Weekly News & Views by: Gretchen Peralta
I would say it’s another “typical” Friday morning, except nothing is “typical” at the Davis Sunrise Rotary meeting! Go to show, just after Pres Tim rang the bell, our song master, Chuck Snipes, started us in Roll Out the Barrel in preparation for our Oktoberfest tomorrow. Not only was the song new, so was the musical accompaniment with Don Morrill on the banjo with Dave Morse on the piano. Course then it took a few minutes for Pres Tim to rein us back in for Introductions and Announcements.
Introduction first off was to our welcome for our Exchange Student Marcel from Bolivia. If you haven’t taken the opportunity to take him for pizza, tacos, rice and egg rolls, or a movie or whatever, please plan to arrange. He’s interested in becoming a doctor (and what’s wrong, this reporter asks about becoming a nurse?) and racquetball. It’s a win-win. What’s important about October 24th for Rotary? It’s World Polio Day. Our Davis City Council will be making a Proclamation a little after 7:00 pm at their meeting. Actually your Latest Rotarian magazine has an article with the history and latest news. Pres Tim has asked that a few of us give a Polio Minute which was started by David Copp sharing the story of his 5th grade teacher in the 1950s who had been afflicted with polio as well as to remind us that Rotary and our partners have managed to reduce the incidence of polio to 2 countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Patsy jumped to initiate announcements about Oktoberfest what else?! Marc Thompson looking for earlier starters to help John McNamara and Jay Brookman load up stuff from the Rotary storage at the Recology lot. I thought I heard her tempt the crowd with food?? Gretchen had pie boxes available and Irena shared a super thought about getting your “to be given away” pie plate from SPCA. (Gretchen thought that was such a good idea she went over to the SPCA and bought a bunch for next year). Tyson admitted to not liking to ask for money any more than we like to shell it out but reminded us that this is a fundraiser and the Oktoberfest ticket money financially supports many of our projects. Seems we are having a Community Service Committee meeting on Thursday, October 17th at 6p at Larry Walker’s offices. Irena is reminding us of the I Fest Cultural Day on Sunday the 6th 12-5 in Central Park.
Manny was our SOD (Sergeant of the Day) and was eager to collect some Happy Bucks. Seems Chuck Snipes was happy that retired nurses still know what to do and make “house calls”. Next week is Emergency Nurses week by the way. David Copp gave happy bucks to our Foundation for his birthday. Clay Brandow was happy to have a new biking partner, Jacques Franco. It seems all his other partners are injured. I ask you Jacques, is this a good partnering idea? Actually, no surprise to us, but Chloe, Clay’s daughter was just notified us she passed her Internal Medicine exam. In case you were wondering where Bill Bernheim has been, he fessed up to having been touring Portugal and Spain as an anniversary celebration. In honor of our Speakers, our resident engineers, Chuck Cunningham, Mack Walker, Pres Tim, Gary Johns and Mitch Mysliwiec….were asked to stand as a “warning” for their obligations to the future? Don Morrill was hit for marching for climate change. Instead, he should have recveived a payout from the treasurer. Larry Olsen got a “trophy” in honor of his wife getting the One-in-a-Melon award from Winters High School for her Farm to Fork work. Kevin Young (watch out next week) as our SOD was going to snag you, but discovered too late you had snuck out early.
Our Speakers were a few of our dynamic future engineers representing Engineers Without Borders and sharing their recent projects and thanking us for our past support. The first project presented was in a village of Parque Colani in Western Bolivia (someone introduce Marcel to them!). This community only has a population of 89 yet is in desperate need of help with sanitation, latrines and clean water. Sixty percent of the children are frequently fighting vomiting and diarrhea from poor sanitation and lack of appropriate toileting facilities. The engineers helped build a twin pit latrine after teaching the locals to mix cement and lay bricks, and also built a handwashing area. The Engineers Without Borders’ goal is to see 25 latrines throughout the community and establish a rotational use method so that the waste can be treated and safely be recycled as fertilizer.
Another EWB team was in San Marcos in northern Peru looking at the feasibility of establishing a potable water facility and a means to transport the water so that the community might have access to clean water 24 hours a day versus their current 4-6 hours a day. They are working with the community to provide training to ensure the water reservoir is cleaned adequately, and also to teach hygiene and sanitation.
The third project they discussed was in eastern Kenya in the community of Mabinji near the Uganda border with a population of 3500. Again the need is for access to clean water and better sanitation. The “lovely Lake” near the community is a death trap for getting water. Many children drown in the heavy vegetation surrounding the lake.
These student engineers don’t do the work alone. They collaborate with various advisors on campus and elsewhere to maximize their comprehension of a problem and the technical challenges involved. They learn from the success and struggles of other similar projects.. Their 2020 assessment trip will be focused on means for providing consistent clean water, since dysentery from contaminated water is rampant as is unrelated elevated HIV levels in the population and other hygiene concerns.
The team shared their reasons for becoming involved and assuming obligations in underdeveloped countries that allow them to get to get some real hands on engineering experiences and challenges out side of the classroom. Through their experiences they learned of the privileges in the U.S. that we often take for granted and they wanted a way to give back.
The Team thanked Rotary for their help in the past and reminded us of three ways to get involved…Mentorship; Financial; and Guest Speakers. We were reminded of their April fundraiser We for Water.
Our pot for the Draw of the Day had $1058. And Mike Gunther got a “Free” breakfast as the pot grows for next week.