and his wife and family are taking it over, which allows Cooper to be gone for as long as needed. “My husband is the most wonderful guy on the face of the Earth and he understands I have to go back,” she said.

Cooper explains why she is returning to Haiti when she could be enjoying the ease of retirement after operating a farm and raising a large family.  “A lot of volunteers have had to return home, but it isn’t over.  I can go back and I so badly want to go back.”

This time, Cooper’s 17-year-old daughter will go to Haiti with her.  “She wanted to come with me in January but I made her stay in school.  Now that she’s seen my pictures and read the journal I kept, I can’t keep her from going.”  The teenager will work alongside her mother, helping in the next phase of disaster relief.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps is an embracive program of the Church of Scientology that provides community service, disaster relief and emergency response. Created more than 30 years ago by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard, the program has expanded to 203,000 Volunteer Ministers worldwide who have served at 145 worst-case disaster sites.

For more information on the Scientology Haiti Disaster Response, visit the Volunteer Ministers blog at blog.volunteerministers.org.

Scientology Volunteer Minister David Dempster, a Scotsman who has lived in Clearwater, Florida for the past four years, was on the first Scientology-sponsored charter flight to Haiti on January 16, departing from JFK Airport in New York.   The aircraft transported more than 100 doctors, nurses and EMTs (emergency medical technicians) to Haiti, and a team of Volunteer Ministers to support them in their work.  Five more flights sponsored by Scientologists have provided transport for over 600 medical and support personnel on donated planes from New York, Los Angeles and Miami.  Dempster, who provided urgently needed administrative backup to doctors at two Port-au-Prince hospitals, is back in Florida now, and reflects on his experiences there.

Dempster was first deployed to General Hospital in Port-au-Prince.  “On our drive to the hospital, the physical destruction we saw was staggering,” he said.  “A local resident told me most buildings are made of concrete blocks to safeguard against hurricane damage, but this served them badly in the quake.  The damage was exacerbated by the common practice of mixing extra sand in the concrete to save money.  Because of this, the walls just crumbled in the earthquake.”

At General Hospital, Dempster’s team provided administrative backup to the doctors and nurses on duty.   “Our Volunteer Ministers organized incoming medical supplies, helped calm distressed patients, distributed water to patients, carried stretchers, helped deliver babies and assisted with amputations, of which there were many,” he said.

“We had a team of four or five Volunteer Ministers assisting the doctor who ran the Intensive Care Unit during the day and two Volunteer Ministers who took on overnight duty.  This made an enormous difference in the quality of patient care.”

Dempster also worked at the University of Miami tent hospital.  Medical staff had arrived in Haiti, but with no administrative personnel to support them.  This tied up the doctors, nurses and EMTs in administrative and logistics functions, drastically cutting into their patient care.  To free up the doctors and nurses, the Volunteer Ministers took over myriad administrative support functions.

Organization of medical supplies was the first critical need.  Donated supplies had been dropped off, unsorted and unlabeled, forming mountains of boxes, and the scene was consuming precious hours of doctors’ and nurses’ time trying to find a particular medication, a clamp or a syringe.  The Volunteer Ministers attacked the disarray of the supply tent, sorting and stacking, organizing and labeling, and setting up a distribution line to get needed items to medical personnel rapidly.  This handling of the supply tent by the Scientology Volunteer Ministers enabled the doctors and nurses to spend their time treating patients, with many lives saved as a direct result.

Another area of enormous need was the organizing and running of triage—registering incoming patients, giving them wristband IDs, and noting their visible injuries so doctors and nurses could more rapidly assess priorities.  Dempster was put in charge of the Volunteer Ministers in this area, replacing a nurse who had been doing this.  “She was very relieved to be able to get on with actual nursing duties,” he said, “while we Volunteer Ministers took care of administrative and logistics matters.”

Back in Florida, Dempster says the work still to be done is massive and he encourages others to volunteer.

To learn more, visit the Volunteer Ministers blog at blog.volunteerministers.org

On January 6, 2010, Annalisa Tissoni, President of the Church of Scientology of Milan, and Fiorella and Gaetano Cerchiara, President and Director respectively of the Association for Human Rights and Tolerance of Italy, presented a special gift to the village of Twewaa—a new school.  With the opening of this school, the second sponsored by Italian Scientologists, the children of the village gained an important human right, as stated in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—”the right to education.”

