With the calendar year quickly coming to an end, I’d like to invite everyone to consider this month as an opportunity to think about what we can accomplish next year. While we are an organized club that operates with bylaws, committees, and a Board of Directors, we all know that everything usually starts with the initiative of just one member at a time. Will that individual be you in 2022?
In November 2021, Rotarian Bill and Nicha Trempus continued to work on the Chiang Mai International Rotary Club Food Initiative. They donated 540 tins of canned fish to the Urban Light Foundation on behalf of CMIRC. Nicha also assembled a new batch of 200 survival food packets for out-of-work people who had been badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Human Rights and Development Foundation and Chiang Mai Trust assisted with distributing the packages to vulnerable migrant workers in Hang Dong, San Sai, and Doi Saket.
Youth Programs Director Raphael Djemal continued discussions with the student leadership at Payap University on how our club could support them in reorganizing the Rotaract Club at the university. John Schorr, Roger Lindley, and Gary Herman attended the talks.
In the past month, more Teddy Trekkers completed their mission and arrived home to the arms of their new young owners in Mae Sot, Tak Province. Our heartfelt thank you to our donors!
The Burma Children Medical Fund's B.K. Kee Patient House organized Loy Krathong festivities and held group birthday celebrations. Patients and caregivers participated in basic literacy and health education classes. CMIRC Rotarians Bill Pierce and Nick Dale paid a visit to the Patient House to drop off supplies.
On November 16, we welcomed virtually visiting Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Damansara Heights D3300 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia at the CMIRC regular meeting on ZOOM.
On November 30, we held a virtual social event with fun games and team-building exercises, giving non-Rotarians a chance to learn more about the members of CMIRC. Soon-to-be new member Cesar Lopez excelled in film trivia and won two tickets to the courtroom drama, "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial" produced by The Gate Theater and featuring our treasured Treasurer Nancy Lindley. Congratulations, Cesar!
We wrapped up this year's Children's Winter Clothing Appeal on December 1. The success of this project exceeded our wildest imaginations. We received twice the amount of last year's donations. A big thanks to our generous donors! As you may know, I am the Project Champion for this initiative. Now that the collection phase is over, I will head out again to the mountains of Northern Thailand to distribute the donations to the vulnerable population. Please, let me know if you want to tag along.
At present, the COVID-19 vaccination rate in Thailand is over 58.8 percent, which is well above the world average at 42.7 percent. Most of our club members are now fully vaccinated.
In closing, I need to mention that we received some bad news: our regular in-person meetings at the Royal Peninsula Hotel cannot resume until at least January 1, 2022. Their facility will continue to operate as a hospitel (hotel-turned-hospital) for coronavirus patients. I am looking forward to all of us being able to meet face-to-face as soon as it is logistically possible and safe to do so.