District Governor Anil Garg

     Anil told heart warming stories of his experiences with the people of India while he was there helping with National Immunization Day (NID). One woman, after her children received the oral polio vaccine, said, as she walked away, "Thank you for two drops of life for my children!"   For him, it was a life changing, Rotarian moment. "My life changed forever," he said. "It was a time when I really believed in the values and what a being a Rotarian really means."  He asked who in the room had participated in an NID?  Scott Nichols, Lisa Mumford and Arnie Dowdy stood and were applauded for their work helping humanity. Anil organized seven teams, 200 Rotarians, to visit India to participate in the NID program. Using over three million volunteers, 160,000,000 children were vaccinated.

     Anil believes that Rotary is a way of life, it truly makes a difference in helping the world where needed; and, Rotary's values and what it stands for is used in our lives every day. He reviewed the 4 Way Test and emphasized its importance in the things we say and do. He encouraged us to see beyond ourselves, look at the world as a big picture, see what there is to do and follow our motto: Service Above Self.

     He encouraged us to take a look at what other Clubs are doing and to pool our resources when appropriate, work as a team, act as one; and, the community will recognize us for who we are and what we do. We can present a common vision. This will create awareness and will lead to easier recruitment of new members who will want to join our good efforts. New members bring new blood, new ideas, will rejuvenate our energies and will provide the strong arms and legs for our continuing efforts. He challenged each one of us to bring in one new member over the next year. Do not prejudge anyone as to whether they would want to become a member.

     He would like to see each Club have an average RI donation of $200. This money could easily be used for matching grants for worthwhile projects. He introduced a new visioning program: long term strategy planning. Club's that have a strategic plan makes for a stronger Club.

     In discussing RI President D.K. Lee's "Big Dreams, Big Plans" and "Make Dreams Come True", he said there are over 30,000 children that die each day worldwide. He offers that we can reduce the number by providing clean water, good health, child safety and by reducing hunger. In 1988 there were 1000/day cases of polio recorded; there were only 1330 cases reported in all of last year. An amazing worldwide accomplishment, greatly assisted by Rotarians all over the world. Anil said, "We are close to saying goodbye to polio". If every Club in the world donated one Paul Harris Fellow award in three years, there would be enough money to match the Bill & Melinda Gates grant of $100,000,000, enough to win the war against polio.

     He was proud of our Club's all time giving of $29, 275 to RI Foundation; an average annual yield of $135/member. "For a Club of this size, that is a remarkable accomplishment," he said. "It is a way of bringing passion and vision into reality. Thank you, Anil Garg, for that worthy and inspirational presentation, and God bless!