The Twewaa school opening ceremony included speeches by village Chief Nana Somua Nyampong II, Assembly Member Paul Adarkwah, and Chief Executive of Kwahu South District Assembly, Samuel Asomani.

“We involved the community in every aspect of the planning and construction of the school because it belongs to them,” said Ms. Tissoni.  They also hired local companies and artisans and purchased all raw materials for the construction from local merchants, as well as school supplies, clothes and shoes for the children and classroom furniture.

The project began three years ago when an educator in the Ghana capital city of Accra needed additional funds to complete the construction of a school. He invited Ms. Tissoni and Ms. Cerchiara to Ghana, and when they saw the need, they immediately decided to help.  With funds raised by the Milan Church of Scientology and the Association for Human Rights and Tolerance, the construction of the Untoma Oxford International School was completed, opening in August 2008 with some 300 children enrolled.

When the Untoma Oxford School was completed, Tissoni and Cerchiara visited outlying villages and chose Twewaa as their next project.  With the Twewaa school now opened, they are focusing on their third project, a school in a nearby village in Eastern Ghana, scheduled to open before the end of 2010.

“We have taken on this project because education is a basic human right and a vital component to creating a better world,” said Ms. Tissoni.  “Our Church is very much involved in promoting human rights awareness.  Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard said ‘Human rights must be made a fact, not an idealistic dream.’ By helping to build these schools, we are enabling the children to create a better future for themselves and their communities.”

To learn more about the human rights initiatives of the Church of Scientology, visit the Scientology website at www.scientology.org.

Scientologist,  Rich Girard, featured in article in the North Adams Transcript

By Ryan Hutton

Saturday February 20, 2010

ADAMS — While the world attempts to aid the nation of Haiti over a month after a massive earthquake left the country in shambles, one local man had decided to do what he can to assist the impoverished nation.

Rich Girard, a 63-year old building contractor from Adams has decided to join a group of Church of Scientology volunteers.  Girard said he had been mulling the idea of traveling to Haiti since he first heard about the disaster.

“I decided to go after I realized that going was a good way to do something more that what I would normally be doing,” he said. “It’s also a more direct way of helping than sending money.”

“The church has been sending down crews since the beginning,” Girard said. “They have hundreds of people down there helping and I realized that this is the slow season where I don’t have much work so I figured I should join them to see what I could do.”Girard said he hopes to use his experience as a building contractor to help with construction efforts in the country.

While he said he is both nervous and excited at the prospect of going to a disaster zone, Girard said he is prepared for the reality of living in a tent and working 16 to 18 hour days for at least the next four weeks.

“I’m a bit of both. I’m a little older than some of the other volunteers going down so I’m nervous to see if I can keep up.”

Girard is also bringing with him a half dozen soccer balls as a personal gift to the Haitians he meets as a way of helping to relieve the stress, strain and grief of the disaster.

“Playing a game isn’t going to be the cure to all the problems,” Girard said. “But when you’re playing a little soccer, maybe it’ll help take your mind off of it for at least a little while.”

NEW HAVEN (February 18, 2010)-Medical professional and Scientology Volunteer Minister Ayal Lindeman, working in Haiti since shortly after the January 12 earthquake, is keeping his promise today to a Haitian man whose leg was amputated to save his life.

Ralph-Mary Gedeon, 23, was attending classes at a Port-au-Prince engineering school on January 12 when his school collapsed in the earthquake, burying him alive. His father, Raphael Gedeon, rushed to the school and frantically climbed through the mountains of fallen building, calling his son’s name over and over until he heard Ralph-Mary crying out from the rubble. For hours, Raphael used his hands to try to dig Ralph out. Unable to move the heavy debris, he ran for help from friends and together they dug through the concrete, metal and dust. Not until a day and a half later did they finally reach Ralph.

Seriously injured and his left leg crushed, they took him to General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, where he met Ayal Lindeman.

A licensed practical nurse, emergency medical technician and Scientology Volunteer Minister trained in disaster relief, Lindeman had arrived in Haiti just days after the quake, on a Scientology-sponsored flight.  One of the first transport planes allowed into the country, it brought more than 100 Haitian doctors, nurses and EMTs and a support corps of Volunteer Ministers to assist them in providing medical care. Because of his training, Lindeman was assigned to head the organization of the intensive care unit of General Hospital.

