President Ed presents the Kitchener-Westmount Rotary banner to visiting Rotarian Lisa De Leon. Lisa is a member of the Rotary Club of Oxford (UK). She was visiting family in K-W. She has heard great things about our club and had to pay us a visit!
50/50
President Ed congratulates Laura Power on finding the black marbel. Laura takes home $312. This is Laura's second win in two months.
Announcements:
Paul Puopolo is celebrating 27 years as a Rotarian with our club.
Andrew Williams is celebrating 17 years with Rotary.
Upcoming Dates to remember:
July 12 Guest Speaker- Bob Egan-Topic-Why Bob Left Blue Rodeo to take care of a Library in Kitchener.
July 26 Club Fellowship at the Boathouse.
Aug 11 Club Fellowship at Waterloo Knights.
Rotary Trivia (Bottle of Wine giveaway): won by Stephen Sweeney who answered the question-What is the furthest distance from the Home of Rotary in Chicago that the Rotary Pin has been shown. Answer- was the moon and Buzz Aldrin had it.
Speaker: President Ed speaking on his recent trip to Atlanta for the Rotary International Convention.
Highlights
This was the 100th Anniversary of the founding of the Rotary Foundation. Arch Klump, famous for his behind the scenes work for Rotary, was instrumental in starting the foundation.
The Maranelli Brothers (Rotary members) of a small town in Italy who manufacture bells, presented the Rotary Centennial Bell as a gift.
Among the speakers were:
Andrew Young who is well known in Atlanta from the 60’s, and leader in the Civil Rights Movement.
John Cena, of WWF fame pumped up the crown as a motivational speaker.
Minda Dentler of Mumbai, an early polio survivor who achieved success in an Ironman competition.
Bill Gates of Microsoft, who has been providing significant financial support to fight Polio. He stated there have been only 5 cases so far this year, but need 0 cases worldwide for 3 years to say Polio has been eradicated. He noted that it is estimated 16 million people are now WALKING around due to the Polio vaccine being given since 1985, but we need $1.5 billion to finish the job.
Next came the contributors, starting with Canada giving 100 million. Canada was followed up by many other nations and by the time it was all over they had 1.2 billion pledged.
Today polio cases exist in Pakistan, Algeria and Afganistan.
Great News-Next year’s International Convention will be held in TORONTO!
