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August 26, 2008  Phil Brown Many thanks and best wishes to Phil for being with us this summer and continuing to build the Interact Club at Haverhill High while also teaching there. This year Phil hopes to continue to build recognition, membership and leadership, and to charter the club formally through Rotary International. Phil, please let us know how we can help. Phil has also been hard at work recruiting potential host families for our youth exchange students and helped identify the second term Haverhill host family. Ana Our Exchange Student from Georgia has arrived! She flew into Boston on Saturday evening, was greeted by a District Youth Exchange Team member, spent the balance of the weekend with other "inbounds" at Camp Rotary and with a family in Wenham, and met up and went home with her first Haverhill host family, Lucinda and Don Nolet, yesterday afternoon. Lucinda wrote last night: Well, everybody! She likely begins at Haverhill High today or tomorrow. With any luck we will meet her this or next Thursday. Thanks to Jon Miller and Mary Gale for pitching in on tracking her arrival! Board of Directors Just who are your Haverhill Rotary Club Board of Directors? They are Ira Korinow, Julian Rich, Sheryl Meehan, Frank Novak, Steve Goddu, Pam Carr, Bill Klueber, Vin Bonanno and me. We have fiduciary responsibility for the operation of the Club. We meet monthly. The Board meets this Wednesday morning at 8 am at Community Action's Fox Education Center, 75 Elm Street, across and up the street from Haverhill Community TV. Any club member is always welcome to join us and observe. We will be doing regular business of the club such as reviewing the correspondence, membership and finances. We will also review requests to fund the Merrimack Valley Hospice House, renovations of the Haverhill Boys and Girls Club, the status of the duck race fundraiser, and a proposal to hold a late afternoon or early evening meeting about four times a year in lieu of that week's lunch meeting. It's something being tried at the Boston Club in our district. For example, we could meet from 6:00 - 7:30 PM, socializing a little before and after as people choose to show up early and hang around later. How do you feel about this idea? Would you like to try it? Would you come? Would it offer you a different and useful opportunity to recruit new members? We could do it at Evenfall. Or the first Rotary Club began meeting at members' places of business. At one time, I think, Haverhill Rotary used to meet sometimes at members' homes. Would you be willing to host such a meeting at your home or business? Let your board members know what you think! Polio Many of us are aware of the Bill and Melinda Gates challenge grant to RI to help eradicate polio. It's for $100 million to be matched by another $100 million through RI. The plan is for each of the 33,000 clubs in the world to donate $1000 each year for the next three years. Last year we collected loose change in a special piggy bank. At our last meeting, Dennis Sweeney, our Asst. District Governor, brought a special pillowcase given by DG Tom Elliott to each of the clubs in the District. Thanks to those of you who began donating last week, either directly or through the raffle when we didn't draw a winning number. Here is some more background: Rotary made a commitment to immunize the world's children against polio in 1985 and became a spearheading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative three years later. The other partners are the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF. Rotary's primary responsibilities include fundraising, advocacy, and volunteer recruitment. To date, Rotary has contributed nearly $700 million to the eradication effort. With nearly 33,000 clubs in over 200 countries and geographical areas, Rotary reaches out to national governments worldwide to generate crucial financial and technical support for polio eradication. Since 1995, the advocacy efforts of Rotary and its partners have helped raise more than $3 billion in vital funding from donor governments. Rotary clubs also provide "sweat equity" on the ground in polio-affected communities, which helps ensure that leaders at all levels remain focused on the eradication goal. Over the years, Rotary club members have volunteered their time and personal resources to reach more than two billion children in 122 countries with the oral polio vaccine. Darlene Beal went just a few years ago to help with a National Immunization Day, as well as a clean water project in India. Thanks to Rotary and its partners, the number of polio cases has been slashed by more than 99 percent, preventing five million instances of childhood paralysis and 250,000 deaths. When Rotary began its eradication work, polio infected more than 350,000 children annually in 125 countries. In 2007, fewer than 2,000 cases were reported worldwide and today there are just four. But the polio cases represented by that final 1 percent will be the most difficult and expensive to prevent for a variety of reasons, including geographical isolation, worker fatigue, armed conflict, and cultural barriers. In 1916 a polio epidemic occurred in NY. It was only in 1954 that Dr. Jonas Salk invented the first polio vaccine. Many people have asked me during the course of my life if my deformity is the result of polio. Did it affect anyone in your family? Please find that pillowcase on your way in or out of each Thursday's meeting at or near the check-in table and add your loose change to the battle! Hope to see you Thursday, District News Keep up with what's happening in Rotary District 7930.   Last week we were officially introduced to both Michael Quinn and Mary Johnson-'Lally during their classification talks. Both kept our interest. Mary gave us a nice bag to take home from the Haverhill Public Library. Too bad Michael didn't bring and Edward Jones money for us. Maybe next time. August 28 - Harry Korslund, Classification Talk Attendance An attendance record of 50 percent is required to remain an active Rotarian. Any missed meeting must be made up within 14 days before or after the regular meeting. To accommodate busy schedules, there are various opportunities to make up missed meetings:
Monday 12:15PM Danversport Yacht Club |
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