Facing the worst conditions he had ever encountered, this veteran of 9/11 Ground Zero rescue operations, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and other worst-case disasters, Lindeman pulled together a team of medical professionals and Scientology Volunteer Ministers and started cleaning up the wards and organizing supply lines and prioritizing patient care for the overworked doctors. While the doctors were battling to save lives in primitive operating rooms, Lindeman and his team attended to patients lying on bare mattresses soiled with body waste and blood, some who had gone days without food or water.

Lindeman noticed Ralph-Mary Gedeon and his father Raphael who never left his side but could do little to ease the excruciating pain of his son’s oozing leg wound. Lindeman knew that even the massive doses of antibiotics Ralph was taking would not save his leg. His kidneys were failing. Only amputating the leg would save the man’s life.
But being an amputee in Haiti meant living life as an outcast. He would not be able to finish his engineering degree. He would be dependent on others the rest of his life. Ralph-Mary said he would rather die.

Lindeman, noticing the great love of the father, told Ralph, “You have to live a long life because some day your dad is going to need you the way he is here for you.” He promised Ralph that if he went through with the surgery, he would personally see to it that he got a prosthetic leg and the physical and occupational therapy he would need to live a normal life. Ralph went through with the operation—a mid-thigh amputation.

To keep his word, Lindeman contacted an old high school track teammate, Dr. Ralph Gibson, an orthopedic surgeon who teaches at Yale University and practices at the Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven.  Dr. Gibson agreed to take on the case. The Hospital of Saint Raphael agreed to cover his hospital stay.

Lindeman then contacted the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading (ISTAT)/Airlink which arranged with the owner of a private jet to bring Ralph to the United States.  He also obtained a medical visa for him. Today Lindeman and Gedeon arrive in Connecticut.  American Medical Response (AMR) will provide an ambulance from Tweed Airport in New Haven to the hospital. (The plane flies into Robinson Aviation at 50 Thompson Avenue in East Haven.)

Ayal Lindeman is living the motto of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps: “Something can be done about it.”

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps is an embracive program of the Church of Scientology to provide community service, disaster relief and emergency response. Created more than 30 years ago by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard, the program has expanded to 203,000 Volunteer Ministers worldwide.

A month after the earthquake, a Pasadena City College student and Scientology Volunteer Minister wants to make sure we do not forget Haiti.

On Sunday, February 14, CBS 4 in Miami interviewed Austin Eastlee on his way to Haiti as part of the Scientology Disaster Response Team.  The 20-year-old Pasadena City College graphic design student from Glendale, California, said he sees this as a critical point in the Haiti relief effort and this is the reason he is volunteering now.  It is the one-month anniversary of the earthquake and many aid workers and medical professionals have had to return home, but so much more help is needed.

Speaking about volunteer disaster relief, Eastlee told CBS 4 News in Miami, in an interview prior to takeoff to Haiti, “After everybody forgets about helping, we’re still going to be there and they’re still going to need us.  This is what people should be doing-helping people.”

“My friends said they were going and I thought about it and I decided this is what I should be doing.  Why not go to Haiti.  People are going there to help other people. I want to do that.”

Austin’s father, David, is proud of his son’s decision.  “He’s always been a guy who participates and helps and there’s nothing but love in his heart,” he said.  Austin trained to be a Scientology Volunteer Minister when he was 14 years old, although this is the first time he will use his training at a disaster site.  “It’s great that he can be there and contribute to others, help people and make a difference.  To be part of his dreams and support his dreams means everything to me.”

Isabelle Eastlee, Austin’s mother, was surprised when he said he was going to Haiti.  Once he decided, there was a lot to get done in very little time to go on the flight– passport, shots, rearranging personal commitments.  “He instantly did what he had to do to make it happen,” said his mother.  “I was very impressed.”

Austin doesn’t know what he will be doing in Haiti, but he knows he can put his Volunteer Minister training to good use and make a difference.  “I want to do anything that really helps,” he said.

Some of his Scientology Volunteer Minister friends are working in Port-au-Prince hospitals as surgical techs, others are responsible for the organization, inventorying, dispensing and maintenance of hospital medical and food supplies, and still others are helping medical professionals establish clinics in refugee camps.  Whatever the task, Austin is ready to learn and work hard.  “I just want to be there and help.  With my Volunteer Minister training, I can make a difference.”

