President Pat said he received a call from Mike McDermott from the Conejo Valley Rotary Club to let us know that Deepa Willingham will be their special guest at their next meeting on Tuesday, March 25^th at 6:30pm at Los Robles. All are invited to attend.

 

Pat also announced that Sevak Khodabakhshian has agreed to chair next year’s Economic Forecast Conference. He thanked Victor Hayek for a job well done in chairing this year’s conference.

 

Laura Conway led all with the Pledge of Allegiance and Inspirational Moment, with Michael Ladd leading us in song, God Bless America, after reading the words to a little-known verse from the song.

 

Laura was inspired by all the folks who helped her in her journey to produce her video from the trip to Tijuana: Marc Feigen, Pat McCoy, Michael Ladd, Trevor Tyloch, Vicki Arndt, and David Masci. She specifically thanked Marc Feigen for running the second camera and helping her record the miracle of a child hearing for the first time – a miracle made possible because of our Club’s support.

 

Darin Arrasmith handled guest introductions: Brian Back-Past President, David Stowell-Past President and featured Program speaker. Visiting Rotarian- Al Lowe from Camarillo Rotary. Pat McCoy’s guest was Julian Mascarade, and Matt Lallo’s guest was his wife, Teresa.

 

President Pat gave Dominic Pino his Blue Badge for completing all of his new member assignments

 

Michelle Nash reminded all that the next Harbor House sandwich making will be at her house on Saturday, April 5^th.

 

Michelle also reminded everyone of Jim Friedl’s Earth Day event on Saturday, April 19^th – cleaning up trails and the creek, among other things, a Group 4 lunch will follow at Twisted Meats. Michelle said there were sign-up sheets on each table for the two events.

 

 

PROGRAM: The focus of today’s program was on both International Service, and on Polio. Past President, Vicki Arndt started the program by talking about how international service captured her heart. Her first foray was to go to Tijuana with Matt Lallo, which happened right before she became Club President. She started going to various poverty conferences after that and was particularly touched by a UN conference where the focus was on educating the female child. She then went to India and saw the work at Deepa Willingham’s school. When she saw the work Rotary engaged in to put in wells, she told then President-elect, Martin Anderson, that she really wanted to do that project. She said that over time our Club has become a very international-focused club. She wants everyone to see all the work that we do.

 

She then shared the video that Laura Conway put together from the January Tijuana trip. In the video, we saw the good work that the Club was helping to do at the Castro-Limon children’s cancer hospital, the installation of hearing aids in children who were hearing for the first time, the local Three Kings Day celebration, and the wrapping up of the weekend with a party at the house of Tijuana Rotarian, David Cash. The following is a link to Laura’s Tijuana video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCajP-B5NXU   

 

Vicki concluded her remarks by emphasizing the fellowship that we all experienced in Tijuana and how great it was that David Masci’s children could also be there. On the way back across the border, she asked all eleven of the trip participants to summarize how each one felt about the trip. She finished by saying we will do it again next January.

 

Next up in the program was Past President, David Stowell. David’s focus was on the ravages of Polio, aka Poliomyelitis, a virus which attacks the central nervous system. He asked everyone to imagine being a five-year-old who is playing one day, only to wake up the next day with stiffness, trouble breathing, and having to be put in an iron lung in a hospital. In 1985, thirty years after the start of the Polio Plus program, there were one thousand kids/day still being infected. While eradication today has now reached 99.8%, David was concerned that the numbers could again be on the rise due to war, acts of government, and officials who question the vaccines.

 

David talked about how he was personally touched by how polio had affected his father. His father was nineteen when he contracted polio, but through sheer determination, was able to walk again. When his father was seventy, he was diagnosed with Post-Polio Syndrome, and David had to watch his dad finally succumb. He honored his father by joining Rotary, an organization he saw as committed to the fight against polio. David went on to talk about how the story of Rotary is one which creates one of hope. Rotary is committed to raising $50 million per year, which is matched on a 2:1 basis by the Gates Foundation, to the tune of $150 million. With the loss of government funding, the need will now be greater – to that extent, we can all join the Polio Plus Society with a monthly contribution of $8.33, or $100.00 per year. He concluded by saying it has to be Us who will make the difference.

 

Vicki concluded the program by telling everyone that our current polio fundraising project has now reached $20,865.00

 

President Pat had Vicki & David sign a couple of books for Title One schools.