TODAY
Our program today will focus on Rotary’s efforts to End Polio Now. Our speaker is LYNETTE SPANGENBERG. LYNETTE contracted polio as a young girl and is eager to share her personal experience with the disease, and the life- long aftereffects.
LAST WEEK
ANDREW CHRISTOPHERSON, the Head of School for The Grove School, shared the foundation and growth of The Grove School. Some of what we LEARNED is that their learning is based the “Erdkinder” model which is a Montessori term referring to the “land-children” or “earth- children” of the third plane of development (ages 12-18) and the corresponding prepared environment that responds to the needs and characteristics of this age. Experiential work is done both within nature (the land) and to supernature (human’s work). The Grove school also uses the “Logic Model” which has short-term and long-term outcomes which ultimately help mold Independent, Responsible, and Engaged Community Members.
NEXT WEEK
District Governor DON CASPER will share his vision and goals for our 2022-2023 Rotary year.
DON started his Rotary journey in April 2014 with the Rotary Club of Indio, CA. In his time there, he led the club as President in 2017-18, served as the Public Relations Chair for six years, as well as the Membership Chair for one year. DON has spearheaded or assisted with many project committees with the club, including chairing the club’s signature event – the Coachella Valley Middle School Math Field Day.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
• Come prepared today for our auction and the End Polio Now jar!
• Good news, we are up to 12 bottles of wine for our wine auction! Come ready to bid on some great wines on 9/29!
• Rotary meetings are once again HYBRID. While we really want to see your happy faces in person, we realize that for some it is very difficult, and we want everyone to attend Rotary! Please come in person if you are able, otherwise watch for the Zoom link in your email!
THE ROOTS OF ROTARY’S POLIO ERADICATION EFFORTS
On 29 September 1979, volunteers administered drops of oral polio vaccine to children at a health center in Guadalupe Viejo, Makati, Philippines. The event in metropolitan Manila was arranged and attended by Rotarians and delegates from the Philippine Ministry of Health.
When JAMES L. BOMAR JR., then RI president, put the first drops of vaccine into a child’s mouth, he ceremonially launched the Philippine poliomyelitis immunization effort. Rotary’s first Health, Hunger and Humanity (3-H) Grant project was underway.
BOMAR and ENRIQUE M. GARCIA, the country’s minister of health, had earlier signed an agreement committing Rotary International and the government of the Philippines to a joint multiyear effort to immunize about 6 million children against polio, at a cost of about $760,000.
In a 1993 interview, BOMAR reminisced about the trip. He recalled how the brother of one of the children he had immunized tugged on his pant leg to get his attention and said, “Thank you, thank you, Rotary.”
The project’s success led Rotary to make polio eradication a top priority. Rotary launched PolioPlus in 1985 and was a founding member of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988. Through decades of commitment and work by Rotary and our partners, more than 2.5 billion children have received the oral polio vaccine.
PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
I’m warming up my auctioneer skills for our big event! I look forward to seeing you all there. Some of our pairs of tickets will be sold with additional items that will “kick it up a notch.”
Remember: Dinner is hosted on September 23rd at 6:00 p.m., but you need a ticket to enter! Let’s see a heated auction and build our TRF monies to meet our $10k goal for the year!
Any funds we raise will be matched 2 to 1. Gates Foundation, here we come!
Editor – Jan Hudson – Edition No. 10, September 8, 2022