The Church of Scientology has transported 430 medical professionals and 202 Scientology Volunteer Ministers to Haiti since the earthquake struck on January 12.  Miami-based Prudential Aviation donated the use of the aircraft for Sunday’s charter flight and earlier flights that left from New York Kennedy Airport on January 16 and 23 and Los Angeles on January 21, with fuel and all other operating costs donated by the International Association of Scientologists.

For more information on the Scientology Haiti Disaster Response, visit the Volunteer Ministers blog at blog.volunteerministers.org.

WSVN Miami presents coverage of the Scientology-sponsored Charter that left for Haiti from Miami 14 February, 2010.

MIAMI (WSVN) — More medical help is on its way to Haiti.

Nearly 50 doctors, nurses and EMT’s flying out from Miami International Airport to the quake devastated region of Port-au-Prince. The trip is being sponsored by the Church of Scientology. About 40 disaster response trained volunteer ministers will also be aboard. “We wanted to bring some medical expertise there and we would support them in what they were doing, because were talking long hours,” said Church Of Scientology volunteer Pat Harney.

To read more and watch the video click here.

A month after the earthquake, a physical therapist and her Volunteer Minister husband collect crutches for Haiti.

February 14—Long Island Scientologists Christina and Richard Panetta are sending a special gift to the people of Haiti—crutches. 

They are flying from Miami on the Scientology-sponsored chartered flight Sunday, February 14, and will join the Scientology Disaster Response Team that has been in Haiti since January 17, just five days after the quake. 

Before leaving their home in Bay Shore, New York, the Panettas organized a community drive for crutches and other vital supplies for Haiti.  A physical therapist, Christina will be working with earthquake victims, helping them learn to cope with serious injuries and amputations.  Richard, a Scientology Volunteer Minister, will assist his wife and carry out any needed projects to help in the recovery phase as part of the Disaster Response Team.

“In just 24 hours we secured trucking to Miami, sent out messages to everyone we know, set up two drop-off sites, gave our friends a tight deadline of 11 p.m., collected the crutches, brought them to the trucking site and wrapped them and loaded them on the truck, which is on its way to Miami,” said Richard.  “We filled two pallets with approximately 50 pairs of crutches and walkers, three physical therapy tables, two treatment chairs, and 13 boxes of first-aid supplies,” said Christina.  “Even in the middle of a major snowstorm people came out. They really were excited to help the Haiti relief effort.  They all wrote special messages on the crutches they donated.”

The Panetta’s 24-year-old son, JP, and 20-year-old daughter have opted to spend their spring break in March volunteering in Haiti with their parents. JP helped pack up the crutches and other equipment and supplies for shipping to Haiti by the Church of Scientology.

The Church of Scientology has sponsored five charter flights transporting over 400 medical professionals and more than 200 Scientology Volunteer Ministers to Haiti in the month since the earthquake.

For more information on the Scientology Disaster Response in Haiti, visit the Volunteer Ministers blog at blog.volunteerministers.org.

CBS Miami coverage of the departure of a Scientology-sponsored charter flight bringing doctors, other medical professionals and Volunteer Ministers to Haiti a month after the earthquake.

To watch the video, click here.

KLAS TV coverage on the opening of the new Church of Scientology and Celebrity Centre of Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS - The First Church of Scientology in Las Vegas dedicated a new building on Saturday. The relentless rain didn’t stop Saturday’s dedication. “We have opened new churches in cultural epicenters before, but talk about center stage, planet earth,” exclaimed Ecclesiastical Leader David Miscavige. “This one stands in a town so bright you can even see it glowing from deep space.”

Several public officials attended the grand opening, including Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman. “As the mayor of the fastest growing city, I look forward to partnering with you as the fastest growing religion,” Goodman said.

To read full article and view video, click here.

Elena, a Scientology Volunteer Minister who recently returned home to the United States from Haiti, shares her experiences working the night shift at the General Hospital critical care unit.

“There was an old lady who was so thin you could count her bones. She had probably not been doing well before the earthquake, and although there was really nothing wrong with her medically, the doctor decided to keep her in the hospital, concerned she would die if he discharged her.  She was lying in bed, eyes shut, not eating or reacting to anything at all.  I held her and fed her—tiny pieces of food, piece by piece, hoping it would make a difference.

When I came back the next day, the first thing I saw was this woman, sitting up in her bed, eyes wide open.  I smiled at her, she smiled back.  Well on the road to recovery.”

