The Atlanta Host Organization Committee is offering some good old-fashioned Southern hospitality at the Rotary International Convention from 10 to 14 June. It has planned a wide range of activities featuring everything from good food and music to inspiring tours of local landmarks. If it’s your first convention, these events are chances to meet fellow Rotarians from around the world, and if you’re an experienced convention goer, you can catch up with old friends.
Hall of Fame baseball player Hank Aaron will host Rotarians for a “Strike Out Polio” night at the new SunTrust Park, where you’ll...
When Teguest Yilma helped found the Rotary Club of Addis Ababa Entoto in 2002, she thought polio had already been eradicated from most of the world. But while Ethiopia had been free of the disease, Yilma was shocked to learn that new cases had started cropping up in surrounding countries such as Somalia.
“I was thinking, it’s not possible, we can’t be free if the countries around us are not free,” she says. Yilma, the managing editor of Capital, Ethiopia’s largest English weekly newspaper, has brought a journalist’s skills to the fight against polio. She became vice chair of the Ethiopia...
Battling breast cancer in 2000, Kathryn Smith found comfort pursuing her lifelong interest in Franklin D. Roosevelt. The more she read, the more intrigued she became with the 32nd U.S. president’s private secretary, Marguerite Alice “Missy” LeHand. “I thought, what a fascinating life she had because she was by his side through the polio crisis, establishing the polio rehabilitation center in Warm Springs and then after his return to politics,” she says. Smith, a past president of the Rotary Club of Greater Anderson, S.C., and a longtime newspaper journalist, turned that curiosity into a book...
One of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s earliest memories is of fleeing with his family into the mountains during the Korean War, his village burning behind him. His father and grandfather had to forage for food in the woods; his mother gave birth to his siblings away from anything remotely resembling a health facility. “I have known hunger,” he says. “I have known war, and I have known what it means to be forced to flee conflict.”
The soldiers who came to their rescue were flying the blue flag of the United Nations. The UN provided them with food and their schools with books....
Like a lot of us, I spent much of my childhood riding bikes, but fell out of the habit for a while. Forty years. Then my wife and I moved to New York, where cyclists risk their necks in a daily Thunderdome of cabs, police cars, firetrucks, double-decker buses, messengers on motorbikes, and delivery trucks backing around corners at 20 miles an hour. Not for me! At least not until my 50th birthday, when my metabolic furnace flamed out. Calories started going directly from beer bottle to beer belly. It was time to start exercising. Either that or give up Samuel Adams, and I couldn’t do that to...
Members are reminded about the UPDATED District Volunteer Security Policy, DOWNLOAD HERE.
This policy was generated from the requirement of our insurance company providing liability coverage in case of issues arising from members and non-Rotarians working with youth and other vulnerable members of our society.
The policy provides that all involved Rotarians and non-Rotarians complete a vulnerable persons police check. Click on "Read more..." or title 'Police Check' to read more about the relaxed submission procedure which has been greatly simplified.
Contact Hans Granholm, 780-466-5566 for more information.
On Tuesday, we were treated to a special Valentine’s lunch at the Edmonton Valley Zoo, followed by a tour of the zoo led by Stephanie Perilli (pictured) Director of Fund Development for the Valley Zoo Development Society. The weather co-operated beautifully and nearly all the animals were out enjoying the sunshine along with us. We also had the pleasure of District Governor Laura Morie joining us for the walk-about.
The Valley Zoo is currently in the midst of a very ambitious revitalization process, with some projects completed, some just about to start putting shovels in the ground and more in the planning stages. Zoos are considered as sanctuaries for animals that are endangered in the wild. In 1974 we were losing two to three species every year to habitat destruction, climate change and poaching, now we are losing that many every day. At this rate, in one human lifetime, two thirds of all species on earth will be extinct. Currently, one in seven endangered species is under the care of a zoo, somewhere in the world. Zoos support a breeding program that emphasises genetic diversity in each species and there is a carefully controlled survival plan for each one. The Valley zoo takes part in survival plans for twenty-five different species under their care.
The Edmonton Valley Zoo opened in it’s current location in 1959, as primarily a petting zoo. Over the years, it has expanded and now is starting to take on a whole new look with larger, much more spacious enclosures for the animals and an emphasis on conservation, stewardship and engagement. Last year alone, there were over four hundred thousand visitors to the Valley Zoo. In 2012/13 the first phase of this revitalisation plan opened with the unveiling of the new Entry Plaza and connecting walkways that mirror the city and the North Saskatchewan River, as well as the ‘Arctic Shores’ exhibit, which includes a new home for the seals. The publicly accessible entry plaza includes a gift shop, a very good café and a building with offices, meeting and class rooms. The Arctic Shores exhibit area includes a play area for small children, an indoor tank for the seals and also a very large heated outdoor tank with glass walls for good visibility. It seemed as if the seals were watching us as much as we watched them.
The next phase is called ‘Nature’s Wild Backyard’, and is an ambitious nine million dollar multi phase project which will see much of the remaining zoo transformed. It consists of several connected areas known as the Above Zone, the On Zone, the Between Zone and the Under Zone. Each of these zones will feature some of the animals in their preferred habitats, and will give visitors a unique way to see and learn more about the animals.
The phase about to start construction this spring is the Above Zone featuring the Red Pandas, among others. This zone will also include a complete renewal of the outdoor food court, carousel and farm animal enclosures. The carousel will keep its old-world charm by including new hand carved wooden seats made by the volunteer woodcarvers at Fort Edmonton. This phase is scheduled for completion in 2018. Fundraising for this phase and future expansion plans is ongoing, and there are many ways we can help with donations both big and small.
ELEPAP – Ioannina, Greece
{Greek Society for the Protection and Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities}
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Dear sirs/madams, and friends of ELEPAP,
The members of the Regional Board of Directors, and personally myself, feel the necessity to warmly thank you for your donation to our project.
The love and interest with which you embrace our children is a very rare phenomenon in our present times. In a society who very often the standards do not advance the ideals of humanity and kindness, you decided to offer LOVE.
You decided to help some children that were deprived in their life with the invaluable gift of health. We wish that other people will follow your example.
We want to express that your initiative will substantially help our efforts to offer a smile to all our children that face a small or bigger health problem.
As soon as we complete the process of supplying the new computers, we will provide you with information and photographs. As a minimum expression of our gratitude we will place a plaque recognizing your donation.
From the bottom of our heart we thank you a thousand of times, and we wish that you and your families are always in good health, happy and to continue your good work that really adds value to the communities.
With our most heartfelt regards from Epirus and Greece.
Rtn. Jerry Kelly from Victoria, formerly with the RC Edmonton, joined us at the zoo and gave us an invitation to join other golfers from around the world to their 54th golf tournament in Victoria BC. The "International Golfing Fellowship of Rotary" is one of the oldest Rotary Fellowships.
INQUIRY FOR INTEREST FOR A TRIP TO GREECE IN SEPTEMBER 2017
After the 2016 successful Tour of Greece there has been an interest in a repeat. If you or acquaintances of yours are interested in participating in an 8 to 10 days bus tour of Greece please send an e-mail to Dimitri Papanicolas at dpapanicolas@outlook.com in order to receive more information. The number of participants should not exceed 20, on first come first saved basis. We will also connect with a few Rotary Clubs during the trip and see if we can organize a visit. The tour is open to non-Rotarian too.
The tour will take place in the mainland visiting archeological sites, religious sites, overall site seeing (see map) and of course some local food, wine, ouzo and shopping. Island and cruise tours can be organized separately before or after the tour.
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