Highlights - Global Grant for Honduras PPE

Greetings,

As we near the end of this Rotary year, I was thinking how different it was expected to be in January 2020 when I was together with all the other 527 incoming District Governors from around the world. It was a thrilling week that I will never forget. No one I know had ever heard of Covid then. Yet, it disrupted and changed many things over the last 18 months.

 

For instance, back then, I expected to be in Taiwan today experiencing a great Rotary International Convention. I also expected to be in Hawaii for the Convention last June. Because of Covid’s impact around the world and the travel restrictions, both conventions were changed to virtual convention. I am enjoying it right now, but believe me watching it from the couch is not the same as experiencing it in person. When we get back to normal, I encourage all of you to put attending one on your bucket list. (cont'd.)

We all have had to adapt in our personal lives, as well as in our Rotary Clubs. In a later email, I plan to review more of the year’s highlights.

 

Today, I want to update you on a very special project that many of our Clubs and individual members participated in last fall; the Honduras PPE campaign to provide desperately needed PPE equipment to the country of Honduras. We learned though Rotary relationships established between 6040 Clubs and Clubs in Honduras several years ago, that there was a severe shortage of PPE for frontline healthcare workers.  They were re-using PPE that was meant to be disposable because they had no choice. No new PPE items were available for them. In the end, we raised $169,000 through many of our Clubs, members and some other Districts helping us. In the attachment you will find a great overview and more details of this tremendous effort. Melissa Lukes of the Waldo – Brookside Rotary Club wrote the article.  Melissa’s role is the International Sponsor Club Primary Contact for the grant. Thank you to Karyn Eppler, our International Service Chair, Melissa and all the others who contributed to this very worthy humanitarian effort.

 

I also want to thank those who have contributed to the Foundation’s Annual Fund/Share during our Celebration last month and throughout the year. Donations to the Annual Fund are what make our District Global Grant’s, as well as the District matching Grants for your community projects possible. Everyone has one last opportunity to donate to the Annual Fund for this Rotary year 2020-21. Your contributions will fund future grants like the PPE grant. We have just a few more days to get our donations in for this year. Donating through “My Rotary” is the fastest and simplest way. You can do that here.  https://www.rotary.org/en/about-rotary/rotary-foundation , then sign in to credit your account and hit the Donate button.  You can also send a check. If that is your preference, please do that this week because of the mail and processing time. If you have questions, please speak with your President or Treasure, or contact me.

 

Again, thank you for all you have done in this year like no other to make it a successful Rotary year!