“One night as we waited at the hospital for the bus to bring us back to our camp, two men drove up on a motorcycle balancing an unconscious boy between them.  They let him down at our feet saying  ‘do what you can for him,’ and drove off.  He appeared to be about 10 years old.  He was barely breathing.  We raced off to get the help of a doctor, who set the child up with an IV.  I was holding the boy when he suddenly opened his eyes and gave me a big smile—very much alive. Another casualty who made it.”

To learn about the Scientology Haiti Disaster Response, join the effort or lend support, visit the Volunteer Ministers blog at blog.volunteerministers.org.

The Haiti earthquake of January 12 that killed over 200,000 and left an estimated 300,000 injured and needing treatment instantly, overwhelmed the Haitian medical facilities.  Ayal Lindeman, a licensed practical nurse, EMT and Scientology Volunteer Minister, was one of the first responders to the disaster.  A veteran of relief efforts, he served at Ground Zero after 9/11/01 and at Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but he says nothing prepared him for what he saw when he first arrived at the Port-au-Prince General Hospital.

Doctors were battling to save lives in the OR, performing operations under primitive conditions without anesthetics, sterilization or even the most basic supplies or equipment.  Lindeman, another Volunteer Minister, Dr. Darrell Craig, a dentist from California, went straight to work to do everything possible to assist.  At the end of the first day Lindeman and Craig learned that there was no night shift in place to care for the patients and took on the overnight care of four wards holding 40 patients in critical condition.

They found patients lying on beds without sheets, their bodies soiled with body waste and blood.   Three patients had died there in the past hour alone, and realizing many of the patients wouldn’t make it without care, they worked through the night until the International Medical Corps arrived at 8:00 the next morning.  Two patients nearly died that night.  One pulled his IV out and almost bled to death, the other nearly drowned from a build-up of fluid in the lungs.

Night in the wards had other challenges.  When the lights failed, Lindeman and Craig were forced to care for patients by flashlight until army medics gave them chem sticks–plastic tubes that provide light for five hours when broken open.

There were so many patients and so few professional resources, patients’ families were providing most of the patient care.  But food was scarce.  Not only was there none for the families, there was none for the patients, so Lindeman and Craig procured food and water for the patients and their families.

One night, a patient suffered a major cardiac and respiratory crisis, and there was no medication or oxygen to help him through it.  A Russian doctor on duty and an Emergency Room doctor who had been a US Army field surgeon improvised, mixing the medications they did have, and together they kept the patient alive long enough to get him airlifted to the United States for the surgery he needed to save his life.

One young man on the ward was told if they didn’t amputate his leg, he would die.  He refused to have the operation, saying he didn’t want to live with one leg.  Lindeman talked calmly with him, helping him look at his options.  In the end, he chose to live, and went through with the operation.

Lindeman was assisting in a surgery when a young woman’s abdominal bleeding became life threatening with no clamps to stop it.  Lindeman used his Leatherman, an all-purpose tool, as a clamp, which kept her alive long enough to get her moved to the USS Comfort hospital ship for the help she needed.

Lindeman’s team has continued working at General Hospital for the past three weeks, caring for 50 to 300 patients a night, often pulling 20-hour shifts.  The wards are now cleaner and lighting is better, and they are staffed day and night.

The work continues, and as volunteers begin to return home, more are needed to carry on a relief effort that the Secretary General of the International Red Cross has predicted will last for another six months to a year.

To learn how to join the Scientology Disaster Response Team or to support them in their work, visit the Volunteer Ministers blog at blog.volunteerministers.org

Members of the Scientology Disaster Response Team speak of their work at the hospitals in Port-au-Prince since the Haiti earthquake. 

Scientology Volunteer Ministers arriving in a Church-sponsored chartered flight January 22 were dispatched to the University of Miami Hospital Tent near the Port-au-Prince airport.  There they took on whatever tasks were needed to support the doctors and nurses in their work.

Struggling to contend with the volume of seriously ill and injured earthquake victims, doctors were working without basic equipment and supplies and were unable to find even what they did have on hand in the mounds of donated boxes and bags randomly piled into a supplies area.  The Scientology Disaster Response Team took on the job of organizing the supply tent where the two tons of medicines and equipment had been hastily unloaded.  At the end of a full day of heavy lifting, moving, categorizing and shelving, the Volunteer Ministers were able to provide whatever the doctors and nurses requested.

Next, Volunteer Ministers were asked to take on the daunting task of procuring food and the feeding of patients, many of whom had gone days without eating.  At first, meals consisted of the contents of a random self-opening can and a bottle of water, handed out to the patients three times a day.  Then a French-speaking American volunteer helped set up a kitchen facility where Haitian food was cooked, much to the benefit of the patients.

