Stories

The Paul Harris Fellow recognition acknowledges individuals who contribute, or who have contributions made in their name, of US$1,000 to The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International.

It was established in 1957 to show appreciation for and encourage substantial contributions to what was then the Foundation’s only program, Rotary Foundation Fellowships for Advanced Study, the precursor to Ambassadorial Scholarships. 

1. Each club and individuals in that club who purchase ducks will be represented by a single duck in the race.
2. The first three ducks to cross the finish line will be the winners. Once the three winning clubs have been determined, a computer pick at random will choose one winner of a Paul Harris Fellow designation for each of the three winning clubs.
3. Each club participating in the race will receive Foundation Paul Harris Fellow points for the full amount of dollars contributed by the club through the purchase of ducks.

For many years our club was a leader in district 5970 in supporting The Rotary Foundation. As of June 30, 2017, members of our club had given over $300,000. But in recent years total gifts have plummeted to only $2,275. That works out to $47 per member, about one third of the average from all clubs in the district. There are several potential reasons for the drop in giving, including lack of understanding how the foundation works, how donations are spent and how highly it is regarded in the eyes of others.

Give the gift of Rotary today and be a part of the positive change Rotarians are making in your community and around the world. Every gift makes a difference.

For nearly 40 years Rotarians and our partners have been working to rid the world of polio.

When we started in the mid 1980’s, public officials reported over 600,000 new cases every year. And there was wide belief that tens of thousands of new cases went unnoticed. We’ve adopted the tag line, “This close.”

final report for 2017 shows only 21 new cases of the wild polio virus (WPV) and another 74 circulating cases, defined as cases of person to person circulation within a community (i.e., family).

Rotarians can support our effort by making gifts to The Rotary Foundation and earmarking it for polio eradication.

Rotary members in Harvard, Illinois, USA, have teamed up with community groups to help alleviate hunger and bring the community together.  

With the goals of alleviating hunger and educating the community, master gardeners from University of Illinois Extension planted the garden in 2001 on a half-acre parcel donated by the city and adjacent to the public library. Over the years, the master gardeners have enlisted the support of many businesses, organizations, and clubs, including the Rotary Club of Harvard, making the project a community-wide effort. 

As many as 250 needy families benefit from the 10,000 pounds of vegetables that are grown and donated every year to the local food pantry. The fresh produce serves as a safety net for many families. 

For more than 100 years, The Rotary Foundation has been supporting Rotarians' work to create sustainable solutions to our world's most pressing needs. But there is still much to do, and we need your help.

Rotary gives in countless ways, focusing our service efforts in six areas: promoting peace, fighting disease, providing clean water, saving mothers and children, supporting education, and growing local economies. We're also working hard to end polio once and for all.

Give the gift of Rotary today and be a part of the positive change Rotarians are making in your community and around the world. Every gift makes a difference.

What can your donation do? Here's a few ideas...

'Breathe' details life of British polio survivor Robin Cavendish, who contracted the disease in Kenya in 1958

Pakistan and Nigeria replace paper-based reporting with fast, accurate cellphone messaging

Tim Combs

2. Celebrities have become ambassadors in our fight to end the disease. They include WWE wrestling superstar John Cena, actress Kristen Bell, action-movie star Jackie Chan, golf legend Jack Nicklaus, Grammy Award-winning singers Angelique Kidjo and Ziggy Marley, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, anthropologist Dr. Jane Goodall, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Bill Gates, and world-renowned violinist and polio survivor Itzhak Perlman.

3. Health workers and Rotary volunteers have climbed mountains, crossed deserts, and sailed to remote islands, risking their lives to vaccinate children against this disease. Rotary has funded more than 1,500 motorbikes and 6,700 other vehicles, as well as 17 boats, to make those journeys. Vaccinators have even traveled on the backs of elephants, donkeys, and camels to immunize children in remote areas.

4. In Pakistan, the polio program emphasizes hiring local female vaccinators and monitors. More than 21,000 vaccinators, 83 percent of whom are women, are achieving the highest immunization coverage rates in the country’s history.

5. Thanks to the efforts of Rotary and its partners, more than 16 million people who otherwise might have been paralyzed are walking today. In all, more than 2.5 billion children have been vaccinated since 1988.

Get ready for the 5th annual World Polio Day event, co-hosted with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Streaming live from Gates Foundation headquarters in Seattle, the event will bring together more than 50,000 viewers around the world. Join global health experts and celebrities sharing the progress on the road to polio eradication.

The following story is taken from Rotary’s on-line newsletter under the heading, “Understanding the recent polio outbreaks”

• To encourage and assist youth leaders and potential leaders in methods of responsible and effective leadership by providing them with a training experience;
• To encourage continued and stronger leadership of youth by youth; and
• To publicly recognize the outstanding qualities of many young people who are rendering service to their schools and communities as leaders.

He is the former president of the African Development Bank

Join us in a fight to the finish to eradicate polio, a crippling and completely preventable disease.

As a long-time member of Rotary, I'm happy to report good news in celebration of World Polio Day 2016 on October 24: If we can vaccinate children in the remote areas of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria, we can end polio and protect all of the world's children.

The Club has undergone some big changes in the recent months and as highlighted by club president Lauren Finke during last Monday’s meeting, volunteers are needed to assist with some roles to make the Club and the weekly meetings run smoothly. Here’s a rundown on the needs: