Charlotte-Shelburne Rotary - Newsletter

On a sunny afternoon in September 1979, Rotarians and delegates of the Philippine Ministry of Health looked on as volunteers administered drops of the lifesaving Sabin polio vaccine to about 100 children in the Manila barrio of Guadalupe Viejo.

The date was 29 September, and when then-RI President James L. Bomar Jr. put the first drops of vaccine into a child’s mouth, ceremonially launching the Philippine poliomyelitis immunization effort, Rotary’s first Health, Hunger and Humanity (3-H) Grant project was underway.

Hundreds of Philippine Rotarians and community members were on hand as Enrique M. Garcia, the country’s minister of health, joined with Bomar to sign the contract committing Rotary International and the government of the Philippines to the joint five-year effort to immunize about six million children against polio in a US$760,000 immunization drive.

The success of the project ultimately led to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, of which Rotary is a spearheading partner, created in 1988 by a unanimous vote of the World Health Assembly. It also set the stage for Rotary’s signature campaign to rid the world of polio.

On the 30th anniversary of the first 3-H grant, that campaign is moving forward as strongly as ever. Through the work of Rotary and its partners, the number of polio cases has been slashed by more than 99 percent. When Rotary began its eradication work, polio infected more than 350,000 children annually. In 2008, fewer than 2,000 cases were reported worldwide.

Global health experts have stepped up efforts to end the disease in the four countries where is remains endemic – Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan. Rotary’s US$200 Million Challenge, which ends 30 June 2012, is seen as crucial to the initiative’s success.

Coming Up

10/7 – Jennifer Poulin of Poulin Performance Rehab including demonstration
10/14 – Adam Knudsen of Dynapower discussing new wave battery technologies
10/21 – Howard Seaver on City to City program
10/24 – District 7850 Fall meeting at Randolph Union High School in Randolph, VT

Car Raffle

Fritz Horton said that pumpkin raffle tickets are available for sale for $10 each. When 25 have been sold, a winner is drawn to receive a $250 car raffle ticket.

Volunteers are needed for set up, tear down, desserts for the dinner.

Anyone who would like to buy a $250 ticket – or can suggest names to Ric Flood for possible sale of $250 tickets – step right up.

Halloween Parade

All under control.

Sergeant at Arms

Don Condon (with Kris Engstrom as his collector) levied scoot fines from Fritz Horton and Judy Christensen and late fines from Carole Obuchowski and Paul Bohne.

He encouraged everyone to check the members’ directory online and get their information and pictures posted – it’s easy, he says.

Happy fines:

Susan McLellan – she isn’t angry enough to fit in at the Anarchy Table
Pat Sokolowski – happy for the recent market action
Fritz Horton – advice for anyone considering a construction project – do it now
Judith Christensen --- thanks to everyone for the success of the Harvest Festival – to Rotary for handling the parking so smoothly and for setting the tone for the day for the people as they arrive – it’s a great partnership with Shelburne Farms
Linda Gilbert – the Hands to Honduras team, Al Gilbert and Norm Robinson, got home safely from their expedition to Honduras to make plans for the 2010 projects in Tela – they spent several days restricted to their hotel in Tela because of the country-wide curfew.
Michael Lash – his wife is on a business trip to California – and she arrived safely
Joan Lenes – 29 years of wedded bliss – deserving of a celebration
Russ Blodgett – the Red Sox made it as Wild Card
Trafton Crandell – celebrating his granddaughter’s second birthday
John Beal – a trip to Block Island – and the Jetts – and the freshman hitting a home run on his first time at bat
Robert Maynes – Robert now has another new bank -- TD Bank North is now TD Bank – if only he has a sign painting or business card printing business
Carol Moore—celebrating hr 24th anniversary
John Dupee – a pin fine – and a happy fine for the fact that Denny is loading the right kind of van for a move
Mal Parker – for his 60th birthday and the great tickets his children got for him
Don observed that for the fourth week in a row, the person he had planned to make the object of his “Where’s Waldo” search, showed up at the meeting – Mal had been his “WW” target for the week.
Terrell Titus – for spending the weekend with her granddaughter
John Hammer – just listen to the weather forecast – the ‘s’ word.
Kris Engstrom – six perfect days in Maine (no rain) – participating in a lovely weekend on the weekend with her visiting daughter Erica.
Don Condon – for a gathering at Fort Drum in anticipation of the deployment of his daughter and her husband to Iraq

Lucky draw: One of the tickets held by the anarchy table was drawn but they didn’t choose the right card to win the $548 prize

Pumpkin Raffle: Howard Seaver won the first Pumpkin Raffle.

Club Assembly

President John reported that we are “on budget” and that the challenge he would issue is for everyone to bring more guests. Rusty deWeese will be the speaker at a November meeting –members will be welcome to bring as many as two guests to that meeting.

He will reactivate the “getting to know you” program with new members sitting with the secretary at check-in for a few weeks to get to recognize names and faces.

The finance committee is reviewing requests for donations.