President Frank Perez welcomed everyone in person and on Zoom to the meeting of the Centerville Rotary Club. Frank led the club in the Pledge of Allegiance and Ray Merz gave a prayer.
President Frank provided these updates:
- The Golf Fundraiser committee will meet next Tuesday at 4:00 pm with Carol Hughes (Springboro Rotary) to debrief with her on best practices for her golf outings.
Sofie Ameloot provided these updates:
- We have ordered 528 coats for kids thanks to the generosity of this club.
- Dictionaries and thesauri have also been ordered. We will schedule a labeling session - no more than 4 people at a time due to COVID, so there will be three 1-hour shifts on a date to be determined.
- Adopt a Family reminder. 20 kids will be available and this year they are asking supporters to simply purchase a $50 gift card for your student. Please let Sofie Ameloot know if you want to participate.
Our Happy Dollars for this quarter are going to the Kaplani School – please be generous with your Happy Dollars for this good cause that was so special to Robin Parker. You can send your check to the club mailbox: Centerville Rotary Club, PO Box 41431, Centerville, OH 45458
Boyd Preston served as Sergeant-at-Arms this week and started by sharing the story that his wife’s church group had a speaker from Hannah’s Treasure Chest who expressed concern about donations being down this year due to COVID. Boyd was so thrilled that our club met our commitment goal. He then gave happy dollars for the Cleveland Browns loss this week.
Joyce Young was happy to donate for the school and to thank the club for allowing her to speak today about the Rotary Foundation.
Jeff Senney was happy to see everyone at the meeting and encouraged other members to join us next week!
Chuck King was happy to donate for the school.
Mark Balsan was happy to be at the meeting in person and gave the only dollar in his wallet!
Elda Gotos-Gay had a great birthday week.
Sofie Ameloot wished Elda a happy birthday.
Wayne Davis also wished Elda a happy birthday.
Mike Wier was happy that the last presidential debate will soon be over and election chatter will be too.
Brad Thorp was happy even though he had less money in his wallet than Mark!
Carol Kennard was happy for a successful, socially distanced Halloween drive-thru event at Clark County Park District last Friday - 515 cars drove through George Rogers Clark Park to view family-friendly Halloween scenes.
Frank Perez was sad that his Cleveland Browns blew it last week.
Dick Hoback was happy to celebrate his grandson’s wedding.
Harvey Smith was happy to donate to the school.
Jim Harris was happy that we made our goal for Hannah’s Treasure Chest coats.
Katie Neubert was happy for the beautiful day.
Our speaker today was our member Joyce Young, sharing information about the Rotary Foundation.
Joyce said World Polio Day is October 24, celebrated by the World Health Organization. Joyce explained she is a polio survivor - she is fortunate to have been an adult before she contracted the disease. She said it happened after her first year in college and after she met the love of her life, Fred. The disease left her legs paralyzed so she used crutches after that. She said her contracting polio was the reason she joined Rotary - she wanted to join the fight to eradicate polio.
In 1988 there were still a lot of cases in the United States, but now it has practically disappeared from the world. Only Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria still have cases. Polio is nearly eradicated in NIgeria, but there is still a struggle to keep up the maintenance.
Joyce said it would take $14 billion to fully eradicate. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have been instrumental in providing matching funds to help raise the needed support.
Joyce then shared a video discussion with Bill Gates and Rotary President Barry Rassin who were interviewed by Devin Thorpe. For the complete video, check out this link:
A few key points shared:
Bill Gates talked about how the unique relationship between the World Health Organization, UNICEF, CDC and Rotary provided the framework needed to get rid of polio; something done only once before with smallpox. Rotary is not a health organization, but we can provide volunteers and focus on fundraising along with the Gates Foundation. Rotary also has connections around the world, along with respect as an organization.
President Barry noted Rotary discovered early that we are able to accomplish a lot more when working together. He talked about the success of the partnership with the Gates Foundation and said, if they came to us to partner again, Rotary would be in.
Bill said the Gates Foundation’s priorities, in order, are Polio, HIV, Malaria. He talked about how the polio efforts are helping to set procedures in place to enable countries to handle future problems and that they work to improve their health systems.
When asked what the Gates Foundation’s “super powers” are, Bill noted their optimism, scientific innovation, assembly of individuals, and ability to have resources to put toward finding solutions.
President Barry said Rotary’s “super powers” are the ability of Rotarians to inspire people to become involved, and the ease by which people can donate - at the club level or online. Rotary numbers 1.2 million individuals in 200 countries, so we are widespread throughout the world.
Joyce ended the presentation asking all Rotarians to give generously to the Rotary Foundation this year.
President Frank noted next week’s speaker is Brian Martin, giving an update from the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission.
Everyone have a great week, stay safe and healthy – Thanks