“We did everything from inventorying medications to unloading and transporting survivors who had been flown in on Black Hawk helicopters,” said one of the volunteers.

Another team of Scientology Volunteer Ministers was sent to Port-au-Prince General Hospital.  “Our volunteers did anything and everything,” said a Volunteer Minister team leader at General Hospital.  “They were caring for patients suffering from the worst possible conditions. The whole team worked so hard, knowing the doctors and nurses relied on us.  We were not only providing care, it was as though the patients were our sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers. Saving the lives of these patients transcended any form of kinship I have ever felt.”

“Anyone going to Haiti should know one thing,” cautioned volunteer.  “They are going into very harsh conditions.  The ideal volunteers are men and women between the ages of 18 and 40 in good physical shape and with no serious medical issues.”

For information on how to volunteer or to support the Scientology Disaster Response Team, visit the Volunteer Ministers blog at blog.volunteerministers.org.

First responder Dr. Darrell Craig, DMD, volunteered in Haiti, experiencing “no supplies, very unsanitary conditions, too many patients and very little time.”

Santa Monica, California, dentist Darrell Craig had no idea what to expect when he arrived in Haiti. “It was disaster beyond belief,” he said.

Assigned to General Hospital, he and Scientology Volunteer Minister Ayal Lindeman, who is also an EMT and LPN, tackled the night shift of the Critical Care Unit with “no supplies, very unsanitary conditions, too many patients and very little time.”

With two to four hours of sleep a day in the first week, they cleaned up the wards, searched for and located vitally needed supplies, and improvised tools to perform life-saving procedures, often in the dark because of power failures.

While in Haiti, Dr. Craig also examined the teeth of children at a local orphanage, and set up rudimentary medical clinics at a refugee camp and a nearby island, where he and two doctors treated wounds and the doctors did physical exams.

“I cried many times while I was there, but I feel I was able to contribute to the welfare of these people, even though far below what I would like to do and what they need,” said Dr. Craig. “I would do it all again in a minute. The Haitians are fabulous and resilient people and they will overcome this.  And I will be ever grateful to have been a part of this phase of the rebuilding of their country.”

When she heard that the Church of Scientology had chartered a plane to bring medical supplies, doctors, nurses and volunteer support to Haiti, Elena, a Scientology Volunteer Minister and staff member at the Church of Scientology of Tampa, called her sister Michaela and booked a seat for both of them on the January 16 flight.

They arrived in Haiti five days after the 7.0 earthquake destroyed most of the city of Port-au-Prince. With a hold-full of medical supplies, the plane brought over a hundred doctors, nurses and EMTs to provide urgently needed care and a team of Scientology Volunteer Ministers to support them in their work.

As soon as they touched down they got to work, the Volunteer Ministers unloading the medical supplies with the help of military personnel.  Getting to sleep at 3 in the morning, the volunteers were awake again at dawn to begin their first day at General Hospital.

The hospital had been so thoroughly destabilized by the earthquake, patients had been moved out onto lawns and sidewalks. Lacking even the most basic equipment, supplies and administrative support, doctors were battling to save lives.

Elena and her team were assigned to the critical care unit.  They resolved that no matter what was required of them, they were going to provide any possible assistance so the doctors and nurses could save lives.

First priority was feeding patients—in the chaos since the earthquake, some of the patients had not eaten for three or four days.   Next was helping in any way they could to get patients ready for surgery.  With the doctors working non-stop in the operating room, there were patients unable to receive needed surgery for want of x-rays, so the volunteers organized the area and sped up the process, getting needed x-rays done so the doctors could operate.

With the doctors working grueling 12-hour shifts, there had been no personnel working through the night, so Elena and her team worked out a night shift so the patients were always attended.

“I have never felt as proud but humble as I am to have been in Haiti as a Scientology Volunteer Minister,” said Elena.  “This was a team you could totally count on, all of us doing more than we ever thought possible, working for exactly the same purpose—to help the people of this country.”

For more information on the work of the Scientology Haiti Disaster Relief Team, visit the Volunteer Ministers Blog at blog.volunteerministers.org.

French Scientologists Claude and Catherine Remise bring Scientology and Dianetics to the villages of Mali.

