Bruce started by talking about peace and ab out Ukraine. In 1950, shortly after World War II, some German and French Rotarians met in Strasbourg with a goal of building peace and under-standing. Together they made a gamble to emerge from tragedy through intelligence. What re-sulted from their talks was Rotary’s first-ever Intercountry Committee, or ICC. Jane Howard is the first ICC Chair for our District and also the National ICC Chair for United States/India. The US/Ukraine ICC was set to be chartered 2 weeks ago but the war has postponed that. However, Belgium/Ukraine ICC and French/Ukraine ICC are mobilizing to send money and supplies to Kyiv to assist the steady stream of refugees leaving Ukraine. Rotary has boots on the ground. It is because of Rotary members world-wide who, through their membership, have helped in this effort.
Bruce presented Paul Harris Awards to Otis Archie (PH+4); Rick Auricchio (PH+4); Bob Kasper (PH+7); Nancy McKarney (PH+8); Mark Ober (PH+1); Dennis Rightmer (PH+2); Linda Sherman (PH+5); and, Tom Tierney (PH+1).
Bruce reminded us that it is because of generous donations to Polio Plus that we have gone from 1,000 cases of Polio a day in the early 1980’s to 5 cases world-wide last year and 2 so fat this year.
Gerry Porter introduced Erin Groble, The Rotary Foundation Planned Giving Officer, via Zoom. Erin explained that Gifts to Rotary's Endowment ensure that future Rotarians will have the resources they need to design and implement sustainable projects year after year. For more infor-mation about the endowment fund, go to rotary.org/legacy. You can also view Erin’s Power Point presentation attached to this email. She can also be contacted by email at erin.groble@rotary.org. Thank you Erin for speaking to us today and for doing it with very little notice!
Gerry also welcomed, for the 3rd time, Ken DeCroo, author of the Almost Human series of books. Ken recently finished his 3rd book in the series, Becoming Human, a story about when three families are viciously massacred in the forest of the Pacific Northwest, and three young girls disappear, Dr. Ken Turner and his colleagues sus-pect the hybrid creatures they discovered in the jungles of Africa who were kidnapped by shady government agents. They find themselves back in pursuit of the half-human, half-chimpanzee creatures, and their missing colleague Dr. Melon. Their quest begins, at risk to their careers and reputations, in the little town of Willow Creek and the surrounding Trinity Forest where the mythical bigfoot is said to roam. Who or what will they find? Ken agreed to visit us in person on one of his next trips to the West Coast.