Other Matters

President Tom announced that we were making two donations.  One is a $500 donation to the Military Minute museum we visited at our last meeting. 

The other is a $500 donation to Shelter Box, which the District Governor talked about.  What is Shelter Box?  Shelter Box began in 2000 as a Rotary Club’s millennium project in Cornwall, UK. With the support of Rotary members and clubs around the world, Shelter Box grew to become an internationally recognized, independent disaster relief organization. Since2012, Shelter Box and Rotary have been official Project Partners in disaster relief.  Currently they are responding to the Caribbean as a result of Hurricane Melissa

Recognitions

None tonight

The Program

The program tonight was the District Governor for Rotary District 5160.  She is Joy Alaidarous, of the Rossmoor (Walnut Creek) Club.   She is a retired educational psychologist from Rossmoor (Walnut Creek).  She has extensive experience in Rotary, having served as Club Secretary and President, Assistant Governor, and on various grants committees.  She also suffered Polio as a child and was drawn to Rotary because of its anti-polio work.

She met first with the Board at the Board meeting before our regular meeting.  She discussed our need for more members and discussed, with the Board, ways of getting them.  She has cards she carries around which she passes out.  They ask that the person she hands the card to be her guest for a free lunch at her club.  The back side gives information on her club and what Rotary does. 

She was impressed by the amount of scholarships our small club is able to raise money for.  She discussed the Durham Interact and its size.  She also discussed the problems the last couple of years in scheduling Camp Royal.

During the Club meeting she discussed the Bequest Society, Shelter Box, Building Bridges and the various people appointed to District positions and their availability to help the individual clubs.

She then presented Mike Crump with a Bridge Builder Award Certificate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next Meeting

Our next meeting, on December 2^nd at the BCCC.  Tom will present Rich McGowan from the Tuscan Water District.  Also, we will have Student of the Month and Teacher of the Year Awards.

Membership

Bring guests who you think you can interest in becoming a member. We Need More Members! Your dinner and your guest’s dinner will be paid for by the Club.  Also, bring a guest to oneof our occasional social gatherings.

President Tom is asking the members to bring in new members this year.

Go to the following Rotary International web site for information on membership development:  https://my.rotary.org/en/learning-reference/learn-topic/membership .  From this website there is access to membership development and other related information.

 

The Rotary Foundation Donations

You can make a difference in this world by helping people in need. Your gift can do some great things, from supplying filters that clean people’s drinking water to empowering local entrepreneurs to grow through business development training.

The Rotary Foundation will use your gift to fund the life-changing work of Rotary members who provide sustainable solutions to their communities’ most pressing needs. But we need help from people like you who will take action and give the gift of Rotary to make these projects possible.

When every Rotarian gives every year, no challenge is too great for us to make a difference. The minimum gift to The Rotary Foundation is $25.00.   An annual $100.00 gift is a sustaining member.  Once your donations accumulate to $1,000 you become a Paul Harris Fellow.

If you have any questions, ask Steve Heithecker.

It is possible to learn more about The Rotary Foundation on the Rotary web site. 

Your gift can be made online or by sending Jessica Thorpe a check made out to The Rotary Foundation to Durham Rotary, P.O. Box 383, Durham, California 95958.

Must Be Present to Win Drawing:

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Polio Eradication Explained

Do you have questions about Rotary’s pledge to end polio? We’ve got answers.

By Etelka Lehoczky

You’ve likely heard a lot about polio in recent weeks. Rotary members talk about it all year, but never more than in the month leading up to World Polio Day on 24 October. It’s one of the most important days of the year for Rotary — a time to reaffirm our nearly four-decade commitment to eliminating this disease from the world.

Polio eradication may seem complicated, but it’s actually fairly straightforward. If you’ve ever wondered about the science of the disease, the history of Rotary’s fight against it, or the progress of the global eradication effort, find the answers to those questions and more below.

What is polio, and why is it such a threat?

Poliomyelitis, also known as polio, is a highly infectious disease that mainly affects nerves in the spinal cord and brain stem. Most people infected with the virus don’t show any symptoms, but a small number become paralyzed. Polio primarily targets children under age five.

Polio can spread rapidly from person to person, such as through a cough or a sneeze.If an infected person doesn’t wash their hands after coughing or using the toilet, they can transmit the virus even if they don’t know they’re infected.Polio can also spread through contaminated water in areas with poor sanitation.

Wild polio virus occurs naturally in the environment and has three types. Type 2 and type 3 were declared eradicated in the 2010s, but type 1 remains. Variant polio virus occurs when the weakened strain of virus contained in the oral vaccine circulates for a long time and mutates into a form that can cause paralysis like wild polio. Variant polio virus cases are rare.

Why does Rotary care about polio eradication?

Rotary members are determined to end polio for many reasons — including that its effects are terrible, and its main victims are young children. Rotary International began working to vaccinate children against polio in 1979. In 1985, Rotary created its PolioPlus program to amplify these efforts. Then in 1988, Rotary and our partners launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).

We’ve come a remarkably long way since then. Polio was endemic in 125 countries in1988; that’s down to two now. The global effort to eradicate polio has prevented an estimated 20 million cases of paralysis.

Wiping out this disease is possible. We are very close to ensuring that no child suffers from polio ever again.

How widespread is polio? Can it affect me?

Wild polio remains endemic in only Afghanistan and Pakistan. But because it spreads so easily, one or two cases can quickly multiply. In our world of global travel, an infected person can carry the disease to the other side of the world even if they aren’t sick themselves. In 2022, an adult in New York, USA, contracted polio and was paralyzed. Genetic testing of the virus infecting that person linked it to polio viruses found in London and Jerusalem. This shows that as long as polio exists somewhere in the world, nobody is truly safe.

How do we fight polio?

Polio is fought primarily with vaccines and environmental surveillance. The GPEI promotes both routine and supplementary campaigns to immunize young children. Surveillance consists of identifying and promptly reporting polio cases and monitoring sewage water for the presence of the virus.

What role does Rotary have in the GPEI?

Rotary helped create the GPEI, whose other core partners include the World Health Organization, the Gates Foundation, UNICEF, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

Rotary members fight polio in many ways, including:

• Raising funds
• Soliciting support from governments, nongovernmental organizations, and corporations
• Immunizing children
• Raising awareness in their communities

Rotary has helped immunize 3 billion children against polio, contributed more than US$2.9 billion to global polio eradication efforts, and helped secure more than US$11 billion from donor governments.

How can I help eradicate polio?

Find a World Polio Day event through your local Rotary or Rotaract club and keep working against polio at other times of the year as well. You can:

• Organize an event to raise funds and promote awareness in your community. Try a group walk or bike ride, a concert featuring local bands, or a barbecue.
• Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper about the importance of continuing the fight against polio.
• Write to your local and national representatives to ask for their continued support.
• Post on social media about the need to eradicate polio.
• Create a fundraising campaign using Raise for Rotary, our online crowdfunding tool.

Rotary knows that a world without polio is within our grasp. On World Polio Day and throughout the year, we’ll keep fighting.

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The Durham Rotary Club site is:  www.durhamrotary.org The Rowel Editor may be contacted at: pbprice1784@gmail.com The deadline for the Rowel 6:30 am on Wednesdays. The Editor's photographs published in the Rowel are available, upon request, in their original file size.  Those published were substantially reduced in file size.