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Due to the Steak Fry this week, we will NOT have a regular meeting Monday, June 29th.  Our next meeting will be July 6th.

 Donors of $1,000 or more to the Annual Programs Fund, PolioPlus, or the Humanitarian Grants Program, or people who have that amount contributed in their name, can be recognized as Paul Harris Fellows. Henry Edsil and Mason Fromm have reached that goal, and were presented their certificates Monday. 

Becoming a Paul Harris fellow is a very important part of being a Rotarian, as every amount contributed to The Rotary Foundation is spent in support of humanitarian, educational, and cultural programs and their operations. Clubs and districts apply for and receive Foundation grants to carry out worthy projects worldwide.

You can email Kelli to have just $25 added to your dues each quarter.  Of course, you can also contribute the full $1,000 all at once, like one of our newest members, Tom Arthur.

            Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair Jonathon Majiyagbe told attendees at the annual convention that over $90 million had been given to date. But even before he read the number, it was out of date as delegates and Rotarians around the world continued to make gifts.

            When the challenge to march a $100 million grant from the Gates Foundation was made in February, 2008, Rotary was given three years to match it- -by December, 2010. But a second challenge this February raised the bar to $200 million.

            During his visit to Egypt earlier this month, President Barack Obama called for a new effort with Islamic countries to eradicate polio. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has earmarked $130 million in next year's budget for polio eradication.

World Health Official Upbeat About Polio Progress

            Dr, Bruce Erdman, who is in charge of all immunization efforts at the United Nations' World Health Organization, sounded positive notes Tuesday about the fight.

            He said that of the three types of polio, one has been eradicated, and that a new, more powerful bi-valiant vaccine has recently been put into use in India and Nigeria.

            He predicted that India might be declared polio free in 2010. This is a huge development since it was the world's leading source of polio for decades.

Buchanan, of the Rotary Club of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, is a retired food technologist and scientist. He studied agriculture and science as a 1959-60 Ambassadorial Scholar at IowaStateUniversity in Ames. His research has led to improvements in food production to support developing nations and emergency relief activities.

Among Buchanan's accomplishments are the development of the Australian milk biscuit, a high-protein biscuit used by the Australian government and many Rotary clubs for emergency food aid, and the creation of affordable, nutritionally balanced infant food for health centers in Thailand.

               It's day two at the Rotary convention and the talk was about ways Rotarians can help the world's poorest survive

It's Monday, June 22, and day two of Rotary's 100^th convention, this one in Birmingham, UK.

            At the morning general session Clarissa Brocklehurst, chief of the United Nation's Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, asked Rotarians and Rotary clubs to continue to help the world's poorest countries improve in those three critical areas, which she refers to as taps, toilets and soaps. Ms. Brocklehurst told her audience that one billion people in the world (about one sixth) do not have access to clean drinking water and 2.5 billion don't have access to good sanitation. The second item results in five thousand deaths every day, mostly from pneumonia and diarrhea. She added that poor sanitation is a major contributing factor in the spread of polio.

            If that's not bad enough, she added that one half of the world's schools to not offer clean water and two thirds do not have modern bathrooms, two things we take for granted.

Shelter Boxes becoming a huge benefit after disaster strikes

            Ten years ago when shelter boxes were introduced to Rotarians, nobody believed they would become as popular as they have. Since then the non-profit group has responded to 70 disasters in 50 countries shipping about 50,000 boxes

            Rotarian Tom Henderson, founder and CEO of ShelterBox told attendees that many agencies such as the Red Cross supply food, medicines and water, but not housing. ShelterBox provides large tents capable of housing up to ten people, along with warn beds, water purification equipment, cooking aids, toolkits and children's' packs. The cost of about $1,000 covers delivery to anywhere in the world where they are needed For details, go to www.shelterbox.org.

Mason Fromm well known at Clubrunner

            Representatives of Clubrunner, the software program designed especially for Rotary club administration, has a booth at the Birmingham convention and most of the stall there knows our president (in a good way).

            Halle, the marketing director, told us she plans to do a case study on the success we've had at our web site.

Perlman Concert also well known

            We asked Rotary staffers in the exhibit hall if they knew about our project November 8 involving Itzhak Perlman and they all said yes.

            Apparently the project to raise funds for polio eradication has been the topic of excited conversation conversation and at last report staffers were asking for 20 tickets to the November 8 event.

               Rotary International President D. K. Lee of Korea had a hand in planning the program for the opening general session Sunday, June 21 in England and he made it a virtual Korean festival with dancers, a children's choir, an opera singer, a tae kwon do demonstration and a drum band from his native land along with the traditional opening speech from the president.

               But it was a surprise presentation by another Korean that stole the show. Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations made a major address to the group praising Rotary for not giving up the fight to eradicate polio. "I'm with you in this great campaign," he said. The secretary general participated in a polio immunization effort in India this year with Rotarians and he told the 9,000 in attendance that UN employees, tired after long days in the field fighting this chldhood disease, become re-energized when they run into Rotary volunteers doing the same thing.

               Moon also called on Rotarians to work in other areas of "social justice" especially in areas of child mortality which he reported has dropped by 27 percent in the last ten years.

Lightning fast Kevin McCrindle knew our father-son Rotarians from the 80's last week!

Larry and Mark Winninger joined our club on the SAME day in 1980, and they'll start their 30th year of service to our club in December.  Mark commented to me that he misses having his jet-black moustache!