Formed in 2007 by French Scientologists Catherine and Claude Remise, the Maliane Association celebrates its third anniversary this month providing basic Dianetics and Scientology services to the people of the Western Africa Republic of Mali.

“We love our work,” said Catherine.  “Wherever we go, we involve the entire community.  We meet with the local chief, the mayor, community leaders and women’s groups, we find out what they see as the primary problems in their town or village and we provide services to fill those needs.”

For the second year in a row, Catherine and Claude were joined late last year by two other French Scientologists, Laurence Rolland and Sébastien Vallois, who spent the month of November providing Dianetics workshops, seminars and counseling in Bamako, the capital and largest city of Mali, and Bougouni, a village 170 km to the south.   Dianetics is a spiritual healing technology that can help alleviate such ailments as unwanted sensations and emotions, irrational fears and psychosomatic illnesses (illness caused or aggravated by mental stress).  In the Dianetics seminar, attendees immediately began to apply these techniques to one another.

As children comprise nearly half the population of Mali, the Maliane Association concentrates largely on youth programs. Describing the children as “full of vitality, joy, humor and insouciance,” Claude and Catherine are committed to helping them to live better lives, with seminars and courses in communication, Study Technology and moral values, based on the works of Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers were recognized for their Haiti disaster response by Georgia  Senate Resolution 998, passed on February 8, 2010, which states:

“WHEREAS, the Volunteer Ministers’ selfless service to the nation of Haiti and the survivors of one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in the history of the Western World stands as a true example of compassionate humanitarianism and is worthy of recognition.

“NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE that the members of this body commend the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps on its tradition and history of service to others and extend their utmost respect and thanks for the Volunteer Ministers’ altruistic service to the people of Haiti.”

To read the full resolution click here.

LAS VEGAS, Nevada—Fifteen hundred Scientologists and their guests from across Nevada and the Western United States gathered Saturday for the grand opening celebration of the new Church of Scientology of Las Vegas. The 40,000-square-foot Church, located at 2761 Emerson Avenue, will serve parishioners from throughout Nevada and represents significant growth for the congregation formed in Las Vegas 40 years ago.

Mr. David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board of Religious Technology Center and ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion, presided at the evening dedication ceremony, welcoming the assembled Scientologists and guests to their new Church.  He was enthusiastically acknowledged by those in attendance for dedicating the Las Vegas Church and for his instrumental role in making it possible.

Special guests participating in the dedication of the new Church included United States Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, Las Vegas City Council member Steven Ross, and Las Vegas Neighborhood Services Department specialist and mayor’s representative to the Community Interfaith Council Maria Castillo-Couch.

In welcoming the parishioners and guests, Mr. Miscavige said, “You don’t get much closer to the spirit of what we represent than a city that rests on the dreams of artists and treats everybody as somebody.  So, yes, we have opened new Churches in cultural epicenters before.  But talk about ‘Center Stage Planet Earth.’  This one stands in a town so bright you can even see it glowing from deep space.  And now it’s home to our newest Church of Scientology and Celebrity Centre Las Vegas.”

The Mayor of Las Vegas, Oscar Goodman, welcomed the new Church: “Artistic creativity not only transforms the way a city is perceived, but the way its residents think of themselves. It changes their entire outlook and attitude towards life itself. That is where you play an especially vital role. Therefore as the mayor of the fastest-growing city, I look forward to partnering with you as the fastest-growing religion.”

In her address, Congresswoman Berkley acknowledged the human rights initiatives of the Church: “It is more than encouraging to find your members moving effectively among Las Vegas families, school groups, youth organizations, and other community-based organizations, to provide effective human rights education. It is through such effective community involvement and contribution that the Church of Scientology will continue to strengthen this nation and build a worldwide foundation for peace.”

Talking about the new Church, Mr. Miscavige said that Celebrity Centres are those special Churches of Scientology designed to enhance a culture by enhancing the artist.

“The first of this new breed was opened only just last year in Nashville—otherwise known as Music City, USA,” he said.  “But as your honorable Mayor pointed out, what plays in this city now plays in every other cultural capital on earth.

“And even more than that—and with all due respect to your Mayor’s modesty—it’s not a London, a Paris, a Tokyo, Milan or New York that tops the résumé of international performers these days. No, it’s the fact one can say:  ‘I do Las Vegas, which is Show Town planet Earth.’

