|
Mary Pettit offered our invocation, sharing what has come to be known as the Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi (c. 1182 - 1226). Inspired by the words, I located more information on the prayer and, interestingly, it is entirely absent from St. Francis' writings and in its present form has not been traced back further than 1912. Still a wonderful prayer: "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life." Buzz Lundeen rose to issue a challenge, noting that he has been in the club for over 50 years and recalled that the PolioPlus campaign started in 1985 and that under the leadership of B.K. Soby we had 100% of our membership participate in the initial effort to the tune of $30,000 to $40,000. He then issued a challenge for all of us to receive the COVID vaccine, pledging $100 in our 100th anniversary year if we reach that goal. Brags and fines followed, with President Anthony paying to tell us he will be on vacation this week, the first one in quite some time. Greg Darling reported he had been vaccinated, celebrated a birthday the previous Saturday, and that his 26 year old son is purchasing a condo in the north loop of Minneapolis. Tim Hunt told us Desta's and his planned trip to see their children had been delayed because of an intestinal bug he caught. Buzz Lundeen remarked on seeing someone's Bentley driving through town and that it looked sharp. Mary Pettit acknowledged Dean Monke's announced retirement and his commitment to our school district, with Dean thanking her for her comment. Steve Andrews expressed both his gratitude to being able to take the aforementioned vehicle up to Pelican to show his parents and the difficulty of his father not being able to recognize it. Dave Peters asked Steve how old his parents are and we found out that his dad will be 100 in December and his mother will be 95 next month, they having celebrated their 74th wedding anniversary last October. This writer introduced Dr. Stephen Rith-Najarian, who practices in Bemidji and is currently the President of Latin American Rotary Aid ("LARA"), formed by Rotary clubs in our District in 1995 with the mission to advance health and prosperity through improving water, sanitation and education in Latin America. LARA has partnered with the Rotary Club of Santa Barbara, Honduras, as well as local government agencies and NGOs and some Rotary clubs outside our district (St. Louis Park, MN and Creston, BC). The effort has resulted in the construction of four new schools since 1996 and scores of renovations to school buildings. Steve spoke about past water projects in the community of El Divisio from 1999 to 2004 and in Buena Vista (transporting water over two mountain ranges to the community) from 2008 to 2010. They conducted follow-up in each community two years ago to understand the impact of the projects (mostly positive) and learned of some unintended consequences (community growth requiring water rationing in Buena Vista and spurring efforts by others to build a latrine project and a school). Three years ago they embarked upon a Wash-in Schools ("WINS") Collaborative with the World Health Organization, received a Rotary Foundation Global Grant and were able to construct bathroom facilities for 12 schools in the vicinity of Santa Barbara. And then Hurricane Iota hit in November of 2021, on top of COVID-19, dumping buckets of water throughout Central America. LARA helped with a temporary fix to the destroyed water supply to the Santa Barbara hospital but then the local government took that project over and asked LARA to instead work on a water project for the community of Las Brisas (one of the communities where a school and sanitation facilities has been provided previously). The pipes for the gravity fed system that had been constructed in 2005 (when the town had a population of 400, since grown to 1000) were destroyed and the project will result in larger capacity and sustainable routing. The application for a Rotary Foundation Global Grant was expected to be submitted this past weekend with a project start date of this coming July 1st. It is expected to be completed in four to six months. The community has raised $45,000 for the project (some of which is in kind work on the project) and the total cost is expected to be $90,000. The effort is to raise $15,000+ in donations which, if the grant application is approved, will result in our Rotary District taking $15,000 of the Foundation dollars it can allocate to bring the total to $30,000 and then another $15,000 from The Rotary Foundation directly. Updated figures shared by Steve indicated they have already received $13,750 in pledges (Fergus Sunrise is giving $5,100) and they would like to raise $2,500 more. He concluded his remarks by asking the club to consider a donation to the effort. Steve is planning a due-diligence trip to Honduras next January to do follow-up project evaluation. He said that while he feels comfortable going down there now, because of the political situation LARA is not sending any groups of volunteers to work on projects so they are relying on the oversight of Santa Barbara Rotarians and local volunteers to do the work. By the way, Sunrise Rotarian Dave Schneeberger is the Treasurer for LARA. |
