In Support of Polio Plus!
Port Arthur Rotary Club play hosts to the 2021 Rotary Anniversary Gala. Typically this is a dinner where we gather with all Canada Clubs in our district and celebrate together, however converting to an online format given the current global pandemic.
Date: Friday, February 26th
Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Contact: parotary@tbaytel.net for more information and zoom coordinates.
Agenda
7:00pm - Updates from all Canada Club Presidents
7:40pm - Keynote Speaker: Ann Lee Hussey (Biography below) - Similarities between Polio and Covid & Update on current Polio Eradication Activities
8:15pm - Live Auction (details below, and your help needed)
9:00pm - Adjourn
Ann Lee Hussey Biography
Ann Lee Hussey of South Berwick, Maine has made the eradication of polio and the alleviation of suffering by polio survivors her life’s work. Over the past several years she has actively participated in 30 volunteer NID (National Immunization Days) teams organizing and leading the last 26 teams herself, choosing to take those NIDs to places that do not often see westerners – Chad, Mali, Bangladesh, Niger, Nigeria, Madagascar, Pakistan, Egypt and India.
As a global advocate, she is determined that no child will needlessly have to suffer what she herself, a polio survivor, has been through. Her concern for polio survivors includes working to ensure mobility and dignity for those who survived the disease but did not have access to the kinds of surgeries and treatments that she was able to receive. And has led RI grants to this end.
Ann Lee has put a face on the subject of polio eradication, winning hearts and minds and raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process. A polio survivor herself, the story Ann Lee tells is personal, and so is her journey in the fight to eradicate polio.
Ann Lee’s work has earned her the International Service Award for a Polio-Free World, the Rotary Service Above Self Award and she was honored as a White House Champion of Change for her humanitarianism and contributions to public service, aimed at improving people’s lives and making a better future around the globe. She was featured in the magazine Real Simple in June 2012. She was featured in a video in Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Annual Letter for February 2017. In March 2017, Rotary and The World Bank recognized her as a Woman of Action celebrating International Day of Women. Locally in her home state of Maine, she was honored at the Maine State Senate chamber for her remarkable achievements and included in Maine Magazine as one of the 50 Mainers of 2017 who have changed our world, improved our lives, and broadened our horizons.
Ann Lee is a member of the Rotary Club of Portland Sunrise in Maine and served District 7780 in many capacities including as Governor in 2010-2011. Currently, Ann Lee is serving as a member of the GPEI Integration Working Group, Council on Legislation Rep 2020-2023; Executive Director of the Polio Survivors Rotary Action Group,, as a Director on the PDGs Fellowship, as District 7780 PolioPlus Chair and as her club’s president for 2020-2021. She ended her term as Chair of the RAGs Council and Chair of The Fellowship of Rotarian Past District Governors as of June 2019. Outside Rotary, she serves as a trustee of York Hospital in York, Maine.
Ann Lee and her husband Michael reside in South Berwick, Maine USA with their devoted yellow Labrador, Parker and their cat Elliott. Ann Lee and her husband are members of the Paul Harris Society. They are Rotary Foundation Major Donors and Bequest Society members.