“So, yes—and unquestionably—when L. Ron Hubbard spoke of ‘art as viewed by people, heard by people and felt by people, because art is not just the fodder of a close-knit group of initiates but the soul food of all people…’ he might well have been speaking of what this city represents as a worldwide capital of art and entertainment—a place where big shows qualify as an ‘act of God’ and there are no words for ‘over the top,’ so long as people are enthralled,” Mr. Miscavige continued.

“All of which is why it’s more than a little significant that we now cut a ribbon on an Ideal Organization that embodies what else LRH said about art—and I quote:

“‘A culture is only as great as its dreams and its dreams are dreamed by artists.’

“But still that’s not all this new Ideal Organization represents.  Because as an Ideal Church of Scientology, it’s amply equipped to embrace everyone else who makes up this culture.  Those in the wings of every performance, those who service, care for, prop up and cater to every entertainer—as they, too, are Las Vegas, so this Church is also theirs.  And the same again for everyone else who pumps the lifeblood through this city: Its technicians, its teachers, its cops, its cooks, its managers and professionals of every description—what this Church affords is likewise theirs for the asking.

“So if drug abuse and addiction plagues every showbiz palace, then spills out all over the streets—this Church can make a difference,” he said.  “In point of fact, you have our anti-drug programs that routinely knock down usage rates 40, 50 and 60 percent wherever they play.  Then again, if there are kids out there who will never come close to achieving any meaningful goal for the simple fact they cannot read and cannot study, we have a technology that just as routinely raises literacy rates two and three grade levels in a matter of weeks.  And if there are households out there in discord and contentious rifts in the neighborhoods, you have our common sense guide to living, The Way to Happiness. And wherever else social fabrics fray and citizens fall through the safety net, this Church is here to help.”

Set on five acres of desert landscape, the former synagogue and school has undergone extensive renovation to accommodate all Scientology religious services and also serve as a home for the community services the Church provides through the many activities and humanitarian programs of its members.

An expansive Public Information Center houses a permanent multimedia exhibit describing the Church’s beliefs and practices and he life and legacy of Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard. Displays also cover the Church-sponsored humanitarian and social betterment programs that offer practical answers to the societal ills of crime, drug abuse, illiteracy, declining moral values and natural and man-made disasters. These programs represent the work of the Church of Scientology in servicing every community in which they reside as well as other communities around the world.

There is also a Chapel for Sunday services, weddings, naming ceremonies and other congregational gatherings including workshops and seminars for artists; spiritual counseling rooms; course rooms for religious study; seminar rooms; a bookstore containing the written and spoken materials of L. Ron Hubbard; and Community Relations offices and meeting rooms to coordinate social betterment programs with like-minded organizations in the community. There are spacious lounges and a central courtyard to serve as a gathering place for artists and community visitors, in keeping with the unique purpose of a Scientology Celebrity Centre to help the artist and thereby benefit the culture as a whole.

In closing the dedication ceremony, Mr. Miscavige spoke of the significance for Las Vegas of the new Church: “Yours is a city that rose out of sand to become an artistic empire and inspire the world. As such, it really is a place of dreams—and extravagant dreams at that. So as we, too, know what it means to build upon a dream, let this new Church of Scientology signify the fact we believe in your artists, we respect the audacity of your vision—and together, we can light up this city so brightly, it will shine unto eternity.”

Accompanied by local Scientologists who spearheaded the drive to build the new Church, Mr. Miscavige cut the ribbon and invited all to enter.

Las Vegas is the third new Church of Scientology opened in 2010 and the eighth in the past year. The Brussels branch of Churches of Scientology for Europe was opened on January 23. The Church of Scientology of Quebec was dedicated on January 30 by Mr. Miscavige, the first new major Church to open in Canada. In October 2009, Mr. Miscavige dedicated two major Churches: the Founding Church of Scientology of Washington, DC, and the Church of Scientology of Rome. In April 2009, he officiated at the openings of Scientology Churches in Nashville, Tennessee; Dallas, Texas; and Malmo, Sweden.

These Churches join the roster of new Churches of Scientology in the world’s cultural capitals, including the National Church of Scientology of Spain in Madrid’s Neighborhood of Letters; the Church of Scientology of New York, just off Times Square; the Church of Scientology of San Francisco, California, in the original historic Transamerica Building; the Church of Scientology of London, England, located in the epicenter of the city; and the Church of Scientology of Berlin, Germany, near the Brandenburg Gate.

Another 12 new Churches of Scientology are scheduled for completion before the end of the year.