RoteNotes October 20, 2022 (Oct 20, 2022)

Hybrid meetings...

We met again at the Timms Centre with Anthony, Wayne, John, Brendan, Nav, Stephen and Byron present, joined by Wayne Crossen from the Langley Central Club and by Kadonah, Bob and Lana via zoom. Regrets were received from Nora, Merle and Veronica. Conversations included chatting about a trip to Ireland, trips to Palm Springs, being upgraded from a condo to a private house with a pool, backing on to a golf course, and planning to attend the upcoming Foundation Dinner.

Stephen called the meeting to order announcing that our club has a proud past and a bright future, and is home to three past district governors. We sang ‘O Canada’ splendidly, and as the final notes lingered in the air, we heard, “Excellent version, thank you.” Wayne W. introduced Wayne C. and WC was welcomed by our members. This year’s 50/50 Megadraw was a huge success, and each club will be receiving about $28 000 for funding future requests. Thank you to Jeff Morfitt and Kellie Reynolds for their many hours of work and leadership.

We now have a copy of the agreement with the Township for our use of the Rotary Interpretive Centre and should be holding our meeting on November 17 at that location. We discussed three dates for the District Governor’s visit and decided that December 1^st would work best for us. Let’s try to have more members present in person for that visit.

Wayne gave two announcements: one from Noemi Victorino who hopes we can either donate as a club to Low Entropy, buy tickets to their Pub Night Fundraiser on Nov.29, or form teams of Rotarians to donate to the cause; and the other from Agnes Lo who offered to give a workshop on Nov. 17^th. Wayne was directed to respond in the affirmative for us to learn on the topic of personality traits to work on our strengths and blind spots.

Announcements from Rotary International

Wayne then shared Rotary information.

Rotary News#1

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation says it will commit $1.2 billion to the effort to end polio worldwide. The money will be used to help implement the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s strategy through 2026. The initiative is trying to end the polio virus in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the last two endemic countries. The money also will be used to stop outbreaks of new variants of the virus. The announcement was made Sunday at the World Health Summit in Berlin.

The foundation says in a statement on its website that it has contributed nearly $5 billion to the polio eradication initiative. The initiative is trying to integrate polio campaigns into broader health services, while it scales up use of the new novel oral polio vaccine type 2. The group also is working to make national health systems stronger so countries are better prepared for future health threats.

“The last steps to eradication are by far the toughest. But our foundation remains dedicated to a polio-free future, and we’re optimistic that we will see it soon,” said foundation CEO Mark Suzman.

The eradication initiative as a public-private partnership led by a group of national governments that includes the Gates Foundation, Rotary International, the World health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Rotary News #2

Dear Passionate Polio Eradication Supporters,

I hope this email finds you well! Within Rotary, October is the month our attention is turned most closely to polio. While polio eradication is our number one priority, World Polio Day on October 24 is a special day devoted to reflection and renewed focus on this important task.

Thanks to generous Rotarians such as yourself, we are making great progress towards eradicating polio. However recent news reminds us that polio anywhere is a threat everywhere. Polio is being detected around the world in places where it hasn’t been found in decades. In the United States, an unvaccinated man was paralyzed by polio. In the UK, poliovirus has been detected in sewage samples. In Malawi, a child contracted polio. And Mozambique announced its first polio outbreak of wild poliovirus in 30 years.

Fortunately, there are also strong responses to these threats. A new vaccine has been deployed to stop outbreaks. Malawi, Mozambique, and nearby countries are conducting immunization campaigns to stop the spread of the virus. With our partners and advocates like you, we continue to encourage communities worldwide to provide vaccinations. You can learn more about opportunities to raise awareness using materials in the World Polio Day Toolkit, which you can find on our World Polio Day webpage . Please feel free to share this link with others.

Rotary has committed to providing the resources needed to protect children from the U.S. to Mozambique and around the world. Thank you for your part in ensuring that no child suffers the paralyzing effects of polio ever again.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to learn more about supporting Rotary’s work in eradicating polio.

With gratitude,

Carolyn

Carolyn Ferguson

Senior Major Gifts Officer | The Rotary Foundation

Regionally based in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada (ET)

Office 1-289-239-7190

Rotary Moment with Wayne

Wayne then came to the Rotary moment for this week, which continued the polio theme.

WHAT IS POLIOPLUS?

Ending polio is Rotary’s main humanitarian goal, and PolioPlus is the program that supports these efforts.

It was launched in 1985 with help from Dr. Albert Sabin, the developer of the oral polio vaccine, as a worldwide program to protect children from the paralyzing consequences of polio. Rotary later became a founding member of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

Since then, the incidence of wild polio cases has decreased by 99.9% and the wild poliovirus remains endemic in just two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The processes Rotary helped build to fight polio have also been used to protect communities from COVID-19 and other diseases. This illustrates the Plus in PolioPlus.

But polio anywhere is a threat to children everywhere. Only global eradication will ensure that no child suffers its devastating effects ever again.

You may learn more about Rotary’s efforts to eradicate this disease at endpolio.org.

End Polio

President Stephen's Russian Trip

President Stephen shared photos from his most recent trip to Russia, including Stalin’s country house in Sochi. We saw some beautiful architecture and artwork (in the subway, no less). Stephen spoke about the different perspectives people have in different parts of the world, and how it is difficult to put yourself in their shoes when your life experience is so different from theirs. A Turkish fellow commented to Stephen that “Canada is an open prison but people want to stay there.” ’Twas food for thought.

The Light Touch

Wayne then shared The Light Touch with some horse jokes, opening with Brian Thomasson’s favourite. “A horse walks into a bar. The bartender asks, “Why the long face?” This was followed by “When I was in 1^st grade in elementary school, I had a teacher who had never seen a horse. When I drew one, she asked what it was.”

The final one involved a horse and a bar again.

A horse walks into a bar and asks for a pint of beer. The bartender says, “That will be $15 please.” The horse pays and then trots over to a table and sits down. The landlord walks over and says, “Well, this is a strange occurrence. We haven’t had any horses in here before.”

The horse answers, “At $15 a pint I’m not surprised.”

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Other updates

We moved on to happy and sad dollars with eight people contributing. These were for: the weather forecast saying rain would start on Friday; not being entirely happy with the recent municipal election results; cheering for the BC Lions to break their losing streak in Edmonton by extending the Elks’ home game loss record; Rudy and Rebecca not elected to council; us paying $1000 per week for the Prime minister’s groceries; the wonderful presentation from Stephen, and for being late to the meeting; Marina’s bravery and news of life in Russia; Brendan’s taxi service; the presentation and seeing the beautiful buildings; and Brendan possibly not being able to step down as LRCCF president.

We closed with a toast to Canada and wished each other a good evening. While hybrid meetings will continue, we welcome more members to attend in person again.

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